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Summer Gaming PC for About $2k

R

Reisooh

Member
To answer the Stickied Questions...
1. This is for another family member. She will only use it for extremely basic tasks like email, and web browsing. But, on occasion some her teenage grandchildren (including me) come over to her house and we like to play games on it (Call of Duty 4). She currently has a Dell XPS Gen 2 or 3 and it is getting a bit slow with only a geForce 6800. The other problem is that it sounds like a jet is taking off in the room when we play games. You can't watch tv or talk to anyone when it's that loud. Also, it heats up the room in just a few minutes (I know this can't really be helped, but the noise can).
2. The budget is about $2000 (less than $100 over) but it needs to include monitor, keyboard, mouse too - would like speakers and printer too but not absolutely necessary
3. Buying from USA
4. I'm a Whateveristhebest-fanboy
5. All new components
6. Yes I've done a ton of research
7. Default Speeds - We would like a rock solid system

I won't be building this until Early Summer (First half of June)

Thanks for your help

From all of my research, I've found these components -

Newegg Wishlist
For a total of $2,073.04 (and subtract some for rebates)


Antec Sonata Plus 550 Black/ Silver Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 550W Power Supply - Retail

2 VANTEC SF9225L 92mm Case Fan - Retail

GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS4 LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Dynamic Energy Saver Ultra Durable II Intel Motherboard - Retail

EVGA 512-P3-N871-AR GeForce 9800 GTX(G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 Yorkfield 2.66GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor Model EU80569PJ067N - OEM

CORSAIR XMS2 4GB(4 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Quad Kit Desktop Memory Model QUAD2X4096-6400C5DHX - Retail

SUPER TALENT INT-AIN1-C All-in-one USB 2.0 Card Reader - Retail

2 Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

RAZER Lycosa RZ03-0018010 Black USB Standard Gaming Keyboard - Retail

SAMSUNG 2253BW Black 22" 2ms(GTG) DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor - Retail

RAZER Copperhead Blue 7 Buttons 1 x Wheel USB Wired Laser Tempest Gaming Mouse - Retail

SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model SH-S203N - OEM

HP Deskjet 6940 C8970A Up to 36 ppm Up to 4800 optimized dpi color and 1200 input dpi InkJet Workgroup Color Printer - Retail

ZEROtherm BTF90 92mm Silent UFO CPU Cooler - Retail
Model #: BTF90

Logitech X-230 32 watts RMS 2.1 Black Speaker System - OEM

Subtotal: $2,073.04




Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks!
 
No. Not looking to bad, but you're paying way to much sometimes, or picked components that simply aren't the best in their priceclass.

This is what I would buy with your needs in mind:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...2E16811129025&Tpk=p182 VERY quiet case, comes with 3 good casefans, no need to replace those.
http://www.buy.com/prod/corsai...loc/101/203270716.html PSU, very quiet, modular, and high qaulity.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813128059 mobo, has everything you need I think, unless you need firewire/esata ? Consider a p5k-e otherwise
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820211188 ram, 2x2gb is better then 4x1gb. It's cheaper as well ...
http://www.tankguys.com/produc...o.php?products_id=1814 I'd get that CPU instead, for gaming a faster clocked dualcore is better then a quadcore. Lot's cheaper too.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16822152100 I'd get that HD instead, why not start with one ? 750gb should easily suffice. It's quiter/cooler running to, who can refuse 250gb for just 10$ more ?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814127325 very good videocard, the 9800gtx probably outperforms it by 15%, but it's almost 50% more expensive.

That would be my advice for your family member, she can do her basic tasks, but won't have to pay an arm and a leg to keep the kids happy. It should be pretty quiet and cool running as well.
 
If you want to make it quiet, get something with 120mm case fans (not 92mm or 80mm) and buy a fan controller. If the system is not overclocked you can usually run on quite low fan speeds.

Look into 2x2GB ram

Just get an e8400, nothing you said sounds like you need a quad core

Look into the 320gb - per - platter hd's, a little faster than what you've picked.

