Suggestions for new Gaming PC (Less than $1000 AUD)

Core 2 Duo's and Core 2 Quad's have been discontinued which means if you go with one, your upgrade options in the future will be basically non-existent. If you want a platform for under $1000AUD, I'd recommend an AMD Phenom II 940 or 955. The 955 is a bit more expensive, but faster obviously.

What resolution do you play games at? If it's smaller than 1920x1200, I'd recommend a GTX 260; otherwise a GTX 275 would be the way to go.

Any combination of those parts will absolutely blow away those games you listed at their highest settings. You'll likely even be able to play Crysis on max settings and have a very playable framerate. Regardless, the performance gains over that laptop you've been using will be truely astounding.

Let me know what your think.

Hi kufan64, thanks for the fast reply.

I'll be playing my games at 1920 x 1080 maximum resolution.

The GTX 260 you mentioned seems nice, i found a link for it here:

There it says "3-way NVIDIA SLI® technology".

A good cheap link for the GTX 275 is here:

I noticed that here it only says "NVIDIA SLI® Multi-Monitor support". Would that be the same thing as above?

I may be able to get the GTX 275($290 AUD) and the AMD Phenom II 940 ($289) for the pricerange.

Although, Seeing as i'd be playing on 1920 X 1080, that would mean I'm not using the full potential of the 275 so I'd actually be better using the 260. Right? If not please correct me  

Also, I'm not very knowledgeable on mainboards, I originally wanted to buy a "Asus Striker II Formula" for $200 AUD, but I've been told that there are much better mainboards for the same or even a lower price. Do you think you might be able to help me out with choosing one thats compatiable with SLI and the AMD Phenom II 940?  

Oh and by the way, this will be my first custom built PC, so that's why I'm not too knowledgeable. Though i do have experience with rebuilding PC's etc.

Thankyou in Advance.

First of all, at your resolution, a GTX 275 would probably be the best choice if you can budget for it. ATI's Radeon HD 4890 has similar performance and is cheaper, but they use Crossfire instead of SLI (basically the same thing, different name) and Nvidia has PhysX. Look up PhysX if your unfamiliar with it; it's one of a few reasons I choose to pay more for Nvidia over ATI's similar offerings. I wouldn't worry about the whole 3-way SLI thing though, If you have 3 of the same card in a system, you'd probably be better off just buying 1 newer card.

EDIT: A Radeon HD 4890 should run you about $250AUD


I'm not familiar with the board you mentioned, but I assume that it is not going to be compatible with the Phenom II. I'm not too familiar with AMD, but I know that you'll want to look for a board that has:
Socket AMD2+/AMD3
Two (or more) PCI-e 2.0 x16 slots (make sure there is at least one slot in between them)

Like I said though, I'm not very familiar with AMD processors, so hopefully someone who is more knowledgable will chime in and confirm that I'm correct.

That being said, I did a little looking, and I like the ASUS M4A78-E. I like ASUS boards in general, and this one seems to have a lot going for it. it even has onboard video (which you never see anymore) and should be around ~$125AUD. (forgive me if my prices are off, I'm from the US, and am trying to estimate the exchange rate as I go)

You'll need RAM... 2x2GB of DDR2 240 pin SDRAM 1066 should run you a little over $60AUD I think.

You'll need a power supply... 80+ certification is a good sign of quality. I recommend the Corsair 750TX ~$150AUD They also make them in 650, and 850W variations, but 750 should give you enough headroom for SLI and overclocking if you're interested. You can drop to the cheaper 650W if you don't want to overclock.

You'll need a hard drive... I recommend a Western Digital 640GB Caviar Black. (they make them in a few other sizes too) ~$90AUD

You'll need an optical drive which should only run you ~$30AUD. Try and get one that is SATA so you don't have to mess with ribbon cables.

If you want to overclock, you'll want a good aftermarket CPU heatsink. This is something I can't make a recommendation on. I'm just too unfamiliar with the CPU, sorry. Hopefully someone else can assist you. It shouldn't run more than ~$50AUD though.

Don't know if you need a case to put it all in, but that's more a matter of personal preference than anything. Check to make sure it gets good reviews, and you can always post here with your selection and ask what others think.

I tallied everything up, and it's a little over budget with the GTX 275 and the PII 940 and no case, but not by too much... You'll have to get back to me with a closer estimate of costs seeing as how I can only ballpark guess some of the prices. I also apologize for the ugly wall of text of this post, but I was throwing it together as I went.

Hi, Thanks for the fast reply.

On the ASUS Website, Looking over the ASUS M4A78-E, It says it supports Crossfire, though not SLI.

On the benchmarks I've viewed, the GTX 275 outperforms the ATI Raedon HD 4890 in games like Crysis, Left 4 Dead, etc.


If i decide to get the "ASUS M4A78-E", would the GTX 275 be compatiable? It doesn't support SLI, and I don't want to use hacked drivers.

I have a IDE DVD Drive and a 300gb IDE HDD. I'm most likely going to keep these and then get a 300-500gb External USB HDD when I need to. That motherboard only has one IDE Connector, So, Which would you suggest I rebuy? The DVD Drive, or the HDD? (This is what the ports look like. I'm pretty sure that's IDE. But i'd like to be certain. )

I'm most likely going to slightly overclock the processor, to around 3.2ghz, not sure about the graphics card, So i'll most likely buy an 750 or 850W Power supply.


EDIT: With what you reccomended, I found these:


Its around $95 over my budget, I'm not sure 4gb ram should cost $100, and the power supply is costing $200. That seems way to expensive. I could order from America if changing the currencies and shipping ends up to be cheaper.

I'm not sure if the RAM would be compatiable with the Asus motherboard, but it is 2x2GB of DDR2 240 pin SDRAM 1066 for $100AUD. It's kind of confusing me. >_<

If that board doesn't support SLI, that means you can only have 1 Nvidia card in there. The GTX 275 will still work, but you can only use 1.

You only need 1 IDE port to connect 2 IDE devices. You'll have to configure one as a master and one as a slave if they're not already properly configured. It's only a matter of moving a jumper, and the directions should be printed clearly on the devices, so that isn't a problem.

I'd recommend replacing the HDD at some point though. It certainly doesn't have to be right away, but the more modern drives are bigger and faster than those old IDE drives. I'd wait until your next paycheck and replace that as well.

I really wish someone else would chime in and offer you some additional advice, especially since AMD is not my specialty...

I've heard from several Australian people that you guys get the **** end of the stick when it comes to technology. Paying $100 for games that come out 6 months after everyone else in the world has been playing them, paying twice as much for computer parts even after exchange rates are factored in, etc.
In the words of the great Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw: you should consider it the "Having the Nicest Beaches" Tax.