Tax-refund gamer PC?? I'll build it myself!

[aphelion02]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824116452

You left out the gamer who owns that and uses a $700 rig

 

[mnewsham]

You left out the gamer who owns that and uses a $700 rig

Are you saying im not that gamer?

 

[aphelion02]

Are you saying im not that gamer?

how? With your rig in sig? What games are you playing that you can hit that high fps?

 

[mnewsham]

how? With your rig in sig? What games are you playing that you can hit that high fps?

Nah, i built my mate an $800 rig and he bought a 120hz monitor (the one i posted) because he just wanted it for windows use and web browsing, he has gotten so used to it he turns down the game details just to get the 120 fps.

 

[mfenn]

Nice build rob, thats a very all-round desktop. I assume the OP is looking for a pure gaming desktop though, and that he won't be making too many upgrades, so I cutdown on the cpu and ram a little (those are not important for gaming) to try to provide the best possible graphics card. My build will kick yours' ass in gaming

I also forgot shipping in my last post, and I'm changing a case recommendation:

i5-2400 CPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115074

Asrock H67 m-ATX mobo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157233

G.Skill NS 4GB ram
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231396

Antech Neo ECO 520W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371030

Western Digital Caviar Blue 500tb - shamelessly stolen from rob454
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136769

Gigabyte 560Ti Factory OC (HELL YEA)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125363

APEX Vortex Mid-Tower Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811154108

Total $698.68 after shipping with optional $20 MIR, use EMCKFKE24 and EMCKGGJ34 promo for $9 off.

Made some changes, now it is under budget. This is most kickass system for pure gaming possible at this budget, and is no slouch in general workload either. OP: are you adamant about being absolutely under $700? For just $5 more you could get much better quality RAM. Also, please check if you have an IDE or SATA dvd drive, if you don't have a SATA drive we will need to spend another $15-$20 bucks on it, and at this price range that can mean a big hit in performance of everything else.

Best $700 build so far IMHO. The GTX 560 is quite a bit faster than the GTX 550. The GTX 550 is IMHO way overpriced considering it performs like a $100 5770.

 

[aphelion02]

Best $700 build so far IMHO. The GTX 560 is quite a bit faster than the GTX 550. The GTX 550 is IMHO way overpriced considering it performs like a $100 5770.

Not to mention the i5-2400 just got a $10 dollar promo in the last few min

 

[Steve8867]

YAY, placed order yesterday!
I did not order a vid card, dvd rom, or hard drive, because Im still hoping the burnout of last year was just the power supply and not everything.

Order is processed and traveling already!

 

[Steve8867]

I still have $200 left, but I'll wait to see if the other parts still function.

Thank you for your help (most of you anyway).

 

[Steve8867]

Do modern motherboards have good sound chip-sets or should I have considered a sound card too?

 

[rob454]

I just don't think suggesting 4gb of memory on a motherboard with 2 slots would be a good idea for future upgrades. I found a solution here with 8gb of memory still, and 4 slots for expandability.


http://www.newegg.com/Shopping/Shopp...82E16813130584
MSI H67MS-E43 (B3) Has 4 memory slots $99 free ship

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129066
Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case $55 Free ship

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139017
CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 CMPSU-430CX 430W ATX12V Active PFC Power Supply $25.00 Rebate too!! 45.00 shipped w/o rebate

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827136177
LG DVD Burner - Bulk Black SATA Model GH24NS50 - OEM $19 Free ship (You will need this because IDE is no longer supported on new mobos)


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231422
G.SKILL Value Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory Model F3-10600CL9D-8GBNT $80 Free ship


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161348
HIS H685F1GD Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity $172.56 with free Shogun 2

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-074-_-Product
Intel Core i5-2400 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz (3.4GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52400 $180 Free Ship ends 4/12

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136769 $44 shipped
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKX 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive


$694.56!!

 

[Steve8867]

 

[Steve8867]

Good thing im not too noob, I ordered a grounding strap too.

 

[rob454]

OK, scratch what I said above. But I hope you didn't order 2x2gb of ram on a 2 slot motherboard. You will be forced to replace all your ram if/when you need to upgrade. Make sure your Optical drive is SATA or it won't work on your new motherboard.

Onboard sound is plenty sufficient.

 

[aphelion02]

double post

 

[aphelion02]

Steve8867, could you post the parts you ordered? What budget do you have left for a graphics card? And also the optical drive issue, make sure you aren't counting on using an IDE drive

rob454: You made the same mistake I did, that cx430 only has 1 6+2 pin PCI-e out, so it won't power that hd6850. I also worried about the 2 ram slots, but since the OP is so tight on budget and only for gaming, I think 4gb will last him a good while. A stronger graphics card means he can afford to upgrade the ram entirely because he won't need to upgrade the card as soon.

 

[rob454]

Hearing that Battlefield 3's recommendation is 4gb.

I think 4gb is peaking the limits these days especially since a clean install of Windows 7 eats up 1gb idle and I am sure when SP1 is installed, it will use more. Videocards seldom fluctuate in price due to memory costs but if RAM spikes to $80 or more per 4gb chip, plus he will have to replace all of his memory or get a motherboard that has 4 slots. He will be in some high upgrade costs. Just saying..

