$700 Gaming PC

[Facelessjoe]

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: Hopefully before my birthday, which is in five days.

BUDGET RANGE: Approximately $700. There's a little bit of wiggle room, but not much.

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming, internet.

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Keyboard, mouse, monitor, sound card, speakers, OS

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: I'm a newegg user, but I'm open to whatever can get me the best price.

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United States, Alabama.

PARTS PREFERENCES: I would like an i5, based on what I've heard on performance over AMD, but I'm open to anything that can run Crysis/Fallout 3/L4D2 on high. If it's not possible to fit an i5 into the budget, I'm totally okay with that.

OVERCLOCKING: I don't have any experience doing it, so probably not.

MONITOR RESOLUTION: I'm assuming this means native resolution, which is 1280 by 1024.

Thanks.

 

[banthracis]

Well GPU is more important than CPU in gaming. Games are very much GPU limited these days. Only time you see CPU limitation is when at low resolution and/or no AA/AF, or at 100+ FPS.

For less than $900 budget don't bother with an i5 go AMD and get a good GPU.

 

[Facelessjoe]

I about figured the budget wouldn't be enough for an i5, but I figured it couldn't hurt to ask. I'll look into AMD, thanks.

What GPU would you suggest?

 

[banthracis]

CPU Phenom II X3 BE $109.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103652&cm_re=phenom_ii_x3-_-19-103-652-_-Product

MOBO Gigabyte UD3P $69.99 after $10 MIR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128392

Memory
G skill Ripjaw DDR3 1333 7-7-7-21 $109.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231276&cm_re=ripjaw-_-20-231-276-_-Product

Video Card
HD 5770 $169.99 after $10 MIR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102858&cm_re=5770-_-14-102-858-_-Product

Hard Drive
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 $54.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152181&cm_re=spinpoint_f3-_-22-152-181-_-Product

Power Supply/Case HAF 922 and OCZ Stealthxstream 700W $149.97 before $40 MIR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.314199


DVD-ROM drive
SAMSUNG Black $20.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151192

HSF Hyper 212 Plus $29.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065&Tpk=hyper%20212%20plus

Total $675.92 after $60 MIR, before shipping.

The PSU is probably way more than you'll need, but because of rebates and the combo deal, it's essentially costing you $10 over the case, and is the same money as say a cheaper antec 300 and cheap PSU.

For $41 more you can consider the PII x4 940 BE
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103644&cm_re=phenom_ii_x4-_-19-103-644-_-Product

but the increase you'll see in gaming probably won't be much, unless you're multitasking other stuff at the same time.

 

[banthracis]

Oh and if you wanna Xfire in the future, you can spend $25 more to get

GIGABYTE GA-MA790XT-UD4P $109.99 before $15 MIR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128378

Cheapest xfire board that's actually good and has x8 not x4 PCIE slots.

 

[Facelessjoe]

Whoops, forgot to mention I already have a DVD drive, my bad. Thanks for the build. I'm looking into it right now.

 

[banthracis]

In that case either get the PII x4 940 BE or the Xfire MOBO.

For a performance increase the PII, but for future expansion, the xfire mobo. Or you could just go $20 over budget and do both =P

 

[Facelessjoe]

AMD Phenom II X4 925 2.8GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Processor

ASUS M4A78LT-M LE Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

GIGABYTE Radeon HD 5770 GV-R577D5-1GD-B Rev2.0 Video Card

Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 750GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory

APEX Vortex 3620 SGCC / ABS ATX Mid Tower Gaming Computer Case

Seventeam ST-850PAF 850W Power Supply

What do you all think of this build? Is there anything I'm missing here? Will it play games at a decent speed?

 

[banthracis]

Sigh, did you even read my post?

The Asus mobo is microatx.

The Barracuda is same size and price for worse performance than the samsung.

No idea which ram set you want, there are several with those specs. Put timings or a link. EIther way, they all have worse timings than the ripjaws. Timings are the most important factor in memory speed with AMD architecture.

The Case sucks...

The PSU is some unknown crap company...

 

[Facelessjoe]

This was just something someone suggested to me, that's why I was asking for critique. It's slightly cheaper on the whole(two of those rebates have disappeared, leaving me with an extra cost that I can't handle right now) but I didn't want to make any purchases without consulting someone who knew more than I did. I'm unfortunately very green when it comes to building a computer, and parts in general, so any advice you're willing to give is much appreciated.

 

[banthracis]

The build is still valid. Only diff is the case/psu combo isn't there anymore and ram went up $5.

the PSU $59.99 after MIR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341019&cm_re=ocz_stealthxstream_700w-_-17-341-019-_-Product

case you'll have to get either an antec 300 or antec 200 for your budget.

PSU get something tier 2 here is you don't want the OCZ one
http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/323050.aspx

mobo you want either a PCIE2 x16single slot or 2 x8 PCIE slots if you plan on xfire. You want an atx board not micro, especially for a first build.

RAM wise corsair is the worst price/performance ratio, go gskill. The eco series or ripjaws are great and don't use tons of power like other companies.

 

[whitefang]

I'm in the same boat as the OP. This is what I've found so far.


MOBO: ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO AM3 AMD 785G http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131398

CPU: AMD phenom II 720 BE 2.8 ghz heka http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103652

HDD: Spinpoint F1 320GB 16MB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152096

GFX: Radeon HD 4890 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150438

Ram: G.skill ripjaw series 2x2 GB DDR3 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231277

Case/PSU: Antec nine hundred two + Antec NEO ECO 620W (48W single rail) http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.314793

HSF: Just grab a cheap $10 one it will work better then the stock hsf that comes with the non oem version.


Total comes to $700 + 96 pennies and that's including shipping. =)

The HD 4890 has better performance then the HD 5770 but the 5770 has more features. You can switch it to the HD 5770 if you want and save $40 but the performance is not as good.

 

[whitefang]

I geuss I forgot the DVD rom drive, so total would come to $725 but that's probably the price you would pay if you had shipping any way.

 

[banthracis]

Spinpoint f1 sucks. Get the F3.
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2009-3.5-desktop-hard-drive-charts/h2benchw-3.12-Avg-Read-Throughput,1010.html

AMD architecture begs to have the tightest timing ram. On the other hand speed doesn't help much. Go for the 7-7-7-21 ddr3 1333 Ripjaws and it'll be a few % improvement in performance.

You're paying a ton of money for a case and PSU for a $700 build. You can get a good PSU, the OCZ stealthxstream, and a decent case, antec 200 for $90, or an antec 300 with that PSU for $120.

HSF grabbing a $10 isn't gonna help much. Best price/performance comes from the Hyper 212 Plus. $30 and works better than most $60+ HSF's.

The mobo is probably the one to go with though since it's cheaper than the Gigabyte now.