The video card should be fine and last a while, and fits into your budget. But to save a little money, I'd tell you to get an 8800gts 512mb and then upgrade again in maybe 6 months or so with the money you saved. If that's not an option then just get the 9800gtx.

Or, even better... with they money you saved go with motherboard RAID-1 and the system will likely outlive your expectations. RAID-1 is a great option for someone like you who will not be there all the time to check on the computer...

also if you get the 9800GTX be aware your case must be big enough to accomodate. this case is more than big enough and your grandma might even like the way it looks. http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16811112155

also easily the best case I've ever had the pleasure of working with, would buy it again and again if I needed more rigs.

some of those antecs are a bit small for the long video cards.
 
Thanks for the quick response!

I'll switch the RAM to Adata 2x2gb

I think I'll change to P182 case (Lian Li is too black for her style)(All of our cases are Antec except for my dad's Cosmos and we really like them)

I need firewire because i will be using the system for video editing (1080 from Canon hv20)(sorry i forgot to mention that)

And I really like quad core for encoding, i just built a Q6600 8800gt SLI system for my dad, and it's amazing compared to my old socket 939 4000+

I'm curious, why do you recommend the Asus over the Gigabyte? I read tons of excellent reviews online for the Gigabyte, I havent heard much about the Asus.

I'm fine going with the single 750gb (she won't use nearly that much space) - Wired, what harddrives have 320gb platters? maybe this one? http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16822136218

I'm looking to build a computer that never has to be upgraded - so i don't want to get a cheaper card and upgrade later, I'd rather stick with what i get

I would consider Raid 1 but usually the computer gets messed up because of something someone did, it doesnt usually last long enough for a drive to fail

Should i go with the 8800gts or the 9800gtx - as long as its within the budget price isnt a huge problem, but i dont want to waste money, and remember it won't be built for a couple months so prices may drop a little - i don't want to upgrade down the road unless i absolutely have to.

Thanks again 😀
 
Now, are you buying now and building in June? Or are you buying in June? If you're buying in June, you might want to wait until around May to ask. Prices will change, and new hardware might be released. If I was to build a system now and 2 months ago, there would certainly be some changes. Otherwise, lots of good advice has already been given.

I'd definitely go with the Dual Core if the main focus is a gaming machine. Unless you plan on doing a lot of encoding as well, you might as well save the cash.

He only recommended ASUS assuming that Gigabyte didn't have everything you need.

Hard drives are on "platters" now. Basically, the 750GB is [3] 250GB platters. The 640GB is [2] 320GB platters. Higher density platters, I believe, in theory result in faster seek times.

I'd definitely go with the 8800GTS. The 9800GTX, in all honesty, did not show as much improvement as it should have. Save the extra cash and spend it elsewhere.
 
higher data density, at the same RPM, should have higher data throughput (but not lower seek times) because more bits of data go under the read head per second, so unless your files are heavily fragmented you can get some nice performance from the higher density.
 
I'm buying in June
I'll go with the 8800gts for now unless something changes before i buy
I'll also change to the 640gb, but there is only 1 on newegg, did they like just come out?
I like the Gigabyte since it gets great reviews, has solid capacitors, nice heatsinks, firewire, and DES. It also has easy bios flashing and native q9450 support. But if you guys think the Asus is that much better I'll go for it. What do you think?

Thanks Again 😀
 
The 750gb samsung f1 HAS 330gb platters, samsung is a little crazy though, and they wanted to stick to 500, 750 and 1000gb, so they throw in 2, 3 and 3 platters. But they 'cut' them short so you only see 500gb or 750gb, instead of 660gb or 990gb. Personaly, I'd rather have the Samsung 750gb over the Western Digital 640gb.
 
Originally posted by: MarcVenice
The 750gb samsung f1 HAS 330gb platters, samsung is a little crazy though, and they wanted to stick to 500, 750 and 1000gb, so they throw in 2, 3 and 3 platters. But they 'cut' them short so you only see 500gb or 750gb, instead of 660gb or 990gb. Personaly, I'd rather have the Samsung 750gb over the Western Digital 640gb.
Click to expand...

