New inexpensive gaming Rig.

[BonTenshi]

All right my old computer which is 2-3 years old has recently, well blown up i guess you could say. In an unfortunate accident involving lots of mountain dew. I have checked the few existing warranties i had left on it and they are not covered. So seeing as i was trying to save my money for a new car i only have around 700$ i can spare for a new machine.

 

The games that i play are WOW, SC2, Diablo 3(whenever it is out), EVE, and alot of FPS. Now i know i will not have a great machine but later on next year i will be able to upgrade it thoroughly. I know this machine will not be able to play all my games and the one that can play will be on low settings.

 

So a question i need answered because i think i do not have enough to also include a GPU in this first sytem, so are you able when using AMD cpus and MBs to use the integrated graphics for some low setting gaming and video usage?

 

Here is what i have so far

 

CPU

MB

PSU

Optical

Case

HD

RAM

OS

HeatSink

(Links double open for some reason???)

Now plz do what you wish but do not go over 700$ Also if you can make it so i can also get a GPU and everything else less than 700$ than plz by all means go for it. Also i relay more on Nividia for graphics than ATI biased yes.

(Also the OS , PSU, and CPU are on sale until the 30th so plz try to be fast on this like at least the 28th i will have to buy.)

Thank you.

 

All right links updated. Alot better stuff now.

Edited November 26, 2010 by BonTenshi

[VaporX]

Okay problem one, the CPU you listed is the AM2 version and will not work on an AM3 board, you need the 945. Next I would avoid the G.Skill ARM personally. I have had a lot of issues with it since they started the Ripjaw series. I have found that Corsair, Kingston or Crucial work everytime and are rock solid. Finally while WoW and EVE can be played with the intergrated card, EVE is limited to basically mining as combat drives the intergrated to the ground, the others you listed cannot. There are some solid offerings of GTS450 based cards for around $100. With some tweaking such as dropping the big heatsink and getting a CPU with one stock, maybe cutting back on the case to an Antec Three Hundred, you should be able to make everything fit.

 

If you are bound and determined to get a quad at that price point you could go with an Athlon II which is a solid chip. You could also get a Phenom II X2 and see if it will unlock.

[sticknstone]

I would suggest avoiding double purchasing components simply to save time and money. I prefer upgrading as in adding more ram or a video card.

 

I have an amd motherboard, the gigabyte ga-ma790gp-ds4h. This mobo comes with a gaming chipset with hd3300 integrated graphics. The graphics contain minimum support for gaming. Avoid the integrated graphic solutions for general applications. This mobo has crossfire support for only two cards and shares it at x8 and x8. If you choose only one card the first slot runs at x16. I game for now on low res and settings or has much as the specific game will allow me to play. Street fighter 4 is tough on me with no background but about 55 fps. SF4 is a newer game though when considering having a hd3300.

 

I am unsure if I could choose a nvidia gpu now the mobo manual shows crossfire hybrid setup and crossfire setup only. Most likely not possible.

 

I would purchase the best I could get mobo and cpu. Start with a large storage tb hdd initially (oooyaa later upgrade to a ssd system drive, 256 gb min). I have 120 gb now. I will add another. Run the stock cooler for now.

 

newegg.com

GIGABYTE GA-890GPA-UD3H $135

AMD Phenom II X4 970 Black Edition $179.99

OCC BRONZE Award by OVERCLOCKERSCLUB XION 90+ Gold Series AXP-700W14FG 700W Power Supply $99.99

Keep the wd hdd, case, if you need xp software support go for 7 pro, oops that $724

 

Oh well, how about a second or third job! Who sleeps anymore? just joking. Cleaning mountain due from your previous case would cut down on costs. I used my old case and introduced it to my trusty grinder and drill for extra cooling. Cut a 120 x 120 square with screw holes and goodbye 80 x 80.

 

Ram ???

