Build me a computer

[TheAlamo]

Hi.

I'm thinking of getting a new desktop. I got rid of my old desktop some months ago, and decided to go it alone with just the laptop I have. Though my laptop seemed like a viable option at first, it's just not cutting it anymore. I need you guys, with your expertise, to build me the best possible gaming rig with the lowest possible price. I need something that can handle reasonably demanding modern games, like L4D2. Of course by this I mean list the parts...

Thanks in advance.

 

[Integral]

AMD version -
Case: whatever.
CPU: AMD Phenom II 955 @$160
Motherboard: Asus M4A78T-E @$130
Graphics card: Radeon HD 5770 @$150 (Maybe. I'm not up to date on the 5000 series.)
Power supply: Corsair 650W @$100 (or Corsair 550W @$80)
Hard drive: Western Digital 500GB @$55
RAM: G.Skill 2x2 GB 1600 @$105
Subtotal, everything inside the box: $700

Peripherals not included: monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers. You can find more detailed pricing and specs at www.newegg.com. The above can play L4D2 and Modern Warfare 2 on highest settings.

The bit that I'm least confident about is unfortunately one of the more important parts: the graphics card. My last build was under the Radeon 4000 series; I went with an HD 4890. from a quick google search, that's about equivalent to the HD 5770. You might also want to look at the HD 5850, the next up in the series, but note that the price jump is considerable: $150 for an HD 5770, $310 for an HD 5850.

I'm sure that GenocideBunny or Cutlass will be here shortly with an Intel build and/or a critique of my AMD build...

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Thats GenocidicBunny tyvm

But no, your build, from the CPU and mobo standpoint looks good. I wouldnt recommend a LGA775 build anymore, and I have no experience with Core i5/i3.

There's no real reason to jump up from a HD5770, its plenty powerful unless you plan to game at 1920x1200 with AA. Even then it can hold it's own. I do suggest waiting a bit though, nVidia's supposed to be releasing the 4xx series in a short while (they promise that this time it's for real!) which should get a bit of a price drop on the HD5xxx cards.

Also, holy crap memory got expensive. I knew prices were up, but didn't think it was so much.

 

[Integral]

I stand corrected, good sir.

And memory is expensive now. I bought that same pack of RAM four months ago and it was only $65.

 

[Quintillus]

If you want an Intel quad-core built, here's a couple options

Socket: LGA 1156
CPU: Intel Core i5 750, 2.66 GHz @$200
Motherboard: MSI P55-GD65 LGA 1156 @$150
Graphics card: Radeon HD 5770 @$150
Power supply: Corsair 650W @$100 (or Corsair 550W @$80)
Hard drive: Western Digital or Hitachi 500GB @$55
RAM: G.Skill 2x2 GB 1600 @$105


That comes to $760. The 750 processor will boost up to 3.2 GHz for single-threaded applications, and thus should run those faster than the AMD build. Whether it'll be faster for quad-core applications, I'm not sure.

Socket: LGA 1366
CPU: Intel Core i7 920, 2.66 GHz @$200 (at Micro Center)
Motherboard: ASRock X58 Extreme LGA 1366 @$160
Graphics card: Radeon HD 5770 @$150
Power supply: Corsair 650W @$100 (or Corsair 550W @$80)
Hard drive: Western Digital or Hitachi 500GB @$55
RAM: Corsair 3x1 GB 1333 @$100

That comes to $765. The 920 will turbo boost up to 2.93 GHz for single-threaded applications. I don't find any compelling reason to choose the i7 over the i5 at this juncture.

But I'd go with the AMD here. Its CPU is more than powerful enough for modern gaming and is easy to overclock, and there's nothing else going for the Intel build.

And yeah, memory has become ridiculously expensive. I bought 2x2 GB of DDR2 SO-DIMMs a year and a half ago for $35, and now it's $80. Makes me wish I'd stocked up back then so I had extra to sell now.

 

[TheAlamo]

Hmmm... what are the chances it can be kept to $500? I'm looking to go as budget as I can.

 

[Fëanor]

Hmmm... what are the chances it can be kept to $500? I'm looking to go as budget as I can.

Is that including peripherals (monitor, keyboard, mouse etc.) or did you keep those?

 

[Cutlass]

I stand corrected, good sir.

And memory is expensive now. I bought that same pack of RAM four months ago and it was only $65.

The price of RAM is way the hell down from 3 years ago though

I'm not very well up on the recent stuff inside the box because I haven't built a PC in a couple years. So I'll leave that to others. Except to note that I'm generally happier with 2 internal hard drives instead of one. And I didn't see where anyone mentioned an optical drive. You should pick one that burns DVDs, and preferably more than one format. And for the case, you don't have to buy an expensive one, and in a pinch you can reuse an old one. However, if you are buying a case, look for features that make it easy on you. A case with 120mm fans could be a bit quieter than small fans. Things like USB ports on the front of the case are a bit more convenient then only in the back.

