building $1000-$1100 computer. Help please.

[Janked]

Hello,

I am looking to build a new machine mainly for gaming (wow, starcraft II and diablo III) but also internet and some office work.

I have a budget of $1000-$1100.

I live in the US (with a microcenter not too far away).

I have no brand preference.

I do not need speakers, monitor, mouse, keyboard or OS.

I have been reading similar threads and I am thinking of going with the i7930 which is currently on sale for 199.00 at microcenter.

No real plans to overclock. I have no idea how to do it and figure I would destroy the machine in the process.

My monitor is 1680x1050 and I plan on using that.

I plan on trying this out in the next 30 days or so. Depends if I can wait.

Any help and comments would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[heyheybooboo]

MSI 870A-G54 / Phenom 95BE: $225 AR

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600: $89
(promo code ends today)

New Egg/Rosewill Case w/free shipping: $30-$50
(I like the R218-P-BK --- it's got 12 inches in the 'clear' for the video card of your dreams )

SAMSUNG HD754JJ 750GB: $60

You won't necessarily be able to squeeze in an HD 5970 (but you are really close !!)




--

 

[mfenn]

GA-P55A-UD3 $130
Core i7 875K $200 at MC in-store only
G.Skill DDR3 1600 4GB $89 today only, $99 thereafter
GTX 460 768MB $210
Samsung F3 1TB $75
Samsing DVD Burner $23
Corsair 650TX $90
Antex Three Hundred $60
Total: $877

That's a good gaming system for 1680x1050. If you want to get closer to $1100, swap out the GTX 460 for a 5870.

 

[MisterDonut]

^. Those are pretty much the most popular parts for your budget range. Consider tossing in an SSD now or when prices drop within the next year. And I thought the 1GB version was the one to get?

Overclockings not too hard. There are some good guides on AT, but you can always just let TurboBoost do it for you, which is even more reason to get 1156 as Bloomfield turbos like a weenie. If you do choose to do some mild OC, toss in a Hyper212+ for an aftermarket. It won't take the heat from record speeds though.

 

[mfenn]

The 1GB 460 is the one to get, but it is OOS at the moment as all availability is via air freight for the next week are so.

 

[Janked]

Thanks for the suggestions. Just a few questions.

Does the i7875 have better performance than the 930 or is it a matter of lower cost/ more stable motherboard?

With the SSD is it a serious performance upgrade for the money? Is it easy to run concurrently with a regular bigger hard drive for music, video ect? Can I upgrade to one in a year or so with relative ease or is it better to do it now while initially building it?

I was thinking 6gb of ram. Is this foolishly wasting cash relative to performance gains?

I am leaning pretty hard to the 930. Any suggestions on a quality stable mother board? Again no need for superior overclocking ability.

Thanks again for the suggestions and help.

 

[MisterDonut]

Oh, I haven't checked on availability..

Better Turbo, and it saves on RAM + Mobo. I pieced together my 930 (which I also got from MC), and it was not cheap . Looking at roughly +$40 on the mobo, and + $50-60 on the RAM. Yeah, just run your bulk data and games off an F3 and use the SSD for primarily a system drive. If you want to wait, SSD prices are looking to drop within the next year. You can always build this now, buy one then and stick it in (that's what she said! ). If you are NOT going to OC, go 1156 for sure. You'll get better performance. You won't feel the difference between 4GB and 6GB...your wallet will.

 

[mfenn]

Yeah, what Donut said. If you don't plan to OC, the 875K is the better chip because of it's massive turbo boost.

 

[Janked]

I like to idea of cheaper parts with the 875 but my local Microcenter does not have the special on the site. It is listed at like $300.00. The 930 is $199.00.

 

[Kenmitch]

I like to idea of cheaper parts with the 875 but my local Microcenter does not have the special on the site. It is listed at like $300.00. The 930 is $199.00.

That's because the deal is no longer valid anymore. It was just a typo in the ad that they decided to bite the bullet and honer it.

I'd suggest some stuff for ya....But I don't believe in running stock speeds and my choices are based on overclocking potential

You can find the i7 875K in the forsale/trade forum and sometimes on ebay for a reasonable price if the chip looks like a winner to you. For someone who doesn't plan on overclocking it does have some umph!

 

[R04R]

You guys don't have to completely exhaust his wallet/budget . Since you plan on gaming and some "office work" (I assume it's fairly basic), a Phenom II x4 and an 870 mobo should be more than enough paired along with a better graphics card because of the money saved from the processor/mobo.

Processor and Power Supply

AMD Phenom II x4 955 Black Edition
and
Corsair 550w 80plus certified +12V@41Amps
$219

Motherboard and RAM

GIGABYTE GA-870A-UD3 AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
and
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600)
$150

Computer Case

Cooler Master CM 690II Basic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
$70

Hard Drive and connecting cable

Samsung Spinpoint F3 7200rpm 1TB Hard Drive-Bare Drive
and
3ft. SATA Cable with locking latch
$76

Optical Drive

LITE-ON CD/DVD Burner-OEM
$20

$536 Subtotal
$45 Tax
$12 Shipping

-$10 Mail-in Rebate from power supply
-$10 from Promo $10 Gift card for the processor
$566.44 Grand Total

All this was $566~586 (depending on if you count MIR as $). Now the rest of your budget can be spent on a graphics card of your choice (and even an SSD).

 

[mfenn]

I like to idea of cheaper parts with the 875 but my local Microcenter does not have the special on the site. It is listed at like $300.00. The 930 is $199.00.

That's because the deal is no longer valid anymore. It was just a typo in the ad that they decided to bite the bullet and honer it.

