Suggestions on how to make my gaming build better

Blackout31

Blackout31

New Member
I am trying to build a good gaming rig for 800-900 dollars or a LITTLE more. The build i have listed below is one i threw together without much research and I don't really have the knowledge of all the computer components to know if it will be a very good build or not. :( So I am looking for someone to give me some suggestions to make the list better or even an entire new list. Any help would be greatly appreciated. :)

PCU- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103249

MoBo- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138105

Case- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811208005

Vid Card- http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3481319&CatId=1826

Ram- http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2850373&CatId=10 x2

Fan- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835234001

HD- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148136 Two of them to RAID?

Power Supply- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817159082

Drive- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106083
 
For that price you are limited on options....I will do the best I can for ya.

Case : Keep the case, I have the same one and was really surprised at the quality and looks, for that price it is the best one you will get for $65. I am very happy with mine. And it is a good size mid tower, 9800 GTX has no issue at all fitting, still have inch and a half before I had to do any cutting :) One thing I didn't like about the case are the fans....the don't move much air but they will work for a while. I dropped in a Thermaltake 4 channel fan controller and replaced intake and exhaust 120mm fans with Sycthe 133 CFM high output fans.....it is pretty loud when cranked up but well worth it!

PSU : COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power 550W ATX for $60
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171016

Motherboard : ASUS P5K SE LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX for $80
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131278

CPU : Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield for $180
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115018

CPU Cooler : XIGMATEK HDT-S963 92mm Rifle CPU Cooler for $15 after rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233001

RAM : CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145184

Graphics card : ASUS EAH4850/HTDI/512M Radeon HD 4850 for $158 after rebate and a free game!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121253

Drive : SAMSUNG Black 20X CD-ROM / DVD Burner with LightScribe for $27
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151155

IDE : Link Depot ATA133 UV Cable for CD / DVD drive for $3, you have to mount the CD drive in the 2nd from the top slot
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812104029

Hard drive : Western Digital Caviar 400GB 7200 RPM for $65
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136076

Operating system : Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit for $110
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116488


For about $825 before shipping and after rebates....this is about as good as you will get. You can go a little more or a little less with certain parts, but this is a decent build.
 
AMD is limiting itself to the budget segment for now. A 200mhz system bus was fine for the era of F.E.A.R., Doom 3, Quake 4, Far Cry, and Half-Life 2, so if those are the most graphically demanding games that you intend to play, then AMD is the way to go. If you plan on playing games from the most recent crop, such as Crysis, Bioshock, Unreal Tournament 3, Battlefield 2142, etc., you'll want an Intel system. The E8400 is a very popular chip and a good choice. When it comes to RAM, two gigs of DDR2-1066 are better than four gigs of DDR2-800. You cannot afford SLI/Crossfire on your budget, so pick up a single Radeon HD 4870. Your hard drive should be two of these (or similar) in SATA RAID.

XP Professional is better than any version of Vista.
 
Nigouki said:
AMD is limiting itself to the budget segment for now. A 200mhz system bus was fine for the era of F.E.A.R., Doom 3, Quake 4, Far Cry, and Half-Life 2, so if those are the most graphically demanding games that you intend to play, then AMD is the way to go. If you plan on playing games from the most recent crop, such as Crysis, Bioshock, Unreal Tournament 3, Battlefield 2142, etc., you'll want an Intel system. The E8400 is a very popular chip and a good choice. When it comes to RAM, two gigs of DDR2-1066 are better than four gigs of DDR2-800. You cannot afford SLI/Crossfire on your budget, so pick up a single Radeon HD 4870. Your hard drive should be two of these (or similar) in SATA RAID.

XP Professional is better than any version of Vista.
Click to expand...

I agree with mostly everything there besides about the OS.

Gamers need windows vista because they need DX10 and XP doesn't support it.
 
Vista for diect x10

If you want to go dual card go with two 3570's for 200$ imo its not as good as 1 4870 but for 60$ cheaper is pretty good. the 4870 though is an amazing card as it beats the 260 for 10$ more and is almost as good as the 280 or the 9800gtx2 (aka 9800 gtx in sli, with some differences).

If your motherboard allows 4gpus then all the better as you can add more to the 3570 Xfire build, if it allows two then I would suggest starting off with the 4870 and upgrading later on. Video cards all seem about the same $ to performance ration at the moment, whether it be ATI or Nvidia.

I don't think that quad processor is even worth mentioning as dual cores seem to be doing better atm and you can get a kick butt dual cheaper than and faster than a quad.

I completely agree with nouki on the ram and 8400(I may get one as well)
 
ScOuT said:
4870 almost as good as the GTX 280? The GTX 280 will crush the 4870! Have you seen any benchmarks head to head? You only get about 60% of the GTX 280 performance from the 4870.

The 4870 is a great card for the money and I think it it the card that he needs for his build...but lets not give him bad info. :) I am glad to see ATI back in the game and making good cards! I have thought about going ATI for the first time in my life if they keep up the good work!

