$2K Gaming Build

[dufftime]

I'm helping my buddy build a gaming rig for about $2K US. He's in California now, and plays mostly MMO's, but with the occasional FPS. This is a pure gaming PC... he will use his old gaming PC for Quicken/Pics/Videos/etc. We plan on overclocking a bit, and he also wants something pretty quiet, hence the Antec 182 case and Corsair PSU. This is also going to be his first PC build, so something that's fairly easy to put together would help. The best I'm going to be able to offer is help over the phone.

No brand preference, except seems that Intel >> AMD now and nVidia >> ATI now.
Gaming PC v1.0

We're also leaning towards the Thermalright Ultra-90-775 for CPU cooling with fan ~$45. Newegg is out of stock so will have to get that elsewhere (probably Bestbyte). We'd like to go for the Ultra-120, but the weight scares us (motherboard warping?)

With all the mail-in rebates, the price drops about $105 down to ~$1800, giving us a bit of room for the OS (probably WinXP Pro 32-bit which I guess is about $100).

Where should he invest the spare $100, or is it good to go as is? DDR3 RAM seems to be a bit cost-prohibitive right now (bad performance-gain/price ratio).

Anything obviously wrong?

Thanks in advance for any feedback!
- Dufftime

 

[MarcVenice]

Your link isn't working.

Buy a samsung spinpoint t166 500gb, buy a corsair 520hx, pick a motherboard of your choice, asus p5k, gigabyte ds3r, abit ip35, all should cost around 130$. Buy 2 or 4gb of cas4/5 ddr2 800, should cost 70$ AR at newegg, times two is 140-150$. Go q6600 g0 stepping, oc it to at least 3ghz, with either of those HSF, both will do. Buy a good case, antec 900 should do, get some s-flex of nexus fans to use as casefans and pair em with the HSF. I'd buy the 8800gtx from EVGA and use the stepup program in 3 months.

If budget allows, buy a 50-75$ soundcard, more is a waste unless hes a professional musicmaker or whatever. If budget still allows, buy a 75gb raptor or so, to boot from. Make sure he buys a decent screen. At least 20inch 1680*1050 ws or better.

 

[dufftime]

Sorry about the link.. it's fixed now.

Thanks for the feedback. It looks pretty close to your recommendation, except the E6750 vs. Q6600 as he's using it for gaming.

 

[MarcVenice]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16811129017

Virtually the same as the p182. Check it out. Why did you select TWO e6750's ? Drop the floppy drive, no need for that junk And, like I said, samsung t166 500gb spinpoint, less warm, less noisy then the WD. And go q6600, can oc up to an extra few 100 mhz, but can't add 2 cores for when games really start using them. Besides, the 8 multiplier on the e6750 isn't that great for overclocking. Get a good HSF and OC that puppy to 3.2-3.4ghz without having it breaking a sweat.

 

[dufftime]

LOL... the 2 CPU's must've been a mistake!

I appreciate the feedback and will update the build with your recommendations, especially the hard drive. There's a WD raptor in there for OS + game installs.

The floppy drive was there, just in case he needed to do some BIOS updates or run memtest, or if he wanted to RAID in the future.

Thanks again Marc

 

[MarcVenice]

You can use flashdrives for bios/memtest, or just burn a CD They cheap anyways ^^ And yeah the WD raptor can stay, to bad seagate/samsung or itachi produce no 10k HD's, although samsung might start building them soon, in sata or sas flavor

 

[crimson117]

If he plays mostly MMOs and only a few FPS's, I'd save $200 and drop down to a 8800 GTS. Then take some of that $200 and upgrade the processor to a E6850 for $65 more at eWiz (price through froogle).

My reasoning... the 8800 GTX is aging so it doesn't make sense to buy it now at such a high price, but a discounted 8800 GTS does make sense. The E6850 is brand new and priced well, so it's okay to invest in it now and hang onto it.

 

[crimson117]

Originally posted by: dufftime
The floppy drive was there, just in case he needed to do some BIOS updates or run memtest, or if he wanted to RAID in the future.

I think it's best to get a floppy drive up front. They're cheap, come in handy sometimes (you have to deal with people with older computers and/or who use floppy disks), and it's a lot easier to install it during your initial build than to have to do it later.

 

[dufftime]

Thanks very much for the feedback, crimson.

Isn't there an trade-up deal with the 8800GTX's where he could upgrade later to a 9-series when they are available?

I think there's enough room in the budget to go for the GTX. I keep reading posts about gaming rigs should invest their money in the GPU, so not sure if upgrading the CPU and losing GPU is the best thing.

 

[fire400]

don't waste your money on that trash unless you feel like throwing it away.

quadcore for 300
and geforce 8800 gts 640mb for 350

4 gigs of gaming DDR2-1000+

Asus motherboard

Zalman cooler for CPU

done.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

Originally posted by: fire400
don't waste your money on that trash unless you feel like throwing it away.

quadcore for 300
and geforce 8800 gts 640mb for 350

4 gigs of gaming DDR2-1000+

Asus motherboard

Zalman cooler for CPU

done.

keep in mind this kid is 15 yrs old. his extent of knowledge on pcs is limited. kind of

 

[LOUISSSSS]

id say that is a pretty good build overall except i wouldn't get that floppy drive. they're useless

 

[MarcVenice]

4 gigs of gaming ddr2 1000+ is probably the worst advice I've ever seen. You tell him to lay of the gtx, yet throw away money on ram that costs LOTS more money but barely gives a performance increase, if any performance increase at all ...

 

[ethugholla]

Listen to MarcVenice.

 

[lamere]

Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
id say that is a pretty good build overall except i wouldn't get that floppy drive. they're useless

I wouldnt say they're useless just yet, some mobos are still providing their SATA drivers via floppy...
I still have a few around but hook them up only when needed.