PC Dilemma and Build Reveiw

[William Davidson]

I have always wanted to play games on a PC instead of X-Box. This X-Box One business has led me to research buying a gaming PC that would be able to play mainstream games on low for the next 4-5 years (at least) with minimum upgrading. This led me to 2 options
1. Buy the Lenovo Y400 (with the gt750m) for $750
2. Build my own computer: Samsung 840 120gb ($99), AMD Phenom II X4 955 be ($87 and to be o.c'ed), Sapphire 7870 GHz ($215), ASUS M5A97 mobo ($79), Kingston Hyper X Blu 8gb 1600MHz DDR3 ($64), Cooler Master HAF 912 case ($105), Corsair 650W PSU ($77), wifi/bluetooth pci card and a cheap DVD drive ($42 for both). This totals for roughly $768 not including shipping.

The items in bold (PSU and case) are in AUSD due to the fact that I live in Australia and will be buying those pieces here. Since I live in Australia, my dad will bring over the other peices in his luggage when he visits the US in June.

Since I have not been overly exposed to computers and PC gaming, I would greatly value everyone's feedback on my problem.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Definitely go for the custom-built one. Also, Haswell comes out on June 3rd, so you might want to consider that. That CPU is pretty old now.

Shouldn't cost $42 for a DVD drive, and you probably want a PCIe WiFi/bluetooth card (do you need bluetooth? If not, save $25).

Too much for RAM, and you likely don't need that case - a cheaper one will be fine.

 

[William Davidson]

Definitely go for the custom-built one. Also, Haswell comes out on June 3rd, so you might want to consider that. That CPU is pretty old now.

Shouldn't cost $42 for a DVD drive, and you probably want a PCIe WiFi/bluetooth card (do you need bluetooth? If not, save $25).

Too much for RAM, and you likely don't need that case - a cheaper one will be fine.

The PCIe wifi/bluetooth card + DVD drive costs $42 in total. Also, I chose 8gb of RAM to maximise the desktop's gaming lifesan. Probably will change the cpu to something newer and ditch the case. Unfortunately all the half decent cases are a rip-off in Australia. Thank you for the comment.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

No, I meant that if you are getting it from the US, you can get 2x4GB of DDR3-1600 CL9 1.5V for about $15 less: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f312800cl9d8gbrl

 

[William Davidson]

No, I meant that if you are getting it from the US, you can get 2x4GB of DDR3-1600 CL9 1.5V for about $15 less: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f312800cl9d8gbrl

Cheers, that makes the build fairly cheaper.