Budget Gaming PC Build

[karm100fists]

First time posting here though I've been a fan of the site for a long time.

I'm interested in building a new PC for gaming and multi-media. I largely copied the under $1500 PC build from the main site but before I go and buy anything I wanted to get advice.

Here's what I have so far.

*Motherboard - ASUS P5N-E SLI LGA 775 $124.99
*CPU - Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 $279.99
*Memory - Crucial Ballistix 2GB (4 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM $179.98
*HDD – 2 X Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3500630AS 500GB $239.98
*CPU Cooler - Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme $64.99
*CPU fan - 2 x Scythe S-Flex SFF21F model $27.98
*CD Rom - SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA $31.99
*Power Supply- OCZ GameXStream OCZ600GXSSLI ATX12V 600W Power Supply $109.99
OS- Microsoft Windows Vista 64-Bit $179.99
Case LIAN LI PC-60USB B2 $109.99
Video Card(s) EVGA GeForce 8800GT $259.99

I must have been smoking crack because I originally wrote that I was going to get two Geforce 8800GTX cards, but I'm not spending $1000. I have a question about the cards. I am using a 32" LCD TV for a monitor and I was hoping to get it to accept a 1080p signal from the video card. Otherwise I'm stuck in 1360 x 768 Will any video card send it a 1080p signal? or am I stuck with 1360x768?

I think that I will be buying one 8800GTS and get the other one to crossfire them for Christmas or something.

So what case should I get? How does the system stack up?

 

[itotallybelieveyou]

get the 8800GT man. Then SLI for christmas. If you are on a budget get this board.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131142
Case is really your choice. Pretty much any 8800 will do 1080p dont take my word... I'm not too deep into the HDTV area

 

[rgeist554]

I think that I will be buying one 8800GTS and get the other one to crossfire them for Christmas or something.

Listen to itotallybelieveyou and get the 8800GT, it's cheaper and performs better (It does run hotter than the GTS though). You will be running them in SLI. Crossfire is for ATI cards. You may have already known this, but in case you didn't... you'd want to make sure you buy an SLI bridge instead of a Crossfire Bridge. I think you would be most disappointed if you found this out after you bought parts!

 

[karm100fists]

So the GT performs better but costs less? I notice that its available with 512 RAM. For Some reason Newegg is completely out of them. That seems odd. I guess its because they were just released.

 

[nickc07]

Wait untill after Thanksgiving. They should drop a little in price (back down to MSRP) and be much more in stock.

 

[karm100fists]

Well that's good because I don't have the money right now anyway. Thank you all for your advice.

 

[rwpritchett]

I'm certain an 8800 will do 1080p. I'm using a 7600GT on a 40" HDTV @ 1080p with no problems. The nVidia control panel is where you want to go to set TV resolutions (instead of the standard Windows display properties). Actually, the new nVidia drivers have added the tools to resize the desktop to compensate for over/under scan too. That's very handy if your TV doesn't adjust automatically.

I've never seen a 'budget' build before that has an intel quad, 4GB RAM, a lian li case, and Vista Ultimate before. What would you consider mid-budget? :lol:

 

[aevm]

You can safely drop one of the CPU fans. I read a review where they showed that adding the second fan to that particular cooler made no difference at all.

Why a 650i motherboard? Get the P5N32-E SLI Plus or the eVGA 680i A1. This way you get 16x performance for both video cards, plus a better chance that you'll be able to upgrade the CPU later if you want.

Get 2x2GB RAM, so you can upgrade to 8 GB later if you need. This makes overclocking easier too.

I'd replace the NEC burner with a Samsung 203B
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151153

Get one or two WD7500AAKS instead of the Seagates. The WD7500AAKS is faster and quieter.

PSU: for $3 less (including shipping) you can get a top-quality PSU like the PC Power & Cooling Silencer 610W.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703005

Forget the 8800 GTS, get an 8800 GT now and another later.

 

[zenmaster]

You can likely do better on the PSU.

Corsair/PC Power and Cooling/Seasonic in the 600+ w can be had for about the same price and are better units.

 

[karm100fists]

I guess it's kind of veering away from budget and into midrange, but it's not there yet. I'll see about making those changes and thanks for the suggestions.

 

[karm100fists]

Oh and I will never buy a Western Digital Hard drive again. I have had 3 of them fail on me and never had to RMA a Maxtor or a Seagate. I still have the same ones running in my PC from 2003.

Oh and I feel like an idiot (but an incredibly happy one) I finally got my computer to output 1080p with my crappy old X800GTO video card. It's actually not all that bad either. I can run oblivion in 1920x1080, with AA at 2x. Probably not exciting for supergamers, but it's freakin awesome for me until I get my new rig set up. I just wish that it was pixel shader 3.0 compliant (no bioshock for me).

So you all reccomend

Samsung 203b DVD+-RW
and a different power supply
someone suggested
Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme which looks good to me.


Won't 2 x 2GB of ram cost more and be less effective than 4 x 1GB sticks of ram?

 

[karm100fists]

Oh one more question on this thread, what keyboard/mouse do you reccomend for gaming?

I was looking at these two I/O devices


Logitech G11 Silver & Black USB Standard Gaming Keyboard - Retail

Logitech MX518 2-Tone 8 Buttons 1 x Wheel USB + PS/2 Wired Optical Gaming-Grade Mouse - Retail

 

[itotallybelieveyou]

I dont believe in gaming mouses or keyboard but i heard the G15 keyboard and G9 mouse were very popular choices

 

[karm100fists]

I read a lot of bad things about the G15 keyboard. It's exactly the same as the G11 only it has painted on symbols that wear off over time and an LCD screen.

I like that you can program macros on the fly. The mouse just has 8 programmable buttons so that's all I care about.