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Alright alright!! new budget rig! < $1000

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Budget Gaming Rig:

Items I will not need:
- Monitor
- Keyboard/Mouse
- Surround sound speakers
- internal blue-ray player

Mobo: Asus M4A89GTD Pro 890GX - 149.99
CPU: AMD Phenom X3 720 BE (OEM) - 109.99
CPU Cooler: Thermaltake CLP0540 - 48.70
GPU: SAPPHIRE Radeon 5750 1GB - 144.99
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1333 - 104.99
HDD: WD Caviar Black 500GB 7200RPM - 69.99
PSU: Thermaltake Toughpower XT W0229RU 750W - 129.99
Sound: Creative SB X-Fi XtremeGamer - 99.99
Case: Antec Two Hundred Black ATX Mid Tower - 54.95

Total: $913.58

Some quick background. I've been trying to find an excuse to build another gaming rig for quite some time. A good friend of mine wants to get back into the IT industry after a 6 year stint in construction/real estate. He's been in contact with a head hunter who suggested that he would need at least an A+ and/or Network+ cert just to get an interview. He said those wouldn't mean a thing when it came to actually getting the job, but since he had no recent experience they would want to see that he has been keeping up with things. Soooo... I agreed to help my friend pass his tests and am shamelessly using this as an excuse to build my new rig. With his "help" of course (he'll be watching).

The only purpose for this rig is gaming and occasionally watching a blue-ray or listening to music.

Also, if you recommend something that is higher priced, please try to recommend a lower priced option for another part. I'm trying to keep this right around this price point (unless the new item is only a few dollars more).

More about : alright alright budget rig 1000

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Yuck. That's not very good...

CPU/Mobo: X4 955 and Gigabyte GA-790XTA-UD4 $265 after rebate. Faster CPU, slightly older board. The only benefit of the 890 chipset is that you won't need a BIOS update if you go with a six core CPU later. However, you won't need a six core CPU, and if you did, this board would work with it once you updated the BIOS.
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws 2x2 GB 1600 mhz CAS Latency 7 $115. Faster sticks that are great for OCing.
GPU: HD 5850 $315. Much, much, much better GPU. The 5750 would be lucky to handle most games at low resolutions...
HDD: Seagate 7200.12 500 GB $55. Faster HDD. By a lot.
PSU: Corsair 750W 80+ $85 after rebate. Higher quality PSU.
Case: HAF 922 $90 after rebate. Bigger, better case.
Optical: Cheap SATA DVD burner $24. If you need a burner.
HSF: Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus $35. Better, cheaper CPU cooler.

Total: $983. A sound card is completely unnecessary now days.

Ha. I see my 30 minutes of research wasn't worth very much. I figured the mobo (knew it would get dropped for the 790) and gpu would be the first thing to got kicked to the curb. But hey! That's why I asked! ;) 
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MadAdmiral said:
Yuck. That's not very good...


Total: $983. A sound card is completely unnecessary now days.



I'm curious about the sound card comment. Are on board sound cards really that decent these days? I've got my office wired with surround sound just ready to be plugged in. I would have never guessed the on board cards were that good now. But if they are... that's great for me!

Onboard is just as good. There's no reason to spend extra on something doesn't matter much. I believe most onboard supports up to 7.1 audio. Unless you're a huge audiophile, you won't notice a difference. So I would test out the onboard first, and if you can tell it's bad, buy a sound card later.
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