New Gamers Comp.

[Imconfused1234]

Hey guys, this is going to be my first time building a computer and I want it to be a really great gaming one. I have used this site many times again to see your suggestions on many different parts and I would now like to post my soon to be computer, monitor, tower, and everything and was hoping to get a response from the community on what I should cut back on, and what I should not skimp on.

My Budget is currently about 1100 BEFORE taxes/shipping and handling and thats for everything including a monitor and a keyboard (no mouse needed, since I had an old gaming laptop).

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CASE AND POWER SUPPLY- 200-----------------------------------------
Antec Nine Hundred Black Computer Case With Side Panel Window - Retail

Antec EA-750 750W Continuous Power Supply - Retail
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MONITOR- 109.99
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ASUS VW192T+ 19" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor Built in Speakers - Retail

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CD/DVD DRIVE- 19.99
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LITE-ON Black IDE DVD-ROM Drive Model iHDP118-08 - Retail

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AUDIO CARD- 24.99
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Turtle Beach RIVIERA 5.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card - OEM


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MOTHER BOARD- 129.99
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MSI 790GX-G65 AM3 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

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CPU- 139.99
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AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Black Processor Model HDZ720WFGIBOX - Retail

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GPU- 239.99
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EVGA 896-P3-1170-AR GeForce GTX 275 896MB 448-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

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RAM- 63.99
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OCZ Platinum 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ3P16004GK - Retail
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HARD DRIVE- 54.99
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Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM 54.99

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KEYBOARD- 58.99
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Logitech G11 Silver & Black Gaming Keyboard - Retail

**All prices are from Newegg

Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for your time and all the advice given during my research, it really helped me a lot,

~Hopeful high end gaming comp builder =)

***EDIT*** I will be running Windows XP 32 bit

 

[drunknmunkys]

1) Ditch the sound card.

2) That GPU is overkill with a 19'' monitor. Get at least a 22''

3) Get a WD 640GB Black HDD for 20$ more.

4) That PSU is serious overkill with that setup.

5) DDR3 memory is a waste right now unless you have to have it.

 

[Imconfused1234]

Well I was planning on adding a second GPU sometime in the future, so I was actually kind of worried about the power supply.

10-4 on the sound card and HDD

gonna debate a little more on the monitor/ram

Thanks so much on your suggestions, and any more would be greatly appreciated from anybody!

 

[drunknmunkys]

Well I was planning on adding a second GPU sometime in the future, so I was actually kind of worried about the power supply.

10-4 on the sound card and HDD

gonna debate a little more on the monitor/ram

Thanks so much on your suggestions, and any more would be greatly appreciated from anybody!

750W should be enough for a SLI setup.

Consider this ram.

22'' Acer for 160$. You'll notice the difference.

 

[mindless728]

^+1
i love G Skill, good ram and a good price

 

[mexpedip]

I would agree with most of what drunkmunky said except that your monitor size does not matter. It's the resolution of the monitor that matters most. The only game that can/will stress that gpu @ 1680x1050 is Crysis or Hawx.

find a good amd board with ddr2 and put that extra $20 into the 940 cpu. If you are not going to use the AMD 940 or higher I would highly recommend switching to an intel c2d or lower end c2q.

 

[drunknmunkys]

I would agree with most of what drunkmunky said except that your monitor size does not matter. It's the resolution of the monitor that matters most. The only game that can/will stress that gpu @ 1680x1050 is Crysis or Hawx.

find a good amd board with ddr2 and put that extra $20 into the 940 cpu. If you are not going to use the AMD 940 or higher I would highly recommend switching to an intel c2d or lower end c2q.

eh, I think the difference between 19'' and 22'', even if you don't go up to 1900 res is a big difference, but its personal preference

 

[mexpedip]

I am talking about gpu rendering performance. The gpu could care less if the image is sent to a 19' or 30' as long as the resolution is the same.

 

[Imconfused1234]

I would agree with most of what drunkmunky said except that your monitor size does not matter. It's the resolution of the monitor that matters most. The only game that can/will stress that gpu @ 1680x1050 is Crysis or Hawx.

find a good amd board with ddr2 and put that extra $20 into the 940 cpu. If you are not going to use the AMD 940 or higher I would highly recommend switching to an intel c2d or lower end c2q.

I just looked up the AMD 940 and please excuse my ignorance, but it says that it has a CPU socket type of "AMD 2+" so does that mean it supports both 2 AND 3? or some kind of hybrid in between.

Once again thank you all so much for your comments I am starting to tweak the specs quite a bit. Keep em comming!

 

[4745454b]

Uhm, if you want to use two video cards in the future, you need to switch off the GTX275 that you selected. I'm assuming your 790 board has the AMD 790 chipset. If so, you can CF, not SLI. Switch that GTX275 to the 4870/4890 and you can then add a second card later.

While its cheap, a 19" isn't very big. Not when you have (possibly) two video cards. A single 4870 or GTX260/275 can power a 22" (16x10) just fine. You really only need two card if you are playing at 19x10 or higher, or MUST have 8AA no matter your settings. Assuming you play FPS type games, this is what I'd do.

