Okay, trying out this daily build idea for a week and seeing how it goes.
***Will do this again in ONE week to allow for prices to change and new sales***
Day 7, $2,000(+/-10%) This is NOT a gaming computer, this build is almost exclusively for workstation and professional use.
Cooler Master HAF 932 $119.98
Roomy case good cooling.
Seasonic SI2II 520w $69.99
Good quality PSU.
GIGABYTE GA-X58/G.Skill Ripjaws Series 12GB (3x4GB) 1600Mhz combo $304.98
12GB of RAM for heavy workloads can drop it down to 6GB if needed.
Good motherboard with lots of PCI/PCIe expansion abilities.
Intel Core i7-930 $274.99
Good CPU with Hyperthreading that can be overclocked if wanted.
PNY Quadro 4000 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 $779.99
WORKSTATION GPU, this is NOT a gaming graphics card, in fact in most games this would perform at an HD 5770 level and below. This card IS however very good at 3D work and video work. It also comes with professional level support.
LG SATA Blu-ray Burner $89.99
Blu-ray for video work.
OCZ RevoDrive PCI-E x4 50GB $199.99
RevoDrive for a boot drive as the speeds are significantly faster then SATA SSD's (currently)
Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB/ Windows 7 HP 64-bit combo $159.98
Good HDD and W7 HP can be upgraded to ultimate if you need the features.
Total: $1,999.89
Day 6, $1,500(+/- 10%) this would be a build for extreme gamers or mid range workstation.
Sony Optiarc SATA CD/DVD $17.99
HAF 932 $119.98
(x2) Galaxy GTX 460 1GB $379.98 (189.99 each)
(x2) G.Skill Value Series 8GB (2x4GB) $159.98 (79.99 each)
ASUS P7P55D-E Pro $179.99
Intel Core i5-760 $199.99
Noctua NH-D14 $89.99
OCZ Agility 2 120GB $209.99
Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB/Windows 7 combo $159.98
Corsair CMPSU-850TX $129.99
Total: $1,647.86
Yes i know this is over budget, however there a LOT of rebates.
Total AR: $1507.86
I read the fine print on the GTX 460's and you can have 2 rebates per person per household.
Day 5, finally some fun this is $1,200(+/- 10%) this build will be for the high-end gamer or it can also be used for photo and video work.
Alright i'm going to come right out and say it, I went over budget on this build, but i do have the +/- 10% thing up there so i stayed within that limit.
SATA LG DVD/CD $16.99
Promo code for free shipping EMCKHHH35
Same deal as yesterday.
COOLER MASTER HAF 932 $119.98
Nice BIG full tower case, lots of room for upgrades and lots of HDD's and fans
Silverstone SDP08 $11.99
Needed for the Solid State Drive
Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 1GB $244.99
Good deal for a good card, performs at almost the same level as the 2GB version.
Antec NEO ECO 520C $39.99
This PSU is good quality and is still on sale, it has a 6pin PCI and a 6+2 PCI power connector so it works for most mid to high end graphics cards.
G.Skill Value Series 8GB (2x4GB) $79.99
Good, cheap RAM, 1333Mhz CL9 1.5V. 'nuff said.
Noctua NH-D14 $89.99
A VERY nice cooler, i am including this cooler in this build because at this stage i expect most everyone will be overclocking, you can not go wrong with this HSF.
Samsung 470 series 64GB SSD $119.99
Solid State Drives are good for loading your OS onto, they are flash memory and are not spinning disks (like normal hard drives) they are almost like bigger flash drives. I got this drive over the OCZ drives because OCZ has moved to 25nm flash and is running into bottle neck issues when writing data, the samsung drive is using 34nm and is not bottlenecked.
Windows 7 64bit/SAMSUNG spinpoint F3 1TB combo $159.98
Same drive as yesterday but this time it is 1TB and windows 7 combo takes off another $5
Intel Core i5-760/ASUS P7P55D-E Pro combo $362.99
Again going with the i5-760 it overclocks well and is a good CPU, i would at this point advise waiting for the Sandy Bridge motherboards to come back out, pick up an i5-2500k and get that instead. I picked this motherboard because it has good reviews, is from a good company, and has 2 PCIE 2.0 slots to allow for SLI/X-fire.
Total: $1,246.88
Total after rebates: $1226.88
Day 4, $1,000(+/- 10%), this is going to be a computer for a mid-high level gaming computer. This is a good computer for someone who wants to get into PC gaming with high/extreme graphics.
SATA LG DVD/CD $16.99
Promo code for free shipping EMCKHHH35
Same deal as yesterday.
