$800 Gaming PC

[citystreet]

Hello everyone!

It has almost been a year since I built my first PC and discussed the parts with the community here on tom's hardware. My gaming rig is still up and running if anyone was curious. I have also built a PC for general office and work use for my aunt and a budget gaming pc for myself to take to school (I'm still modding the case. I havnt had much time to work on it.)

Anyway, my cousin is in need of a new gaming PC. He requires this computer to be able to play games like the Call of Duty series and Guild Wars 2 (If that game ever comes out! )

Here is the build I put together.
I would like to run it by you guys to see if it is a good build and if there are any suggestions to lower the price.

CPU
AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition Callisto 3.2GHz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103846

Mother Board
ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 AM3 AMD 880G
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131646

Hard Drive x2
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3500418AS 500GB 7200 RPM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148395
These will be put into RAID 1

Memory
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231276

or

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231277

Graphics Card
XFX HD-577A-ZNFC Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150447

Power Supply
OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ700MXSP 700W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341018

DVD+R
ASUS Black 24X DVD+R
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204

Case
RAIDMAX SMILODON Extreme Black ATX Mid Tower
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811156078

The case and a mobo with usb 3.0 are the only thing I was asked to keep the same if any changes were made.
This PC will be running Windows 7 Home Edition 64bit

Thanks everyone!
- City Street

 

[bigpuns]

Not much you can do to lower the price and keep it running games.
Maybe a slightly cheaper PSU.
4gb ram isn't strictly speaking necessary, but it does help, and it wont be too long before 4gb is a minimum.
Does he need the raid array? It doesnt help for gaming...

 

[skervy]

well if its for cod and gw he has atleast a couple more months till either new one comes out better to wait for new stuff and lower prices. dont worry gw2 will be out their rushing it so itll be nice and crappy and they can make their money quicker

 

[arges86]

lookds good to me,
don't skimp out on the PSU... always under appreciated hardware...
just make sure its 80+ certified (its an energy efficiency thing)

 

[ScrewySqrl]

you might consider the Athlon II X4 640 instead of the Phenom II X2 555.

Many games are using multiple cores now, and a dual core is no longer really recommended. The Athlon 640 is about the same price as the Phenom 555,

for a 5770 system, you can probably get by with a 500W power supply

 

[sp12]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231193 Save 3$ on the ram.

This mobo has X8/X8 crossfire, and is 10$ cheaper. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157191&cm_re=asrock_880g_extreme3-_-13-157-191-_-Product

PSU is pretty much crap.

 

[Juanchioo]

you might consider the Athlon II X4 640 instead of the Phenom II X2 555.

Many games are using multiple cores now, and a dual core is no longer really recommended. The Athlon 640 is about the same price as the Phenom 555,

for a 5770 system, you can probably get by with a 500W power supply

the phenom ii its better cause it has cache l3 that helps a lot in games... also that procesor has a very high rate to unlock 2 cores more... and just a few games can use 3 cores, and almost noone of them can use 4, also that cpu is a black edition.. that means that it has an easier overclock.

get an 600w power supply with that u will be able to crossfire. the Ocz 600w Stealthxstream is very cheap and its decent.



also u are geting the wrong motherboard, get an 870 chipset

get this ram http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231303 , u need cl7... the latency its the most important thing on ram

for the hdd raid 1 isnt needed cuase its very very very hard to lose a disk, and if u do the information can be easily recovered... the fastest hdd and the best priced is the samsung spinpoint f3 1tb

try to get windows 7 profesional 64 bit if u can over home premium

and that case is not good, and the usb 3 is not needed... and if u have a rare external hdd with usb 3 or something like that u can just use the motherboard ones

CHECK THIS CASES:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112239&Tpk=lancool%20pc%20k62

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119197

 

[sp12]

Wut? Latency has almost no impact (less than 2%). No way is it worth that extra and 1.65 volts.

 

[Juanchioo]

latency its the most important thing in ram, and more in amd

 

[sp12]

I'll agree it has more impact on AMD, but really it's not a significant factor in realworld applications.

 

[skervy]

or you could just get a decent mobo and a x3 445 and most likely gonna unlock to a x4 phenom for 80$ the 55 is nice but unlocking is not so common compared to the 445 damn near every one reviewed on newegg unlocked successfully including mine. if your really worried about the ram the gskill ripjaws cl7 or mushkin ecos. you could also do alot better on the mobo at that price catch a sale on a 890 or get the asrock 870 extreme3. same for the psu at that price go for a antec or corsair with less bad reviews. im one hell of a picky shopper so i did alot of reading around before i built mine and have no regrets except that i didnt put the money towards a car instead lol. under 800$ for my pc though that does everything i need and more including a asus 23in 2ms1080p lcd

 

[spentshells]

x3 445 this is what you should buy

do not buy a dual core now if it will not unlock you have a two core cpu
which is not that great now that more cores are being used

 

[citystreet]

I will not be overclocking anything on this build. Is the x3 445 a better choice than the phenon II?
Here is the new build.

