Newbie Cheap Build

[Acer*]

I am completely new, and hope to take a beating to find what's best. This is for my birthday/ Christmas and looking to keep it fairly cheap. This will be used for school/ gaming. I'm in the U.S, plan to build it at Christmas. Critique away please.

Acer Moniter
ASUS Motherboard
i3 Sandybridge
8 GB RAM
250 GB Hard Drive (I won't be using more than that)
Windows 7 OEM
Have old Antec Case
Need graphics card to handle BF3, COD, ect.
Need power supply

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*Not the brand.

 

[DominionSeraph]

For BF3 the minimum you want it a 6870.
What's your budget?

 

[Acer*]

Around $600-$750. Sorry didn't do the 1-10 thing

 

[lehtv]

Mobo Biostar H61MGC $57
CPU i3-2100 $115
RAM PNY 8GB $32
GPU Gigabyte 6850 $130 AR or Powercolor 6870 $140 AR
HDD Hitachi 750GB $106
ODD LG DVD burner $17
PSU Corsair CX430 V2 $27 AR XFX 650W $50 AR (for 6870, also more future proof)
Monitor Acer S231HLbid $130
OS Win 7 Home 64 $100

= $714 AR to $747 AR

 

[Acer*]

Thanks Lehtv, that looks good. Won't be needing the CD drive, but will be needing a internal card drive that costs just as much. Also, I won't be upgrading for 4-5 years years: so would you recommend going with a 500 watt power supply just for the 6870? or will I be ok with the 6850 for bf3, the new star wars MMO coming out, ect.?

 

[DominionSeraph]

Dell XPS 8300 with i5 2300 from Dell Outlet with the following configuration:

Processor: Intel Core i5-2300 processor (6MB Cache, 2.8GHz)
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium
XPS 8300
1 TB SATA II Hard Drive (7200RPM)
6 GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz, (2X2G/2X1G)
16X DVD +/- RW Drive

For $469. This is one of their standard configurations so it pops up all the time.

(i5 2310's [2.9GHz] and 2320's [3GHz] also pop up for slightly more $. The difference will be negligible but so is the price if you can get one in a comparable base configuration. Don't bother with anything with an add-on graphics card [like the 6450] -- you're not gonna use it.)

To that add a 6870:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814131378

Acer G235HAbd
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824009266

Tom's shows a pretty significant increase with the 6870 over the 6850 in BF3, so I'd go with that.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

Dell XPS 8300 with i5 2300 from Dell Outlet with the following configuration:

Processor: Intel Core i5-2300 processor (6MB Cache, 2.8GHz)
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium
XPS 8300
1 TB SATA II Hard Drive (7200RPM)
6 GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz, (2X2G/2X1G)
16X DVD +/- RW Drive

For $469. This is one of their standard configurations so it pops up all the time.

a few people on here say this it's "easy" to find a cheap xps on delloutlet......I've been watching and havent run across any under $650.- It would be great if dell offered some kind of stock watching app that sent alert when config you want came in......yeah

: so would you recommend going with a 500 watt power supply just for the 6870? or will I be ok with the 6850 for bf3, the new star wars MMO coming out, ect.?

While you would probably be ok with the smaller power supply a 6870 pulls roughly 250 watts under load. Combine that with the rest of the system and the smaller power supply is going to run hotter and louder that a bigger one. I vote spend a few extra $$$ and give yourself more headroom.

 

[Acer*]

Awesome. I'm actually looking at this monitor, but nice find on the Dell! I was considering upgrading a pre-built before, but that really blows everything I was looking at before away. Brings me to about $709 with an i5 Thanks!

Edit: They all sold out. It's been 2 hours.
Edit to edit: It's back now. If someone adds it to their cart, I believe it becomes unavailable to view until they remove it, kinda stupid.

 

[DominionSeraph]

a few people on here say this it's "easy" to find a cheap xps on delloutlet......I've been watching and havent run across any under $650.-

They're there right now.

But you're right, the $650+ i7 2600's do seem to be quite prevalent.

Edit to edit: It's back now. If someone adds it to their cart, I believe it becomes unavailable to view until they remove it, kinda stupid.