Performance from my 750 GB f1 has been phenomenal.

 
I see no reason why this pc should cost 2K.

No need to spend more than about 1500 at most.
For a grandmother's pc with more than she'll ever need ability to be used for the grandkids 2k is wayyy more budget than I'd recommend.

I wouldn't even consider buying a quad core either.

And no offense but a grandchild doing video encoding at his grandmother's house over the summer sounds like an excuse to buy wasteful hardware imho. Not trying to flame here btw but I have kids and an overeager mom(as their grandmother who keeps a couple of pcs for them).

The dual core e8400 will encode fine btw, especially for the 3 months a year it gets used. The basic tasks it gets used for the other 9 months won't even wake it up, lol.

A cheap 9600 GT will play CoD 4 quite well at 16*x10*. BUT if you have the budget then an 8800 GT* is a good call. That's probably a worthwhile upgrade where the processor is not.

If you are going to spend 2k for a baseline without any future upgrades or overclocking might as well go to dell and configure a high end system there and at least get a nice big monitor from them as part of the package plus have the support for Grandma when the grandkids are away.



 
Originally posted by: Reisooh
This is for another family member. She will only use it for extremely basic tasks like email, and web browsing.

Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks!
Click to expand...
Logically, the response is "buy a dell".

Spend $600 on a decent Dell.

Originally posted by: Reisooh
But, on occasion some her teenage grandchildren (including me) come over to her house and we like to play games on it (Call of Duty 4).
Click to expand...
And the only adjustment required to take this into consideration would be:

"buy a Dell, get the lowest graphics option possible, then buy a 9600GT to put in it".
 
Roguestar +1

Find a good deal on Dell/HP that includes a nice large LCD monitor. Upgrade the memory (they like to cut corners here) and video card (9600GT or at most 8800GT) and you're done. For probably <$1000 total, leaving enough money for another full system in two years if this one starts to bog down.
 
We do not want to get a Dell.

As I said above, see has an older XPS and she thinks it's terrible since it's so loud. We've talked to Dell about it and they didn't help at all. (She doesn't like talking to machines and people in different hemispheres.)

Part of the reason that she wants a new computer is that I will be building it.

I know that components I choose will be higher quality than anything from Dell (unless the Dell is like $5000, or if we got a $10k from Falcon Northwest)

She likes consistincey, she hasn't upgraded anything on her computer for years (I can only remember her having the XPS). She won't want a new computer in year or two. My grandpa said to spend about 2k and get the "fastest". They specifically said that they want the "fancy keyboard and mouse things" (They are talking about my Razer keyboard/mouse). She has an ancient printer that takes 5 minutes to print on "normal" speed and then it doesn't even look good. She has an off-brand LCD that probably cost a fortune back in the day and by todays standards it's tiny and has bad quality. Her speakers work half of the time and they don't sound great when they're working. My grandpa had a computer built by a local company (very expensive) and he absolutely loves it. I don't want to waste money but we don't mind spending it. (If a gfx card is 5% faster at 50% more, we would choose the cheaper one, if it was 30% faster at 50% more, we would consider it)

They also said they want a silent PC and a Dell definatly won't be.

When dual-cores first came out, everyone said they were useless so i got a single core - I regretted that immensely - That's why I'm dedicated to Quad - I'm sure it will be more future proof.

It's not just 3 months a year that we are there. I live 10 minutes away from her and 3 other grandkids live just an hour away. And next year one of them is going to be going to college in our town.

To sum it up-
1. She hates Dell.
2. She wants a computer that I have built.
3. It won't be replaced anytime soon.


I appreciate the advice but Dell is not a option.

 
Personally, I like the P182, and I like the power supply.
But, The case is almost too big. I currently have a Cosmos at home, and it's about the same dimensions as the P182. For her space, a case like the Cosmos would be too big.
The p182 is a few inches smaller on all sides, but does it make a difference?
Does anyone have a P182, if so do you consider it "Big" like the Cosmos?
 
