$500 Budget Workstation/PS3 Replacement Build.

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
stockleyrod

stockleyrod

Distinguished
Nov 28, 2010
9
0
18,510
Hey, I need some help with a last minute build. I had planned to buy a PS3 for gaming but my laptop died. So i'm going to do a budget PC build instead now. I would like for it to do play the latest games and blu-rays but some compromises are going to have to be made to keep it under $500 (before tax and shipping) so here it goes:

Approximate Purchase Date: 2 Weeks or more depending, Before Xmas.
 
Budget Range: $500 Before Tax and Shipping
 
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, Autocad 2010 (with some Light 3d modeling), Adobe Photoshop CS5, Adobe Lightroom with few plugins), Movies (Blu-Ray), Office (word, excel, etc..)
 
Parts Not Required: I have a ATX case that I would like use that has a SATA 250gb HD, SATA dvd burner and a 300 watt power supply that I’m Going to have to upgrade I do believe.
 
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg.ca or NCIX.ca (newegg seams to be the cheapest for me)
 
Country of Origin: Canada
 
Parts Preferences: No preference. AMD based system.
 
Overclocking: Yes
 
SLI or Crossfire: No
 
Monitor Resolution: I have a HP w2007 21.5” (1680x1050) That I used with my laptop but I would like to pick up a second monitor later down the road for using dual monitors with CS5 and other programs.
 
Additional Comments:
This is a last minute budget build before Xmas, My laptop I was using before has well...it don’t work anymore, put it that way. I never built or had any plans to build a PC before my laptop died but I got an outdated computer in the basement (acting as a file server for the house) that I would like to make use of.
I originally had planned to buy a PS3 but I figured now if I’m going to build a PC I’m going to use that to play latest games so a reasonable system is required with moderate room to upgrade later on down the road. Also not required right away but I planned to buy a blu-ray reader drive so I can watch movies on my 32” Sony Bravia (1080p).
So basically to sum up, I need a workstation/PS3 replacement.

I've done quite a bit of reading and here’s what I’ve come up with so far:

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition Deneb 3.0GHz OEM (no box) $99.99
Motherboard: ASRock M3A770DE AM3 ATX $64.99
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws 4GB DDR3-1600 (PC12800) $50.00
Graphics: GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 460 (fermi) 768MB GDDR5 $175.49
PowerSupply: Antec EarthWatts 650W EA650 $89.99
Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper TX3 $17.99

So it comes to $499.44 before tax and shipping but I need some input on if these components will work together or not and if I have a fairly balanced PC for my requirements.
Also i'm wondering about my processor pick, Should I have done a better processor?...

Need some input please and thank you.
 
Solution
batuchka


If u had settled your h/w and all is compatible this would be academic but:

The 1st Denebs were of socket AM2+ (940BE/920) and had there Integrated Mmeory Controller on chip (IMC) only able to 'talk' to DDR2 only unlike the IMC on socket AM3 chips (DDR2 & DDR3) so the above AM2+ 940BE is incompatible with AM3 socket mobo and DDR3 RAMs :ouch:
Sort by date Sort by votes
Atotalnoob

Atotalnoob

Distinguished
Jun 2, 2010
1,118
0
19,310
I would get a 955 over the 940....

You also you said above you wanted to watch Blu-ray, but I don't see it in your build, plus you say you have a DVD burner above...soo is it going to be a later item?

And a 250 gig HDD isn't that big, think about a 1TB spinpoint F3, later on....

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
stockleyrod

stockleyrod

Distinguished
Nov 28, 2010
9
0
18,510


Yeah, I have a 250GB drive now that works fine. I only really had $500 too throw at this project right now. So after Xmas I had planed to pick up a cheap Blu-Ray reader to run along side my Dvd burner, new faster hard drive and maybe a Antec three hundred case or something of similar style.

Thanks for the reply. But i'm a little unsure if all of these parts will work fine together and be able to run games at fairly descent rate, I want to play Fallout: New Vegas, new Need for Speed, black ops, halo and similar games.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Atotalnoob

Atotalnoob

Distinguished
Jun 2, 2010
1,118
0
19,310
So after Xmas I had planed to pick up a cheap Blu-Ray reader to run along side my Dvd burner, new faster hard drive and maybe a Antec three hundred case or something of similar style.
Click to expand...
thought so....

But i'm a little unsure if all of these parts will work fine together and be able to run games at fairly descent rate, I want to play Fallout: New Vegas, new Need for Speed, black ops, halo and similar games
Click to expand...
I have a 5770(average 45FPS, @ 1080P X16 AA and AF...), and can run Bad company 2 at max settings.... most of the games you mentioned aren't GPU intensive(as compared to Crysis or BC2)... I'd say you'd be fine =p.... If it isn't, then run at lower quality until you can afford anotehr GPU, and do SLI...
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
stockleyrod

stockleyrod

Distinguished
Nov 28, 2010
9
0
18,510


Well I originally had planned to get the 5770 but I read somewhere the GTX 960 was a little bit better for Crysis (40% better maybe?) and games of that nature. I never had a PC worthy of the installer let alone running such game so this going to be new to me, so i'll start picking up titles like that.

Also I'm guess Windows 7 64bit home premium is were i should be take this?

Thanks for the info, greatly appreciated.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
batuchka

batuchka

Splendid
Dec 31, 2007
7,972
0
31,960


If u had settled your h/w and all is compatible this would be academic but:

The 1st Denebs were of socket AM2+ (940BE/920) and had there Integrated Mmeory Controller on chip (IMC) only able to 'talk' to DDR2 only unlike the IMC on socket AM3 chips (DDR2 & DDR3) so the above AM2+ 940BE is incompatible with AM3 socket mobo and DDR3 RAMs :ouch:
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
stockleyrod

stockleyrod

Distinguished
Nov 28, 2010
9
0
18,510
You actually just saved my life. Thank you once agian. I think I'm goin to ditch the cooler for now and go with the 955BE for an extra 20-30 bucks I think it would be worth it, agian thank you so much I can't believe I nvr noticed that.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
stockleyrod

stockleyrod

Distinguished
Nov 28, 2010
9
0
18,510
All right, Got everything fixed up. I think i'm a little over budget due to going with the 6850 and the 955BE instead of the gtx460(768mb) and that other processor but I believe its for the best. Parts are ordered, agian lol.

Thanks guy for fixing me up.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
stockleyrod

stockleyrod

Distinguished
Nov 28, 2010
9
0
18,510
Ok, quick update...

Ahh my graphics card (Gigabyte HD 6850) is having some in-stock issues at NCIX so after some debate and reading a few reviews i'm going to switch it to the HIS HD 6850 for a few reasons; I want it before Xmas, Price difference is negligible, Its in-stock, has a better cooling system for a future crossfire set up and well generally I think it looks cooler.

I just want to say thanks again for the help, finding that stupid overlooked AM2+ chip and saving me the agony of having to troubleshoot my first time build and send stuff back... Thank you.

Oh, not sure about this forum but mostly the ones I've been on really like a pics for updates.

Today the first box arrived....

IMG_5012.JPG

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom