New basic gaming build for approx $1,000

[jmorga11]

Hi everybody,

It's been around 6 years since my last system build and want to put something together for gaming and general use. Right now I'm using a 20" 1680 x 1050 Dell monitor. I will probably upgrade the monitor in the next year to a 24" or larger so I'd like to be prepared for that. At that time, I'll probably go ahead and add a second video card.

I've never oc'd before but will go ahead and look up some instructions and do some minor oc'ing. Also, I don't have ac so air temp in the summer might be in the 90s. It looks like this case should have good air flow but I'm wondering if I should just add another fan or two now. Also, will I need thermal paste for the cpu cooler?

I could spend a couple hundred more dollars now if it means I'll have a more future proof system for the future as well.

Thanks for your time and any suggestions.

Here is the list I've come up with:

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80570E8400 - Retail

GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

PC Power & Cooling S75QB 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI NVIDIA SLI Certified (Dual 8800 GTX and below) CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply - Retail

G.SKILL PI Black 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL4D-4GBPI-B - Retail

ASUS EAH4850 TOP/HTDI/512M Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail

Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

SAMSUNG 22X DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-S223F - OEM

XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler - Retail

XIGMATEK ACK-I7751 Retention Bracket - Retail

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit English for System Builders 1pk DSP OEI DVD - OEM

 

[jmorga11]

The one thing I was thinking of doing now was to upgrade the GPU to this:

Sapphire Radeon 4870 1GB

which would add about $100 to the build. If all the MIRs come back, with tax and shipping I'm looking at around $1,030.

I tend to go awhile between systems and would hope that this would last 4 years at least. At least in this case, I would hope that I could update my MB, CPU and memory 3 or 4 years down the road, add another GPU (which will probably happen before then) and still have a decent system for less than the cost of a full upgrade.

 

[laguna 82]

felicitations?

 

[kelfen]

the 4870 is worth the upgrade the price has fallen quite a bit

 

[Proximon]

Agreed, the Sapphire 4870 1GB is a very good deal right now. It's a very well cooled card as well as a great performer.

Good build.

 

[jmorga11]

Thanks for looking over my build. I went ahead and purchased this morning with the 4870 card.

 

[dirtmountain]

Yup, good build, good reasoning behind choices.....you did your homework.

 

[shortstuff_mt]

Great job! Very nice build.