quality gaming rig for 750$ or less.

[taltamir]

When someone asked "what would be a good 1350$ system upgrade to last me 2 - 3 years" I vehemently argued towards upgrading twice as often for half the price... To which I was asked... So what kind of system would YOU design for only 675$?

I saw your post in a thread about building a $675 system. If you had to build one of those right now, assuming you already had a legit copy of XP Pro, what would you pick as the mobo, vid card, and processor? I have no intention of overclocking this time around so I will probably just get 2-3gb of cheap ram.

Well, after a quick look on newegg (shopping around you could find better deals, or even better parts for cheaper, this is just a quick baseline):

SHIPPING INCLUDED!

95$ - Antec earthwatts EA500 ATX12V v2.0 500W Power Supply - Retail
430 watt might be enough but I would suggest going with 500, or some other quality 500watt PSU

190$ - Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe 2.66GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6750 - Retail
Here you can just shave as much as you want and go for a cheaper processor... The E6750 is the best bang for the buck right now. Lots and lots of power and its not too expensive compared to its slower bretheren. But if you feel that its too much, you can go for a lower speed conroe or even an allendale. (i would stick to the conroes though)

95$ - GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Basically any P35 board from ASUS, Gigabyte, or MSI. Don't skimp on the motherboard in terms of quality or you WILL suffer!... so don't buy from any company other then those three.

Low latency ram from patriot, ,corsair, or any other quality brand:
For vista 4GB of ram... 150$-80$ rebates (or 125$ without rebates)
For XP 2GB of ram... 75$-40$ rebates
half the ram offerings come with a rebate. So buying two seperate 2x1GB kits each with a rebate can save you 80$ (as long as they from different companies. One rebate per item per household)

185$ - Radeon HD3850
If you can find a 3870 OR 8800GT for under 250$... (i managed to order a 8800GT from dell for 225.15$, and thats only because I had to pay tax here in texas... some people got it for 207$)

Vista (4GB ram) total: 715$-80$=635$ (690$ for a 4x1 kit with no rebates)
XP (2GB ram) total: 640$-40$=600$
Case and DVD burner + 60$

if you need them then choose any 40$ case (due to shipping) + 20$ DVD burner...
I would go for a Cooler Master Elite 303 Case. Its a really nice yet really cheap case...

These prices are if you just rush to newegg and buy this... if you shop around you will find lower prices. look at mwave, zipzoomfly, tigerdirect, etc.

 

[996GT2]

The Abit IP35 and IP35-E are also very nice motherboards, especially for overclocking.

CM RC690 is an awesome case for the price, or Antec P180/900. All three are cheap with rebates atm.

 

[taltamir]

while the Abits overclock great I get the feeling that they are not as reliable and robust anymore... last few abit mobos I tried were really problematic... Thats why I didn't recommend them in the same category as MSI, gigabyte, and asus... But they are still good board.

Thanks for the excellent case suggestions...