 

[GVBN]

HD5830 is already out but the price is nowhere near the predicted sub-$200 range so it's not worth it

 

[TheAlamo]

Is that including peripherals (monitor, keyboard, mouse etc.) or did you keep those?

I have all peripherals except a monitor, but I can get one of those from a friend for free.

 

[shortguy]

Here's what I've come up with (all prices from newegg.com):

Rosewill R-220 case: 29.99 -- I dunno that this case is any good, but I'd expect you could find something you like for $30-50.
MSI 770-G45 motherboard: 79.99
Sapphire Radeon HD 4850: 94.99
Cooler Master Elite 460W PSU: 34.99
AMD Phenom II X2 545 CPU: 93.99 -- AMD has a lot of $70-100 processors, you'll have to get someone else's advice on which one is best.
Kingston ValueRAM 2 x 1 GB DDR3: 52.99
Seagate Pipeline 500GB HD: 59.99
Sony Optiarc 24x CD/DVD burner: 24.99

Total is 471.92. This computer won't blow anyone away, but it's a pretty respectable budget build and unless your laptop is brand new and expensive it'll beat the pants off it. A few caveats:

--This is in USD, and newegg.ca might have worse prices.
--This doesn't include shipping.

 

[Fëanor]

Here is a Full system i puzzled together on Newegg before i knew you didn't need the peripherals.

CPU: Athlon II X2 245 $60.99
MB: ECS A785GM-M5 1.0 $41.99
RAM: OCZ Gold 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 OCZ2G8004GK $56.99
GPU: GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB (PNY VCG98GTXPXPB) $84.99
PSU: APEVIA ATX-JV650W $34.99
HDD: 800GB Western Digital Caviar Green (WD8000AARS) $64.99
CASE: Sunbeam Transformer IC-TR-US-BA-WOPSU $64.99
MONITOR: 19" (1440x900) ASUS VW193TR $119.99
OPTICAL DRIVE: Sony Optiarc AD-7241S-0B $26.99
KEYBOARD & MOUSE: SpecResearch Smart-2B $8.99
OTHER:APEVIA 5 ft. Power cord Model PCORDAC $3.99
GOODIE: Free RainbowSix Vegas 2 with the motherboard.
Total Cost: $569.89
Without Monitor and K&M: $440.91
(All inc. $118 in rebates and ex. shipping and handling)

The prices are taken from Newegg and some things are cheap thanks to particular offers and rebates they are offering.

Areas were money could be saved:
OPTICAL DRIVE: i haven't had one in my main pc for years, so unless you need one to do what you want to do on that pc its a good place to save a chuck of your budget.
CASE: You can get much cheaper, smaller ones but those have usually very bad airflow, which (even if you don't overclock) ends up degrading your whole system's performance and lifespan. That particular case is one of the cheapest full tower and already has a bunch of fans in it to assure good airflow.
RAM: 2gb is usually sufficient for most current applications, although that 4gb kit is priced very aggressively so going to down to 2gb will only save you about $15.
HDD: Much like the RAM that particular hdd is a very good deal, you could save some $10 and get a 500gb one, don't buy less than 500gb or you'll be trowing money away (80gb cost $35 160gb $39 etc.)

Spoiler PICTURES! :

CPU (BOX)

MOTHERBOARD

RAM

GPU

PSU

HDD

CASE

MONITOR

OPTICAL DRIVE

KEYBOARD & MOUSE

 

[Zelig]

Here's what I threw together, I don't feel like commenting, so just ask me if you have questions.

Case: http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=20935
PSU: http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=42439&promoid=1046
HDD: http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=36050&promoid=1046
CPU: http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=39335
Motherboard: http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=47948
RAM: http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=30384
GPU: http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=46567&promoid=1046

Total: $581.77

If it looks good, let me know, and I'll run some final checks before you order...

 

[shmily_dana]

There are a lot of good build suggestions on the "Tom's Hardware" site. I've been reading some of those. There are "How to build a PC" instructions" and an advice forum. I'm tempted to try, but I think I would build a cheap PC first.

I am curious what the most likely issue are. I'm guess the motherboard/cpu is the most likely thing to damage.

 

[Tigerruss]

I have one question do we need to take into account them needing the buy an OS?
I went through a similar process a year ago, I got a somewhat sad videocard and spent more on the CPU and MB(Though I had the OS already covered), but if you want a decent gaming computer now you should follow one of their guides.

I think I would suggest Windows 7 Home Premium 32bit-$99.
The only reason why I suggest 32bit instead of 64bit, is cause still not all programs are compatible with 64bit, (a lot less with issues then there used to be) but there are still quite a few if you aren't looking at high quality games (especially if you like mmos, and some anti-virus software).

I am not sure how many people here have different opinions on 64bit.(probably quite a few)

 

[GrandAdmiral]

If you are worried about money make sure you look at what the manufacturers are really offering because many of these systems cost more to build than buying a similar prebuilt system. Also the real cost will vary as you will notice these systems include varying numbers of components and usually no OS.