New Computer building for gaming

[btadler]

It has been about 5 years since my last computer and I am not going to pretend I know everything or hardly anything about building a computer But I am sick of trying to use my laptop to play online games or any game at all for that matter and playing at the lowest possible res and still lagging out. SO I was thinking of putting together a new machine and this is what I came up with. Lemme know if I am completely off track. Keep in mind I dont want to spend a ton of money on this but also want it to be good.

Case: CoolerMaster CM 690
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8500
Motherboard: Nvidia nForce 780i
Memory: 4GB DDR2 -800 PC6400
Video Card: GeForce 9800 GTX 1GB
Power Supply: CoolerMaster 900W
Hard Drive: WD 1TB 7200rpm SATA

Lemme Know what you think. Feel free to correct anything. Thanks

 

[AlgaeEater]

A good place to start would to be your over all budget? Also what country are you buying from? (US, UK, Canada, Australia, etc...) We all can help you better after that is established.

 

[Axon]

Don't need that much in your PSU. Go with a Corsair, as well.

Also, post your budget. There's a new chip line coming out from Intel in September that may well be worth waiting for.

 

[yh125d]

Price for those components came out to roughly $900 so I'm going to use that as a budget and I must say, you can do a lot better.


Case - CM 690 - Good one there, I usually recommend the CM690, 590, or Antec 300

CPU - e8500 - Meh. Great performer no doubt, but its still at $190 for some reason, and theres better options

Mobo - 780i - Meh. They do ok, enable SLI on 775 and whatnot, but run hot and aren't very good overclockers compared to P45 counterparts

Memory - 4gb DDR2 - Standard option. Nothing wrong here

GPU - 9800GTX - Cheapest one on the egg is like $130. You can get GTX260s and 4870 1gb's for just a tad more that will blow it out of the water, or a 4850 thats equal to it for like $40 less

PSU - CM 900w - Meh. I think their 900w is a decent enough PSU but it's overpriced and WAY overpowered for your proposed build. You could run that setup off a half decent 400w no problem


Now, on to the recommendations

Case - Stick with what you got - $80

CPU - Phenom II X4 955 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819103674 - $215

Mobo - Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P - http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813128378 - $130

Ram - G.Skill 4gb DDR3 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820231193 - $75

GPU - HIS 4890 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814161276 - $190

PSU - Antec EA650 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817371015 - $75

HD - Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB - http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16822152102 - $85

Total comes to ~$850 so it costs less, has better quality PSU, faster ram, MUCH faster GPU, much faster CPU in stuff thats multithreaded (more and more and more every day) while being only slightly slower at stuff that isnt

 

[sjsharky]

those look like some sound recommendations. i'm on board with the EA650 psu and you can't go wrong with an Athlon these days. the motherboard and gfx card are hard to get around at since many buyers have strong preferences, esp. with nvidia vs. ati. so my question for btadler is: is nvidia essential for your build?

 

[btadler]

I would like to stick around the $1000 mark plus or minus a few hundred if necessary. As far as Nvidia or ATI I have always had Nvidia and will prolly have a hard time letting go unless given a strong reason to believe ATI is much better for the same price. Also I will be buying from US. Also will be looking for a board that will allow me to upgrade in a few months easily to add more RAM or possibly a second Video card.

 

[yh125d]

Originally posted by: btadler
I would like to stick around the $1000 mark plus or minus a few hundred if necessary. As far as Nvidia or ATI I have always had Nvidia and will prolly have a hard time letting go unless given a strong reason to believe ATI is much better for the same price. Also I will be buying from US. Also will be looking for a board that will allow me to upgrade in a few months easily to add more RAM or possibly a second Video card.

To satisfy your nvidia preference and in light of your budget, I propose these changes to my proposed setup...

CPU - i7 920 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819115202 - $280

Mobo - Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R - http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813128375 - $195

GPU - XFX GTX275 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814150387 - $210 + free Terminator Salvation and CoD

Ram - G.Skill 6GB DDR3 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820231225 - $105

New total is about $1030, so its about $200 more than an AMD/ATI build. You get more Ram and a faster CPU though. GPU is slightly less overclockable, but comparable to a stock 4890

 

[btadler]

If I'm going to be using this system to play Mostly WoW and Call of Duty would I be better off with the original build you proposed?

 

[yh125d]

Originally posted by: btadler
If I'm going to be using this system to play Mostly WoW and Call of Duty would I be better off with the original build you proposed?

WoW and CoD? You could spend a lot less than 1k and max out both of those no problem. if thats the majority of what you play theres really no need to spend that much money on a computer. Since thats the case, I'd say yeah go with the previous build. It will be able to max out both just as well while being $200 cheaper. Actually you coould save $100 and get a Phenom II X3 720 instead and save $100, you'll still be able to max it out easily

 

[nanobreath]

The AMD/ATI build would be better in the sense that you spend less money. The Intel/Nvidia option is a better performer, but I don't think it will be anything noticable. IMO save the money, $200 is a LOT to save on a build. Thats another GPU, a monitor, OS+games...etc.

 

[btadler]

Thanks for the advice guys appreciate it a lot. Addition, Looking at the reviews of the Board u gave me Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P show that you need clean power as a necessary thing. I live in an apartment complex and while the power generally does fluctuate a lot it does happen. Do you think this will be a problem?