Samsung Spinpoint F3 500GB $49.99
Again the Samsung drive in my experiences has good reliability, build quality, and speed.
Antec NEO ECO 520C $39.99
This PSU is good quality and is still on sale, it has a 6pin PCI and a 6+2 PCI power connector so it works for most mid to high end graphics cards.
G.Skill Value Series 8GB (2x4GB) $79.99
Good, cheap RAM, 1333Mhz CL9 1.5V. 'nuff said.
ASUS Maximus III GENE LGA 1156 $113.99
Open box i know, but it is a really good deal for this MB.
Intel i5-760 $204.99
Finally I felt the budget would allow for an Intel CPU, this quad core CPU will overclock well but even at stock speeds is a good CPU.
MSI GTX 570/OCZ 16GB USB flash drive combo $348.99
I got this combo because the combo discount is $1 more then the cost of the flash drive basically giving you a free flash drive and $1 off. It also comes with the Promo code for 9% off. And a rebate for $30.
9% off Code: EMCYTZT317, ends Feb. 24
HAF 912/windows 7 combo $154.98
Same case as yesterday (love it) and windows 7 in the combo saves you $5.
Total: $1,009.91
Total after rebates and promo codes: $956.04
Day 3, our $800(+/- 10%) range, this is a good price range for a mid-level gaming rig, good for a first custom computer for our up and coming gamer.
SATA LG CD/DVD $16.99
Same drive as yesterday, still at a good price.
Cooler Master HAF 912 $59.99
I LOVE the HAF series of cases, I know that not everyone will love them so i also recommend the Antec three hundred at the time of writing they are the same price, and so wont affect the price of the build, I would go with the HAF 912 as from my own experiences it has the better wire management and airflow of the two. (HAF does stand for HighAirFlow after all )
Samsung Spinpoint F3 500GB $49.99
Again the Samsung drive in my experiences has good reliability, build quality, and speed.
Antec NEO ECO 520C $39.99
This PSU is good quality and is still on sale, it has a 6pin PCI and a 6+2 PCI power connector so it works for most mid to high end graphics cards.
G.Skill Value Series 8GB (2x4GB) $79.99
Good, cheap RAM, 1333Mhz CL9 1.5V. 'nuff said.
XFX HD-695X-ZNFC Radeon HD 6950 1GB/AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE combo $374.98
The same CPU as yesterday, I know I COULD have gone intel with this build, however I felt as this was supposed to be a gaming computer a stronger graphics card would be more important then a more powerful CPU and besides the 955BE is an excellent CPU for the price.
ASUS M4A79XTD EVO AM3/Windows 7 combo $178.98
I got this motherboard because of its expandability, it has 4 DIMM slots for RAM, and two PCI-E 2.0 slots, this allows you to add a second GPU (for X-Fire/SLI) And the extra DIMM's will allow you to increase to 16GB of RAM if you need it. And Again Windows 7.
Total: $800.91 with a savings of $106.99 before rebates.
After rebates: $765.91 with a savings of $141.99
And once again if overclocking pick up maybe an extra 120mm case fan for $13.99 and a hyper 212+ for $29.99
That's it for today! :awe:
***Update***
the motherboard is sold out here is a replacement it puts us over budget by about $11 but still not bad, you now need to pick up windows 7 by itself no longer in a combo.
Day 2 is our $600(+/- 10%) price range, this is good for a basic light gaming to decent regular desktop usage.
SATA LG CD/DVD $16.99
A new contender this week as the price dropped $2 since yesterday's build. At $16.99 and from a good company it is a good drive.
CoolerMaster Elite RC-310-BWN1-GP $39.99
A good case with room for a full ATX sized motherboard, and if it suits your fancy a clear side panel to show off your work.
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 500GB $49.99
Good quality, good reviews, and from my own experiences good performance.
ASUS M4N68T-M V2 $54.99
I went with this motherboard because it is cheap and has a pcie 2.0 x16 slot. For those of you keeping track this is cheaper then yesterday's Motherboard so why didn't i go with this one for that build? Well with this build we have a discreet graphics card, and as such we do not need a good on board graphics processor. This motherboard has a worse IGP then yesterday's build but our dedicated card will make up for this. Yesterday had no dedicated card and could benefit from a better IGP, we on this build wont.
Antec NEO ECO 520C $39.99
This PSU is good quality and is frankly overkill for this build, however with it's current sale price it will allow you to expand easily or it can be transferred later to a new build.
G.SKILL NS 4GB (2 x 2GB) 39.99
Good cheap RAM, again 4GB with DDR3 RAM prices is a minimum for me, if you can afford the 40 bucks for another 4GB it wouldn't be a bad idea.
