Help a poor man make a gaming computer!

[Zero V]

I hope this is in the right place, and permitted.

Seriously though. I use an Acer Mini my brother hooked me up with for cheap about a year ago...Hey Startopia works on it! hah but thats about as good as it gets.

I recently dropped most of my savings into my CPT Personal Trainer certification instead of a PC because I am trying to move forward with life, every one tells me I can build a decent gaming rig that can run anything(although obviously not at amazing speeds or with the best visuals) for about 600 bucks. Well, no one ever tells me what I need to do so...

I am tech savvy, as I am 23 and grew up a gamer but now I am much less a gamer and more into physiology, sports medicine, and the human body. Going to be a N.A.S.M. Personal trainer in about 3 months. This means, I lost computer smarts Seeing Civ V coming out soon as well as the new Star Wars MMORPG renewed the geek in me and I need some help lol.

I can work around and get about 600 I think, thing is I really need to know what to get that will be best quality for my $$. Even if I could get some kinda list, and pick something up every couple weeks maybe. I just need a gaming rig again its been ages!

Just installed Linux on my dads laptop and man that kinda got me back into computers as playing around with it really showed me that windows sucks So the current plan is to build a Desktop PC and dual boot it with Linux Mint and Windows 7. All help really is appreciated.

 

[civ_king]

AMD or Intel processor? Dual or Quad core? Form Factor?

 

[Zero V]

AMD or Intel processor? Dual or Quad core?

I have the most experience in the past with Intel, and found it reliable. Dual or Quad, I can go either way. Of course a Quad I would prefer for the better performance.

 

[civ_king]

Okay with overclocking? and form factors

 

[Zero V]

Okay with overclocking? and form factors

I dont care for over-clocking, in fact I am looking for a PC to last me...well a couple years with minimal upgrades as I can afford.

Form factors....my dear friend you sir just stepped outside of my knowledge, though I did do a quick search for it and read a lil about it. Even after reading about it, I would honestly just ask your opinion of what is best.

 

[civ_king]

How much space do you have by your desk?

 

[Genocidicbunny]

For 600$ you should be looking at AMD. It wont be as powerful but it will be cheaper.

Form-factor doesnt really matter. Pick a motherboard you like, then get a case to fit it all, instead of restricting yourself by the case size. If you dont have any height restrictions, any mid-tower or full-tower will do, although the full-tower cases are significantly more expensive (good ones start at about 150$ and only go up)

For graphics card I suggest an AMD HD5770 if you got the money, or the HD5670 if you want to go a little cheaper.

RAM is whatever you find that cheapest, but from a well-known manufcaturer (Corsair, Crucial, Kingston are all good brands. OCZ and A-Data arent bad either)

Motherboard: find a cpu you like and then search by socket. For a 600$ gaming machine, you wont need any fancy features. A socket, 4 RAM slots, 1 PCIe x16 and a couple PCI slots are all you really need. Look more so for the reliability of the motherboard (read some reviews of it online).

Power Supply: crucial that you get a good one. Skimping out on this can fry the rest of your pc. I have a Corsair PSU and swear by it. Since I dont keep up with the manufacturers, I cant really point any good brands. If you want to be sure though, read up online, especially on HardOCP since they put the PSU's through some brutal tests.


A good place to start for all of this is Newegg. They may not be cheapest, but will make it pretty easy to get a good idea of what you want and the approximate prices. You can later look up your chosen components on other sites to see if you can save some money.

 

[civ_king]

I tried, all you need is an optical drive and a HDD (take from whatever you are using AtM), unsure about the Rosewill PSU

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Really bad idea on that PSU, and the intel CPU/mobo is eating up a lot of the budget. The RAM could be a tad cheaper too.

You also dont need the AS unless you're getting an aftermarket cooler. The stock cooler has pads that will last for now.

 

[civ_king]

Is it a bad deal for $50? better AMD option

 

[Genocidicbunny]

the OCZ PSu is a much better idea. I wouldnt buy rosewill anything, ever.

I also suggest a different CPU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103846

Since its a black edition, it can be overclocked pretty easily later on in the future if needed.