CPU
AMD Athlon II X3 445 Rana 3.1GHz 3 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103872

Mother Board
ASUS M4A87TD EVO AM3 AMD 870
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131647

Hard Drive x2
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3500418AS 500GB 7200 RPM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148395
These will be put into RAID 1. I do not trust hard drives. As for anything with moving parts, it will fail eventually.

Memory
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231276
This si the ram that I have in my pc and I figured that this ram is not much different than this one.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231303&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-RSSDailyDeals-_-na-_-na&AID=10521304&PID=3463938&SID=e47uhnb0n8

Graphics Card
XFX HD-577A-ZNFC Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150447

Power Supply
OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ700MXSP 700W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341018
Anyone have a suggestion for a different power supply that is around $80 and is modular? I have no problems with this one, I used it to build another pc and it is working fine.

DVD+R
ASUS Black 24X DVD+R
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204

Case
RAIDMAX SMILODON Extreme Black ATX Mid Tower
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811156078
I do not see anything wrong with this case.

Windows 7 Home Edition 64bit

 

[ScrewySqrl]

you don't need a 700W for that build. The OCZ Fatal1ty 550W is modular and cheaper

the Rana is better than the Phenom II X2

 

[Juanchioo]

not for games.... also u can unlock 2 cores and he better get 600w for safe crossfire

hdd dont fail never lol they never failed to me and i dont know anyone who have disk that failed .. even if they do u can easily recover the information.. and the samsung spinpoint f3 its better

and that case has not very good build quality

 

[Timop]

Heres a $75 Mobo that has everything you want: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157195&cm_re=ASrock_extreme3-_-13-157-195-_-Product

On the PSU the Fala1ty is a good choice, but why modular? Heres a $50 Antec: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371030&cm_re=Antec_neo_eco-_-17-371-030-_-Product

Then heres cheaper yet better RAM, I would rate Mushkin better than Gskill and OCZ, IMO, only $85: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226113

$70 saved for equally quality parts.

 

[Timop]

not for games.... also u can unlock 2 cores and he better get 600w for safe crossfire

hdd dont fail never lol they never failed to me and i dont know anyone who have disk that failed .. even if they do u can easily recover the information.. and the samsung spinpoint f3 its better

and that case has not very good build quality

You could unlock the 4th core on the X3 also, and neither is guaranteed.

Then, The ASUS 870 Mobos does not have real crossfire (X8/X8) support, a pair of 5770s plus a 445 uses less than 300W on load anyways.

 

[Juanchioo]

but phenom ii has cache l3..

 

[citystreet]

not for games.... also u can unlock 2 cores and he better get 600w for safe crossfire

hdd dont fail never lol they never failed to me and i dont know anyone who have disk that failed .. even if they do u can easily recover the information.. and the samsung spinpoint f3 its better

and that case has not very good build quality

Should I go for either the dual core or quad core then?


As for the psu how about this one?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171036

 

[Juanchioo]

getting that phenom ii dual core u can unlock 2 more and get a quadcore

 

[ScrewySqrl]

the operative word here isn't can it's might. You might unlock more cores. Or you might not!. the L3 cache makes little to no difference at the same clockspeeds in most games. more cores will make a bigger change than that. Get the 3 core and you're guaranteed at least 3 cores

 

[skervy]

read the reviews on here youll see the 445 is a great choice. read reviews on newegg and look how many successfully unlocked and look at the 555. l3 cache is really not all that special the extra core will be better in general. ive read alot of the unlockable cpus working in some boards but not others which is why i chose asrock and the 445. asrock seems to unlock well according to reviews. even if it wont unlock it should overclock really well even on the stock cooler. i run mine at 3.5 unlocked stock cooler 33/40c 43-50c playin sc2 and cod4. the varied temps are from a really hot upstairs sometimes i can get the room cooled down. them are the lowest and highest temps ive seen so far but winter is almost here so yay. the psu you could prolly get a better one at that price and higher amps. the earthwatts 650 has been on sale a bit recently around 50. will you be using crossfire or not i havent seen you mention it at all. it would make a big difference on the mobo and psu you should get

 

[mortonww]

Hmm, let me see if I can get a quad core and a faster GPU in for $800.

CPU: AMD Phenom II x4
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103808
-$150

MOBO: Same
-$120

RAM: G.SKILL ECO 4 GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231321
-$97

HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185
-$58

GPU: Gtx 460 1 GB Super clocked
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130571
-$230 (after $10 rebate)

PSU: Corsair 650TX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005&Tpk=650TX
-$90

Case: Same
-$60

TOTAL: ~795 before rebate.

This is an overall better gaming build than one using a weaker athlon processor and this build upgrades graphics performance too. It did drop the RAID configuration in order to add more to the graphics budget, but RAID won't increase frames, better cpu and better gpu will.

EDIT: Was Windows 7 included in the $800? If so, nevermind.

 

[Juanchioo]

dont add the ram.. he already have one good ram ( ripjaws 1333mhzcl7) and u can change gtx460 for 5830 cause he cant sli with amd but he can crossfire

 

[mortonww]

Not with that motherboard. Has an x16 and x4 lane