build or buy?

[ZippyDan]

The last computer i bought was a dell deal almost 2 years ago for about $600

Q6600 (now overclocked to 2.6ghz)
1 GB RAM
250GB HDD
24" Monitor

I spent an additional $200 on a video card and 4GB of RAM to turn it into a capable gaming machine.

I now want to spend about $600 to build a new gaming machine (WITHOUT a monitor).

My inclination is to wait for another deal on some brand name, and then throw in some more memory and a video card as I did last time. But I'm wondering if I can achieve similar value by building something myself (I have plenty of legal licenses for Windows, so don't need to include that in price).

 

[Nitemare]

can easily build a nice box for that, what OS and do you already have a license?

 

[pollardhimself]

Build Build Build

Newegg.com etc...

 

[ZippyDan]

can easily build a nice box for that, what OS and do you already have a license?

yes, i am IT manager for my company so I have plenty of (legal) licenses.

 

[Axon]

Oh, build then, for sure. You can easily get an i5 750 and a decent video card for that price if you have some parts you can reuse, like a power supply and case.

 

[ZippyDan]

Oh, build then, for sure. You can easily get an i5 750 and a decent video card for that price if you have some parts you can reuse, like a power supply and case.

parts that i can re-use: OS, mouse, keyboard, monitor, hard drive, dvd drive.

 

[ZippyDan]

anyone want to critique what i've put together?

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...tCode=10012149 <-- $76.99 after rebate. Gets 5 stars on newegg. Takes DDR3
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...tCode=10010122 <-- $129.99. I have a quad-core now, don't want to go backwards.
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...tCode=10006757 <-- $82.99 after rebate. I like 5-year warranty. 5 stars on newegg.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227503 <-- $95.99 after rebate. 5 stars on newegg.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150447 <-- $169.99. I want eyefinity, so must go ATI. I like double lifetime warranty from XFX. This seems like the best price. They have same chipset for $10 less, but supposedly noisier fan.

I just bought an Antec 300 case at Microcenter for about $45 + tax this weekend.

Total: right about $600 (don't pay any tax or shipping on stuff I linked to)

 

[Fayd]

that 5770 has a noisy fan.

I got fed up with it, and installed an accellero L2. much better.

 

[ZippyDan]

that 5770 has a noisy fan.

I got fed up with it, and installed an accellero L2. much better.

my research said that the nonJuniper is noisy but that the Juniper is not. wrong?

 

[Axon]

Are you getting a combo deal with the AMD 925? You might as well get a 955 for $20 more.

 

[jchu14]

I would suggest you get the egg-shaped cooler instead of the shroud cooler.

http://www.anandtech.com/weblog/showpost.aspx?i=664 suggests that the egg shaped cooler is cooler, quieter, and cheaper.

I have the a Sapphire 5770 with the egg-shaped cooler, and I would consider the cooler to be quiet at 30% fan speed and very quiet at 20%(minimum in CCC) fan speed.

At 40%, the fan can be clearly heard over my 120mm cpu and case fan at 400rpm. At 20%, the noise level is on par with bearing noise of my 7200rpm HD. I currently have the fan speed locked at 20% speed at both idle and load. My idle temp is ~32C and load (furmark) temp is about ~74C.