Build my Time machine, err Gaming PC.

[eyekas]

Hey everyone.

I've been browsing a lot here on the forums lately, while I've been trying to put together a new gaming PC, I really have no idea what I am doing.

Hope you can help.

Approximate Purchase Date: Within the 0 - 3 weeks.

Budget Range: $900 ($1000 if need be).

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming.

Parts not required: keyboard, mouse, monitor, HDD (Have 2 Western Digital, 1000 GB & 500 GB ), DVD-r/CD-rom thingy.

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Amazon.ca, Newegg.ca ( .ca is not important, just a preference)

Country: Canada!

Parts Preferences: No preference.

Over clocking: Sure, but not a big deal if I don’t.

SLI or Crossfire: Yes, however do not know a lot of information about this at this time.

Monitor Resolution: Have a 1080p monitor (I think 1080p, well I have a monitor, will upgrade this after the holidays).

Additional Comments: Looking to play BF3, Skyrim, Final Fantasy XIV, etc.

 

[Wolfshadw]

Are your hard drives and CD/DVD ROM Drive IDE or SATA? IDE Drives use the wide cable with 40-pin connectors to connect the drives to the motherboard and 4-pin molex cables for power. SATA Drives use thinner cables with an "L" connections for the motherboard and power.

-Wolf sends

 

[eyekas]

Are your hard drives and CD/DVD ROM Drive IDE or SATA? IDE Drives use the wide cable with 40-pin connectors to connect the drives to the motherboard and 4-pin molex cables for power. SATA Drives use thinner cables with an "L" connections for the motherboard and power.

-Wolf sends

They are IDE, if I need to update these I can.

 

[eyekas]

So, SLI or Crossfire.

From what I have been reading this is not something preferred by most gamers at this time.

 

[Wolfshadw]

The problem is the cost of hard drives have skyrocketed due to the flooding in Thailand. A $50 1TB hard drive a few months ago now costs three times as much (which really cuts into your budget) and finding a current motherboard that still has older PATA (IDE) ports limits your selection. I really wanted to go Intel CoreI5 with this build, but that's just not going to happen (even keeping your old hard drives).

That said, I did come up with this build. It isn't the end-all, be-all build and hopefully, others will chime in:

Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 - $70
Power Supply: Corsair Enthusiast TX850 - $145
Motherboard: ASUS M4A89TD Pro - $180
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 - $135
RAM: G.Skill 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3-1333 1.5v - $41
Hard Drive 1 (OS): Your Current 500GB IDE Drive
Hard Drive 2 (Data): Your Current 1TB IDE Drive
Optical Drive: LG CD/DVD Burner 22x - $20
Graphics Card: XFX Radeon HD6870 - $190
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 SP1 64-bit - $110

Total Cost: $891 +Shipping/Handling
Mail in Rebates: $55 (2x$20, 1x$15)

I chose that power supply for future upgrades (Crossfire).
I chose that motherboard because it's the only one listed on Newegg that has an IDE port for your two hard drives and dual graphic card slots @x8/x8 for Crossfire. All others were @x16/x4. It's not that CrossfireX and SLI are not preferred. It's just that with these newer games, the drivers for CrossFireX/SLI are not always optimized for these game upon release.

Personally, I'm not a heavy gamer. I'm still running on my old Geforce 8800GTS-640. It's enough for me and the few (older) games that I do play. Again, I'm hoping others will chime in.

-Wolf sends

 

[eyekas]

The problem is the cost of hard drives have skyrocketed due to the flooding in Thailand. A $50 1TB hard drive a few months ago now costs three times as much (which really cuts into your budget) and finding a current motherboard that still has older PATA (IDE) ports limits your selection. I really wanted to go Intel CoreI5 with this build, but that's just not going to happen (even keeping your old hard drives).

That said, I did come up with this build. It isn't the end-all, be-all build and hopefully, others will chime in:

Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 - $70
Power Supply: Corsair Enthusiast TX850 - $145
Motherboard: ASUS M4A89TD Pro - $180
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 - $135
RAM: G.Skill 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3-1333 1.5v - $41
Hard Drive 1 (OS): Your Current 500GB IDE Drive
Hard Drive 2 (Data): Your Current 1TB IDE Drive
Optical Drive: LG CD/DVD Burner 22x - $20
Graphics Card: XFX Radeon HD6870 - $190
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 SP1 64-bit - $110

Total Cost: $891 +Shipping/Handling
Mail in Rebates: $55 (2x$20, 1x$15)

I chose that power supply for future upgrades (Crossfire).
I chose that motherboard because it's the only one listed on Newegg that has an IDE port for your two hard drives and dual graphic card slots @x8/x8 for Crossfire. All others were @x16/x4. It's not that CrossfireX and SLI are not preferred. It's just that with these newer games, the drivers for CrossFireX/SLI are not always optimized for these game upon release.

