Part suggestions for a $650(ish) Gaming Build

L

Livin

New Member
Would like to start off by Greeting everyone, i am new here but have lurked for a while and have gotten tons of great information from these boards.

Tax time is here :) and its actually a good thing for me since i will have some extra cash.

The current system i use is an:

Acer 3830TG-6431
i5 Sandy Bridge
4GB Ram
Nvidia GT 540m
13.3" screen.

It's been great so far and has handled everything i needed perfectly but I've been wanting to game lately. (I can play WoW on Good - Ultra at around 45-60fps) but would like to run everything on Ultra and would like to be able to play most games on highest settings.

Games i'm interested in playing are : Shogun 2, WoW, BF3, Starcraft 2

and would like to play those on highest settings.

I'm confident in building a computer (doesn't seem to hard)

and would to hear from you guys with expertise on this subject.

I want to stick with Intel (If possible)
and stick with Nvidia (if possible)

and most importantly build something that is able to be upgraded in the future

is this possible to do with around $650?
 
A couple of things. Do you have a unused copy of windows? If not, that'll be $100 right off the bat. If you could find a used hard drive, that would also bring the price down, since they're expensive due to the flooding in Thailand. Do you have a keyboard/mouse/monitor? What country are you located in? Once you answer those questions, we'll put together a list.
 
claptonman said:
A couple of things. Do you have a unused copy of windows? If not, that'll be $100 right off the bat. If you could find a used hard drive, that would also bring the price down, since they're expensive due to the flooding in Thailand. Do you have a keyboard/mouse/monitor? What country are you located in? Once you answer those questions, we'll put together a list.
Click to expand...

From the US (California)

I have a Keyboard/Mouse/Monitor 15" LCD which will do for now but i eventually want to get a 19"-22" widescreen

I dont have a copy of windows so i will need to purchase that, the $99 version is fine.

so looks like after buying windows i have a $550ish budget...

I have no experience with Ubuntu/Linux/ or other OS's besides Windows but i am open to using them if it's worth it and am still able to run games and Adobe CS5 software.

Thanks
 
it would be better for you to stick with windows. The work necessary to get most games to work in Linux is beyond the beginning user. you could probably dual boot with Linux to learn it if you wished, it is a good skill to have and the setup is not hard.

edit, I put together a nice little build for ya, but it is $100 over budget when factoring in windows. I am sure you could drop some things down, but this is a really solid system I think.

Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119233
Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157279
GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161384
PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817256061
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115078
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220570
HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148840

you still need windows and a DVD drive. If you plan to overclock, then a cooler too. I am sure someone can put together a AMD build for you too, but the 2100 performs on par with quad core AMD systems in games.
 
Last edited:
wolfeking said:
it would be better for you to stick with windows. The work necessary to get most games to work in Linux is beyond the beginning user. you could probably dual boot with Linux to learn it if you wished, it is a good skill to have and the setup is not hard.

edit, I put together a nice little build for ya, but it is $100 over budget when factoring in windows. I am sure you could drop some things down, but this is a really solid system I think.

Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119233
Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157279
GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161384
PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817256061
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115078
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220570
HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148840

you still need windows and a DVD drive. If you plan to overclock, then a cooler too. I am sure someone can put together a AMD build for you too, but the 2100 performs on par with quad core AMD systems in games.
Click to expand...

Thanks, appreciate the time you put into putting this together for me.

I actually have a dvd drive already.

This seems like something i would like to go with. I might be keen to spending more on the CPU and GPU to have something more "future ready" maybe $150 more including both.

could you tell me what Nvidia card is that Radeon comparable with?

i also was curious to know why some i3 cpu's are faster than some i5's/i7's

for instance, the i3 cpu you posted seems to be a lot faster than my i5 2410m Sandy Bridge which sort of suprised me after looking at some charts.

i thought it went i3 > i5 > i7

thanks again :)
 
the i3 is a desktop while the i5****m you have is a mobile processor. A laptop i3****m would also be much slower than the one posted.

The Nvidia equivalent is a GTX460/GTX 560 (non ti) I think.

If you wanted to upgrade anything there, go with a 2500k, and a GTX570 if you can spare it.
 
wolfeking said:
the i3 is a desktop while the i5****m you have is a mobile processor. A laptop i3****m would also be much slower than the one posted.

The Nvidia equivalent is a GTX460/GTX 560 (non ti) I think.

If you wanted to upgrade anything there, go with a 2500k, and a GTX570 if you can spare it.
Click to expand...

thanks a lot. I'm looking forward to putting this system together. I will post pics when its all together.
 
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