Medium Budget Gaming Rig

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mphartzheim

Member
Jan 25, 2006
93
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I've been out of the PC building business for a few years now (bought a Dell followed by 2 laptops), and now I'm looking to piece my own rig together again. I've got a medium budget to spend ($1200-1600), and I've already bought my monitor (Sceptre 20.1" Naga-III - $380 of my budget).

Here's the rest of what I'm looking at:
Mobo: DFI NF4 Ultra Infinity - $93.99
CPU: Athlon 64 3200+ Venice - $159.80
Case: Raidmax X1 ATX - $49.99
PSU: Antec TruePower II 550W - $89.99
RAM: Patriot Signature 2GB (2x1GB) - $159.95
Video: eVGA GeForce 7800GT 256MB - $314.00
HDD: Western Digital Caviar 250GB SATA II 7200 RPM - $103.90
DVD: Pioneer DVD Burner DVR-110DBK - $38.99
Total shipped cost: $1053.93
Add monitor cost: $1433.91

What changes would you make that will either save me money or only minimally add to the cost?

Is there anything I missed? (I already have a keyboard and mouse, and I've been told the retail heatsink on the AMD 64 CPUs is beefy enough on its own.)

Thanks in advance.
 
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emilyek

Senior member
Mar 1, 2005
511
0
0
Also check out the XCLIO 450W it's only $42 now at newegg. It's good. I got one.

Save another $50 by getting an 80gig HDD, unless you absolutely need 250GB of space.

If you can squeeze out that extra $100-- try and upgrade to a 3500 ($200) and a 2 x 1 kit of GSKILL DDR500-- the ones with the black heatspreaders ($200)

That's my suggestion anyway :)
 
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Magicbear

Junior Member
Jan 23, 2006
4
0
0
You gaming rig looks all right to me. I don't see anything that will be incompatible in your build.
 
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mphartzheim

Member
Jan 25, 2006
93
0
61
I don't plan on overclocking.

I think I'll drop down to the CLIO 450W PSU. That looks like a good, reliable unit from reviews, and seems like it will be more than enough power.

I've never heard of GSKILL RAM until I started looking over these forums. Am I going to even notice any performance increase over the Patriot RAM for that $50 more? Same question for upgrading to the 3500+... will I even be able to notice the difference?

Thanks for the feedback.
 
cKGunslinger

cKGunslinger

Lifer
Nov 29, 1999
16,408
57
91
Originally posted by: mphartzheim
I've been out of the PC building business for a few years now (bought a Dell followed by 2 laptops), and now I'm looking to piece my own rig together again. I've got a medium budget to spend ($1200-1600), and I've already bought my monitor (Sceptre 20.1" Naga-III - $380 of my budget).

Here's the rest of what I'm looking at:
Mobo: DFI NF4 Ultra Infinity - $93.99
CPU: Athlon 64 3200+ Venice - $159.80
Case: Raidmax X1 ATX - $49.99
PSU: Antec TruePower II 550W - $89.99
RAM: Patriot Signature 2GB (2x1GB) - $159.95
Video: eVGA GeForce 7800GT 256MB - $314.00
HDD: Western Digital Caviar 250GB SATA II 7200 RPM - $103.90
DVD: Pioneer DVD Burner DVR-110DBK - $38.99
Total shipped cost: $1053.93
Add monitor cost: $1433.91

What changes would you make that will either save me money or only minimally add to the cost?

Is there anything I missed? (I already have a keyboard and mouse, and I've been told the retail heatsink on the AMD 64 CPUs is beefy enough on its own.)

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

Looks pretty good. Personally, I would make the following changes:

* Opteron 144 + overclock (but you're not into OCing.) Also, the price keeps going up, so I'm not sure if it's still worth the premium.
* Lesser PSU - (example) - save ~$50
* Lesser Video Card - X800GTO2 can be unlocked and OC'd for near-7800 speeds - save $100


In my opinion, those items would provide more "bang-for-the-buck," but there's certainly nothing wrong with you current selections. I'm building almost the exact same system in a few weeks, but with a Dell 2005fpw.

