Absent from PC gaming, looking to get back in.

[haas1mj]

The last build I did was in 2003-2004 and since then I upgraded the Video card once to a Radeon x800 a few years back. Needless to say i'm out of the loop on all of the latest technologies. I recently started playing Company of Heroes again and my rig is struggling to play it smoothly beyond 1024x768. I'm not against building my own its just been some years since I did it before, but if there are some online vendors that will have it pre-built (cyberwarepc, etc.) i'd prefer that if its comparable to me building it.

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.

About 95% gaming, I do my normal web surfing, music and other multimedia stuff on my macbook.

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread

$900-$1000

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.

United States, Newegg preferably

4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.
No preferences really, i've had success in the past with ati/nvidia and intel/amd.

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
Looking for a fresh brand new build.

6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.
I've looked over a decent amount of threads but I still feel that I don't exactly know what i'm looking for. Seems to be a lot of cpu choices that i'm clueless on

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
Never was into overclocking before so i'll probably keep it at the default speeds.

8. What resolution YOU plan on gaming with.
Anything up to 1920x1080.

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
Within the next month or so

 

[darkewaffle]

This ought to do the trick, or at least give you a good frame to work with.

4GB GSkill ECO RAM $100
MSI 1GB GTX 460 $205 AR
1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3 $60 w/ coupon
Antec Earthwatts 380w + Antec Three Hundred case $85
AMD Athlon II x4 635 + Win7 $190
ASUS 24in LCD $170 AR + coupon
ASUS CD/DVD Burner and ASUS 870 Mobo $118

Totals out to about $930 plus mostly free shipping, you'll need a KB + Mouse as well. Potential upgrade could be to move up to a Phenom II CPU, which would still keep you in budget.

 

[Davidh373]

This ought to do the trick, or at least give you a good frame to work with.

4GB GSkill ECO RAM $100
MSI 1GB GTX 460 $205 AR
1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3 $60 w/ coupon
Antec Earthwatts 380w + Antec Three Hundred case $85
AMD Athlon II x4 635 + Win7 $190
ASUS 24in LCD $170 AR + coupon
ASUS CD/DVD Burner and ASUS 870 Mobo $118

Totals out to about $930 plus mostly free shipping, you'll need a KB + Mouse as well. Potential upgrade could be to move up to a Phenom II CPU, which would still keep you in budget.

This is a good one. Most of the time manufacturers build with inferior motherboards and ram, IMO it's not worth chancing it, especially with the kind of budget you have.

 

[mfenn]

Darke's build is as good as always, but if you really don't want to build it yourself, the Dell Studio XPS 7100 is a pretty decent deal. For about $1000, you can get a Phenom II X6 1035T with a 5870 and 4GB of RAM.

 

[Davidh373]

Darke's build is as good as always, but if you really don't want to build it yourself, the Dell Studio XPS 7100 is a pretty decent deal. For about $1000, you can get a Phenom II X6 1035T with a 5870 and 4GB of RAM.

That's a F#$%in' sweet deal! The 5870 alone is $350! It's probably a cheapish MoBo/ RAM build though. I'd take that chance though.

 

[haas1mj]

I went ahead and ordered the monitor, hard drive and video card so far. If I wanted to get a more powerful cpu than the AMD Athlon II x4 635 which one should I be looking at?

 

[darkewaffle]

Well, there's the Athlon II X4 640 haha.

But if you're looking for a real step up it would be to a Phenom II 955/965 or one of the Thuban processors (1055T or 1090T). I'd recommend taking a look at the Anandtech bench for the 635 vs the 955 and the 635 vs the 1055t before you pull the trigger though. You'll never know the difference for normal desktop usage, and the performance delta in games is really not that substantial.

 

[haas1mj]

Is the 380w power supply going to be sufficient or should I be looking into a larger one? I guess I don't fully understand what is necessary wattage and what is overkill.

 

[CurseTheSky]

Is the 380w power supply going to be sufficient or should I be looking into a larger one? I guess I don't fully understand what is necessary wattage and what is overkill.

For a system with a single video card, dual core or non-overclocked quad core processor, and single hard drive, 380W should be sufficient. However, it doesn't give you much growing room if you decide to upgrade to a more power-hungry graphics card or overclock your processor later.

I highly suggest going with something around 500-650W minimum. It may be overkill now, but it'll pay for itself later if you do decide to upgrade. Make sure to buy something of well known quality - I personally prefer Corsair, Antec, and Seasonic. Stay away from junk brands like Powmax, Coolmax, Apevia, etc.