Need help with a gaming PC

[octafish]

My big advice is, don't scrimp on the PSU. There are savings to be had but buy a good reputable PSU. I love Corsair but there are other good manufacturers out there. Seasonic has a good rep.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

eah, first rule of a new gaming PC, don't believe the hype.

Pretty much anything that came out this year, is vastly overpowered and you don't need it.

I recently upgraded to a quad core intel 8300, it's about 2.5 Ghz, does just fine.

If you're not so confident about building a PC from scratch, a barebones system is a great compromise between price and convenience.

I reused my Radeon 4830 and my old 640gb hdd and dvd writer, and put them all in this.

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/prods/Barebones/Novatech/BB-8304X3.html

Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300
2 x 2GB DDR3 1333Mhz
ATX Black Gaming Tower Case
550w ATX Power Supply
Intel G41 & ICH7

£285 and some old spare parts, and the best part is, all the trickier build work is done for me, I just connect the drives, slot in the video card and turn it on. Took me about 10 minutes from running a knife along the cardboard box to turning the PC on.

If you don't have spare parts, you're looking at about £420 for a quad core with 4gb ram, 1tb HDD, and a mid level video card.

Wake me up after the apocalypse in 2012, when we MIGHT actually need i3-i7 power and dual £300 video cards and 8gb of ram.

 

[Joshua112321]

What Graphics card to go with this?

PCI Express X4 (for physics or dual monitor)
Two PCI Express 2.0 x16
So CrossfireX (no SLI since it is Intel)

dude tell me if i'm wrong but isn't your avatar from "the world ends with you" the DS Game? If so good choice that game is sick!

OT: Well I would like to reccomend cougar extreme! it's really good although you don't build it yourself but you customize it how you want... and it costs just the littlest bit more like £1 or something per part.

LINK: http://www.cougar-extreme.co.uk/

 

[Arachon]

Doesen't Nvidia perform better with Intel, or am I mistaken?

Well, since Nvidia are bitches, they don't "perform better" with intel, as much as perform worse if it detects anything by AMD (ATI being a branch of AMD) in the case >_>

 

[Owlslayer]

Basically I'm trying to do the same thing as ThreeDogsToaster. My budget is about 800$ or so.
The problem is, i can't use Newegg or other links that are highly recommended. And i myself don't know any other reliable sites...
However, ThreeDogsToaster, i suggest check out this link :
http://www.hardware-revolution.com/850-gaming-computer/
They guy seems to know what he's talking about.

 

[Owlslayer]

EDIT: I hate my Internet...
Sorry for the double-post. Hope someone deletes this.

 

[octafish]

My big advice is, don't scrimp on the PSU. There are savings to be had but buy a good reputable PSU. I love Corsair but there are other good manufacturers out there. Seasonic has a good rep.

i thought the bigger the PSU the bigger the electric bill...

Not really, the system will draw what the system will draw. There are online javascript PSU calculators that will give you an idea of the wattage you will need. Anyway I meant buy a good one not a big one. Look for an 80+ efficiency rating and a reputable brand.

 

[ThreeDogsToaster]

Ok, so

CPU: Intel Core i5-750 Quad Core Processor (8M Cache, 2.66 GHz) $195
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 $95
Mobo: EVGA P55V LGA 1156 Intel P55 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard $75 w/ $20 mail-in rebate
Video Card: XFX GeForce GTS 250 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 $130 w/ 40$ mail-in rebate
HDD: SAMSUNG Spinpoint 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" $55
DVD Drive: LITE-ON Black SATA 24X DVD Writer $22
Case: SIGMA ZEN ZEN-WOB obsidian black SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower $60 w/ $10 rebate
PSU: Rosewill Stallion Series 500W ATX12V Power Supply $45

OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM $100
or you could just pirate it.

For style points, APEVIA 120mm Green LED Case Fan, $3. This goes in the back of the case. Take out the lame black one and put this one in there.

So the total comes out to 680$ not including the 70$ mail-in rebates. Also, you should just pirate windows. I mean cmon, why pay for that crap.

This is a really good system, for a much lower price than I initially thought. This will run games very well.

A better, yet slightly unnecessary alternative would be to replace the according parts above with these:

Mobo: ASUS LGA 1156 Intel P55 $115
Graphics card: GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 $230
CPU: Intel Core i7-870 Lynnfield 2.93GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor $290
PSU: RAIDMAX HYBRID 2 530W ATX12V V2.2/ EPS12V LED Power Supply $40 w/ 10$ mail-in rebate
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 $200

All together these upgrades will put you around the $1000 mark, but if you don't want to spend that much, I would recommend not getting the extra RAM, which you can always just get more of later if you decide you need it. If you don't want to spend the $900 ish without the RAM, then you shouldn't get the better CPU.

Both graphics cards will get the job done, but the more expensive one, obviously, will last longer and at better settings.
Both graphics cards have HDMI converters so you can use your Vizio HDTV just fine with
them.

Thanks a ton man, very helpful. I think if I was going to build that I would build the more expensive varient, just so I can run the games better and it'll last longer. The only question i have is about the power supply. It seems slightly low to me, but then again, I'm the one asking you what parts to put on it

 

[ThreeDogsToaster]

Awesome. Now to get the damn money for this thing....

 

[ThreeDogsToaster]

I know I said I would build one, but this actually seems like a relatively decent, well priced pre-build machine. What do you guys think? http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Gateway+-+Desktop+/+Intel%26%23174;+Core%26%23153;+i7+Processor+/+8GB+Memory+/+1TB+Hard+Drive/9974337.p?id=1218204534081&skuId=9974337

 

[ThreeDogsToaster]

I know I said I would build one, but this actually seems like a relatively decent, well priced pre-build machine. What do you guys think? http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Gateway+-+Desktop+/+Intel%26%23174;+Core%26%23153;+i7+Processor+/+8GB+Memory+/+1TB+Hard+Drive/9974337.p?id=1218204534081&skuId=9974337

Link doesn't work.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Gateway+-+Desktop+/+Intel%26%23174;+Core%26%23153;+i7+Processor+/+8GB+Memory+/+1TB+Hard+Drive/9974337.p?id=1218204534081&skuId=9974337

How about now?