 

[Steve8867]

1

Antec VP-450 450W ATX 12V v2.3 Power Supply
Item #: N82E16817371045
Standard Return Policy

$49.99
. 1

APEX SK-393-C Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Item #: N82E16811154109
Standard Return Policy

$34.99
. 1

Rosewill RTK-002 Anti-Static Wrist Strap
Item #: N82E16899261005
Standard Return Policy

$4.99
. 1

Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K
Item #: N82E16819115072
CPU Replacement Only Return Policy

$224.99
. 1

GIGABYTE GA-H61M-D2P-B3 LGA 1155 Intel H61 Intel Motherboard
Item #: N82E16813128482
Standard Return Policy
Gigabyte (626)-854-9338 option 4 www.giga-byte.com

$77.99
. 1

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL8D-8GBXM
Item #: N82E16820231445
Memory Standard Return Policy

$84.99
Click here to obtain a detailed listing of your packages and their contents.
Subtotal $477.94
Tax $0.00
UPS 3 DAYS $17.73
Rush Processing $3.99
Order Total $499.66


$200 left, think my old drives are ide or eide my old vid card is an:HD4850 512mb GDDR3 PCI-E Saphire card

 

[rob454]

1

Antec VP-450 450W ATX 12V v2.3 Power Supply
Item #: N82E16817371045
Standard Return Policy

$49.99
. 1

APEX SK-393-C Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Item #: N82E16811154109
Standard Return Policy

$34.99
. 1

Rosewill RTK-002 Anti-Static Wrist Strap
Item #: N82E16899261005
Standard Return Policy

$4.99
. 1

Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K
Item #: N82E16819115072
CPU Replacement Only Return Policy

$224.99
. 1

GIGABYTE GA-H61M-D2P-B3 LGA 1155 Intel H61 Intel Motherboard
Item #: N82E16813128482
Standard Return Policy
Gigabyte (626)-854-9338 option 4 www.giga-byte.com

$77.99
. 1

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL8D-8GBXM
Item #: N82E16820231445
Memory Standard Return Policy

$84.99
Click here to obtain a detailed listing of your packages and their contents.
Subtotal $477.94
Tax $0.00
UPS 3 DAYS $17.73
Rush Processing $3.99
Order Total $499.66


$200 left, think my old drives are ide or eide my old vid card is an:HD4850 512mb GDDR3 PCI-E Saphire card

All this advice we gave you and you buy the wrong motherboard and a better processor that is completely useless for that board. Unsubscribed.

 

[aphelion02]

Usually, it is better to post the final build before you pull the trigger. As of right now, you are overpaying for an unlocked k CPU because your motherboard does not allow overclocking. The i5-2400 I suggested will have almost the same performance and you save $40 which can be put toward a graphics card, which can impact your performance significantly. The RAM is a good deal, but it is not important for gaming - you want that extra $40 to go to a graphics card once again. These $80 can equal a huge jump in gaming performance.

Your PSU also has only 1 6-pin connector - this will prevent you from using midrange -high end graphics cards. Together with the need for sata harddrives and a dvd burner - could you stretch your budget a little? It will make the computer LOADS better for gaming if you even have $50 more to spare.

 

[aphelion02]

OP: You have now $200 left for a video card, hard drive, and dvd drive (you will need SATA ones). HDD and DVD drives are going to be about $60-$70. That means you have about $130 to spend on a video card.

Add to the fact that your PSU only has one PCI-e connector and you can't even pick popular choices like the gtx 460. You are looking at a low-midrange video card like the HD 5770. This build is no longer a gaming computer, it is more a CPU-imbalanced workstation that can do some light gaming. I highly suggest seeing if you can increase your budget or returning at least the PSU and CPU and possibly the mobo and ram. Your system is completely the opposite of how a gaming computer should be balanced.

 

[Chapbass]

aph, quit while you're ahead... just imo, but jesus...

 

[aphelion02]

Yea I spent way too much time on this already. I kind of took it as a challenge to build the best possible system with that budget, but now I'm just frustrated. OP did zero research and didn't follow advice.

 

[Steve8867]

W0W didn't check back in to get flamed...

 

[Chapbass]

And we didnt check in to your thread to waste our time.


Yeah, i didnt post a build, but this was my first time in this thread TO post a build, obviously too late for that now, and it looks like some great builds are already here.

 

[Davidh373]

W0W didn't check back in to get flamed...

So I take it all you thought even though EVERYBODY was saying to get the build aphelion02 was constantly upgrading the design to and making BETTER all the time, you would be better off choosing everything yourself and screwing it up?! Cancel the order or don't come here and complain about being flamed, because IMO you deserve it for being stupid and wasting people's time...

It's not like you're paying us... We do this for FREE, and when jackholes like you decide to waste hours of our lives, you best hope to be called stupid because there is MUCH WORSE we have called others. Learn yourself a lesson in patience, manners, and plain common sense dude. We're nice to a point but when we do this for free and then you waste hours of our lives, then you order the wrong parts even though we guide you to where to buy them, then you disrespect us, then you EXPECT US to still be nice to you? Forget it man...