Building a brand new gaming desktop

[andrewboon]

I am going to be building a brand new gaming desktop for the upcoming MMO called Star Wars : The Old Republic. I am going to be starting from scratch with absolutely nothing. I am a beginner when it comes to PC building and have never built a PC in my life.

My PC will be used for playing Star Wars : The Old Republic, typing essays for school, and general internet surfing/YouTube. I am not really interested in any other games except for Star Wars : The Old Republic, because I have an Xbox 360 for those other games like MW3, BF3, Skyrim, etc.

My budget is $650.00

I live in the U.S.A. and will be buying my parts online or from my local stores depending on your suggestions

I don't have a brand preference. I am honestly clueless when it comes to PC Building. I am very good at using computers, just not building them/understanding specs.

I am not sure what overclocking is. Could someone explain this to me?

I would like to have my PC fully built before December 15th.

Basically I just need help making a PC for my needs (which were stated above) Here is what I have gotten so far from my other thread. I would appreciate some constructive criticism as to whether or not these parts are a good choice. If you have any other suggestions please let me know. Thanks!


SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6850 100315L Video Card with Eyefinity
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102908

CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 V2 430W Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139026

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231277

GIGABYTE GZ-KF03B Black Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811233067

Intel Core i3-2100 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 2000 BX80623I32100
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115078

Hanns·G HZ201DPB Black 20" WideScreen LCD Monitor w/Speakers
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824254055

GIGABYTE GA-H61M-DS2 LGA 1155 Intel H61 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...a-_-na&AID=10440897&PID=3332167&SID=u00000687

ASUS 24X DVD Burner
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827135204

Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA hard drive WD5000AAKX 16MB 7200RPM (Normally 120$, getting it for 90$ from a store.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136769

 

[DominionSeraph]

Looks pretty decent, but that motherboard isn't compatible with that processor. (1156 for a 1155 processor)

Lemme see what I can come up with.

As for overclocking, it refers to raising the bus speed or CPU multiplier to make your processor run faster than its rated speed. (Neither of which can you do with the i3)

 

[andrewboon]

Oh I did not know that processors had to be compatible with motherboards. Yea, I would appreciate if you could find an alternative thanks

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

That was my bad. Not used to newer sockets and suggested that in another thread.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157241 is equivalent?

or maybe http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128527 (I personally have had good experience with gigabyte).

 

[andrewboon]

Sweet I'll take the Gigabyte one since it's cheaper. Thanks.

AyashiKaibutsu, what are your personal thoughts on my setup? Will it be good enough to run SWTOR at 60-100 FPS? Thanks again

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

I think it's about the best you could do for ~600, but I don't follow SWTOR closely so I'm not sure what it's performance would be. I was suggesting to post here so you could get opinions from people who follow this stuff more closely. Seems like it's a slow night though : (

 

[DominionSeraph]

Seems like it's a slow night though : (

Hey, this is ultra-budget needing a monitor in a $650 build. We can't just throw together our go-to mid-range selections. It's taking me some time to run my Newegg-fu.

I'm about done though.

 

[andrewboon]

I think it's about the best you could do for ~600, but I don't follow SWTOR closely so I'm not sure what it's performance would be. I was suggesting to post here so you could get opinions from people who follow this stuff more closely. Seems like it's a slow night though : (

Have you ever played World of Warcraft? It has about the same system requirements, but SWTOR requires a bit more because its graphics are better.

 

[andrewboon]

Hey, this is ultra-budget needing a monitor in a $650 build. We can't just throw together our go-to mid-range selections. It's taking me some time to run my Newegg-fu.

I'm about done though.

I guess I could bring my budget up to 700$. It's only 50$ more I guess lol. I will just work overtime haha.

 

[lehtv]

The 1600MHz RAM will be forced to run at 1333MHz on a H61 board. G.skill 2x4gb 1333 kit for $40. Or 4GB kit for $23

 

[andrewboon]

The 1600MHz RAM will be forced to run at 1333MHz on a H61 board. G.skill 2x4gb 1333 kit for $40. Or 4GB kit for $23

What does the 1600 MHz and 1333 MHz mean exactly? Also what do you suggest? Choose a new motherboard or get the kits?

 

[bcoupland]

If you're going to spend $90 on a 500gb hard drive, get a 64-128gb ssd instead and buy a hard drive for bulk storage once prices come down in six months.

 

[andrewboon]

If you're going to spend $90 on a 500gb hard drive, get a 64-128gb ssd instead and buy a hard drive for bulk storage once prices come down in six months.

Excellent idea. I was just thinking about that. Thanks

 

[DominionSeraph]

Here's what I came up with:

GTX 460 is the twin to the 6850.
That case actually has a case fan. (according to user reviews the Gigabyte doesn't come with any. Two 120mm is better than zero)
The z68 motherboard means this could eventually be upgraded to the i5 2500k.
23" monitor is a helluva lot better than 20".