You can also go with slightly cheaper memory and get something for 90$ (Holy sweet jesus memory prices have gone up. My 8GB cost me less than that 4GB set)

 

[Fëanor]

Assuming you need a pc and all peripherals:

Processor: AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition 3.2GHz
Motherboard: MSI 870-G45
Memory: OCZ Platinum 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000)
Graphic Card: ZOTAC ZT-98GES5P-FDL GeForce 9800 GT 512MB
Harddrive: SAMSUNG HD754JJ 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache
Power Supply: OCZ Fatal1ty OCZ550FTY 550W
Case: Sunbeam VentMax IC-VM-BK
Monitor: ASUS VH198T Black 19" 5ms 1440x900 LED Backlight LCD Monitor
Optical Drive: Sony Optiarc Black DVD Burner
Keyboard & Mouse: Pixxo KB-9AA1 Black USB Wired Keyboard + Mouse Combo

Total: $744.90
After Discounts: $626.91 (Combo 1-2-3)
After Rebates: $552.91
(All before Shipping)

 

[civ_king]

damn, is that a bunch of combos?

 

[Genocidicbunny]

It is which is why I wouldnt consider it a good build for the budget. Its nice, dont get me wrong, but relying on combos and rebates to meet your budget is the wrong way to go about it. They should reduce the price well past the budget max, not squeeze it in under.

 

[Zero V]

Wow alot of good info and ideas, at the very least I now kinda have a platform to set up in my mind to build off of. I really appreciate it!

There is a place here, Microcenter and they sell some things pretty cheap, and alot of things can be purchased OEM. Without all the pretties. My buddy who used to be my computer help introduced me to the place. I will take what you have given me and give it a look over and see what I can come up with, as well as newegg, and any other sites I can find(though shipping will likely be counter productive).

Also its my understanding upgrading is pretty easy with a desktop PC(tower) and there is generally no limit correct? As I save up money I can buy a better piece, add it in, sell the old, and hopefully just like with flipping cars repeatedly I can end up with a nice beasty computer in a year lol.

Thank you again, hopefully I can post something up here in a bit to get checked out.

 

[Quintillus]

Microcenter is a good store, and local to Ohio. I don't know of a better PC-only chain store. Sometimes their sales are better than anything you can get online.

Upgrading is generally pretty straightforward. Graphics cards should be upgradable no matter which you get now for the foreseeable future, as should hard drives, and optical drives. Memory should be for a good while - eventually they will move beyond DDR3, but if you get DDR3 now, you'll be able to upgrade it for a good long while, and to quite high amounts. Even if you get DDR2, you should be able to upgrade to large capacities if/when you need it, although the speed won't increase anymore. CPU's, it depends on whenever Intel/AMD decide to change the CPU socket. Generally they use the same socket for several years, but there's no guarantee they will. Of late I'd say AMD has been better in this regard lately - they made many CPUs that had versions for both their old and new (2008/9) socket, not leaving owners of the old socket in the dark, and they have one clear king socket (AM3), versus Intel's two (LGA 1156, mid-range, and LGA 1366, high-end, above your budget, and not worth the price premium in most cases even if you had the budget). But AMD could upgrade their socket tomorrow and Intel could keep theirs for 10 years.

None of the lists presented here have included Windows 7, a notable omission if you plan to game. Obviously you'll need to get the hardware first, but it's worth considering that in the price. Getting a lesser processor to start with would save you a good amount - this $51 dual-core won't impress anyone, but should handle most games well. Memory is also expensive these days - if you only need 2 GB to start with, you can save another $40 initially, and that's a very easy upgrade later on. That'll come close to saving enough to cover an OEM Windows license.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Microcenter is not local to just Ohio, there are a few around the bay area here too. The problem with them is they are few and far between.

They can have some amazing combo deals, like a motherboard and good CPU for half the price of the CPU alone.

 

[taper]

I just built this system. I run Ubuntu 10.04 on it, and the AMD/ATI Catalyst drivers for the video card from the repository work great. Video drivers are sometimes a little iffy on Linux, so I was very happy with this one. There were some discounts and rebates that aren't showing up on this which reduced my price. You could go with a Phenom II triple or dual core instead, a less fancy MB since you're not planning on OC'ing, and probably get to $600.

The ATI 5770 card is much bigger than I expected, it fits fine on the MB I chose, but it might not on some. Make sure there aren't any high profile components or ports in line with the PCIEx16 port on whatever MB you choose if you get a 5770. I'm also very impressed with the Antec case. It doesn't have all the fancy lighting some do, but the elegant simplicity looks great, it has tons of room and is very cool and quiet.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

The Antec 300 is an excellent case. Its a smaller version of the one I have, but I also spent a bunch more on it (Antec 1200 for me)

 

[Zero V]

Well this weekend I am gona run to Microcenter with a buddy and start looking. Kinda stoked, I have never had a "nice" gaming machine in my life. And even what you guys have tossed out as the "blueprints" of where I am going with this it will be about 13-16 times stronger than anything I have owned....literally...Best I had was my laptop with an Nvidia 6400 mobile...