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit $99.99
Sadly Windows 7 is no longer $94.99 and is now $99.99 again.
HIS H577FK1GD Radeon HD 5770/AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition combo $254.98
I went with this combo because you get an easily Overclockable quad core CPU, And a decent entry level GPU that will post 60fps in 1080-p at medium or high settings in most games.
Total: $596.91
There is a $20 mail-in rebate on the GPU so if you include that you can get it down to $576.91
Side note, If overclocking i recommend at least the Hyper 212+ from coolermaster for $29.99 this is not a required part and thus was not included in the total for this build.
Day 1 is the $400(+/- 10%) price range, time to cut costs and find some deals.
ASUS SATA 24X DVD Burner $17.99
I chose this CD/DVD drive because it is cheap and it works, I have used ASUS drives in a few of my builds and have had no problems so far. (Free shipping w/ promo code EMCKHJC29, ends 2/23)
APEX TX-381-C $24.99
I picked out this case because it is small, well built, and again is cheap.
Samsung F3 500GB $49.99
This is a good HDD as it is from a good company low price, and good reviews, it also happens to be on the most highly recommended HDD's for it's price out there.
Antec EarthWatts Green EA-380D $39.99
This is a very good PSU, a bit overkill for the current build, however the extra headroom will allow you to upgrade to a discreet GPU later if you wish to turn this into a gaming rig.
G.SKILL NS 4GB (2 x 2GB) $39.99
With current RAM prices so low 4GB is a minimum for me in a build, and for 40 bucks you cant complain.
Windows 7 $94.99
Windows 7 64bit, there is no sense getting 32bit OS anymore as the problems in XP 64bit (with there being no support) are gone with W7 as 64bit is becoming the standard. It will also allow for more then 3GB of RAM to be used by the OS.
AMD Athlon II X3 450 Rana 3.2GHz/BIOSTAR A880G+ AM3 AMD 880G HDMI Micro ATX combo $129.99
For a budget build an AMD tri-core is good for regular desktop tasks, and paired with a mid tier GPU can even be a decent gaming CPU, this combo also comes with the best on-board GPU in our price range/size limit.
Total: $397.93
Feel free to post comments or offer suggestions or point out errors, I will update the OP tomorrow with the $600 price range.
***Will do this again in ONE week to allow for prices to change and new sales***
Day 7, $2,000(+/-10%) This is NOT a gaming computer, this build is almost exclusively for workstation and professional use.
Cooler Master HAF 932 $119.98
Roomy case good cooling.
Seasonic SI2II 520w $69.99
Good quality PSU.
GIGABYTE GA-X58/G.Skill Ripjaws Series 12GB (3x4GB) 1600Mhz combo $304.98
12GB of RAM for heavy workloads can drop it down to 6GB if needed.
Good motherboard with lots of PCI/PCIe expansion abilities.
Intel Core i7-930 $274.99
Good CPU with Hyperthreading that can be overclocked if wanted.
PNY Quadro 4000 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 $779.99
WORKSTATION GPU, this is NOT a gaming graphics card, in fact in most games this would perform at an HD 5770 level and below. This card IS however very good at 3D work and video work. It also comes with professional level support.
LG SATA Blu-ray Burner $89.99
Blu-ray for video work.
OCZ RevoDrive PCI-E x4 50GB $199.99
RevoDrive for a boot drive as the speeds are significantly faster then SATA SSD's (currently)
Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB/ Windows 7 HP 64-bit combo $159.98
Good HDD and W7 HP can be upgraded to ultimate if you need the features.
Total: $1,999.89
Day 6, $1,500(+/- 10%) this would be a build for extreme gamers or mid range workstation.
Sony Optiarc SATA CD/DVD $17.99
HAF 932 $119.98
(x2) Galaxy GTX 460 1GB $379.98 (189.99 each)
(x2) G.Skill Value Series 8GB (2x4GB) $159.98 (79.99 each)
ASUS P7P55D-E Pro $179.99
Intel Core i5-760 $199.99
Noctua NH-D14 $89.99
OCZ Agility 2 120GB $209.99
Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB/Windows 7 combo $159.98
Corsair CMPSU-850TX $129.99
Total: $1,647.86
Yes i know this is over budget, however there a LOT of rebates.
Total AR: $1507.86
I read the fine print on the GTX 460's and you can have 2 rebates per person per household.
Day 5, finally some fun this is $1,200(+/- 10%) this build will be for the high-end gamer or it can also be used for photo and video work.
