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Help on a budget Gaming machine Build

D

darkrisen2003

Senior member
Cannot exceed 900 bucks
Preferances:
NEWEGG.COM
Intel
Nvidia
Minimum 4 gigs ram

Having a hard time with this budget to get a nice gaming machine. I do not want to skimp on the motherboard or the power supply as these will be 2 parts you dont want to be cheap with. I tried to make a core i7 build on this budget and thats damn near impossible. I can put together a nice quad core with this budget but I end up skimping on quite alot. Was hoping having another set of hands and eyes looking would help me out. I have untill Saturday to come up with ideas.

I would really like to build him a core i7 machine but would be willing to settle for a higher end quad if I have to. I want him to have the option to upgrade the parts down the line that I have to skimp on and if I build something too old then thats just not going to be an option. I plan on signing him up for the windows 7 64 bit beta so he will have an OS untill next year. The only 2 things he will still need will be speakers and a monitor unless you great guys and gals of Anandtech can give a helpful hand.

Here is an example I came up with

Burner 22.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16827136144
Case W/Power Supply 99.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16811166014
Hard Drive 89.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16822136317
Video Card 129.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814130468
Keyboard and Mouse 24.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16823126174
Ram 46.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820145184
Motherboard 149.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813131296
CPU 269.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819115041
 
You could build a much better budget gaming system with a $100 socket 775 motherboard and $170-90 dual-core E8400 / E8500 CPU. That lets you get a GTX 275 which will add much more to gaming than two extra (slower) CPU cores sitting idle.
 
yes but we play MMO's and run multiple accounts on occasion so he could benefit from the quad core. Trust me im not liking having to skimp on anything here but im doing the best I can. Thank you for the suggestion.
 
Well, those are your options:

a) 775 dual-core, single-player goodness but weak MMO multiboxing.
b) i7, weak single-player graphics but good MMO multiboxing.
c) spend an extra ~$125 for both.
 
NEWEGG

Core i7- $279.99
Motherboard- $169.99-189.99
RAM- ~$60 6Gb

Those are very close your orginal prices what are you having trouble on?
 
for motherboards I couldnt find a reputable one under 250. I normally stick to Asus but heard EVGA was really awesome. after you take the motherboard and the cpu im already down 500 bucks and thats almost the whole budget before even getting the ram and video card. Not to mention getting a case and cpu etc. It's just hard. If you have any ideas please by all means let me know.
 
i wouldn't ditch the i7 just because the c2q is 50 bucks less...

personally i'd just build a fast c2d machine, save a bunch of money, and upgrade to a c2q later when they're cheaper. i'm not sure who came up with the idea that you can't run an mmo without a quad core.
 
Nobody did im just trying to keep him in the now as far as gaming goes etc. Everyone used to brow beat me for wanting quad core over dual core untill multicore support started being added to the games I play. Im hoping that Somehow I'll be able to put him together a core i7 machine for that budget but im just having a hard time doing it with under 900 bucks.

Can it be done?
 
Foxconn and MSI are great brands. I have the MSI X58 PRO and it's fantastic but if your heart for some reason is set on ASUS the P6T SE is $209.99.
 
The PSU is crap. Get a quality unit such as Corsair VX450 or 550, Seasonic S12II 430 or 500, or BFG LS-450 or 550.

Phenom II X4 would be a far better bang for the buck, along with an HD4890 or GTX275.
 
I hate amd almost as much as I hate anything apple so anything amd/ati is out. I apologize in advance as I know I will be completely flamed from all the amd pples but this comes from my experiances with amd/ati.

As far as the psu goes though I have to cutt some corners somewhere. I realize it isnt the highest wattage psu but the 12v rail has 20 amps which isnt completely horrible right?
 
considering it's supposed to be a 450w unit that's generally not a good indicator. i would expect to see 30a or more on most name brand 400-500w psu's. heck, some in the 300-400w range (seasonic comes to mind) are rated for more than 20a.

regardless of rating, buy a well-known brand. anything from antec, enermax, et al in the 500w+ range should be fine. you could go with less power, but you'll only save 10-20 bucks maybe.
 
Originally posted by: darkrisen2003
I hate amd almost as much as I hate anything apple so anything amd/ati is out. I apologize in advance as I know I will be completely flamed from all the amd pples but this comes from my experiances with amd/ati.

As far as the psu goes though I have to cutt some corners somewhere. I realize it isnt the highest wattage psu but the 12v rail has 20 amps which isnt completely horrible right?
Click to expand...

No it is completely horrible and you don't have to cut corners. I'd never use a case psu on a high end build. 20 amps isn't even enough not to mention the low quality components.
 
Originally posted by: darkrisen2003
what do you mean extra stuff? This is a complete machine build not an upgrade.
Click to expand...

No, each linked product is actually a redirect rather than a direct link to newegg.
 
It's odd because when you quote the original post, the redirects disappear.

I wonder if this is something AnandTech is doing to links in the forum software?
 
amd phenom II x4 810 - 169
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819103650

gigabyte am3 mobo - 139 minus 15 buck rebate.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813128378

4gb ddr3 - 59
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820231189

that's 380 or so, 365 with after rebate. i7 combo runs more like 550-600, as you saw. you still get ddr3 and a pretty decent quad core. case, psu, optical drive, hard drive could be done for about another 200, that leaves you about 300 bucks for a video card. your budget's not that tight, it's just hard to squeeze in an i7 for an under a grand (though it can be done, as posted above).
 
Originally posted by: darkrisen2003
I hate amd almost as much as I hate anything apple so anything amd/ati is out. I apologize in advance as I know I will be completely flamed from all the amd pples but this comes from my experiances with amd/ati.

As far as the psu goes though I have to cutt some corners somewhere. I realize it isnt the highest wattage psu but the 12v rail has 20 amps which isnt completely horrible right?
Click to expand...

 
well. that's stupid. but to each his own. the phenom II's are turning out to be decent performers and the x3's are a very nice value.

but he can get similar performance from the slightly lower clocked intel quads in the $150-200 pricerange.
 
sorry my opinions arent unwarrented as they come from many many bad experiances. We need AMD/ATI for competition to keep new things coming out and the prices going down but it will not me buying there products.
 
Originally posted by: darkrisen2003
sorry my opinions arent unwarrented as they come from many many bad experiances. We need AMD/ATI for competition to keep new things coming out and the prices going down but it will not me buying there products.
Click to expand...

Personally I've never had any problems with AMD/ATi, in my opinion they have the better value at this point in time.

Either way, you can't go wrong with Intel/nVidia either.

Are you absolutely sure you need the power of a i7 right now? Going to regular quad will drop at least $50 if not $100 off your budget, depending on what and where you get the quad.
 
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