Hi, I currently have $645 and I plan on building my first gaming desktop.
I've done quite a bit of shopping the past week or so and I feel semi-confident with what I need to pick but I want help to avoid any royal screwups I might run into (I almost bought a kind of cheap PSU when I gather just today that I shouldn't). And I want opinions from people who are more knowledgeable to see well am I doing in terms of squeezing the most I can out of my budget.
I posted up on PCMech forums yesterday and I'm not so sure about the advise regarding downgrades... I realize I messed up my previous choices PSU & RAM. I haven't a clue but I'll keep poking around SlickDeals,NE,&Tiger until after CyberMonday.
http://www.pcmech.com/forum/build-your-own-pc/218172-~$600-budget-build.html
As for usage:
Nothing super hardcore, I don't need to run games at max settings at 1900x1200 bajillion resolution, something more modest. I do want to be able to run even demanding things decently should I want to, which it seems should be no problem within this budget. This computer will also be doing normal college student stuff, light multi tasking (chrome, im client, itunes, security software, some Visual Studio, etc...).
=============================================
Case: $40 - NZXT Apollo Mid Tower
Deal ends at midnight tonight! YES? Seems like it's a pretty good case and its discounted.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146025
PSU: Waiting for a deal BF/CyberM $50?
RAM: 4GB or 8GB?Waiting for a deal BF/CyberM $80-90?
Performance difference I looked up elsewhere on the website and it seems the vouch for 8GB is a yes.
CPU: $155 - AMD Phenom X4 965 or 970.
Pretty sweet deal in my (not so informed) opinion. Listed here:
Best Gaming CPU: $160-$200 : Best Gaming CPUs For The Money: November 2010
Not much benefit in upping to 6 cores correct? I don't do photo editing or anything that I'm aware of that utilizes so many cores.
HDZ965FBGMBOX AMD Phenom II X4 Processor 965 (3.4GHz) AM3, Retail - AMD Phenom II - SuperBiiz.com
MOBO: $80-90?
How much should I spend to get a solid mobo? I don't plan on upgrading too much, so no need for xFire/SLI waiting. 1 PCI-e slot is fine.
Is this a good deal?
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4444096&Sku=A455-2886
GPU: Radeon 6850 or GTX 460 equivalent. Sitting on deals.
Best PCIe Card: $170 To $250 : Best Graphics Cards For The Money: November 2010
Based on that and how much extra cash money I have, I'm aiming at tier up from what I was guessing. I was originally going for 5770 but now I think I can hit a Radeon 6850 or a GTX 460 no problem. If deals on BF/CyberMonday are cheaper than what I'm seeing at the moment, gonna have extra money to upgrade ... iono what. Hard drive?
This: has some deals but common sense tells me to sit through BF/CyberM and hope for better.
Newegg Bargain Blowout Graphics Cards: Zotac GTS 250 $90, XFX 5830 $130 AR, MSI GTX465 $130 AR, Palit GTX460 $155 AR - SlickDeals.net Forums
Hard Drive: $43 - SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD322GJ/U
I want a harddrive that bottlenecks the smallest amount without paying huge money. This one APPEARS to be the best rated HD that's still cheap.
PassMark Software - Hard Drive Benchmark Charts
I got advise to go for WD Caviar Black but... this has pretty solid ratings on NewEgg and the benchmark is much better than many of the WD's... Right or wrong?
Newegg.com - SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD322GJ/U 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Thanks for your time in advance. Much appreciated
P.S.
I have a monitor, speaker system, keyboard & mouse because I'm running my laptop as a desktop at the moment. MSDN = Free Windows 7 x64bit. YESZ. No optical drive because my roommate has an external one and honestly I don't think I'll need it. I'll stick that extra $20 to somethign else haha.
