Gaming PC ~$700

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: Somewhere around August, Buying before late August.

BUDGET RANGE: ~$700 will go higher if performance is worth it

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming, multi-tasking, streaming videos, and etc.

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: OS system, keyboard, mouse, speakers, and monitor.

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: newegg.com

PARTS PREFERENCES: AMD CPU an motherboard

OVERCLOCKING: No.

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1024x768 , changable

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: Monitor Res, I change a lot to get best performance out of my games. I am a hard core gamer that seeks Performance over graphics. I pretty much want a rig that can run most games at a decent graphics(does not have to be high). I will spend more if the performance is worth it but generally looking for best bang for buck. I dont need them but if its not too much trouble, how much would a decent monitor and XPOS cost/change build. Thanks in advance

I know you said you prefer amd, but if you can get an i7 for the same price why not? This is total overkill for your resolution, but it will give you several great upgrade paths.

http://www.compusa.com/application [...] CatId=3478

Alot more, it is had to get an i7 in under a $1000 budget. Refurbished systems are pretty good and generally cheaper than you could build.

oh wow this is a really good deal then huh? Thanks for the find

Refurbished means that someone reassembled it by hand and sat down and made sure everything work properly. Often times refurbished products go through higher QC to make sure that there arent any issues remaining.

If she is too worried about it she could spring for the extended warranty. Compusa has a rock solid 30day return, and the extended warranties sound just as good. You should explain to her that if you got this you won't have to bug her for another computer as long as you are under her roof since it will last a lot longer than the other one without needing upgraded significantly....and if you do decide on upgrades you can probably come up with the money yourself since they won't cost a lot.

have her read this thread and ask questions if she likes

Huh? That refurb is a pretty sweet deal and its intel, why shouldnt he go for it?

I really wish people would start giving reasons and not just stating unsubstantiated opinions like facts.

And then it got send back to gateway, taken apart, fix, put back together, and run through a battery of tests, it is likely better than it was when it was new.

Does that refurbished i7 have crossfire and sli?

not all x58 mobos support sli, 1 or 2 only use cfr

asus p6t se if i'm not mistaken
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131386

I've never used the SE, but I have used the other versions of the p6t which supported both. They should make that very clear, or not call it a true x58...I would buy it blindly thinking it supported both.
Although on the refurb the upgrade path has already been set since it comes with a solid ati card to begin with, but I would have to do a little investigation to see if they are using the SE version as the MB in that unit. They do not list the MB maker, just that it has 2x pcix16 slots.

No sense buying a 1gb to crossfire with a 512gb, get the cheaper 512gb. At lower resolutions the extra ram won't help any anyway. I'm not sure I understand the memory speed question, but if you mean overclocking the 4850 I can't give a good answer to what your overclock will be, but you can probably get "close" to 4870 speeds.

If its an ASUS p6t board or any variation of it it will support up to 2000MHz memory, but you should get memory rated for that if you want to be able to stably overclock it that high.

Overclocking the ram is build specific also. Test have shown speeds of over 1333mhz make little to no difference, but tighten the timings and you will have a noticeable improvement in ram performance. So my best advice is to get 1600mhz ram (the sweet spot as far as pricing goes right now), underclock it and tighten the timings for the best ram performance.

lol...check the third post in this thread....that is what we've been talking about almost the whole thread

How was this thread completely hijacked by jdelsignore911? I thought the thread was started by iamchinaman.

The only reason that the prebuilt is a good value is because it is refurbished, the i7 one is signficantly stronger than any core2quad prebuilt for less.

lol thread hijack. Well I got it! The cpu is here but i wont be able to test this babe out till my monitor gets here. hopfully there will be no problems. Thanks again on the find!

push pin cooler ftl! Check the CPU cooler and make sure that the push pins are securely in place, it sounds like the CPU cooler may be a bit loose, likely happened during shipping.

Your welcome, I hope it will serve you well. Keep us posted on performance when the monitor arrives.

are you sure the temps are accurate? Sometimes if you use a different utility to read the temps you will get a very different result. You might also check all your fans and make sure they didn't come loose during shipping.