You could just measure the space and see if the case would fit according to the dimensions.

Get the E8400.
Get 2x2GB sticks of RAM.
Get the 8800GTS 512MB. No need to spend an extra 50% for just a few FPS.
Ditch one of the hard drives. Do you really need 1.5TB of space?
Ditch the aftermarket HSF. New CPUs run a lot cooler than the older generations and stock HSF do quite well keeping the heat down.

All that money you save? Put it towards gas for the hour trips.

 
I don't consider the p182 to be to big. I'd grab a q6600 for 189$ at fry's, spending 350$ or almost twice as much, on a slightly faster q9450 is not worth it. The rest of my suggestions still stand.
 
Originally posted by: chinaman1472
You could just measure the space and see if the case would fit according to the dimensions.

Get the E8400.
Get 2x2GB sticks of RAM.
Get the 8800GTS 512MB. No need to spend an extra 50% for just a few FPS.
Ditch one of the hard drives. Do you really need 1.5TB of space?
Ditch the aftermarket HSF. New CPUs run a lot cooler than the older generations and stock HSF do quite well keeping the heat down.

All that money you save? Put it towards gas for the hour trips.
Click to expand...

Yup, and if you really want to spend $2000, get a good monitor. 22" LCDs = crap. I will NEVER go to a TN panel again. They look so disgusting even when calibrated. I suggest a 24" Dell 2408 or something. Sure there are complaints, but remember that the people who get the 2408 probably aim for better image quality than 22" LCD users. Or if you want a really nice panel, jump to the 2707 which I personally have.

9800GTX is a waste of money. 8800GT is the best value, and if you want just a little more, cash in on one of those 8800 GTS deals
 
For quad core go with the q6600(189 bucks at microcenter). If you are building the box then you can presumably upgrade and overclock it.

If you are not ever going to upgrade it then you seriously should just order a Dell. Tech Support in India is rather craptastic but it is better than NO tech support. And when you consider peripherals and the monitor Dell is a great value for those who want a pc that goes untouched. But I wouldn't buy one myself because I am always going to upgrade and tweak and OC ad nauseum.

For sound issues I'd suggest the antec sonata III with 500 watt antec earth watts psu.

Get an MSI 9600 GT because they run quietly.

BTW the dual cores you are dead set against run cooler and make less noise than the quad cores because they require much less cpu fan speed.

So your first task imho is to decide if you want quiet or super-overkill.

What type of encoding are you talking about? Because that gets tossed about a lot on the site but is often a small consideration if any real consideration at all once the tasks are explained.

You may want to look at an expensive Zalman case for seriously quiet performance.

Dell is going to use decent enough parts but will only give you the psu you need not one with much leeway and will only give you the mobo you use, not one with much growth. The parts are solid and known to work but the limiting factor is expansion. If you are not going to expand or OC they make the most sense.

There are lots of fancy mice and keyboards but Razor is generally a waste of money except for people who play FPS games consistently.

In the end it sounds like they are entrusting you to build out the box. Hopefully you'll see to it they also get good value and not just spend to the budget simply because you can.

The monitor will determine the video card in a lot of ways. It is pointless to buy anything more than the 9600 GT for a 22" or smaller. For 24" I would suggest the 8800 GT* line. But look at the benchmarks and determine if it even matters.
Real world performance will be negligible in all likelihood and price increases are more like 125-140 bucks for a 9600 GT
to 350 bucks or a 9800 GTX and 600 for a 9800 GX2.

Lots of folks pay for Aston Martins and Ferraris. I wouldn't cause if you can't hit the autobahn whats the point? I am gonna guess your grandparents do not own an aston martin....

Beyond all of that very few people here are going to have real life experience with brand new processors and video cards and motherboards. If Anand hasn't even written them up yet then few folks are going to feel safe recommending them. So you will probably in fact be a sort of beta tester and be advising here soon enough as opposed to receiving advice.


