Gaming System

aaron85

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Jul 18, 2007
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This new pc that I'm going to build is mainly for gaming and some smaller stuff like burning movies and photoshop.

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: Before December.

BUDGET RANGE: 500-700 (700 max)

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming, burning and watching movies (no blu-ray), photoshop, and multitasking.

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Monitor, OS, Keyboard, Mouse, PSU (maybe)

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Newegg

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA

PARTS PREFERENCES: CPU = AMD/Intel, Mobo = Intel or Amd (Asus/Gigabyte/ASRock/Intel), GPU = Nvidia/Ati

OVERCLOCKING: NO

SLI OR CROSSFIRE: NO

MONITOR RESOLUTION: My max resolution is 1440x900.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: I want a solid and stable build that can run the following games in max/medium settings such as:
Resident evil 5
COD Modern Warfare 2
Singularity
Bioshock 1 and 2
...mostly all the high end popular games.

This is what I have so far:

cpu
Intel Core i3-530 Clarkdale 2.93GHz 4MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 73W Dual-Core Desktop Processor BX80616I3530

mobo
Intel BOXDH55TC LGA 1156 Intel H55 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

HDD
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

RAM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104154

PSU
Rosewill RP500-2 500W ATX12V v2.01 Power Supply
NOTE: My cousin gave this one to me. I hope it will run properly with my rig.

DVD + CD Burner
LITE-ON Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 24X DVD Writer

Graphics Card
GIGABYTE GV-R485OC-1GH Radeon HD 4850 1GB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
NOTE: There are so many to choose from and I don't know which one to get, so I picked this one because it's kinda cheap and I heard it handles the games that I want to play. Also, I will be using one graphics card only. By the way, I wouldn't mind getting an Nvidia card tho... Any suggestions?

Case
COOLER MASTER ELITE 335 RC-335-KKN1-GP Black SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
NOTE: Not sure if it will fit everything especially all the plugs (ports) on the back panel. What do you think?
 
^If it is going to be a budget gaming build, then the AMD X3 440 would be a better option as you can save money without giving up on performance...

X3 440 + HD 5770
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.442724

RAM - Mushkin 4GB DDR3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146740

Mobo -
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157198
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130275
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131651
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128445

HDD + PSU -
OCZ 550W + Samsung F3 500GB - Get a better quality PSU...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.466067

CASE + DVD
Antec 300 + Samsung DVD - It is a very good case with good airflow...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.458438

Total - $561 | $526 After rebates...not including shipping or any taxes...
 
D

Deleted member 217926

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On the other end of your budget we can improve performance quite a bit.

Same HDD + PSU combo as gkay09

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.466067&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-RSSDailyDeals-_-na-_-na&AID=10521304&PID=3463938&SID=efqrhhvt3o

Gigabyte P55 motherboard.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128412

i5 750

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115215

4 GB GSkill Ripjaws gaming memory.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231303

Antec 300 Illusion ( Includes 2 x 120mm fans the vanilla 300 does not )

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129066

HD 5770 with free game

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102873
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16800999246

Same DVD drive as in orignal post.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106334

Comes to $769.92 with $45 in mail in rebates for a total of $724.92. Not too bad for an i5 750 system with 4GB of awesome RAM......not to mention the HD 5770 will handle any game on high at 1440x900 and will do DX11 unlike the HD4xxx series you orignally were looking at. You can also add a CPU cooler in the future and crank that 750 to 4ghz or so very easily. You can get a decent cooler like the Hyper 212 for less than $30.

If you are curious about how much a step up the i5 750 is over the i3 530 or the X3 440 check this out.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-gaming-cpu-core-i5-760-core-i7-970,2698-7.html
 

aaron85

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Jul 18, 2007
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Thanks for the help dudes. You gave me many options, much appreciated. I was going to get the i5 but I changed my mind, I don't think it's time for that yet. I made my final decision, I'm going to build the following. I was going to go sli but I changed my mind because I don't think it'll work well in the future. I'll stick with this build for now, no future upgrades, and hopefully it'll last me for about 4-5 solid stable years. After that I'll save up and build a newer one with a better GPU/mobo/cpu. Also for this board that I'm going to build, my friend is going to hook me up with a seagate HDD and as for the PSU, I'll just use my rosewill 500W. If something goes wrong with the PSU, then I'll get the OCZ fatality or the OCZ ModXStream Pro PSU.