Personally, I'm not a heavy gamer. I'm still running on my old Geforce 8800GTS-640. It's enough for me and the few (older) games that I do play. Again, I'm hoping others will chime in.


-Wolf sends

Thank you Wolf. I appreciate the work you put into this build.

I performed a clean of the tower tonight, the temperatures seemed fine as to what I could tell.

I even installed a different game to see if I got the same problems, an it happened again, I talked to my wife and we will convert this current one into a home theater PC.

So I have a budget of $1000 for a completely new build. I am not looking for a best of the best machine however I want this to last a few years with minimal upgrades. An to play the current games available, BF3, Skyrim etc.


So new requirements are:

Approximate Purchase Date: Within the 0 - 3 weeks.

Budget Range: $1000.

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming.

Parts not required: keyboard, mouse, monitor, OS (forgot to mention this)

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Amazon.ca, Newegg.ca ( .ca is not important, just a preference)

Country: Canada!

Parts Preferences: No preference.

Over clocking: Sure, but not a big deal if I don’t.

SLI or Crossfire: Not sure, if its better yes.

Monitor Resolution: Acer H233H LCD Monitor - 1920 x 1080 (max).

 

[Wolfshadw]

Ok. A number of things:

1) Please provide specs for your current system (case, power supply, motherboard, etc...) or if it's an off the shelf system, make and model #.
2) You never mentioned until this last comment that you were having problems with your current system. What's happening, overheating and shutting down?

-Wolf sends

 

[eyekas]

Ok. A number of things:

1) Please provide specs for your current system (case, power supply, motherboard, etc...) or if it's an off the shelf system, make and model #.
2) You never mentioned until this last comment that you were having problems with your current system. What's happening, overheating and shutting down?

-Wolf sends

Well the system has been freezing when I start a game, (I made another post elsewhere an didn't realize I did not mention it here).

Current system:

Case: Antec nine hundred

I've taken a screen shot of the device manager if this helps with the rest.

 

[Emelth]

Here you go check this build out

Rosewill CHALLENGER Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - $50.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147153

Intel Core i5-2500K - $215.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

GIGABYTE GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 - $130.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128502

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 - $45.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231428
MSI N560GTX-TI Twin Frozr II/OC GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 - $245.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127565

Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200 RPM - $150.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148697

COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus - $26.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065

LITE-ON DVD Burner - $19.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106289&cm_sp=Cat_CD_%26%2347%3b_DVD_Burners_%26%2338%3b_Media-_-72_Hr_Sale-_-27-106-289

CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 650W ATX12V v2.31/ EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified - $95.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139020

Total: $975 (w/o taxes/shipping/MIRs)


Edited: Forgot CD/DVD drive

 

[Wolfshadw]

I've taken a screen shot of the device manager if this helps with the rest.

No. Not really

Not having to purchase an OS puts $110 back into the increased ($1000) budget; allowing for the Intel Core I5 setup.

Since you're planning on turning your current system into an HTPC, I'd probably purchase an HTPC case, swap all the components in your current set up into that and use your current Antec 900 case for the new build. Working as an HTPC, your current 9800GT shouldn't have any freezing problems, but I'd probably do a fresh OS/Driver install anyway.

Case: NMediaPC Black HTPC 6000B - $70
Power Supply: Corsair Enthusiast TX850 V2 - $145
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z68A-DH3-B - $115
CPU: Intel Core I5 2500K - $225
RAM: Kingston 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3-1333 - $41
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 1TB - $150
Optical Drive: LG CD\DVD Burner 22x - $20
Graphics Card: XFX Radeon HD6870 - $190

Total Cost: $988.79
Mail in Rebates: $35 (1x$20, 1x$15)

Note: These are all Canada prices. Prices are cheaper if you can purchase (and presumably ship) in the US.

Again, I invite others to chime in with their ideas.

-Wolf sends

 

[eyekas]

Here you go check this build out

Rosewill CHALLENGER Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - $50.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147153

Intel Core i5-2500K - $215.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

GIGABYTE GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 - $130.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128502

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 - $45.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231428
MSI N560GTX-TI Twin Frozr II/OC GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 - $245.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127565

Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200 RPM - $150.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148697

COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus - $26.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065

LITE-ON DVD Burner - $19.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106289&cm_sp=Cat_CD_%26%2347%3b_DVD_Burners_%26%2338%3b_Media-_-72_Hr_Sale-_-27-106-289

CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 650W ATX12V v2.31/ EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified - $95.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139020

Total: $975 (w/o taxes/shipping/MIRs)


Edited: Forgot CD/DVD drive

Thank you Emelth,

Can I use my case and power supply from my older PC?

Case: Antec Nine Hundred
PS: Corsair HX520

 

[Emelth]

Yes with the case, not too sure on the PSU if it will be enough to hold OCing and GPU