 
If this is for your grandparents/grandma and she normally does only a few light uses with the pc, I am gonna make some suggestions, as some things seem a bit overkills...


she doesn't need a top of the line quad core, save 150 getting an e8400 or q6600 (and if you are not gonna OC, even a quad AMD)...for games and simple tasks, you dont need super end cpu and dual core is often (always) enough.

why are you getting 2x500gb hard drives? doesn't sound like she has 600 cds to create a media center. It seems like over kill, thats another $120 right there. Will she even break 300 gigs, ever? Even with 15 games for the grandkids, you wont need 1g, 500mb should easily be enough.

The 9800gtx is overkill. I know you will be over and you want to frag, but really, you can probalby play any game fairly well on an 8800gt and since that is a part time use, you can save another $120 or so right there...

if you want a quiet case, get a bigger one with bigger fans, like an xclio windtunnel or something, nice and quiet.

i have head that the logitech low end 2.1 systems are pretty bad, i would consider a similarly priced competitor.

the lycosa keyboard is a bit of an overkill as well, and the mouse may drive her crazy (i have 3 razer products, i like them, love my diamondback, so im not knockin them), but that copperhead is an odd profile, very sensitive (you can lower it when you are not around I guess), but really not meant for grandma....bring your own mouse over from home when you go there..

rich
 
It's getting late here but tomorrow morning I'm going to redo my list and post it on here.

Then we'll see what all of your great advice has created.

Thanks
 
Okay, here is what I have now.

1. No Dell
2. I'm sticking with quad core but I havent decided Q6600 or Q9450
3. Those Logitech speakers arn't low end, they are a little old but they have some of the best reviews of any 2.1 speakers.
4. I have the same Copperhead mouse and love it - I also have a Diamondback - They are different but I like them both
5. A single 750gb will be more than enough but it isn't much cheaper to get one half as big so I'll stick with it.



1 Antec P182 Gun Metal Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case -

1 GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS4 LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Dynamic Energy Saver Ultra Durable II Intel Motherboard - Retail

1 MSI NX8800GTS 512M OC GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

1 CORSAIR CMPSU-520HX ATX12V v2.2 and EPS12V 2.91 520W Power Supply - Retail

1 Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 Yorkfield 2.66GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor Model EU80569PJ067N - OEM

1 A-DATA 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model ADQVE1B16K - Retail

1 SUPER TALENT INT-AIN1-C All-in-one USB 2.0 Card Reader - Retail

1 SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 HD753LJ 750GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

1 RAZER Lycosa RZ03-0018010 Black USB Standard Gaming Keyboard - Retail

1 SAMSUNG 2253BW Black 22" 2ms(GTG) DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor - Retail

1 RAZER Copperhead Blue 7 Buttons 1 x Wheel USB Wired Laser Tempest Gaming Mouse

1 SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model SH-S203N

1 HP Deskjet 6940 C8970A Up to 36 ppm Up to 4800 optimized dpi color and 1200 input dpi InkJet Workgroup Color Printer - Retail

1 ZEROtherm Nirvana NV120 120mm 2-ball UFO Bearing / Transparent CPU Cooler - Retail

1 Logitech X-230 32 watts RMS 2.1 Black Speaker System - OEM

Subtotal: $1,908.85
Minus Rebates = $105
Plus Shipping = ~$64

Grand Total = $1867.85


How's it looking?
 
Just know that running the ZEROtherm Nirvana on HIGH is going to be NOISY. http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=3202&p=5 When not overclocking running it on low should be just fine though. Besides that, I'd still go with the much cheaper q6600, but that's it, the other components look good to me. Shop around though, newegg.com can be pretty expensive compared to other websites. Q6600 costs 189$ at fry's. Corsair is 80$ at buy.com
 
Cool, thanks

But I just went to Frys online -here - and it says 260 for q6600

I will have the nirvana on low

I just like shopping on newegg, when it's time to order, I'll do price searching
 
Nothing you do warrants for a Q9450. Hell, there's a 99% chance that nothing you do in the next 2 years will warrant a Q9450. Hell, nothing you do warrants a quad core.

Also, if you live near a Microcenter, they have the Q6600 for $199 instore.
 
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