- May 17, 2011
- 16
- 0
- 18,510
Approximate Purchase Date: this week
Budget Range: $700-$800 Before or after Rebates doesn't matter.
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming mostly. SC2, LoL, HoN, Skyrim when it releases. SC2 and Skyrim are the most important. Oh, and DotA 2, whenever that happens.
Parts Not Required: Monitor, keyboard, mouse, OS, HD (see below)
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg preferred, but flexible.
Country of Origin: United States
Parts Preferences: AMD. Nvidia.
Overclocking: Maybe - Never done it before, but am interested if the performance boost is worth it.
SLI or Crossfire: Yes - eventually. Not something I want to do now, due to budget constraints. However, I would like to double up down the road.
Monitor Resolution: 1600x1200 or 1920x1200)
Additional Comments: Quiet is good. This rig will be in our office where my wife works all day and doesn't want to "hear all that noise!"
I have already purchased:
Kingston SSDNow V+100 KR-S1296-3H 2.5" 96GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) for the main HD. I saw it on sale a couple days ago for $90 after MIR, and I had to pull the trigger. I have another 500gb HD that I will harvest from my old box. That will be used just for storage.
So basically, I'm looking for Mobo, CPU, Memory, PSU, and GPU. If I can overclock easily on the mobo, then I'd need an aftermarket heatsink & fan for my CPU, I think.
Here's the basics that I've been looking at so far:
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz $129.99
GIGABYTE GA-990XA-UD3 $139.99 (When I SLI, this thing with x8/x8 channel, right? - Also, I've read in the comments that people have been having problems fitting in aftermarket CPU fans due to the memory crowding. Not too excited about that.
Really open on the video cards. I've read a few of the toms articles, but I don't really understand it all. The last time I researched and bought a GPU, memory size was all the rage. Help me out, here! Maybe this card?
MSI N550GTX-Ti Cyclone OC GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) $144.99 and $129.99 after MIR.
Really open on cases too. Obviously, I'm looking for something that will keep things quiet. I'm not into the LEDs, and would probably try to turn them off. Airflow + quiet. Also, I really like the bottom mounted PSUs, but that's not really a dealbreaker. I know the Rosewill CHALLENGER case for $49.99 won the toms choice award in 2010, but is there something better out there for me? I like the size of the Full Tower cases, but some Mid-Towers are pretty big as well. I don't know.
As far as PSUs go. I was looking at this Antec High Current Gamer Series HCG-750 750W because that seems like enough power and after the MIR it's only $69.99. Of course, that's until the end of today (sunday). So, other options seem like a better way to go. I'm not sure about the rails and such on PSUs. And if/when I SLI down the road it would be good to not have to get a new PSU.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...at_Power_Supplies-_-Best_Sellers-_-17-371-049 $69.99 after MIR.
For Memory, I don't know what the hell is going on with all the channels and whatever the timing 9-9-9-24 latency means. I'm at a loss. But I was looking at CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 ($60.99) to start off with. 8GB seems like a solid start and I could always double up later depending on the mobo.
So, that brings me to $580.94 before shipping. Couple that with the SSD I purchased and I'm in the sweet spot as far as my budget goes. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Hopefully, I listed all the info you need in a way that's not annoying. Thanks in advance.
Budget Range: $700-$800 Before or after Rebates doesn't matter.
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming mostly. SC2, LoL, HoN, Skyrim when it releases. SC2 and Skyrim are the most important. Oh, and DotA 2, whenever that happens.
Parts Not Required: Monitor, keyboard, mouse, OS, HD (see below)
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg preferred, but flexible.
Country of Origin: United States
Parts Preferences: AMD. Nvidia.
Overclocking: Maybe - Never done it before, but am interested if the performance boost is worth it.
SLI or Crossfire: Yes - eventually. Not something I want to do now, due to budget constraints. However, I would like to double up down the road.
Monitor Resolution: 1600x1200 or 1920x1200)
Additional Comments: Quiet is good. This rig will be in our office where my wife works all day and doesn't want to "hear all that noise!"
I have already purchased:
Kingston SSDNow V+100 KR-S1296-3H 2.5" 96GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) for the main HD. I saw it on sale a couple days ago for $90 after MIR, and I had to pull the trigger. I have another 500gb HD that I will harvest from my old box. That will be used just for storage.
So basically, I'm looking for Mobo, CPU, Memory, PSU, and GPU. If I can overclock easily on the mobo, then I'd need an aftermarket heatsink & fan for my CPU, I think.
Here's the basics that I've been looking at so far:
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz $129.99
GIGABYTE GA-990XA-UD3 $139.99 (When I SLI, this thing with x8/x8 channel, right? - Also, I've read in the comments that people have been having problems fitting in aftermarket CPU fans due to the memory crowding. Not too excited about that.
Really open on the video cards. I've read a few of the toms articles, but I don't really understand it all. The last time I researched and bought a GPU, memory size was all the rage. Help me out, here! Maybe this card?
MSI N550GTX-Ti Cyclone OC GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) $144.99 and $129.99 after MIR.
Really open on cases too. Obviously, I'm looking for something that will keep things quiet. I'm not into the LEDs, and would probably try to turn them off. Airflow + quiet. Also, I really like the bottom mounted PSUs, but that's not really a dealbreaker. I know the Rosewill CHALLENGER case for $49.99 won the toms choice award in 2010, but is there something better out there for me? I like the size of the Full Tower cases, but some Mid-Towers are pretty big as well. I don't know.
As far as PSUs go. I was looking at this Antec High Current Gamer Series HCG-750 750W because that seems like enough power and after the MIR it's only $69.99. Of course, that's until the end of today (sunday). So, other options seem like a better way to go. I'm not sure about the rails and such on PSUs. And if/when I SLI down the road it would be good to not have to get a new PSU.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...at_Power_Supplies-_-Best_Sellers-_-17-371-049 $69.99 after MIR.
For Memory, I don't know what the hell is going on with all the channels and whatever the timing 9-9-9-24 latency means. I'm at a loss. But I was looking at CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 ($60.99) to start off with. 8GB seems like a solid start and I could always double up later depending on the mobo.
So, that brings me to $580.94 before shipping. Couple that with the SSD I purchased and I'm in the sweet spot as far as my budget goes. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Hopefully, I listed all the info you need in a way that's not annoying. Thanks in advance.
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