I'm pretty blown away by how much 600 can garner. I originally thought it'd be like amd tri-core with 4gb ram, radeon 5770 and pretty much that's it... now it's super beefy >:O
I've done quite a bit of shopping the past week or so and I feel semi-confident with what I need to pick but I want help to avoid any royal screwups I might run into (I almost bought a kind of cheap PSU when I gather just today that I shouldn't). And I want opinions from people who are more knowledgeable to see well am I doing in terms of squeezing the most I can out of my budget.
I posted up on PCMech forums yesterday and I'm not so sure about the advise regarding downgrades... I realize I messed up my previous choices PSU & RAM. I haven't a clue but I'll keep poking around SlickDeals,NE,&Tiger until after CyberMonday.
http://www.pcmech.com/forum/build-your-own-pc/218172-~$600-budget-build.html
As for usage:
Nothing super hardcore, I don't need to run games at max settings at 1900x1200 bajillion resolution, something more modest. I do want to be able to run even demanding things decently should I want to, which it seems should be no problem within this budget. This computer will also be doing normal college student stuff, light multi tasking (chrome, im client, itunes, security software, some Visual Studio, etc...).
=============================================
Case: $40 - NZXT Apollo Mid Tower
Deal ends at midnight tonight! YES? Seems like it's a pretty good case and its discounted.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146025
PSU: Waiting for a deal BF/CyberM $50?
RAM: 4GB or 8GB?Waiting for a deal BF/CyberM $80-90?
Performance difference I looked up elsewhere on the website and it seems the vouch for 8GB is a yes.
CPU: $155 - AMD Phenom X4 965 or 970.
Pretty sweet deal in my (not so informed) opinion. Listed here:
Best Gaming CPU: $160-$200 : Best Gaming CPUs For The Money: November 2010
Not much benefit in upping to 6 cores correct? I don't do photo editing or anything that I'm aware of that utilizes so many cores.
HDZ965FBGMBOX AMD Phenom II X4 Processor 965 (3.4GHz) AM3, Retail - AMD Phenom II - SuperBiiz.com
MOBO: $80-90?
How much should I spend to get a solid mobo? I don't plan on upgrading too much, so no need for xFire/SLI waiting. 1 PCI-e slot is fine.
Is this a good deal?
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4444096&Sku=A455-2886
GPU: Radeon 6850 or GTX 460 equivalent. Sitting on deals.
Best PCIe Card: $170 To $250 : Best Graphics Cards For The Money: November 2010
Based on that and how much extra cash money I have, I'm aiming at tier up from what I was guessing. I was originally going for 5770 but now I think I can hit a Radeon 6850 or a GTX 460 no problem. If deals on BF/CyberMonday are cheaper than what I'm seeing at the moment, gonna have extra money to upgrade ... iono what. Hard drive?
This: has some deals but common sense tells me to sit through BF/CyberM and hope for better.
Newegg Bargain Blowout Graphics Cards: Zotac GTS 250 $90, XFX 5830 $130 AR, MSI GTX465 $130 AR, Palit GTX460 $155 AR - SlickDeals.net Forums
Hard Drive: $43 - SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD322GJ/U
I want a harddrive that bottlenecks the smallest amount without paying huge money. This one APPEARS to be the best rated HD that's still cheap.
PassMark Software - Hard Drive Benchmark Charts
I got advise to go for WD Caviar Black but... this has pretty solid ratings on NewEgg and the benchmark is much better than many of the WD's... Right or wrong?
Newegg.com - SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD322GJ/U 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Thanks for your time in advance. Much appreciated
P.S.
I have a monitor, speaker system, keyboard & mouse because I'm running my laptop as a desktop at the moment. MSDN = Free Windows 7 x64bit. YESZ. No optical drive because my roommate has an external one and honestly I don't think I'll need it. I'll stick that extra $20 to somethign else haha.
I'm pretty blown away by how much 600 can garner. I originally thought it'd be like amd tri-core with 4gb ram, radeon 5770 and pretty much that's it... now it's super beefy >:O
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram