HELP! I Need PC build advice...

[mlakrid]

Since I have not been gaming for a while, I have not built a PC in a while.

A self built system under $600 that will meet the following criteria:

A PC that will give me the best bang for my buck...
A PC that will run all but the most resource hungry games...
A PC that will be quiet (quiet fans and PSU)

That is all...

Please be sure to specify the MB, CPU, RAM, PSU and why for each (if you have the time and are willing...

EDIT: I may also give you the specs for my old system as a possible skeleton for a rebuild rather than an entire new system build.

Thanks!

Mike A!

 

[Perris Calderon]

errr

doesn't this belong in the "new pc builds" section?

never built one myself, I am still in laptop mode

 

[mlakrid]

errr

doesn't this belong in the "new pc builds" section?

never built one myself, I am still in laptop mode

As I said in a previous post:
Im blind... that is EXACTLY what I was looking for...

Please move for me Perris... THANKS!

EDIT: NEVERMIND, I just read your post in my other thread... LOL


Mike A!

 

[Perris Calderon]

ya

I responded to this thread after the other one to poke ep for you

 

[Johnny]

You are talking $600.00 or more just for the video card and memory to play the resource hungry games.

 

[mlakrid]

You are talking $600.00 or more just for the video card and memory to play the resource hungry games.

Thats why I said:

...A PC that will run all but the most resource hungry games...

So help a guy out already...:laugh:

Mike A!

 

[LeeJend]

"Run all but the most resource hungry games."
Like Johnny said, not gonna happen at $600. Also, cost depends on what if anything you can reuse from the old system, which will depend on how old the old system is.

You need to define how you intend to play the games - 1600 resolution?, max quality?, etc. to determine how powerful a $ystem you need.

As a WAG figure $400 for high end Intel CPU/MB, pretty good video is about $300 last I looked, memory is pretty cheap <$200 depending on how much you want (remember more is generally better than a few percent faster, but unless you are using 64 BIT OS the ceiling is a little over 3 GB).

Check out Toms Hardware. They are running a continuous series on building your own PC across multiple price/performance ranges, with benchmark results.

Don't get cheap on the CPU. The physics engines in many new games are very demanding on the CPU.

 

[Xie]

I would just go to newegg and find the best combo ... then spend the rest on the video card -- as that's going to be the most expensive part.

 

[mlakrid]

Ok...

So lets see... I know for certain I will be playing the following games:

SC II
Diablo 3 (IF IT EVER COMES OUT)
I play alot of steam games (Counter strike Source mainly)
I also love first person shooters, so I may go out and purchse a few of the on-line play against your friends shooters I missed in my last two years...

I also found that most of the games I currently play will work just fine on much lower spec'd hardware than I expected...

Here is an article that I was going to base my system off of, you guys tell me if Im wrong but this seems VERY doable...

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5655214/gaming_pc_for_less_than_600.html?cat=15

Cheers!

Mike A!

 

[Xie]

Ok...

So lets see... I know for certain I will be playing the following games:

SC II
Diablo 3 (IF IT EVER COMES OUT)
I play alot of steam games (Counter strike Source mainly)
I also love first person shooters, so I may go out and purchse a few of the on-line play against your friends shooters I missed in my last two years...

I also found that most of the games I currently play will work just fine on much lower spec'd hardware than I expected...

Here is an article that I was going to base my system off of, you guys tell me if Im wrong but this seems VERY doable...

Gaming PC for Less Than $600 - Associated Content from Yahoo! - associatedcontent.com

Cheers!

Mike A!

You can probably get more processor and a mobo then that in a combo for same or cheaper. Instead of going OCZ RAM, you could go G.SKILL for probably cheaper with same specs (or close). The money save with combos I would put into a quality PSU and GPU.

 

[mlakrid]

I am not trying to be cheap, I am just trying to save $$$...

So lets do this another way... If you were me... and you wanted to play mainly first person shooters, the last one I played was FEAR, so lets use FEAR2 ,HL2 Episode 3 (if it ever gets completed), Left 4 Dead, and Left 4 Dead 2 as examples...