Note the promo codes for the case and the DVD drive. (There's an extra in there for a 6870 I was looking at. Ignore it)

I specced a SSD because hard drive prices are outrageous right now. Why pay outrageous prices for a simple spindle drive when you can get a SSD that will be sufficient space for now and pick up a regular hard drive later when they're back at $50 for a 1TB?

Wait, hang on, I forgot Zotac sucks for rebates. Lemme switch out that video card.

 

[andrewboon]

Here's what I came up with:

GTX 460 is the twin to the 6850.
That case actually has a case fan. (according to user reviews the Gigabyte doesn't come with any. Two 120mm is better than zero)
The z68 motherboard means this could eventually be upgraded to the i5 2500k.
23" monitor is a helluva lot better than 20".

Note the promo codes for the case and the DVD drive. (There's an extra in there for a 6870 I was looking at. Ignore it)

I specced a SSD because hard drive prices are outrageous right now. Why pay outrageous prices for a simple spindle drive when you can get a SSD that will be sufficient space for now and pick up a regular hard drive later when they're back at $50 for a 1TB?

Wait, hang on, I forgot Zotac sucks for rebates. Lemme switch out that video card.

Wow I think I am going to buy that exact setup. Thank you! how did you get those discount codes?

 

[DominionSeraph]

Updated with non-Zotac rebate card.

The promo code on the 6850 will probably expire in a few hours. (it's only a $6 difference including shipping between that and the Sapphire 6850, but $6 is $6. The Sapphire does come with Dirt 3, though -- up to you whether you want that or not.)

 

[andrewboon]

What's the difference between the graphics card you suggested and the one I posted?

 

[lehtv]

What does the 1600 MHz and 1333 MHz mean exactly? Also what do you suggest? Choose a new motherboard or get the kits?

MHz means the memory's clock frequency, you can loosely intepret it as its "speed". 1600MHz is faster than 1333MHz. In practice the difference between these two, it wouldn't be reason enough to buy a different motherboard. A valid reason to buy a H67 chipset board would be need for any of USB 3.0, SATA 6gb/s or 4 memory slots. Some H61 boards have USB 3.0 or 4 slots, if I recall correctly. Incidentally, SATA 6gb/s is the most useful feature out of these I would say, as it lets you take advantage of fast SSDs. But the Z68 motherboard + i3-2100 combo suggested by DominionSeraph is good.

 

[DominionSeraph]

What's the difference between the graphics card you suggested and the one I posted?

The Gigabyte has two fans (not that the 6850 really needs them -- it's a quite efficient card) and has slightly better reviews. It also has free shipping and $5 more in MIR, so with the promo code it's $6 cheaper.

 

[andrewboon]

The Gigabyte has two fans (not that the 6850 really needs them -- it's a quite efficient card) and has slightly better reviews. It also has free shipping and $5 more in MIR, so with the promo code it's $6 cheaper.

Alright thank you for your time to build a setup for me. I am going to buy all of those now. The power supply is able to power all of those things right? And will the graphics card you suggested fit in the case? I read some reviews that people said you should make sure it can fit because it's a larger graphics card.

 

[DominionSeraph]

Alright thank you for your time to build a setup for me. I am going to buy all of those now. The power supply is able to power all of those things right?

Yup. This shows the 6850 in an overclocked i7 920 rig:

The i3 uses waaaay less power than the old i7 920.

And will the graphics card you suggested fit in the case? I read some reviews that people said you should make sure it can fit because it's a larger graphics card.

"Fits large 11.5" performance graphics cards"

The 6850 is 9" long.

 

[andrewboon]

I think this is a dumb question, but this setup will be faster than my current Macbook Pro 13" right? This mac uses a intel core 2 duo 2.4 GHz processor and I think it surfs the web really fast haha

 

[lehtv]

Oh easily. Here's i3-2100 vs a Core 2 Duo 2.66GHz which is faster than what you have in the Mac: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/289?vs=58

In terms of how fast the PC feels outside of gaming, the SSD will make a huge difference.

 

[mfenn]

Dominion's build looks pretty good to me, especially once you factor in the $65 worth of rebates. My biggest concern is the SSD capacity. A SW:TOR install is 20GB minimum, and that will only grow with content patches and expansions.

 

[andrewboon]

Dominion's build looks pretty good to me, especially once you factor in the $65 worth of rebates. My biggest concern is the SSD capacity. A SW:TOR install is 20GB minimum, and that will only grow with content patches and expansions.

What is the difference between a Solid State Drive and a Hard Drive? Also I am going to use the Solid State Drive until Hard Drive prices go down, then I'll buy one.