Each listing is for a specific computer in inventory. They're returns/cancellations, and they only have what they have. If they allowed any number of people to put them in their cart and click "buy" they could end up with dozens of people each thinking they got a computer that the Outlet only has one of. Having to come back with, "Sorry, we sold out of that," hundreds of times a day to hundreds of customers would not give the consumer a pleasant shopping experience.
Carts automatically empty in 15 minutes so it's not like window shoppers tie them up for long.

e: Did I just see you snap up that Scratch and Dent, Acer? $439 just went.

 

[Acer*]

No I didn't: someone else is snatching and dropping it. I hope it's there when I can buy it (sometime in the next weekish)

 

[DominionSeraph]

That configuration has been there at that price for months and it pops up all the time, so I wouldn't be worried about it going away.

 

[Acer*]

That configuration has been there at that price for months and it pops up all the time, so I wouldn't be worried about it going away.

Alright thanks, hopefully I can nab it

 

[mfenn]

Thanks Lehtv, that looks good. Won't be needing the CD drive, but will be needing a internal card drive that costs just as much. Also, I won't be upgrading for 4-5 years years: so would you recommend going with a 500 watt power supply just for the 6870? or will I be ok with the 6850 for bf3, the new star wars MMO coming out, ect.?

OK, so we need to set expectations a little here. If you buy a $2000 system today, it probably won't handle the games of 5 years from now very well. A $700 system will handle recent games at good settings for 2, maybe 3 years.

Lehtv's and Dominion's suggestions are very good values, about the best you can get, but there is a limit to how far your money will go.

 

[lehtv]

Thanks Lehtv, that looks good. Won't be needing the CD drive, but will be needing a internal card drive that costs just as much. Also, I won't be upgrading for 4-5 years years: so would you recommend going with a 500 watt power supply just for the 6870? or will I be ok with the 6850 for bf3, the new star wars MMO coming out, ect.?

In terms of longevity, you'll want the XFX 650W (no 500W unit is priced lower than that after rebate at the moment, it's a crazy good deal*). You will upgrade your GPU sooner or later and who knows, maybe you'll keep the PSU even longer than 4-5 years. Chances are, if you continue gaming then you could upgrade to a more power hungry card at any point later on - that is, if you don't get a 6870 now. Either 6850 or 6870 is a good choice, just depends on how much you're willing to pay.

* But if you just don't do rebates, then consider Antec 520C or Antec EA650D

 

[Acer*]

(I do rebates! Free discounts) I will most likely go with the pre-built,monitor, and graphics card: but if I can't get ahold of a cheap pre-built ill go with the 650 watt PSU and 6870. I'm a fan of the being more future-compatible so I can use some of the parts later in my upgrade when I get a job. Thanks for all the input

 

[mvbighead]

OK, so we need to set expectations a little here. If you buy a $2000 system today, it probably won't handle the games of 5 years from now very well. A $700 system will handle recent games at good settings for 2, maybe 3 years.

Lehtv's and Dominion's suggestions are very good values, about the best you can get, but there is a limit to how far your money will go.

I won't say you're wrong... but to me, you throw in a nicer power supply and a better video card and you're likely set for another 2-3 years for an extra $200 or so.

To me, you see enough people rocking 5 year old C2D and still getting by. An i5 should be good for many years, IMO.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Acer (aka my friend) he wont be upgrading/ rebuilding till college anyways. hes an 8th grader. His dads a total comp freak. lol. its funny how hes not helping him xD

good luck kiddo

 

[mfenn]

I won't say you're wrong... but to me, you throw in a nicer power supply and a better video card and you're likely set for another 2-3 years for an extra $200 or so.

To me, you see enough people rocking 5 year old C2D and still getting by. An i5 should be good for many years, IMO.

I agree that the $200 GPU of two years from now, will definitely extend the lifetime of the system by a good bit. The $350 GPU ($150+extra $200) of today will not help when you're talking 5 years out. That's what I was getting at in my post, basically don't expect to dump $700, or $1000, or $2000 today and have a system that is good for 5 years.