What would you build and why? Keeping in mind that I am trying to keep the costs as minimal as possible...

I would LIKE to play the game at as close to their highest settings as possible, while ensuring I am getting 35-40 FPS...

Now, hows that for more information?

Mike A!

 

[chastity]

Ok since you seem to want to play mainly first person shooters you're going to need a good video card, which I generally would go over what I need currently as generally I tend to try and future proof on some stuff, so I can more life out of it.

That said maybe the system I've got would be a good starting point

Now this is pretty much my current system I use for gaming. Though the mouse and keyboard are actually used on a different system as is the case and psu though both systems have modular psu though the game one is OCZ vs Thermaltake and the case is Antec instead of Thermaltake. The optical drive was reused from the old build into this build so its parallel vs sata

motherboard
Newegg.com - ASUS P6T SE LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard

cpu
Intel Core i7 920 Processor BX80601920 - 2.66GHz, LGA 1366, 4.8GT/s QPI, 8MB L3 Cache, Quad-Core, HyperThreading, Bloomfield, Retail at TigerDirect.com

memory
at TigerDirect.com

harddrives
1 320Gb Western Dgital
1 750Gb Seagate both sata

Video card
GeForce 9600 GSO with 768MB of ram onboard

Sound Card
Creative Labs Audgiy series

moniter
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/LG+-+23...lack/9274616.p?id=1218072891677&skuId=9274616

optical drive
lite-on dvd-/+ r/rw

speakers
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Logitec...lver/9427774.p?id=1218104302605&skuId=9427774

case
Welcome to Thermaltake

power supply
Thermaltakeusa » Power Supply » Toughpower Series » Toughpower Cable Management 650W PSU : Toughpower Cable Management 650W PSU W0128RU

keyboard and mouse
Newegg.com - Logitech Wave Pro Desktop Black USB 2.4 GHz Wireless Keyboard & Mouse Combo

 

[dreamliner77]

Hey Mike,

If you're looking for the best bang for the buck, I'd go the AMD route. Also, memory is dropping in price everyday.

 

[LeeJend]

You still haven't said what monitor resolution you will be plaing at? 1024x768 on an old rig may play games fine but if you upgrade resolutions to 1280x, 1600x, 1920x, which the new monitors support, the frame rates will drop to single digits.

The higher the resolution the more video ram bandwidth, pixel shaders, system ram and HD Cache you need. The more "affordable" video cards cut back on memory bandwidth and shaders which means they play ok at lower resolutions but are useless at high resolutions.

Defining the monitor and game resolutions you need to support comes first, then you build your system to support it.

And ditto on what Dreamliner said. If you want the most bang for the buck AMD is the better CPU choice. I7 and even I5 Intel CPUs are obscenely priced and you pay a premium on the MB too. Last I checked for just brute force gaming power Nvidia was the better cost buy (if you want multimedia also then AMD/ATI was the better choice).

If all else fails. Check the recommended system spec's for the games you plan on playing (not the minimum, the recommended) and that will give you a feel for what hardware is needed.

 

[mlakrid]

My 27" Dell has a native resolution of 1900x1200 I believe so thats what I would want to shoot for...

I overclock about anything I purchase... so all my builds have been Intel to this point and in reading about AMD versus Intel (recent CPU's) the Intel 920 was the best overclocker of them all... sadly I have found ZERO 920's...

Mike A!

 

[LordOfLA]

For PC's <$600 you want AMD processor, AMD chipset mainboard and AMD video (5850 or lower)

 

[LeeJend]

OK 1900x resolution puts you on into the hi end Video cards.
HD 6970 or GTX 570, the 6970 is a little more cost but should be noticeably faster.

Since you prefer Intel -
I7 for about $300
I5-750 for about $220 about 30% less performance
Go for a lower clock on the I7 to save money and hope it overclocks well.

Look for a MB combo deal for the CPU you pick to save money as mentioned above.

For RAM I go for crucial. It's quality and stable but not overpriced.

 

[Bootsy]

Pricewatch - Price Comparison and New Years Sales sorted by the lowest price

good site to get the low prices on parts