Good luck.
 
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stelleg151

Senior member
Sep 2, 2004
822
0
0
I would recommend the 3000+, and really if you want more CPU power later on, which I doubt you will need for quite some time for gaming, you can OC it to far past 3500+ speeds. Same thing goes for the Opty, but really very little performance difference between the two, and the opty is really only the better choice for extreme oc'ers. I would recommend a cheaper Fortron, but I know very little about Clio, they might be just fine. Dont spend extra money on faster ram. Get the cheapest budget ram u can find with a somewhat well known name. Your single core cpu will feel virtually zero difference from faster ram.

Edit: Woops, didnt realize u already had a montor

Good job with the rig, I think you will enjoy it thoroughly.
 
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mphartzheim

Member
Jan 25, 2006
93
0
61
stelleg, why would you go with the 3000+ over the 3200+? The 3000+ runs at 1.8ghz and costs $25 more than the 3200+ (which runs at 2.0ghz). A slower CPU for more money?

And the XClio PSU is slightly cheaper than the Fortron. I might not buy a PSU right away, the Raidmax case comes with a Raidmax 450W PSU that looks like it might be fairly decent. That'd save me another $50 right there.

Keep the comments coming, I'm no where near ready to purchase yet so things can keep changing. =)
 
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firewolfsm

Golden Member
Oct 16, 2005
1,848
29
91
how the hell can you call that budget, $500 is budget, $1500 is NOT

whatever, go for the 3700 if you can, it's only $20 more than the 3500 and uses the same core as the FX series, nice case i have it

the xclio 450bl is good, i have that too

get the CO SE instead of the CO, you will save $20 and it has the same cooler (guarenteed OC to 470/1100, just flash the higher bios)
 
cKGunslinger

cKGunslinger

Lifer
Nov 29, 1999
16,408
57
91
Originally posted by: mphartzheim
stelleg, why would you go with the 3000+ over the 3200+? The 3000+ runs at 1.8ghz and costs $25 more than the 3200+ (which runs at 2.0ghz). A slower CPU for more money?
Click to expand...
No, the 3000+ runs about $30 less than the 3200+. Maybe not at a particular store, but if you shop around. See Anand's latest CPU price guide for more details.
 
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mphartzheim

Member
Jan 25, 2006
93
0
61
I said it's a MEDIUM budget... as in more money than a "budget rig" ($500-1000) and less money than a "performance rig" ($2000 and up).

And that's one of the things I wasn't sure about... that video card has the N515, N516, N517, and N518... and I can't really tell the difference between any of them. Someone on the Video forums mentioned the N517 specifically, stating it's copper heatsink. Do the lower models have any noticeable downside to them? I want to be able to run that monitor at native resolution (1650x1080) at "high" settings in most games (not maximum settings, a notch down at "high").
 
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mphartzheim

Member
Jan 25, 2006
93
0
61
Originally posted by: cKGunslinger
Originally posted by: mphartzheim
stelleg, why would you go with the 3000+ over the 3200+? The 3000+ runs at 1.8ghz and costs $25 more than the 3200+ (which runs at 2.0ghz). A slower CPU for more money?
Click to expand...
No, the 3000+ runs about $30 less than the 3200+. Maybe not at a particular store, but if you shop around. See Anand's latest CPU price guide for more details.
Click to expand...

Heh, that guide is where I first selected the 3200+... and then I forgot all about it. I was basing those prices off of ZipZoomFly. PCNation ($131) is $30 cheaper than the nearest competitor... and that's its shipped price.

Thanks for the reminder. =)
 
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hurtstotalktoyou

Platinum Member
Mar 24, 2005
2,055
9
81
Originally posted by: shadowhawk2020
You don't "need" that much power for this system, a 450w forton would save you $40.00
Click to expand...

Agreed. A 400W Fortron is only 1A less on each +12v rail, and it's $44 shipped.
 
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