Budget build with my kids

[nero8762]

My 2 sons & I are building our first mid level gaming comp, on a very tight budget. Specs will be as follows:

Time Frame: going to build this with them over the X-Mas break from school
CPU: AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition ($170) or AMD FX-4100 Quad-Core ($120)
M/B: GIGABYTE GA-990XA-UD3 AM3+ ($135) or a comparable Asus or MSI
RAM:G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 ($60)
PSU: Rocketfish 550W (Free=Have)
HDD: Samsung 320GB Spinpoint
Video card: ????????
Monitor: looking for a low cost ($120-$160) option
Case: I have a few Mid tower ATX & 1 ATX tower, but am open to options $60 or less with good ventilation & fans.
O/S: Windows 7 w/ a dual boot of a Linux flavor later on.
Uses: basic browsing, tons of d/l 'ing, low end (Age of Empires) to high end (BF3) gaming, DVD ripping & conversion, etc
Don't need: keyboard, mouse
Buying from: New Egg, Tiger Direct, Amazon
We are in USA, O/C: possibly, SLI/Crossfire: No, in the future maybe.

My questions are these:

1) My friend is selling a nVidia Radeon 8800 GTX video card for $75. All the comparably priced cards I've researched have horrible benchmarks (CPUBenchmark dot net). Given it's age, is this card worth the $75 given the above listed components, & uses?
2) Any suggestions as to better performing/priced components, to get the most bang for my bucks (5 teenagers eat me out of house and home, lol)?

If this is the wrong section mods, I am sorry. Thanks in advance for any & all advice, short or indepth.

Jack

 

[ultra619]

what setting do want to play bf 3 at, and what resolution do you want your moniter at?

 

[michxymi]

First of all, don't get a cheap monitor...You don't want to rip your eyes out with crappy 100$ monitors...Serious monitors cost around 200-250$ and have IPS panel. Give us your budget and we can build something for you

 

[nero8762]

My budget is $350-450 (some wiggle room), not including the monitor. I got a 23" LG w/IPS for $160 (NEW). I also have a 550w PS, keyboard, mouse, CD/DVD burner (SATA), & a 320GB SATA Samsung Spinpoint HD.
I need: MoBo, CPU, graphics card, RAM, & case.
I would like to play low/mid end games (SC2) @ high FR & res., and higher end games (BF3) @ mid/high FR & res. I would like to get an SSD within 2 months after build, for OS & programs, unless it's in the budget now.

Uses: moderate gaming, video conversions (DVD/BD rips for use on other devices), coding (sons are getting into various coding projects, building & hosting games servers for Runescape & Minecraft, so they are looking into running VM's).

I was looking @ the i5 2500k, but thats over half the budget, so probably want to stick with AMD x3, x4, or x6. Still researching FX series chips.
I eagerly await your input.

 

[verespatrik]

Hello.

My recommendation :


Case : ASUS Vento TA-712 ATX 21$

GPU : SAPPHIRE AMD Radeon HD6790 1024MB D5 PCI-E2.1 161$

CPU : Intel CORE i3 Dual i3-2130 3400Mhz 3MB LGA1155 box 162$

Ram : CORSAIR DDR3 KIT 2x2048MB 1333MHz XMS3 TW3X4G1333C9A cl9 31$

Motherboard : ASUS P8H61 R3.0, intel H61 Express, LGA1155 ATX 88$

Overall price : 465.519 USD


I think this is the best you can get for this price.

You can surely run Skyrim with it on medium-high settings, but I dont think Battlefield 3 would run very well on it, maybe on low settings.

And please note, the prices might differ, it depends on where you buy it.


PS: ( The same things with Intel i5-2500K and 8GB ram would be about 599$ )

 

[michxymi]

Value case with USB III in front panel

NZXT Source 210 Elite White Steel with painted interior ATX Mid Tower Computer Case w/ Black Front Trim
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146077

Six Core CPU ideal for development, virtual machines and general multitasking and also good for gaming (thanks to turbo)

AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Thuban 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor HDT90ZFBGRBOX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103849

8GB is a must these days, especially for such use

Kingston HyperX Grey Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 Desktop Memory Model KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104239

6850 is the least you have to take for GPU if you want to play demanding games (BF3) at 1920x1080 (high settings)

HIS H685FN1GD Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161384

Finally a great motherboard who offers 8x / 8x Crossfire, native USB & SATA III, support for up to 140W TDP CPUs (including all AMD FX CPUs) and all solid caps

ASRock 870 Extreme3 R2.0 AM3+ AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157272

SUM 479$ without MIR (20$)

 

[verespatrik]

Woah !! Newegg has some gooood pirces. (I live in hungary, and the prices are different there :/ )

So yeah, I recommend what @michxymi wrote.