By the way, the mobo that I'm getting; It says it supports only i7 and i5, but I'm going to put an i3 in it because it has the same socket (1156) so no worries. My friend said it should work, but if it doesn't then he said he's going to buy the board from me because he wants to build a board with an i7 cpu, and also he's going to add a little extra $$ to get me a better board.

LITE-ON Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 24X DVD Writer

Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Intel Core i3-530 Clarkdale 2.93GHz 4MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 73W Dual-Core Desktop Processor BX80616I3530

EVGA 512-P3-N871-AR GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB 256-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

GIGABYTE GA-P55-USB3 LGA 1156 Intel P55 USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-8GBRL

Total is $703, not bad for my first board eh? Wish me luck...
 
D

Deleted member 217926

Guest
I hate to tell you this but for the $23 dollars in savings from my build you have got maybe two thirds the computer.........maybe less. The i5 750 is a beast of a CPU and destroys the i3 530 in every way. Even my old E8400 is higher on the gaming CPU hierarchy chart than the i3. The i5 750 is faster than anything AMD even makes as far as gaming goes. It is a true quad core while the i3 is a dual core with hyper threading, or two real cores and two virtual. While this certainly helps it is not the same as 4 physical cores. The i5 750 will also automatically overclock its self to 3.2 when it needs too. I mean automatically.....you have to do nothing, it's called turbo boost.

You do not need 8GB of RAM. 4GB of the faster speed faster latency RAM I linked you to is more than enough for any system and if not then an identical kit can be added with about zero hassle in the future. DDR3 prices continue to drop. You really only need 8GB if you work with large audio/video files all day and even then a faster processor helps more.

The 9800GTX+ while a decent card is not even close to a HD5770. I just upgraded froma 9800GTX+ a few weeks ago so trust me on this one. It is old technology and 3 generations old at this point. The HD5xxx series are ATI's newest series and will do DX 11 while the 9800GTX+ is limited to DX 10.

If you need to save some money then the Rosewill PSU that you have will work fine with my build. The Samsung Spinpoint F3 500GB is $54.

The Gigabyte motherboard I linked you to has USB 3.0 and SATA 6.0 for futureproofing while the board you have only has USB 3.0.

The Antec 300 Illusion is one of my favorite cases for the price.

Seriously for the tiny price difference you are crazy to build such a lesser system. I don't mean to offend but I do quite a few builds and know about "bang for your buck".
 

aaron85

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Jul 18, 2007
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The games that I play won't take advantage of all 4 cores. Also, your calculations are wrong, read your rebates.


Yea like I mentioned in my first post. I watch movies, burn movies, and some photoshop.


The games that I play doesn't require dx 11 and I know that this card will give me good performance and good grahics, maybe not as good as the HD5770 like you said, but it'll still be a good card to start with. Maybe it'll match up with the HD5770 in-game, but probably not by charts and graphs tho...


The board that I have doesn't support sata 6.0 and besides I won't be doing any future upgrades like I said. The board that I'm getting also supports the older ones like 1.1 and 2.0.
 
D

Deleted member 217926

Guest
The games that I play won't take advantage of all 4 cores. Also, your calculations are wrong, read your rebates.

But you use movies and Photoshop as a reason to get more, slower RAM that will help less than what I listed and they sure use more cores.

My calculations are fine and all the rebates are still valid. Add all the items to your cart in Newegg and see. I just did it again to make sure I didn't make an error.......and I didn't. Total for the build I listed is $769.92 with $45 of mail in rebates and a free game. Total after rebates $724.92.

In the end it is up to you. You asked for advice and I gave you the best, fastest, most futureproof build I could. If you choose to ignore that advice and spend close to the same money for much less computer for whatever reason.... then by all means go for it.
 

aaron85

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Jul 18, 2007
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Don't be mad because I didn't take your advice. I even thanked you and the other guy.

A quad core is really not needed for movies and photoshop, trust me. You're over exaggerating.
 

sp12

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Aug 15, 2010
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WTF at OP ignoring solid advice.

Props to you anort for the solid system recommendation however.

OP, I don't think you'll be really disappointed with either system, but the 750 build was a significantly better buy.