Buying New Rig Tonight

[eternal7331]

Hello All,

I am actually putting together a new rig to purchase tonight. My budget is about $700, I was wondering if anyone had some good up to date info on what a build that would include's a dual card system (HD 4850 or GTX 260 or higher) would be.

I speced out a rig about 4 weeks ago, but now most of the items are out of stock. Now Im pretty much starting from scratch.

Thermaltake VI5000BNS
ASUS M4A78-E - Out of Stock (was only going with this cause it was $50 off Open-Box Item)
2x Asus HD 4850 512MB - Out of Stock
Corsair PSU 520w - I dont think this would have been enough
AMD Athlon 64 X2 7750 Kuma 2.7GHz
2x OCZ Flex XLC 2GB
Seagate Barracuda 250GB

Well there is my 4 week old list, all idea's would be wonderful.

 

[Guest]

that 520 watt psu is not nearly enough. and getting a good dual card rig for under 700 is going to be tough.

 

[peanutpc]

Under $650

AMD PII 940 & BIOSTAR 790GX MB combo: $210
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Comb [...] mbo.205339

Antec Three Hundred & EA500 PSU combo: $105
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Comb [...] mbo.197378

SAPPHIRE 4870 1GB GPU & OCZ Platinum 4GB DDR2 1066 memory combo: $186
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Comb [...] mbo.197133

XIGMATEK Dark Knight-S1283V: $40
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835233029

Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA: $60
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822136320

2x XIGMATEK White LED 120mm case fan: $18
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835233015

HP DVD Burner: $25
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827140040

 

[Outlander_04]

that 520 watt psu is not nearly enough. and getting a good dual card rig for under 700 is going to be tough.

A quality 520w psu would be more than enough for that system Its likely to draw no more than half that completely maxed out .

But heres an alternative for $650



AMD 940 quad + biostar mb $209
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Comb [...] mbo.205339

640 gig WD black hard drive $75
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822136319

2 x 2 gig Gskill 1066MHz ddr2 ram $50
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820231166

Antec 300 gaming case $60
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811129042

Corsair 650 TX power supply $90
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817139005

Sapphire 4870 1 gig $140
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102801

DVD drive ~ $25

Total is $649

better psu than peanuts build , bigger hard drive
but lacks the aftermarket cooler that you'd have to add if you wanted to overclock substantially AND the mb combo wont support two gfx cards :-(

 

[jitpublisher]

^Thats a decent build alright. Don't see how you could go wrong for less than 7 hundred bucks. The stock cooler is good enough for mild overclocking, no need to spend money on another one unless you are planning to do some heavy overclocking.

 

[peanutpc]

I live in sunny socal and my 2nd floor apt get pretty hot in summer time and i need extra cooling for my processors. My pc is on 24/7.

Trust me, if you get a Black Edition processor, you want to push your processor to the limit Spend extra $40 and get a Xiggy X1283.

 

[RazberyBandit]

AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition Callisto 3.1GHz & G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066
Combo = $147.98 (Free Shipping)

Gigabyte MA790X-UD4P & Gigabyte GV-R489-1GH-B Radeon HD 4890 1GB
Combo = $289.98 (Free Shipping & $20 MiR on the video card)

Antec Three Hundred Case & Antec earthwatts EA500 power supply
Combo = $104.94 (Free Shipping)

Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB SATA HD
$59.99 (Free Shipping)

HP 1160i 22X SATA Multi-format DVD Burner
$24.99

Grand Total = $627.89

 

[Outlander_04]

Theres a lot of merit in Razberrys build even though it only has a dual core processor



As a compromise to my earlier build to include a mb with 2 gfx card slots and save a few dollars then

Phenom X3 720 BE + Asus M4A78T -E $180 after MIR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.205337

and because its AM3 the RAM needs to be DDR3

2 x 2 gig of Gskill DDR3 $65
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231200

I like this more than my original build . You lose one processor core but get the latest AM3/DDR3 technology and save about $15

 

[RazberyBandit]

Well, with my build you could just swap out the 550 for an X3 720, then waive the $5 CPU/RAM combo savings and buy the same RAM. Cost difference = +$19.01

Plus, you've got one really mean 1GB graphics card. You'll have no worries about CrossFire scaling, etc.

The only benefit going from an AM2+ to an AM3 board at present is the use of DDR3, but using it shows little actual benefit in many real-world applications and games. This is due to it's higher latency (CAS 7, 8, 9, and even 10) and slower timings. The difference in performance is not nearly as noticeable as it is on identical GPU graphics cards made in both GDDR2 to GDDR3 versions.

Lastly, if you think you'll need slightly more power, try the EA650/Antec Three Hundred Combo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.204132

 

[eternal7331]

After searching around till about 10 last night, this is what I found.

To the Wire

Just as a heads up, last night when I put this together I got in at just under $800, which put me $100 over budget. I was willing to except this given that I was getting AM3, and DDR3 w/Crossfire. When I logged in this morning to put my order in almost all of the prices had changed........#$%!@#@^&. So not I guess its back to the drawing board, I am going to look through all of the suggestions you guys have made, hopefully get something in route.

All suggestion welcome...

 

[Outlander_04]

I suggest you watch prices closely and jump when you get what you want at the price you are willing to pay

 

[eternal7331]

Well I just realized why the freaking prices all changed on me, it is the first of the month today!!!!

Anyways if anyone sees some good stuff or better hardware suggestions are still welcome, im off to Newegg to start parting out my new Rig all over again. I'll be checking back here periodically.

 

[neon neophyte]

do not get an athlon. the minimum you want is a phenom II.

 

[royalcrown]

do not get an athlon. the minimum you want is a phenom II.

right...since they are basically the same speed anyhow...duh.

 

[eternal7331]

Ok so here is the skinny, my head started to swim trying to piece together this new rig in one shot, in the end I guess you could say I gave up...

Also I remembered that Newegg usually has a 4th of July Sale, so I took all the items that I saw that had really good deals and bought those items today. Now im going to wait until Sat and purchase the rest, hopefully get a great deal or two. And hopefully not find that I could have saved even more money on the items that I already purchased.

Here is what I purchased so far:

Asus M4A78T-E
Combo Deal - Thanks to the suggestion above from Outlander - $112.00(after discount)

AMD Phenom II 3x 720
Part of Combo - Again thanks Outlander - $112(after discount)

2x Sapphire Vapor-X HD 4850
Best price I could find on HD 4850 and it had a nice heatsink and fan setup - $219.98

Corsair 750w
I went non-modular as the case I got does not have clear siding - $119.99

Thermaltake WingMA
Im just partial to Thermaltake cases, got it on the cheap too - $48.55