[Mr. Selvetarm]

Sneaky Snake, on March 29th 2009, 05:43 PM, said:

getting a gaming PC? If so I'd start a new thread as this one is already a vista mess. With two Vista messes it would be even bigger. If your building one though I'd recommend an AMD build to save yourself loads of money for almost as good performance

As per Sneaky's advice, I've decided not to hijack archer's thread and start my own.

So I'm looking to get a budget rig that'll play games more competently then my MBP at first, and then as I get more money larer on in the year upgrade to some better stuff. I'm in a $550 budget range right now, but my birthday's coming up and the family back home loves sending penguins money.

This is what I've got so far:


So suggestions, comments, and all that jazz would be helpful as I haven't done anything above replacing RAM in a computer, although it doesn't seem that hard.

[Sneaky Snake]

A 580 watt power supply is a bit overkill for that rig. Remember though that cheaper isn't neccesarily the best rought. I'd get a nice Corsair single rail 400-450 watt if I was you. I have my rig (see signature) running on a single rail Corsair 450 watt. Also I noticed that you picked out a 4830 for a steal of a price. The 4830 is an excellent card in crossfire - performing better about as good as a GTX 260 core 216. I would buy an crossfire mobo and do that.

A cheap build for me right now would have the following:

Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition ~ $130 - OC's to 3.8 Ghz
Asus/Gigabyte AM3 Xfire Board ~ $150
2x 4830 ~ $150
4 GB DDR3 ~ $60

^^^^ that would be the main components of a new build for me at the moment, but that one would come in a few hundred more then yours - maybe around $800. However it would also perform about 40%-50% better to.

I gotta go to bed but I probably do some big posts in this thread


-Snake

[J'nathus]

Why not a 4850?

[Mr. Selvetarm]

Should I go for this instead? Or considering the fact that the 4830 is so cheap, get a crossfire setup?

[The Liberator]

I think if you can afford it, the investment will be better, especially in the long run.

Liberator.

[PeopleLikeFrank]

A 4850 will actually stand on its own for a while, whereas the 4830 would really just be a filler until you get something better. If you're planning on waiting for a while and saving up, the 4850 would keep you happier.

Seconding the recommendation regarding the power supply. Quality is better than overall power rating, especially because this rig isn't super high-powered, and a bad power supply can potentially jeopardize other parts in the system. Corsair is good. So is Antec.

The rest of the build looks good. Any particular reason for the mATX motherboard though? You've got a regular sized ATX case picked out there, so you won't be saving any space.

edit: there's a couple of pretty good combo deals on that Corsair PS on Newegg, which could get you the better PS, while saving a few bucks on a CPU or case.

[bobbob]

Sneaky Snake, on March 29th 2009, 08:46 PM, said:

Asus/Gigabyte AM3 Xfire Board ~ $150
4 GB DDR3 ~ $60

Wouldn't a DDR2 board and some DDR2 be cheaper? It's not like the DDR3 gets you anything. Something like this and these would save you $65, or the 780G board I can barely make out in that tiny blurry patch. Also, I think a Core 2 Duo would be very competitive. One of these and this would save another $30.

Edit: One of these power supplies would be infinitely better than the one in the graphic above. I think the $65, 500W Seasonic would be more than enough. A 380W one would work, too, if you don't go full-out quad-core and high-end SLI.

[Sneaky Snake]

Okay here is the post I wanted to make last night:



The actual total is $671 with mail in rebates. You could save yourself some money by going down to a 320 GB HDD and getting a single 4850 instead of two 4830's. I didn't include a CPU cooler because if your sticking with stock clocks (2.8 GHz triple core) the stock cooler should be fine.

Here's a great article comparing the 8800/9800 GT with the 4830 in single and dual configerations

PS: If your getting this build the CPU+Mobo deal's last day is tomorrow.

[PeopleLikeFrank]

Or, coming in at about $525 before rebates, shipping etc.

[Sneaky Snake]

nobody, on March 30th 2009, 04:25 PM, said:

Or, coming in at about $525 before rebates, shipping etc.

Go with nobody's build. Mine costs $150 more for not that much better performance unless you wanna overclock. Is that a crossfire board nobody?

[Mr. Selvetarm]

I really like it nobody. Should I spend the money I have. on the stuff deeply discounted now?

edit: How about this mobo?

[PeopleLikeFrank]

Mr. Selvetarm, on March 30th 2009, 07:27 PM, said:

I really like it nobody. Should I spend the money I have. on the stuff deeply discounted now?

edit: How about this mobo?

If you spend it now, some stuff will be cheaper later, but you'll have something to play with. If you wait, you'll miss out on some deals, but other stuff will be cheaper, and you won't have had it in the meantime.

It's the same as anything in the computer world, buy now if you need or want it now, because there will always be something better down the road. You can always upgrade individual bits later on, selling the old ones to make some money back. Of course, if you know you're getting some money real soon, you could wait and get something a little more robust then. There will always be some deals.

That other Mobo looks fine. I'm not familiar with Jetway, but then I only picked the one in the build above because it fit the needs and gave a nice discount in the combo deal. You'll probably pay a bit more if you go with the Jetway.

[Sneaky Snake]

With a little more cash I'd upgrade to 4870 if I were you. They can be had for not much more then a 4850. You want to stay in your budget but not be kicking yourself in a month for not spending the extra $50 - I didn't get a good GPU with my build and I ended up wasting $50 when I sold my old one for half of retail to get the GTX 260. I'm not saying the 4850 is a bad card, just that the 4870 will give you a decent jump in framerates for not to much more money. and since you have a crossfire board (I think) upgrading to a second in 6 months or so would give you another jump when you want it

[Mr. Selvetarm]

So I ordered the first $500 worth of stuff. Everything but a PCI wireless card and my 4850. The case, fans, and DVD drive came yesterday and the case is absoluelty beautiful. Well worth the extra money and it comes with a decent PSU until I get a second Vid Card.

[Sneaky Snake]

What PSU did it come with?

[Mr. Selvetarm]

Some standard Raidmax deal. 500w is more than enough for what I have now.

[Sneaky Snake]

Do you know what company it is?

[Mr. Selvetarm]

Raidmax. Or at least that's what it says in the bottom of the PSU.

[bobbob]

Mr. Selvetarm, on April 15th 2009, 07:29 PM, said:

Raidmax. Or at least that's what it says in the bottom of the PSU.

Not the best name in PSUs, but I bet their mothers know them well.

[Mr. Selvetarm]

As soon as I get the funds I'm going to upgrade to a Corsair CF PSU.