[BonTenshi]

Okay problem one, the CPU you listed is the AM2 version and will not work on an AM3 board, you need the 945. Next I would avoid the G.Skill ARM personally. I have had a lot of issues with it since they started the Ripjaw series. I have found that Corsair, Kingston or Crucial work everytime and are rock solid. Finally while WoW and EVE can be played with the intergrated card, EVE is limited to basically mining as combat drives the intergrated to the ground, the others you listed cannot. There are some solid offerings of GTS450 based cards for around $100. With some tweaking such as dropping the big heatsink and getting a CPU with one stock, maybe cutting back on the case to an Antec Three Hundred, you should be able to make everything fit.

 

If you are bound and determined to get a quad at that price point you could go with an Athlon II which is a solid chip. You could also get a Phenom II X2 and see if it will unlock.

All right i changed out the CPU, PSU, ram, and MB.

 

And for the gpu i might be able to buy one now less than 270$. Wich one should i be looking at the GTX 460 or 470 for the games i play and i also have a 1900x1080 Monitor i use. So plz hurry and comment like i said in first post i need to purchase asap with the deals going on. thanks

 

Ok i researched a little and i am stuck between 2 cards the GTX 460 and the 470 superclocked from EVGA and there is a 60 dollar price gap between them, which is better or should i get?

GTX 470

GTX 460

Edited November 26, 2010 by BonTenshi

[MercuryDoun]

OK... Soooo, i cant help but notice alot of "Mistakes" in your build, not to say there is many things wrong with it, just that its poor decision making based on what you want this computer to do. I really cant even begin to explain how bad the integrated gpu is for games. It will not play most of the games you mentioned even on low very well. Trust me, i know, because i play them. SC2 isnt very fun when you are getting 3 FPS and you REALLY REALLY need to psionic storm that mass of marines but instead you end up psi-storming nothing because due to lag all your forces are almost dead and the enemy is nolonger in that spot. You want a cheap gaming rig, yet pick a case that is like 20% of your budget? tsk tsk, I understand the desire for a great case, BUT you cant let that stop you from getting a video card, because the money you save on getting a 'average' case will get you a video card. Also, that MoBo you picked out not only is Sold out, but its also terrible. The reviews on it are stating that it has no BIO's over clocking options, but supports software overclocking, which is bad, very bad. And it has an AMD chipset, and as with all current AMD Chipsets, they do not officially support SLI(some will anyways, and most will with Hacked BIO's but anybody will agree that it isnt the best option and hampers the usability of SLI), making all future options of cheap/easy dual video card upgrades later very difficult. So really with an AMD chipset you really should go ATI. You will also notice that i will NOT be including a CPU cooler in this build. There will be money for that later. Spend the $$$ on the parts you need now. Something like a CPU cooler to overclock with, It will have to come when you have spare cash.

 

ComputerEd is right about the cpu, it wont work in a am3 board. Here is the build i put to together for you:

 

Case - $40, Ive personally used this case in a build i just did for my brother, its great, its actually a pretty good size and fit most of the above average size coolers, it wont hold a NH-D14 or a megahalems with it will hold a CM Hyper 212+ which is pretty much the most you need for any current gen AMD CPU. It also fit massive Zalman CNPS10x Flex with 2x 120mm fans. So its a good size case, it only comes with one fan, BUT theres room for like 5 more.

Case Fan - $10,Nice 120mm fairly quite intake fan for the case, Its also green which is fun and different than the red and blue you see all the time now. This fan is just an example really, pick any fan/color you want. You just really need to add a fan to front on intake to move the cool air into the case.

MoBo&CPU Combo - $283, Now THIS is a fine Combo, If there is one part you NEVER want to skimp on for a computer build, its the Motherboard. It has real BIO's over clocking with a Heatpipe cooling solution on the Mosfets and Northbridge, this will GREATLY increase your ability to overclock. And a Phenom II x6 cpu to put into that great MoBo of yours. Plus Holy crap, i dont know how i did it, but i managed to work a hex-core CPU into your $700 Budget gaming computer. Yeah, im that awesome.

GPU - $140-$20MIR= $120, ATI 5770, I have one of these cards in my current comuter now, is it real fancy, no. Does it play all games on Ultra settings even with x2 or x4 AA with x8 or x16 filters, at exceptable FPS, YUP! I know you said you like nVidia, But if i was going to pick a green card for you, id end up picking the gts450, which is the exact same price for the exact same performance, and most likely wont SLI on the AMD chipset Motherboard. So its pretty much a done deal in my eyes.