Alright i'm going to come right out and say it, I went over budget on this build, but i do have the +/- 10% thing up there so i stayed within that limit.
SATA LG DVD/CD $16.99
Promo code for free shipping EMCKHHH35
Same deal as yesterday.
COOLER MASTER HAF 932 $119.98
Nice BIG full tower case, lots of room for upgrades and lots of HDD's and fans
Silverstone SDP08 $11.99
Needed for the Solid State Drive
Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 1GB $244.99
Good deal for a good card, performs at almost the same level as the 2GB version.
Antec NEO ECO 520C $39.99
This PSU is good quality and is still on sale, it has a 6pin PCI and a 6+2 PCI power connector so it works for most mid to high end graphics cards.
G.Skill Value Series 8GB (2x4GB) $79.99
Good, cheap RAM, 1333Mhz CL9 1.5V. 'nuff said.
Noctua NH-D14 $89.99
A VERY nice cooler, i am including this cooler in this build because at this stage i expect most everyone will be overclocking, you can not go wrong with this HSF.
Samsung 470 series 64GB SSD $119.99
Solid State Drives are good for loading your OS onto, they are flash memory and are not spinning disks (like normal hard drives) they are almost like bigger flash drives. I got this drive over the OCZ drives because OCZ has moved to 25nm flash and is running into bottle neck issues when writing data, the samsung drive is using 34nm and is not bottlenecked.
Windows 7 64bit/SAMSUNG spinpoint F3 1TB combo $159.98
Same drive as yesterday but this time it is 1TB and windows 7 combo takes off another $5
Intel Core i5-760/ASUS P7P55D-E Pro combo $362.99
Again going with the i5-760 it overclocks well and is a good CPU, i would at this point advise waiting for the Sandy Bridge motherboards to come back out, pick up an i5-2500k and get that instead. I picked this motherboard because it has good reviews, is from a good company, and has 2 PCIE 2.0 slots to allow for SLI/X-fire.
Total: $1,246.88
Total after rebates: $1226.88
Day 4, $1,000(+/- 10%), this is going to be a computer for a mid-high level gaming computer. This is a good computer for someone who wants to get into PC gaming with high/extreme graphics.
SATA LG DVD/CD $16.99
Promo code for free shipping EMCKHHH35
Same deal as yesterday.
Samsung Spinpoint F3 500GB $49.99
Again the Samsung drive in my experiences has good reliability, build quality, and speed.
Antec NEO ECO 520C $39.99
This PSU is good quality and is still on sale, it has a 6pin PCI and a 6+2 PCI power connector so it works for most mid to high end graphics cards.
G.Skill Value Series 8GB (2x4GB) $79.99
Good, cheap RAM, 1333Mhz CL9 1.5V. 'nuff said.
ASUS Maximus III GENE LGA 1156 $113.99
Open box i know, but it is a really good deal for this MB.
Intel i5-760 $204.99
Finally I felt the budget would allow for an Intel CPU, this quad core CPU will overclock well but even at stock speeds is a good CPU.
MSI GTX 570/OCZ 16GB USB flash drive combo $348.99
I got this combo because the combo discount is $1 more then the cost of the flash drive basically giving you a free flash drive and $1 off. It also comes with the Promo code for 9% off. And a rebate for $30.
9% off Code: EMCYTZT317, ends Feb. 24
HAF 912/windows 7 combo $154.98
Same case as yesterday (love it) and windows 7 in the combo saves you $5.
Total: $1,009.91
Total after rebates and promo codes: $956.04
Day 3, our $800(+/- 10%) range, this is a good price range for a mid-level gaming rig, good for a first custom computer for our up and coming gamer.
SATA LG CD/DVD $16.99
Same drive as yesterday, still at a good price.
Cooler Master HAF 912 $59.99
I LOVE the HAF series of cases, I know that not everyone will love them so i also recommend the Antec three hundred at the time of writing they are the same price, and so wont affect the price of the build, I would go with the HAF 912 as from my own experiences it has the better wire management and airflow of the two. (HAF does stand for HighAirFlow after all )
Samsung Spinpoint F3 500GB $49.99
Again the Samsung drive in my experiences has good reliability, build quality, and speed.
Antec NEO ECO 520C $39.99
This PSU is good quality and is still on sale, it has a 6pin PCI and a 6+2 PCI power connector so it works for most mid to high end graphics cards.
G.Skill Value Series 8GB (2x4GB) $79.99
Good, cheap RAM, 1333Mhz CL9 1.5V. 'nuff said.