Drop the PSU and get a good 500-600W PSU. Drop the sound card. The 7200.10 250 is nice, but its old now. Get one of the newer 500GB or better. (the 640GBs are very nice.) Get a nice 22" 16x10 monitor. Get the 4890. If the budget allows, get the 920, I'm not sure the 940 is worth it. I personally would get a DDR2 board, but there is little point to buying one now. DDR3 is here, so if you can afford it, get it. Just make sure you get the AMD kit, you only need two sticks.

 

[smithereen]

The 920 is the same price as the 940. The 955 is too expensive, but the 940 only uses DDR2 RAM. Everything else the above poster said is correct.

 

[Imconfused1234]

Alrighty after taking into consideration a lot of your suggestions, I will post my newest (and most likely final build) and would greatly appreciate any further comments... I'll just post the important stuff/stuff that was commented on.

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CASE AND POWER SUPPLY- 189.99 for both
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-Antec TruePower New TP-750 750W Continuous Power ATX12V V2.3 / EPS12V V2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE ... - Retail

-195015Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

*seems like a good deal, so i think I will stick with a 750w PSU
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MONITOR- 159.99
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Acer X223Wbd Black 22" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor - Retail 159.99
or
Hanns·G Hi-221DPB Black 22" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor - Retail 159.99 <--- has built in speakers which should be enough for me for a few weeks (til i get my next pay check)

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CD/DVD DRIVE- 19.99
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LITE-ON Black IDE DVD-ROM Drive Model iHDP118-08 - Retail
or
Sony Optiarc Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 2MB Cache SATA DVD Burner with LightScribe - OEM 29.99

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MOTHER BOARD- 139.99
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GIGABYTE GA-MA790GP-UD4H AM2+/AM2 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

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CPU- 189.99
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AMD Phenom II X4 940 Deneb 3.0GHz Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Black Edition Processor Model HDZ940XCGIBOX - Retail

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GPU- 229.99
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SAPPHIRE 100269SR Radeon HD 4890 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail

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RAM- 54.99
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G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail 54.99

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HARD DRIVE- 74.99
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Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM 74.99

Once again thank you very much for everyone who commented, and anyone who comments on this final build.

I love tomshardware!

 

[Helloworld_98]

I'm surprised that no-one pointed out that you had an IDE drive not a sata one.

 

[Imconfused1234]

I did not even know there was a difference. Thanks for the heads up I'll do a lil research on IDE vs SATA.

Thanks again

 

[drunknmunkys]

I did not even know there was a difference. Thanks for the heads up I'll do a lil research on IDE vs SATA.

Thanks again

There's no difference other than IDE is an old technology and is being replaced by SATA. If you're buying a new one, no reason not to get a SATA one. No biggie.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827118032

Nice new SATA drive.

 

[snow cakes]

IMO you don't need a sound card because almost all the recent Motherboards have really good 7.1 integrated cards. So you can put tha money from the sound card into the motherboard nd get a better one.. and 139 for a cpu is not going to work, I would spend more on the CPU than the video card, you can get a used or OEM x1900xt or 9800gtx for under 200 easy. You really gotta consider the products before just throwing out price ranges.

 

[snow cakes]

oh also, try and sqeeze 3 gb of memory in thur

 

[drunknmunkys]

IMO you don't need a sound card because almost all the recent Motherboards have really good 7.1 integrated cards. So you can put tha money from the sound card into the motherboard nd get a better one.. and 139 for a cpu is not going to work, I would spend more on the CPU than the video card, you can get a used or OEM x1900xt or 9800gtx for under 200 easy. You really gotta consider the products before just throwing out price ranges.

Why in the world would you recommend a used x1900xt or 9800gtx for a gaming computer with a 1100$ budget????

Any why exactly is a PII 720 not going to work?

 

[snow cakes]

Why in the world would you recommend a used x1900xt or 9800gtx for a gaming computer with a 1100$ budget????

Any why exactly is a PII 720 not going to work?

But anyway yea idk I havn't been up to date with the price changes on all these cards, i figured the HD4870's and GX280's wer like around 3 something thats y i suggested one of those cards.

 

[drunknmunkys]

But anyway yea idk I havn't been up to date with the price changes on all these cards, i figured the HD4870's and GX280's wer like around 3 something thats y i suggested one of those cards.

you can get a new OCed 9800GTX for under 100$

4870's start at 149.99$

and 280gtx's start at 274.99$

The 4870 is not the equivalent of the 280gtx.

At least do 5 minutes of research before you give advice.

oh also, try and sqeeze 3 gb of memory in thur

Oh, and 2GB + 2GB = 4 GB
4GB > 3GB

You fail.

 

[rav3n]

^At least someone can do their maths. Anyways try to get ocz reapers ram if budget allows better quality then gskill

 

[snow cakes]

yo im talking about 2 1 gigs and 2 512's thats wt i have relax buddy