Gaming build for $1900, inexperienced 'customer'

[dragonspyrit]

I'm new to all this and I'm having a friend of a friend (who runs an IT business) put this system together form me. I wanted a high performance gaming rig, and my price range was $1500-2000; the below specs came out to around $1900.

I don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth, since hes taking the time to put it all together, but I showed another more build-savy friend the list and he seemed to think it was 'silly' and a bit overkill. That said, my last machine (which this other friend built, but on a MUCH lower budget, I think it was around $800) was always below where I wanted it to be, even for the time, so i'd rather have extra than not enough...the cost is not an issue for me, and seemed to be a good part of his reasoning of why it was too much-- I'm not worried about being conservative if it's going to give me an extra boost, but I want to make sure that itt actually will.

Can I get some input on the build overall? I haven't said yes or no, but I'd like to give him the go-ahead later today if possible and I'd like some thoughts.

Resolution is 1680x1050 and I run dual monitors.


AMD Phenom II X4 955 Quad Core 3.2 Ghz

MSI Socket AM3 Motherboard

8GB DDR3 1600 Corsair Memory

Antec Case with 850W PSU

2 Samsung SATA DVD Burners

2 Western Digital 150GB VelociRaptor 10,000 RPM SATA drives in RAID1 mirror

HIS 1GB GDDR5 PCI-Express 2.0 x16 Video Card (screaming ATI chipset video card)

 

[Proximon]

Yes, this is silly. Are you just shopping with your wallet, rather than having some idea what parts to buy?


1. If you are spending $1900 you should have a truly fast i7, not the slower AMD 955.

2. You are spending $350 for hard drives that will not do much for gaming performance. The only thing they might do is shave a second (ONE) off of loading times in Crysis. $350 would buy a lot of performance elsewhere.

3. 8GB is useless in a gaming machine. Tests have been done. 4GB is all you need. Even 6Gb is overkill, but you need 6GB in an i7 build.

4. The RAM you list has no benefit over far less expensive modules. None.

5. MSI is a b-team MB company. They are OK, but if you are throwing money around, stay with the main players - Asus and Gigabyte.

6. You don't even list what video card you are planning, the most important part performance-wise. All I know is that it's from HIS and has 1GB. I will guess that it's a 4890???? What the heck are you spending money on? These parts come to maybe $1200?

 

[computersss]

your friend is stealing you these can never come to 1900 $ unless there is a monitor included and also what it the model of the graphic card is it HIS 4850,4850x2,4870,4870x2 or 4890??? and this build isn't good for your budget for your budget i would get these parts


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119160 $129.99
COOLER MASTER HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP Black Steel + Plastic and Mesh Bezel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
New Arrival

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139009 $139.99 ($119.99 after $20.00 Mail-In Rebate) Free Shipping*
CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX 850W ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Active PFC Power Supply - Retail

http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=MB-EX58U4P $222.99 | $207.99 after rebate
GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD4P Core i7/ Intel X58/ DDR3/ CorssFireX & 3-Way SLI/ A&GbE/ ATX Motherboard

https://www.antaresdigital.com/customer/product.php?productid=16135&cat=282&page=1" $ 280.00
Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz LGA 1366 Socket 8MB Cache CPU D0 Stepping

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233029 $39.99
XIGMATEK Dark Knight-S1283V 120mm Long Life Bearing CPU Cooler - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835154003 $4.99
Tuniq TX-2 Cooling Thermal Compound - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130475 $339.99 ($319.99 after $20.00 Mail-In Rebate) Free Shipping*
EVGA 01G-P3-1180-AR GeForce GTX 285 1GB 512-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
Free Cryostasis game w/ registration at manufacturer website

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130475 $339.99 ($319.99 after $20.00 Mail-In Rebate) Free Shipping*
EVGA 01G-P3-1180-AR GeForce GTX 285 1GB 512-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
Free Cryostasis game w/ registration at manufacturer website

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231247 $94.99 Free Shipping*
G.SKILL 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284 $99.99 Free Shipping*
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drives - OEM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136133 $109.99 Free Shipping*
LG Black 6X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 40X CD-ROM SATA Internal Blu-ray/HD DVD-ROM & 16X DVD±R DVD Burner Model GGC-H20L - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136152 $23.99
LG Black 22X (CAV) DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X (CAV) DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 22X DVD±R DVD Burner - OEM

Total: $1,826.89 | $1,751.89 w/mail in rebates

Originally posted by Why_me

note:if you don't need a Blu-ray remove LG Black 6X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 40X CD-ROM SATA Internal Blu-ray/HD DVD-ROM & 16X DVD±R DVD Burner Model GGC-H20L - Retail

 

[Proximon]

Intel i7 920
GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD4P LGA 1366 Intel X58
Antec 1200 case AND TPQ-850 PSU
OCZ Platinum 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
Caviar Black 640GB
2X XFX GTX 260 core 216
HP Black 22X DVD+R 22X DVD-R SATA 22X DVD Burner with LightScribe

 

[dragonspyrit]

Wow, glad I came here. Like I said, I really no nothing about all of this. I'm just a third party trying to get my moneys worth. I will definitely be holding off and taking this in.

Saving money is good too.

Thank you. Further build suggestions are also appreciated within the $1500-2000 range.

 

[batuchka]

Whoa that would be a classic case of pulling the trigger at the wrong places (shame on your fren's fren!)and for more savings for a gaming rig since u mentioned it:
$1045.89 after ship less MIR