PSU - $80-$25MIR= $55, Same power supply you picked, it s a great choice, what can i say, If i hadnt just recently won a Mushkin PSU in a contest right here on OCC, i would have literally bought this exact PSU for my brothers computer, good choice!

RAM - $54-$20MIR = $34, Mushkin is a FANTASTIC company, and not only do they provide a quality product that not only meets the competitions quality, but usually beats it, and beat its while being significantly cheaper as well. They are also a US company with excellent customer service, You can never go wrong with Mushkin. Nothing wrong with G.Skill really, i just think Mushkin is alot better, and most importantly, alot cheaper.

HDD - $70-$20MIR = $50, Hitachi makes good drives, what can i say? Western Digital lately has been making me mad alot at work. Had drive after drive after drive fail in our iSCSI array. So im doing my best to avoid them currently. But seriously, its 1TB of just as fast as the WD storage, for $20 cheaper. Sounds good for your current build.

DVD - $16, the drive you picked was IDE, old and slow tech, not that its not still fast enough for a DVD drive, but still i think its bad to invest in old as dirt tech, besides this Samsung Sata DVD burner i found is cheaper anyways!

OS - $85, same OS you linked, again good choice, Windows 7 is amazing.

 

Total after MIR's = $693 w/o shipping. Most of this stuff has free shipping. Is actually VERY cheap, only $8 to my zip code. Unforuntately this is the price AFTER Mail in rebates, So the total in the shopping cart with shipping its $760... boo! But if you have the extra $60 and are one of those people who actually do Mail in rebates, this is the best humanly possible build i could come up with. Enjoy!

[MercuryDoun]

All right i changed out the CPU, PSU, ram, and MB.

 

And for the gpu i might be able to buy one now less than 270$. Wich one should i be looking at the GTX 460 or 470 for the games i play and i also have a 1900x1080 Monitor i use. So plz hurry and comment like i said in first post i need to purchase asap with the deals going on. thanks

 

Ok i researched a little and i am stuck between 2 cards the GTX 460 and the 470 superclocked from EVGA and there is a 60 dollar price gap between them, which is better or should i get?

GTX 470

GTX 460

 

If your REALLY stuck on nVidia that badly. I might be able to come up with a intel socket 1156 mobo and cpu combo that will give you some good SLI action. But You'd like to have to get a dual-core at this price point. That wouldnt be a bad thing, Pretty much every i3 ever sold will hit 4.0Ghz or higher, so a 4.0Ghz hyper threaded dual-core CPU will still get the job done while giving you use of SLI in the future.

 

nVidia makes some AMD motherboards with nForce chipsets that work for SLI, but i dont like them one bit. They are more expensive and dont work that well(in my experience that is, they suck at overclocking). But it could get you into SLI. But as i mentioned, i have a 5770, it works great. And its like almost 1 year old tech, and its just as good as the brand new gts450. Now neither the gts450 or 5770 are as good as the gtx460, but still.

 

I play at 1920x1080, and again i can attest to the goodness of the ATI 5770

[VaporX]

While the 5770 mentioned above is a great card for the money you mentioned I would say the 6850 is a better buy. If the choice is between the 460 and the 470 I am torn. The 470 is a faster card for sure but the 460 delivers more than enough for most people.

 

I am gonna disagree with the above poster about geting and Intel over an AMD becuase of SLI. For most people SLI is just not that big of a deal. Oh it is great at higher end gaming but for most of us with one monitor that is 24" or less the gains are not worth the cost and issues. Some games gain nothing from SLI or Crossfire for that matter and other games actually have issues when these are running.

 

With Budget considerations the AMD platform is just a better choice. If you have the money then Intel is great but you do not get the same level of value.

[MercuryDoun]

While the 5770 mentioned above is a great card for the money you mentioned I would say the 6850 is a better buy. If the choice is between the 460 and the 470 I am torn. The 470 is a faster card for sure but the 460 delivers more than enough for most people.

