[Solved] ~$900 w/ monitor

Approximate Purchase Date: March-April

Budget Range:700-900

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Basic Task and BF3

Parts Not Required: Windows 7 and RAM

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg / Amazon

Country: US

Parts Preferences: None

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: No

Monitor Resolution: 1080 or higher

Additional Comments:

Dell E2311H $180

i3-2120 $120

ASUS DVD $20

Fractall 3000 $70

Corsair A70 $25

Rosewill WiFi $25

Corsair HX650 $100

Corsair GT 120GB $150

ASUS P8H61 $75

XFX 6870 $170

Keyboard and Mouse ~$40

Total $975

Reply to phamhlam

You can do way better for $975. For starters the Wifi adapter should not be included in the cost of your system, neither should the keyboard and mouse. Second, the display's a bit overkill, as is the PSU. If you don't need to OC, you can drop the cooler for now.

Try something like this:

Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 - $59.99
PSU: Corsair Builder Series CX600 - $69.99
Motherboard: Asrock Z68 Extreme 3 Gen 3 - $121.99
CPU: Intel Core i5-2400 - $189.99
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 - $44.99
HD: Western Digital Caviar Blue - $89.99
Optical: Samsung DVD Burner - $15.99
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 6870 - $169.99
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium - $99.99
Keyboard / Mouse: Logitech MK260 - $26.99
Monitor: Acer S211HLbd 21.5'' 5ms - $129.99

Total: $1,019

It's a little bit more ($919 without OS) but you get a quad core CPU as opposed to dual core, you get good RAM, a larger HD, wireless keyboard and mouse and a somewhat legit copy of Windows.

Best answer

I'd get a better motherboard than that if I were you. I don't know exactly what motherboard you have because there are several different ASUS P8H61 listed in newegg.com but since it's an H61 I assume that it has poorly placed SATA ports that some or all of are blocked by a video card like the 6870.

You're also bottle-necking the SSD (slightly) by using an H61 motherboard. H61 boards tend to only have second gen SATA instead of third gen SATA. If you want third gen then get an H67 board or better.

Also, why are you getting an advanced cooler for an i3? You can't overclock the i3 more than a hundred or two hundred MHz, the stock cooler is enough. If you don't like the stock cooler than something like the $20 Cooler Master Hyper 212 is a great option.

$170 is a little much for a Radeon 6870, after rebate this Sapphire 6870 is only $149.99:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102948
Sapphire is regarded as being as good as XFX so you're not missing anything.

Even for a quality Corsair PSU at 650 watts, your choice is a little expensive. Is it an 80+ gold edition? An 80+ or 80+ Bronze would be almost as efficient, but would be a lot cheaper. Overall, I think the bronzes have the best value.

I think you should opt for a cheaper SSD. $150 is a little much for one drive on an otherwise mid-range machine. A ~90GB drive might be much cheaper, but only a 30GB difference. If you know that 120GB is important for you then it's an obvious choice, but if not then 90GB is a more reasonable capacity. It's large enough for Windows and a few games and some small stuff.

Reply to blazorthon

Quote :

$170 is a little much for a Radeon 6870, after rebate this Sapphire 6870 is only $149.99:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102948
Sapphire is regarded as being as good as XFX so you're not missing anything.

That's the same card I linked to. Are you sure you don't mean this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102908

And yes Sapphire is an excellent brand, I use their cards all the time and I have yet to get one that's failed on me.

Quote :

Even for a quality Corsair PSU at 650 watts, your choice is a little expensive. Is it an 80+ gold edition? An 80+ or 80+ Bronze would be almost as efficient, but would be a lot cheaper. Overall, I think the bronzes have the best value.

That's actually the modular version, which, IMO, is kind of pointless to have on this type of build. It's better to get a non modular one and you're less likely to have it fail on you.

Quote :

I think you should opt for a cheaper SSD. $150 is a little much for one drive on an otherwise mid-range machine. A ~90GB drive might be much cheaper, but only a 30GB difference. If you know that 120GB is important for you then it's an obvious choice, but if not then 90GB is a more reasonable capacity. It's large enough for Windows and a few games and some small stuff.

I'd actually skip the SSD entirely and go for a cheapo mechanical HD like the one I linked to. Get the SSD later on as an upgrade but it makes no sense on a >$1K build when you don't have a secondary storage option. A Windows install will take 16GB of space, and games run anywhere from 8GB (Skyrim) to 16GB (Portal 2) to 25GB (BF3) and then you'll regret not having the extra space.

Message quoted 1 times

g-unit1111 wrote :

Quote :

$170 is a little much for a Radeon 6870, after rebate this Sapphire 6870 is only $149.99:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102948
Sapphire is regarded as being as good as XFX so you're not missing anything.

That's the same card I linked to. Are you sure you don't mean this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102908

And yes Sapphire is an excellent brand, I use their cards all the time and I have yet to get one that's failed on me.

Quote :

Even for a quality Corsair PSU at 650 watts, your choice is a little expensive. Is it an 80+ gold edition? An 80+ or 80+ Bronze would be almost as efficient, but would be a lot cheaper. Overall, I think the bronzes have the best value.

That's actually the modular version, which, IMO, is kind of pointless to have on this type of build. It's better to get a non modular one and you're less likely to have it fail on you.

Quote :

I think you should opt for a cheaper SSD. $150 is a little much for one drive on an otherwise mid-range machine. A ~90GB drive might be much cheaper, but only a 30GB difference. If you know that 120GB is important for you then it's an obvious choice, but if not then 90GB is a more reasonable capacity. It's large enough for Windows and a few games and some small stuff.

I'd actually skip the SSD entirely and go for a cheapo mechanical HD like the one I linked to. Get the SSD later on as an upgrade but it makes no sense on a >$1K build when you don't have a secondary storage option. A Windows install will take 16GB of space, and games run anywhere from 8GB (Skyrim) to 16GB (Portal 2) to 25GB (BF3) and then you'll regret not having the extra space.

I started my comment before you posted yours so I didn't see it yet.

My bad on the SSD, I missed it not having a hard drive already. Don't forget World of Warcraft that hit 40 or 50 GB last I checked.

Reply to blazorthon

I am really liking the comments.

Here are the changes I am making

PSU: XFX Core Edition 550W $55
CPU: i5 2400 $190
GPU: Sapphire 6870 $150
Mobo: ASRock z68 Extreme 3 Gen 3 $122
Case: Fractal 3000 $70 (it has a cleaner look than the HAF 912(
Cooler: Corsair A70 $25 (same as hyper 212)
DVD: Samsung DVD $13
Monitor: Dell E2311H $180 (I rather pay more for a nicer looking monitor)
SSD: Corsair Force GT 120GB $150 (the price/GB is better at 120GB and I feel like HDD price are too high so I will get one later. I can fit most of my stuff on and games on less than 90GB)

Total: $955

I have RAM and Win 7 already.
Am I set now?

Reply to phamhlam

If you get the hard drive later, you should be fine... However, I don't think hard drive prices will drop much very soon so you will probably be waiting months. A 500GB hard drive will only cost $80-$85, a 1TB and some 2TB drives can cost under $130.

Reply to blazorthon

Best answer selected by phamhlam.

Reply to phamhlam

At that price it's crazy not to get an i5-2500k. 3% higher cost to gain the ability to overclock and get 50% more CPU performance.

Reply to erikalikesfire

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey

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Reply to Mousemonkey

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