XFX HD-695X-ZNFC Radeon HD 6950 1GB/AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE combo $374.98
The same CPU as yesterday, I know I COULD have gone intel with this build, however I felt as this was supposed to be a gaming computer a stronger graphics card would be more important then a more powerful CPU and besides the 955BE is an excellent CPU for the price.
ASUS M4A79XTD EVO AM3/Windows 7 combo $178.98
I got this motherboard because of its expandability, it has 4 DIMM slots for RAM, and two PCI-E 2.0 slots, this allows you to add a second GPU (for X-Fire/SLI) And the extra DIMM's will allow you to increase to 16GB of RAM if you need it. And Again Windows 7.
Total: $800.91 with a savings of $106.99 before rebates.
After rebates: $765.91 with a savings of $141.99
And once again if overclocking pick up maybe an extra 120mm case fan for $13.99 and a hyper 212+ for $29.99
That's it for today! :awe:
***Update***
the motherboard is sold out here is a replacement it puts us over budget by about $11 but still not bad, you now need to pick up windows 7 by itself no longer in a combo.
Day 2 is our $600(+/- 10%) price range, this is good for a basic light gaming to decent regular desktop usage.
SATA LG CD/DVD $16.99
A new contender this week as the price dropped $2 since yesterday's build. At $16.99 and from a good company it is a good drive.
CoolerMaster Elite RC-310-BWN1-GP $39.99
A good case with room for a full ATX sized motherboard, and if it suits your fancy a clear side panel to show off your work.
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 500GB $49.99
Good quality, good reviews, and from my own experiences good performance.
ASUS M4N68T-M V2 $54.99
I went with this motherboard because it is cheap and has a pcie 2.0 x16 slot. For those of you keeping track this is cheaper then yesterday's Motherboard so why didn't i go with this one for that build? Well with this build we have a discreet graphics card, and as such we do not need a good on board graphics processor. This motherboard has a worse IGP then yesterday's build but our dedicated card will make up for this. Yesterday had no dedicated card and could benefit from a better IGP, we on this build wont.
Antec NEO ECO 520C $39.99
This PSU is good quality and is frankly overkill for this build, however with it's current sale price it will allow you to expand easily or it can be transferred later to a new build.
G.SKILL NS 4GB (2 x 2GB) 39.99
Good cheap RAM, again 4GB with DDR3 RAM prices is a minimum for me, if you can afford the 40 bucks for another 4GB it wouldn't be a bad idea.
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit $99.99
Sadly Windows 7 is no longer $94.99 and is now $99.99 again.
HIS H577FK1GD Radeon HD 5770/AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition combo $254.98
I went with this combo because you get an easily Overclockable quad core CPU, And a decent entry level GPU that will post 60fps in 1080-p at medium or high settings in most games.
Total: $596.91
There is a $20 mail-in rebate on the GPU so if you include that you can get it down to $576.91
Side note, If overclocking i recommend at least the Hyper 212+ from coolermaster for $29.99 this is not a required part and thus was not included in the total for this build.
Day 1 is the $400(+/- 10%) price range, time to cut costs and find some deals.
ASUS SATA 24X DVD Burner $17.99
I chose this CD/DVD drive because it is cheap and it works, I have used ASUS drives in a few of my builds and have had no problems so far. (Free shipping w/ promo code EMCKHJC29, ends 2/23)
APEX TX-381-C $24.99
I picked out this case because it is small, well built, and again is cheap.
Samsung F3 500GB $49.99
This is a good HDD as it is from a good company low price, and good reviews, it also happens to be on the most highly recommended HDD's for it's price out there.
Antec EarthWatts Green EA-380D $39.99
This is a very good PSU, a bit overkill for the current build, however the extra headroom will allow you to upgrade to a discreet GPU later if you wish to turn this into a gaming rig.
G.SKILL NS 4GB (2 x 2GB) $39.99
With current RAM prices so low 4GB is a minimum for me in a build, and for 40 bucks you cant complain.
Windows 7 $94.99
Windows 7 64bit, there is no sense getting 32bit OS anymore as the problems in XP 64bit (with there being no support) are gone with W7 as 64bit is becoming the standard. It will also allow for more then 3GB of RAM to be used by the OS.
AMD Athlon II X3 450 Rana 3.2GHz/BIOSTAR A880G+ AM3 AMD 880G HDMI Micro ATX combo $129.99
For a budget build an AMD tri-core is good for regular desktop tasks, and paired with a mid tier GPU can even be a decent gaming CPU, this combo also comes with the best on-board GPU in our price range/size limit.
Total: $397.93
Feel free to post comments or offer suggestions or point out errors, I will update the OP tomorrow with the $600 price range.
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