Looking to Build a Gaming Rig

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pcgamer321

Member
Jan 22, 2008
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1. What YOUR PC will be used for.

1. Gaming
2. Web surfing and other general stuff like word processor.
3. Movies

Games: I listed the more intense ones
-Crysis
-World In Conflict
-Supreme Commander
-Call of Duty 4
-Oblivion
-Flight Simulator X


2. Price range

Range: Up to $2000

-The best possible for $2000 would be great.


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

United States
-NewEgg


4. Brand preference

Nothing Really, some preferences.
-Crucial
-ATi

*Don't need to give me parts from ATi or Crucial if something better is out their.


5. Any parts being reused.

None
-After buying pc, some mixing and matching with my brother

All parts needed including
-Monitor
-20" is preferred
-Keyboard
-Mouse
-Speakers



6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.

Yep. Lots of them. Got some ideas of what to get, but still not sure.


7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.

Yes, overclocking is something I like to do.



The pc parts market is a large one lol.


Parts:

Processor:Core 2 Duo E8400- $220
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Hard Drive: Seagate Barracude 7200.11 500g- $120
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RAM: Crucial Ballistix ddr2 800 2gX2(4gig)-$150
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PSU: Corsair 620HX- $170
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Motherboard:DFI LP UT P35 TR2- $240
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Video Card:Sapphire HD 3870 x2- $450
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Optical Drive: Samsung 20x DVD Burner- $34
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Case:Antec 900- $120
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Heatsink:Tuniq Tower 120- $45
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Monitor:HP w2007- $260
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Speakers: Logitech G51- $140
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Keyboard: Logitech G15- $90
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Mouse:Logitech G9 or Razer Banshee- $80
(Will get both of them, one for me and one for my brother)


Total: $2119
 
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PolymerTim

Senior member
Apr 29, 2002
383
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Wow, that leaves a lot of room open. Can you clarify just a couple more things: 1) Does the $2k budget include the monitor? 2) Do you want the best gaming rig you can get for $2k or do you just want a very good one and cheaper is better?

Also, what games do you play, or intend to play since that may help determine how powerful a system you need.
 
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pcgamer321

Member
Jan 22, 2008
179
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Originally posted by: djnsmith7
Does the $2k include the monitor?...What size monitor do you want?...We can start there...

I'm building 2 gaming rigs right now...You can view the specs here.
Click to expand...

Like I put in my post, yes. Monitor is needed, but it may have been hard to see with all the writing, so I edited my post for easier reading.

Thanks for the link, will take a look.
 
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pcgamer321

Member
Jan 22, 2008
179
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Originally posted by: angry hampster
Also, Flight Sim X won't play smoothly at HI-res on any computer. It's a terribly designed game. You're better off just flying with 2004.
Click to expand...
I already have it. I don't need it to run at like 60fps either. I found that 20fps is good enough for flight sim.

 
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pcgamer321

Member
Jan 22, 2008
179
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ok, should I go phenom or Core 2?

I do have a little AMD in me lol, but I don't want to get the Phenom just because I like AMD.
 
DSF

DSF

Diamond Member
Oct 6, 2007
4,902
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Originally posted by: pcgamer321
ok, should I go phenom or Core 2?

I do have a little AMD in me lol, but I don't want to get the Phenom just because I like AMD.
Click to expand...

Core 2 > Phenom.

I think Phenom might be slightly less expensive, but Core2 is higher quality, and with your budget there's no reason to skimp.
 
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chinaman1472

Senior member
Nov 20, 2007
614
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E8400 is the best for gaming. Games don't take advantage of the quad cores. $220ish.
Snag a Tuniq Tower or a Thermalright 120 for around $45 for your aftermarket heatsink.
Samsung 22" monitor runs about $250 AR on Newegg.
4GB DDR2 800 RAM, easily under $100 AR. G.Skill, OCZ, Crucial, Corsair all make good memory.
Corsair 420vx or 520vx for your power supply, under $100
Antec cases are really nice, P190 or P180 series or the 900, will run you around $100-150 I think.
CD/DVD Burners will cost you about $30.
500GB Hard Drives can be found at $100ish, I hear Samsung has a really quiet one.
Here's a setup for around $1200 minus the video card, motherboard, and speakers.
You can either get a nice motherboard to overclock your CPU and use 1 video card, or SLi 8800 GT and get a 780i motherboard (probably won't be as good OC as the Intel boards).
 
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PolymerTim

Senior member
Apr 29, 2002
383
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I second chinaman's suggestions.

For the motherboard first ask yourself if you want SLI, Crossfire, or RAID and that will help you narrow down your chipset. I think you will probably find your best deal with a P35motherboard. You can find some very good suggestions in this thread. Make sure you pay attention to the features of the motherboard to make sure it has what you want.

Quad cores are only helpful when programs are designed to take advantage of them. Games will get there eventually, but most games today are lucky to take use of 2 cores. So the max speed is going to be the most important and dual cores can generally clock higher than quad cores. I agree that the E8400 is at the sweet spot for price/performance.

Video cards are kind of tricky right now in that there really isn't a true high end card out right now and there is a lot of speculation about when they will come. For now, the best value is the 8800GT. There are a couple options that are a little faster but for significantly more money they aren't really a good buy. It may be best to go with the 8800GT for now and then upgrade to a true high-end card when they come out. You could SLI two 8800GTs, but keep in mind that this can be a little glitchy at times and doesn't always scale well depending on the game.
 
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MegaVovaN

Diamond Member
May 20, 2005
4,131
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Originally posted by: PolymerTim
You could SLI two 8800GTs, but keep in mind that this can be a little glitchy at times and doesn't always scale well depending on the game.
Click to expand...

Plus you pay ~$100 more for x38 motherboard that would support SLI. SLI as an upgrade strategy is bad idea.
 
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pcgamer321

Member
Jan 22, 2008
179
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I get it, so quad is basically for video and photo editing, while everything else does not utilize it, making it just something to brag about lol.

Corsair 620w still considered one of the best today?
 
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pcgamer321

Member
Jan 22, 2008
179
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well thats good, as I used it before and really liked it. I'll get it again this time. Can't reuse any parts as this computer will fully go to my brother.

Basically I have an idea for everything but motherboard and video card.

 
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MegaVovaN

Diamond Member
May 20, 2005
4,131
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MegaVovaN

Diamond Member
May 20, 2005
4,131
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3870x2....I don't know much about this card, a week or 2 ago there were NO official drivers for it, not sure about now.

In short, there were no benchmarks to show how it compares to other cards because there are no drivers...
 
aigomorla

aigomorla

CPU, Cases&Cooling Mod PC Gaming Mod Elite Member
Super Moderator
Sep 28, 2005
21,070
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Originally posted by: angry hampster
Also, Flight Sim X won't play smoothly at HI-res on any computer. It's a terribly designed game. You're better off just flying with 2004.
Click to expand...

i bet it would play decient on an overclockd skulltrail. :T


OP, dont cheap on the board and dont cheap on the psu.

P5K-DLX or E Or a Gigabyte P35-DS4 or DS3P or DQ6

Avoid SLI because your very limited on the chipsets that can afford it. The only intel chipset that will offer sli will blow half your budget for just the board + ram :p

The X2's are showing to be impressive. They rank #1 amung single slot card solution. But of course its 2 gpu's on 1 card.
 
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