[Solved] A $600-700 Budget Gaming PC

Oops, forgot to put the price tag on the RAM. The A-DATA set is $43. I picked it because it's $17 cheaper than the G.SKILL set, and it's unlikely that you'd notice a big difference between the 1333 and 1600 RAM unless you're planning on overclocking. But the G.SKILL is still a fine option if you like (I use it). Also, just a thought, but you *may* be better off with a high-end dual core than the entry-level quad that I suggested. Unless you're doing multi-thread intensive stuff like video editing, you're probably going to see more up-front performance from a higher-clocked dual with more cache. You can get one of the top-end AMD Phenom II Black Edition dual cores for the same $100. Or, you could get a better quad... your pick.

That's definitely a good philosophy I was just making one suggestion

Just curious, why pick that set of RAM over the otherwise identical DDR3 1600 set at the same price? Do you think the better timings would fully compensate for the bandwidth deficit?

I'm no expert on timings. Does having 2 cycles less in terms of CAS latency translate to superior performance versus higher clocked RAM? I always figure the higher clocked RAM was better, since you have more OC potential and can downclock and tighten up the timings. Am I wrong?

Thank you for your respond, can you please point out which mother board will support that kind of hard drive? While still work with the rest of the component? I think I love the idea of thepcphysician's philosophy, but I am lazy to sell it on the ebay... which setting will be ideal if I can afford to spend on another graphics card after around 2 years? Or... my two years, it will be better just take out the one I am having now and buy another faster single card? I think in 2 years, I will spend another 200 dollars on my machine. The machine seems to improve so fast, I am not sure which is a better way to go... what do you think?

Trilice

No problem, Trilice.

Jasonh8806 was correct, the motherboard I put on my list doesn't actually support 6Gb/s SATA, so the hard drive I picked out for you would not give you a performance boost - my bad, must have been too tired to post last night . Instead, go with the $95 ga-870a-ud3 model. It's still a Gigabyte board, so it will be very reliable, and it has a terrific feature set, with tons of ports AND 6Gb/s SATA. You can see it here:

[url=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128443][/url]

As for the Blackbone, it's just a weird name; the case actually looks very normal! I like it because it is inexpensive and has lots of ports on the front panel (4 USB, audio, and eSATA). You can see it here:

[url=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147023][/url]

Of course, if you don't like that one, any other one of the cases I listed should work fine too.

If you want to get a board with Crssfire, that's your call. Personally, I have found Crossfire to be nothing but a huge pain to deal with. Back when I built my rig, I figured I'd go the Crossfire route. So I spent extra an a high quality motherboard with Crossfire support, and put in a single 4870, which was one of the best cards out at the time. Then, a year later, I decided I wanted a graphical boost, so I went to buy a second card. One of the caveats about Crossfire is that you have to use a card from the same series, and you can't really use a worse card than the one you already had, because it will slow down the faster one. So I got another 4870, for $40 more than I paid for the original one - the prices on out-of-production hardware go up before they go down. Anyway, after I installed the new card, I didn't see a HUGE improvement. Adding another card does not translate to 2 times the power - some games use Crossfire really well, others pretty much not at all. Plus, ATI's driver situation is really bad with Crossfire, and lots of graphics updates slow down or even break Crossfire support. And the second card puts out more heat and more noise, and sucks more power, too.

Sorry if I bored you with my rant - bottom line is that Crossfire isn't worth it IMHO. I personally would get the best single card you can afford right now, and if you need more power, upgrade it down the road.

As for the guy suggesting you get the 5870, he is correct in that it barely edges out the 6870 on the performance side. That said, the Powercolor 6870 I recommended is significantly cheaper. Plus, the 6800 series is a newer architecture - if I were you, I'd stick with that, since the performance difference between the two is negligible.

http://www.widescreengamingforum.c [...] red_Review

Unless you can nab a HD 5.8k GPU on the (dirt) cheap no point for fresh builds to linger with them and move on to HD 6.8k ^^

Haha - i cannot believe the nonsensical $1000 SBM config this time around and i can't blame those posters lambasting it lol

No CF $199AR HD 6870?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] -_-Product

Oh well I guess I'm voted off the island... haha. I was just thinking in terms of the most performance that he can afford with one card since he will not be crossfiring. Either way will play well.

Going back to your original post, the only thing i would really change is the processor to the recommended Athlon 640 quad core. Everything else looks good. I like that ASRock board because it supports USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s. Additionally, it has the option to crossfire later if he decides to. If he goes with nvidia, then he can take advantage of physx later. More options are never bad. The antec PSU is good too. I would then decide EXACTLY how much you want to spend and sink the rest of your available funds into a graphics card. be it the 6850, 6870 or a gtx 460 or 470.

Thank you everyone, there are so many options out there. I now can understand why building computer is so much fun. And the people on this forum are really awesome.

Here is my final list, if there are no errors I will buy them tomorrow morning. I just want to see if I make errors on picking up the parts. I changed the CPU to the X4. And got the mother board and the graphics card as well. Just out of curious, that graphic cards has two displayport 1.2, are these the ones connecting to the apple LED displays? I think if I understand correctly, they use "mini-display" ports. I thought currently only the apple laptops can use it. Does this mean this computer I am building can use the Apple's LED displays? Not that I would... because they quite overpriced.

Here is my list again, thank you very much for all the helps.

DVD Drive: ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner
Case: Rosewill Blackbone Black Steel
On the other note, thepcphysician, I am convinced, that case actually look better than the one I liked before, what do I know. This one looks really good and the reviews are very good too!
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB
Motherboard: ASRock 870 EXTREME3
GPU: PowerColor AX6870
Power Supply: Antec EarthWatts EA650 650W
Ram: A-DATA 4GB
CPU: AMD Athlon II X4

Am I missing anything? Thank you once again.

Trilice

Doesn't look like you're missing anything. Have fun building and tweaking it... oh and gaming lol

Best answer selected by trilice1989.

You are welcome. Now comes the worst part of building a computer - the waiting. While newegg is very quick, these will be the slowest days of your life. Especially with the weekend coming up. Do check the email specials right now. Newegg seems to be releasing a new add daily. Make sure there aren't any deals on the parts you are ordering. Also, Newegg is very quick at shipping. Since it is Friday, you may want to wait will Monday morning to order and check the specials then too. I ordered a computer on Sunday evening this week and Monday was the day they offered a $100 gift card for buying $500 or more. I quickly cancelled the order Monday morning and reordered to take advantage of the special and my order shipped 2 hours later. Just a suggestion.

Good luck building

P.S. If you have any problems putting it all together, just let us know. We are happy to help.

I do agree that the Gigabyte board might be more reliable. The things it doesn't have that the ASRock does is x8/x8 crossfire and the core unlock feature. Now the second one isn't a problem with the 640 but the Gigabyte board does eliminate crossfire options. Personally, I just bought the GA-890GPA-UD3H. It does have crossfire at x8/x8 but is quite a bit more. $135. If you definitely don't want to do crossfire, then the gigabyte board might be a better choice.