Test done by MAXIMUMPC, GTX 280 vs. 4870. Same system, changed cards and drivers that was it.

______________GTX 280___________4870
Crysis_________15.9 FPS___________9.3 FPS
Vantage G1____15.5 FPS___________10.7 FPS
Vantage G2____19.9 FPS___________9 FPS
3DMark06______46 FPS____________34 FPS

The 4870 gets embarrassed by the GTX 280! But the price : performance ratio tips the scale in the 4870's favor.

That is a good idea for your build....you can go for a Dual core, better graphics card and high speed RAM. Nigouki is correct, that would be your best option.

I would go with Vista, cohen said it also. I really like Vista, I've had it since it was first released and know it inside and out now. I have only had a few minor issues with it but nothing serious.

Case : XION II w/12” green cold cathode
Motherboard : Asus P5N-E 650i @ 1532 FSB
CPU : Intel Q9300 @ 2.875 GHz
CPU Cooler : Cooler Master Hyper TX2
RAM : Corsair XMS2 Pro/pc6400/ 4x1GB/ @800 MHz
Graphics : Evga 9800 GTX @ 760 MHz
PSU : Antec Neo Power 650w / modular cables
OP: Vista Home Pre 64 bit
Click to expand...

Get a GTX 280 with a $900 list??
Never though about this before...
So if you using the $450 GTX 280, you only got $340 for the rest of hardware as $110 go for OS.
Then
Case + PSU - $100
RAM - $20
DVD burner - $25
Mobo - $80
HDD - $45
So, CPU should be E2200??

E2200 + GTX280 vs. E8400 + ATI 4870...
 
hey daisymtc, check this out....

I was just making a comment on jkjkhardcore post that said "the 4870 is almost as good as the GTX 280" That's all :)

If you read my entire post I also said the 4870 is a great card for his build and budget the price:performance ratio is in the 4870s favor :)

Next time read it before posting please.
 
Last edited:
thx

thank you everyone for your help. It's nice to have people that know as much as you guys willing to share their knowledge. :D
 
New List

Here is my new list. Everything look good to order?

Drive- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151155 $27

Case- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811208005 $65

HD- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822135106 2 for $78

PS- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171016 $60

RAM- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227181 2 for $121

cable- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812104029 $3

CPU- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115018 $180

Windows Vista- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116488 $110

Cooling- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233001 $15

Video Card- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121253 $153

MoBo- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131278 $80

Total after rebates and shipping is $934
 
looks good-

the E8400 is the gamers choice for proccessors at the min due to the fact that games dont really take advantage of 4 cores in the quad and the E8400 is quicker per core!

personaly i would stick to the q6600 for future proofing your setup-maybe overclcok you q6600 a little to 3ghz per core!

i have mine at 3.2ghz and im happy :)

just something to consider

oh and i would get a antec900 for the case as it has good air cooling (looks good too)
 
I think you will be very happy with this build! Keep us informed of how everything goes.

Make sure you get the IDE cable I showed you, that is an OEM drive and will not have one.

check this out.....LOGISYS 10cm Green Cold Cathode Light for $5
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16800888029

picture.php


Case : XION II w/12” green cold cathode
Motherboard : Asus P5N-E 650i @ 1532 FSB
CPU : Intel Q9300 @ 2.875 GHz
CPU Cooler : Cooler Master Hyper TX2
RAM : Corsair XMS2 Pro/pc6400/ 4x1GB/ @800 MHz
Graphics : Evga 9800 GTX @ 760 MHz
PSU : Antec Neo Power 650w / modular cables
OP: Vista Home Pre 64 bit
 
Built it

I finished building it a couple of days ago. It runs fast and easily handles all of my games a their highest settings. The only problem is that even with the heatsink my processor can run a little bit hot sometimes. any suggestions on how to cool it down a little bit?
 
Making gaming better

As for the X38 boards, If I'm getting it then I'll go with Gigabyte as well because when it comes to Asus, they stripped off everything
on a x38 board which uses DDR2.

As for DDR3, the price right now it just ridiculous.
And for those who thinks that getting a DDR3 boards right now and wait until the memory price drops... By the time memory for DDR3 is at
a reasonable price, then there will be better boards that support at even higher clock speeds.
-------------------
steve


Inspire Internet Marketing
 
Blackout31 said:
I finished building it a couple of days ago. It runs fast and easily handles all of my games a their highest settings. The only problem is that even with the heatsink my processor can run a little bit hot sometimes. any suggestions on how to cool it down a little bit?
Click to expand...

well its because you have gettin a good proccessor but you have bought a cheap cooler-! it prob would have been worth spending a bit more on a better cooler!!!

only other thing to do is make sure you have ggod airflow through your case!!!

fornt of your case intake and the rear the exhaust, therefore there will be free flowing air through your case all the time
 
hard drive

I actually forgot about another problem im having. I don't think my hard drives are raided and the second one doesn't show up. it shows up in bios but not anywhere else for storage? is there something im missing or are the raided and im just dumb or what? lol
 
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