 

I am gonna disagree with the above poster about geting and Intel over an AMD becuase of SLI. For most people SLI is just not that big of a deal. Oh it is great at higher end gaming but for most of us with one monitor that is 24" or less the gains are not worth the cost and issues. Some games gain nothing from SLI or Crossfire for that matter and other games actually have issues when these are running.

 

With Budget considerations the AMD platform is just a better choice. If you have the money then Intel is great but you do not get the same level of value.

 

Ah yes, the AMD 6850 is a MUCH better buy. But i couldnt find a way to sneak a 6850 under the $700 Budget.

 

My Issue with nVidia on AMD chipsets it the lack of SLI support. Sure you can slap on nvidia card into, but when next year or 2 years down the line come and you think... oh man, i cant play on ultra settings anymore without major lag. With SLI or Crossfire, you just buy a what would then be a VERY cheap version of the same card you already have and then BAM your back in action for another year or two. If you got nVidia on an AMD chipset, you lose that option. No SLI. Thats the poor decision. And as i mentioned there is nforce chipsets on some AMD boards that allow for the use of SLI, but ive never had a good experience with nForce chipsets, so to me, thats not an option.

 

I agree with you, when you disagree with me, saying that an Intel option wouldn't be an option. But if he REALLY wants to have the ability to use SLI in the future, in my eyes, its the only option.

 

 

Also to the OP, why did you change your mind about the Corsair PSU??? For the price after MIR it was pretty much the best option ever!

Edited November 26, 2010 by MercuryDoun

[BonTenshi]

Ah yes, the AMD 6850 is a MUCH better buy. But i couldnt find a way to sneak a 6850 under the $700 Budget.

 

My Issue with nVidia on AMD chipsets it the lack of SLI support. Sure you can slap on nvidia card into, but when next year or 2 years down the line come and you think... oh man, i cant play on ultra settings anymore without major lag. With SLI or Crossfire, you just buy a what would then be a VERY cheap version of the same card you already have and then BAM your back in action for another year or two. If you got nVidia on an AMD chipset, you lose that option. No SLI. Thats the poor decision. And as i mentioned there is nforce chipsets on some AMD boards that allow for the use of SLI, but ive never had a good experience with nForce chipsets, so to me, thats not an option.

 

I agree with you, when you disagree with me, saying that an Intel option wouldn't be an option. But if he REALLY wants to have the ability to use SLI in the future, in my eyes, its the only option.

 

 

Also to the OP, why did you change your mind about the Corsair PSU??? For the price after MIR it was pretty much the best option ever!

I was thinking for down the road the ability to sli would need more than the power supply could handle and still have room to be safe. I am looking over your previous posted hardware and i will say you did an excellent job i will be going with ATi now because i was not aware of the issues facing sli with amd chipsets so thank you for bringing that to my attention. I am liking the majority of what you have picked out only problem is maybe try and help find a cheaper CPU and MB to get a better graphics if not i have 4 grand saved up but in my op like i said i am trying to buy a car when the accident occurred screwing me over. so if it isn't going to work i will definitely put more money into this and just wait on the car until January/February.

 

Also for the Ram i am looking at the ones you picked out and the timings are way worse so from what my friends tell me the timings are more important than the Mhz, so do you know if those will overclock nicely to tighten the timings considerably or not. Also i was wondering if you looked over the changes i made to the OP with the new ram i added there?

 

Thanks BTW

[MercuryDoun]

I was thinking for down the road the ability to sli would need more than the power supply could handle and still have room to be safe. I am looking over your previous posted hardware and i will say you did an excellent job i will be going with ATi now because i was not aware of the issues facing sli with amd chipsets so thank you for bringing that to my attention. I am liking the majority of what you have picked out only problem is maybe try and help find a cheaper CPU and MB to get a better graphics if not i have 4 grand saved up but in my op like i said i am trying to buy a car when the accident occurred screwing me over. so if it isn't going to work i will definitely put more money into this and just wait on the car until January/February.

 

Also for the Ram i am looking at the ones you picked out and the timings are way worse so from what my friends tell me the timings are more important than the Mhz, so do you know if those will overclock nicely to tighten the timings considerably or not. Also i was wondering if you looked over the changes i made to the OP with the new ram i added there?