I'd suggest some stuff for ya....But I don't believe in running stock speeds and my choices are based on overclocking potential

You can find the i7 875K in the forsale/trade forum and sometimes on ebay for a reasonable price if the chip looks like a winner to you. For someone who doesn't plan on overclocking it does have some umph!

They've never listed the 875K at $200 on the site, but I've always been able to get it for that much. YMMV

If you don't want to get the 875K, then I would suggest the 860 for < $200 because it has all of the same advantages over the 930.

 

[mfenn]

You guys don't have to completely exhaust his wallet/budget . Since you plan on gaming and some "office work" (I assume it's fairly basic), a Phenom II x4 and an 870 mobo should be more than enough paired along with a better graphics card because of the money saved from the processor/mobo.

Processor and Power Supply

AMD Phenom II x4 955 Black Edition
and
Corsair 550w 80plus certified +12V@41Amps
$219

Motherboard and RAM

GIGABYTE GA-870A-UD3 AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
and
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600)
$150

Computer Case

Cooler Master CM 690II Basic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
$70

Hard Drive and connecting cable

Samsung Spinpoint F3 7200rpm 1TB Hard Drive-Bare Drive
and
3ft. SATA Cable with locking latch
$76

Optical Drive

LITE-ON CD/DVD Burner-OEM
$20

$536 Subtotal
$45 Tax
$12 Shipping

-$10 Mail-in Rebate from power supply
-$10 from Promo $10 Gift card for the processor
$566.44 Grand Total

All this was $566~586 (depending on if you count MIR as $). Now the rest of your budget can be spent on a graphics card of your choice (and even an SSD).

And that is supposed to be significantly cheaper then the builds suggested above once you throw a GPU in?

 

[BinarySolo]

My suggestion: This build has two great combo deals, ram with low timings, and a cheap but excellent case. Only go i7-930 if you're using crossfire/sli, otherwise there's no point. If it's mostly a gaming build, there's really no point in getting an i7 at all (even an 860) since your framerate won't improve. (The only thing you're missing by going i5 instead of i7 is hyperthreading, and you can easily overclock the i5 to be at i7 speeds). Throw a dvd burner into this build and it comes to about $900 because that WD Caviar Black 750gb actually has a promo code right now for $20 off.

 

[MisterDonut]

I spy a non-reference cooler =o. Go with reference or Vapor-x. Though I think you'll be better off with the 460 @ your resolution.

True, a Phenom will game just as well, but you're looking at way better resell stats (IMO), and the difference is a mere $100. Would be up to the OP to opt for AM3 vs. 1156. I'd try to snoop around Microcenter and try to get them to sell you the deal on the 875 .

 

[Janked]

If i go with the i5 processor will i be able to run most games at high settings with ease?

And as far as graphics cards go is the gtx or 5850 the way to go?

Finally when i say office work i mean like spreadsheets and word not much else.

Thanks again for all the comments.

 

[mfenn]

An i5 750 will not hold you back in games.

The 5850 is perhaps 10&#37; faster on average, but costs about 33% more. It's up to you whether or not the extra performance is worth the cost.

 

[BinarySolo]

I spy a non-reference cooler =o. Go with reference or Vapor-x.

I chose that combo with the non reference cooler because it's $40 less than if you were get that PSU with this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-477-_-Product

I'm in the market for a 5850 myself and am trying to decide if that combo is worth it or if I should go with a Sapphire 5850, or one of those XFX ones. Hmm..

 

[MisterDonut]

I'd definitely go with Vapor-x or reference cooler. I've heard of VRM cooling nightmares on the non-reference ones, but I haven't looked into it, so maybe somebody can tell me what's really up with that. I went with XFX because their stuff has been 100&#37; reliable for me so far, but I know many people who opt for Sapphire...Really what it should come down to is which is the cheaper card.

For the OP's resolution, the GTX460 is the way to go, IMO. You'll probably notice few differences in most games maxed out. Don't get me wrong, the differences are there, but you'd probably get similar real world gaming experience. Anything with 4 cores will most likely not bottleneck any game.

 

[MisterDonut]

Stupid internet. Another double post.

 

[Lee Saxon]

I don't know whether or not it's really worth it heat- and power-savings-wise, but I'm thinking about investing a little more for a more efficient power supply than the Corsairs that have been mentioned.

In my case, considering the Enermax Pro87+ 600

 

[mfenn]

I don't know whether or not it's really worth it heat- and power-savings-wise, but I'm thinking about investing a little more for a more efficient power supply than the Corsairs that have been mentioned.

In my case, considering the Enermax Pro87+ 600

Did you mean to post in your other thread? Anyway, the you'll have to use the PSU for a ridiculously long time to break even on cost.

 

[Lee Saxon]

Did you mean to post in your other thread? Anyway, the you'll have to use the PSU for a ridiculously long time to break even on cost.

Nah, I was commenting on the Corsair units being suggested here.

So the difference in power usage between an ~85&#37; PSU and an ~91% won't make up the difference in cost on a 24/7 system planned to last around 4 years?

 

[mfenn]

Nah, I was commenting on the Corsair units being suggested here.

So the difference in power usage between an ~85&#37; PSU and an ~91% won't make up the difference in cost on a 24/7 system planned to last around 4 years?

Assuming your average system power draw is ~160W (reasonable since it will be idle the vast majority of the time), the more efficient PSU will save you 455.5KWH over 4 years. At the national average rate, that will save you about $50 over the life of the unit. So to answer your question, no. It it looks even worse when you consider than most systems are not run 24/7 for 4 years.

 

[Lee Saxon]

Very interesting, thanks.

Sorry for the thread detour, OP.