Need advice on Entertainment/Gaming PC Under 750 Canadian Please

[SweetPoison]

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: Today To Next Week Range Dec 18/09

BUDGET RANGE: $750.00 Canadian (Before or After Rebates)

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Graphic Design/Gaming/Watching Movies

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor, Speakers (Have Windows XP but would like to Go to Windows 7- Not a necessity however)

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Tigerdirect.ca or any reasonable place in Canada

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Western Canada

PARTS PREFERENCES: Full Tower Case with great cooling, As far as parts I am not sure what is better so this is open i.e AMD vs Intel
Triple or Quad Core if possible, at least 4 gig ram

OVERCLOCKING: Maybe? SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Maybe? I am not a hard core gamer though I do play some games once in a while which include Champions Online/Secondlife/WoW/Aion

MONITOR RESOLUTION: N/A - Keeping Acer Monitor I have

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: I do a lot of graphic design in programs like Photoshop and Paintshop Pro as well as a little bit of gaming and watching movies. I am basically looking for a good system that will not be obsolete in the next year though within my price range. I currently have a Asus ENGT220 Video Card I have just purchased within the past 2 weeks, so I am not sure if that is considered a good video card. I am willing to purchase a new one to better suit my needs as well or keep depending on advice given.

 

[MadAdmiral]

CPU: I suggest AMD on that budget. Probably can afford a X4 955 BE $185

Mobo: ASUS M4A79XTD EVO $130

RAM: G.Skill Eco 1333 mhz CAS Latency 7 $103

GPU: HD 5750 $153

PSU: Antec Earthwatts 500W $88

Case: HAF 922 $110. Almost as big as a full tower at nearly half the cost.

HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 (500 GB or 1 TB). This is deactivated on Newegg, but may be available elsewhere. It's the fastest HDD out, and its one of the cheapest.

Optical: LG SATA 24x burner $32

[strike]Total: $711. Added $60 Can for the HDD, as I couldn't get an exact price. Add $120 for Windows 7. This is without shipping, taxes, rebates and combos.[/strike]

 

[p55ibexpeak]

$700 CAD is def. good for a AMD build.

GT 220 is a rebrand of 9500GT/GS if I'm not mistaken. nVidia is milking a lot of money out of unsuspecting buyers who goes for big numbers or new products. They do have good cards. The GTX 260 and upwards. Your new GPU is good for 2D and very low quality gaming at 1080. If it's a steal, you can keep it as a backup card in case your main gpu dies on you. So you won't have to wait 4-8 weeks for RMA.

My cart:
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O261-2038 :: OCZ 600W StealthXStream Power Supply - 600 Watts, 120mm Fan, ATX, (Refurbished) (5.05 lbs)


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$54.97


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P450-4670 :: XFX Radeon HD 4670 Video Card - 1GB GDDR2, PCI Express 2.0, CrossFireX Ready, Dual DVI, HDTV, HDMI Support (1.2 lbs)


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A79-0620 :: AMD Athlon II X4 620 Quad Core Processor - 2.60GHz, Socket AM3, 2MB Cache, 2000MHz (4000 MT/s), Retail (1.05 lbs)


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$109.97


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TSD-500AAKS :: Western Digital WD5000AAKS Caviar Blue Hard Drive - 500GB, 7200rpm, 16MB, SATA-300, OEM (1.55 lbs)


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O261-6256 :: OCZ PC3-12800 Gold RAM - 4GB, 2x2GB, 1600MHz, DDR3, Low Voltage, Dual Channel (0.25 lbs)


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$109.97

$30.00 Mail-in Rebate

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A455-2891 :: ASUS M4A77TD PRO Motherboard - AMD 770, Socket AM3, ATX, Audio, CrossFireX, PCI Express 2.0, Gigabit LAN, USB 2.0, SATA, RAID (2.7 lbs)


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$125.99


TOTAL $571.84
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The PSU is overkill, but TD's selection is very limited. That's a good price for the psu.

You just have to pick out a full tower case.

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/Category/guidedSearch.asp?CatId=32&sel=Detail;99_160_6120_6120

Suggested chances:

If you play modern games, you need a better gpu than the HD 4670. TD's prices are higher than other stores. Otherwise, I would've done better. This is a good gaming card:

EVGA GeForce GTS 250 Video Card - 512MB DDR3, PCI Express 2.0, (2) Dual Link DVI, SLI Ready
$174.99
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5250625&CatId=3670

Or if you're ok with little or low quality gaming, but would like to spend a bit more for graphic design, throw in another ddr3 ram kit for about $100.

 

[MadAdmiral]

I'm not a fan of p55ibexpeak's build. It's under budget, but it's not as good. You definitely want the HD 5770 for gaming. I wouldn't recommend going under that with ATI or going with anything from nVidia, especially if you want to use Windows 7. Also, there's a lot of worse items in there for the same price.

Also on the OS, if you're a student (or know one), you might be able to get it at the student's price (assuming that work for Canada as well). I'd look into it, as it cuts the price by nearly 70%...

 

[SweetPoison]

Thank you both for your input. Mad I took your suggestions to Newegg.ca and its coming to a different price then what you have there and that is before the windows 7 and hard drive which is going to put me way over budget. Any suggestions as to what I can shave down to make it a bit more affordable?
I really do appreciate the help this forum is giving me, I was pulling my hair out trying to come up with the best combination for a half decent system.

 

[MadAdmiral]

Whoops... I left something out while adding it up.

There are also some rebates that I didn't count. (Savings: at least $10)

To lower the price, check out some combos.

Change out the case. An Antec 300 Illusion is a lot cheaper at $70, has excellent cooling, but is only a mid-tower. (Savings: $50 cumulative, minimum)

You could get a smaller HDD (like this one) and save around $20. (Cumulative: $70)

Switch the RAM to this: OCZ Gold Edition 4GB DDR3 1066 for $74. (Cumulative savings: $93)

If all of the above doesn't get you down to $750, drop the CPU down a notch. The X4 925 will save $25. (Cumulative savings: $118)

Let me know if that gets you below budget. If not, I can do some more cutting...

EDIT: Ranked them in order that I would make the changes...