 

Thanks BTW

 

There is a combo deal on Newegg.com for that same MoBo and an Phenom II x4 965 which is a great CPU as well. Problem is you only save about $15 going from the Hex-core to a quad. When thats all the savings we are talking about... I dont see why not get the Hex. Id really like to see you get a GOOD Motherboard, even if it means spending a few extra bucks. Buying a cheaper motherboard usually means it wont overclock worth a poop. Or it wont last as long. If you decide to try and find a cheaper board. Make sure it has a decent cooling solution on both the Northbridge and the Mosfets near the CPU socket. If you dont, it either will be a terrible over clocker, Or just the added heat will kill the board in a year or so. It really pays out in the end to get a quality high end board.

 

Make sure to look for combo deals on whatever you decide to buy! You'd be surprised at how many Newegg really has. If your using lower power usage video cards, such as the 5770 or even 6850, putting two of them in xfire will easily be handled by that corsair 650w PSU.

 

Ive never used a set of Mushkin ram that couldnt have its timings tightend greatly or its speed overclocked considerably. The ram i currently run in my computer now, is DDR3 1600 @ 7-8-7-24 and it run it at 1724mhz at 6-8-6-20 and i didnt even have to try. set the timings, booted windows, ran fine. Did some memtest just to be sure. Ive lossened the timings to 9-9-9-24 and took it all the way up to 1850mhz on the ram as well. Im always happy when i buy Mushkin.

 

If your willing to spend some more money, these ram Modules are fantastic for the price as well. They are DDR3 1600 @ 7-9-7-24, you should be able to tighten that to 6-8-6-24 , or maybe 6-7-6-24 with little issue. And they are only $60 after the MIR. It also comes with a free Flashdrive. I did see your change in ram. Ive never used Patriot RAM before, so i cant comment there. All i know is ill NEVER buy OCZ ram again, or any product from OCZ for that matter. And within the last couple months i got alot of Mushkin stuff, And i havent been let down. So Ill always go Mushkin if i have that choice.

 

If you can recycle the DVD drive from your current computer. And maybe some other things like the HDD. or PSU. Going for a 6850 should be easy enough if you use most of the build i linked for you. Just dont forget there is only one IDE port on most new MoBo's(including the ASUS ive mentioned) and that means if you have a IDE cd drive and a IDE HDD, its filled. If your current computer has like a 430w PSU or more with atleast 20A or more o nthe rail, you probably can live with that for now. I mean you will definitely need to upgrade it for any xfire in your future. But that doesnt change that the $$$ you save now gets you a better Video card.

 

If you can find some way to get a 6850 into your build even if it means you spend alittle more money. Id say go for it! If you took the build i linked. and jsut changed toa 6850 from a 5770 and added the Mushking DDR3 1600 ram i just linked in this post instead the silverlines. Im pretty sure your build would be under $800 after all the MIR's.

Edited November 26, 2010 by MercuryDoun

[MercuryDoun]

Oh i forgot to mention. If you find a cheaper MoBo, Make sure that when in crossfire both the PCI-e slots run at x8/x8. Alot of the cheaper boards fool you thinking that it has 2 PCI-E lots but the 2nd one only runs at x4 which is pretty epic fail for a video card. So that doesnt really work. x8/x8 is plenty fine though.

[BonTenshi]

All right so Mercury i have taken your build and refined it. Luckily i was talking to my parents and they agreed to put in 500$ dollars so i only have to put in around 400$ as a Christmas gift so i can buy my car.

So here is what i have.

 

Optical

Case

HD

GPU

PSU

RAM

OS

Top Fans(2)

Side/Front Fans(3)

MB/CPU combo

Total 911.21$ after rebate 861.21$

So i went with the 6850 over the 5770 used my RAM got rid of your recommended fan and added enough to stock the case and have a really good airflow going. I will down the road add a heatsink to the cpu. Everything else is the same.

 

Tell me what you think.

(Also my mom is an affiliate of Newegg so she can take off a pretty big percent as well whenever the time comes.)

Edited November 27, 2010 by BonTenshi