Building Comp for Girlfriend (~850)

[hthero715]

Hello, I recently built a PC for myself and to my surprise, my girlfriend took an interest in the games I was playing (EQ@, Rift, SC2) and wants a computer for herself to play alongside me.

She doesnt need anything fancy, just a solid gaming computer. So she wont be OC'ing or need dual gfx cards, doesnt need a sexy case, and any future upgrades/maintenance will probably be done by me... hurray.

So, Ive got the bare bones set in stone:

CM Silent Pro M600 http://bit.ly/Nmob5 ($70)
(2x4gbs) G.Skill Rip Jaws 1333 http://bit.ly/cHWVmm ($85)
i5-2500 http://bit.ly/f2IfxR ($210)
Windows 7 Home ($100)
Samsung Spinpoint 1tb http://bit.ly/hXZdRC ($65)

SUB TOTAL - $530

Need help choosing a mobo, case, and Gfx card. Should be enough left in her budget to get solid components, I think.

As always, thanks guys.

 

[WR2]

Hello hthero715;

What resolution monitor are we talking about?
Already have a DVD drive you can slip into the build?

 

[WR2]

I think I found you a few bargains in case, video card, PSU and RAM.

■COOLER MASTER HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1 Mid Tower Case $59.99
■ASUS ENGTX460 DirectCU TOP/2DI/768MD5 GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 768MB Video Card $159.99 & $30 rebate
■MSI H67MA-E35 (B3) LGA 1155 H67 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Motherboard $99.99
■CORSAIR Builder Series CMPSU-500CX 500W Power Supply and 4GB RAM combo deal $94.98 & $35 rebates
■CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMX4GX3M2A1600C9
TOTAL: $414.95 before $65 rebates, shipping and taxes, if any

 

[WR2]

Here is a combo deal on your HDD and Win7 for an extra $5 off

■Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM
■SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
TOTAL: $159.98

 

[ubercake]

Just remember... if you're building for your girlfriend, no matter how good the components, it will start running slowly in about 7 days. She'll tell you she never went to any sites that looked suspicious. You'll find the malware and clear it for her. Soon thereafter you'll get have to deal with a virus you just can't shake without deleting key OS files. The PC will need a complete re-install of the OS. She'll continue to say she didn't do anything or go to any suspicious sites.

Knowing this ahead of time, you need to grab yourself a copy of Acronis and a second identical hard drive. Create an image of her drive on the second drive and put it away in the cupboard. This way, you can just keep a clean image that you can just pop in every time she jacks that mother up (from doing nothing, of course). When you pop the clean image in, re-image on the old drive. Repeat as necessary. Good luck and God bless.

 

[hthero715]

Haha, yeah I already have a backup drive in my closet for just such an occasion.

This is what I have so far, just need to find a motherboard and a monitor to finish this up, unless anyone has some constructive criticism?

My only other thought was to drop the sandy bridge and go AMD to save money on the mobo/cpu. She is on somewhat of a budget and we are trying to squeeze as much performance out of $800 as possible.

Thanks again.

 

[ubercake]

Haha, yeah I already have a backup drive in my closet for just such an occasion.

http://secure.newegg.com/Shopping/ShoppingCart.aspx?Submit=view

This is what I have so far, just need to find a motherboard and a monitor to finish this up, unless anyone has some constructive criticism?

My only other thought was to drop the sandy bridge and go AMD to save money on the mobo/cpu. She is on somewhat of a budget and we are trying to squeeze as much performance out of $800 as possible.

Thanks again.

Do you live near a Microcenter? They are giving away a motherboard with X4 955s these days. There are a few other Phenom models they are giving the motherboard away with, too?

 

[hthero715]

Unfortunately, no. I wish I did as I always hear about pretty solid deals from there.

 

[ubercake]

Here's a good quick answer all with decent performance for around $750:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.573823

Every component is solid and provides quite a good setup.

---- edit ----
Just remember to get the extra black drive for another $60 or so.

 

[matt_mu]

For a graphics card I would recomend getting a ati radeon hd 6870. I have the previous hd 5770 and it runs most games maxed out (even gta iv but a little laggy)

good luck

 

[hthero715]

Here's a good quick answer all with decent performance for around $750:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.573823

Every component is solid and provides quite a good setup.

---- edit ----
Just remember to get the extra black drive for another $60 or so.

I liked everything in that build but thought I could squeeze a bit more out of the cpu. So, I basically have come up with this:

and all I am waiting on is what kind of power supply to get. Im not sure what kind of wattage that set up needs, and I definitely dont want to cut corners on a psu but she wont be using two video cards ever.

 

[hthero715]

This is what i ended up going with:

Thanks to everyone for their contributions and help, Tom's ftw.

 

[hthero715]

Best answer selected by hthero715.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey