S13shaka

hey every1 was looking for some advice on the PC im trying to build. Monitor, dvd drive, and peripherals aside, I have a $700-800ish budget.

trying to have something that can make sc2 pretty and do 1080p

so far ive been eyeing the intel i7 920, antec 300 case n antec tp750 psu, after that I dont know other than I want 6 gb of ram. I dont know what else I need after the mobo, video n sound card, ram, n hdd (OS aside). Am I asking too much for my price range? Id rather not cut corners and im pretty overwhelmed with all the information overload doing research...so suggestions, opinions, corrections please thanks.

enkei2k

i'd say, invest in a good vid card if you're doing 1080 stuff. at LEAST 1GB for the vid card. honestly, sound card i wouldn't bother much about it, unless you are a real audiophile listening to lossless media. i thought about getting a killer sound card at one point, but i ended up using this one that came with my mobo and haven't looked back.

is that 7-800 including the specs you already listed (proc, case, ram, psu)? if so, you're pretty much 'cutting corners' if your build budget is < 1K. you'd have to cheap out somewhere, but definitely do NOT cheap out on a vid card and mobo. the mobo is the important part, i'd recommend ASUS for that.

if you want to invest in your PC, look into aftermarket cooling and make sure your case can fit the extra fans if you're doing high gfx in sc2 and 1080 i'm sure the graphics card is gonna work hard.

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Future240

To add to what enkei2k said if you are going on an $800 budget, instead of going with an I7 try an AMD Phenom II 965, it is less than 200 bucks and packs a lot of bang for buck.

Asus is a great Mobo maker for AMD I am running one now.


Price out this setup, it should run under 800 and be a pretty good deal.
CPU-Phenom 965
Mobo-Asus
GPU-HIS (I think its a 5870-if too exp dial back a few, will still get 1080p I have it on an HIS 4850)
HDD-Seagate or Westerd Digital Black
CPU Fan-Artic Cooling

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sephiroth99

if you want a core i7 setup, I would recommend the Asus P6X58D-E. There is also the Gigabyte X58A-UD3R which is cheap, but there are lots of people that get whining noise coming from the motherboard (I know mine does whine, it sucks)

If you find yourself on a thight budget for a i7 setup, as future240 mentionned, you should consider an AMD setup. You can go for a Phenom II X4 965, or for about $20 more, you can get a X6 (hexacore).

As for the videocard, depending on the budget, either a 5770 or a 5830 I'd say.

S13shaka

ok so I did some number crunching and priced out this for $950:

intel i7 920
asus p6x58d-e
asus eah4870 gpu
wd 1.5 tb cav blak
a-data 32gig ssd
antec 300 case
antec tp 750 psu
artic cooling 92 mm cpu fan

yay nay?

edit: eh i forgot about ram, holdddd up

BOROSUN

looks good, but...
go for a 5770 and play the waiting game til the 5850 or 5870 drop the price some more.
atleast your dx11 proof with the 5770.

4gb ddr3 (atleast 1600 above or whatever your mobo can support) of ram is good enough. you can always add more later.

btw don't go amd phenom 2. the i7 920 is perfect...can be oc to 4.8ghz on air and its way better than amd x4/x6 in every way, price too. i have the 955be and hopefully going i7 for another build. the phenom 2 will be dinosaurs soon, anyways.
also stay away from HIS.

ooh forgot always future proof yourself. for psu make sure you got multiple +12v rails (atleast 4). and check the connectors and watts need if you want to go sli/xfire in the future. example like you need atleast 850-900 watt 2 2x6 connectors for 5870 on crossfire with head room for oc.

amdnivram

i really don't think intel based Pc's are really worth it if your on a budget. Im saying this because amd is better than intel at lower budgets. Let me find all my stuff but im sure what cost me 1600 is around you budget now since 1-2 years have passed and i can play any game at maxed specs. and still have over 50 fps

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BOROSUN

dude, i7 920 is around $275ish, while the new amd x6 1090t is close to $300. the 920 benchmarks way better than the 1090t six core. best bang for your buck and can hang for the future.

if you really want amd, save it. 2011 amd will release the bulldozer. this a totally new processor unlike the current amd cpus is based on the 8 yr old athlon 64.

S13shaka

^I found the 920 for $220 n just priced out a 5770 for $150

Homer_Simpson

You can get the i7 930 at Micro Center right now for $199, pick up only.

ronmcdon

yeah, i'd definetly opt for the i7 920.
have one myself & love it.

about to throw in a 5770 vid card @ our work desktop.
note you need a beefier power supply to run that.

I'd start off with less ram & skimp on a sound card.
that stuffs easy to add later.

g6civcx

My experience from assembling thousands of custom-spec computers is that one company always tries to outdo the other.

One year AMD will be the better value. The next year it will be the Intel. It switches back and forth.

S13shaka

I saw that! none in Fl tho! boo

ronmcdon: 750w not enough for the 5770?

dawagarage

what are your plans in regards to your OS?

S13shaka

win7 64 bit, I have a friend called the internet whos gonna give it to me

ronmcdon

No, that should be plenty.

I was just referring to the card in general requiring a larger ps
(not saying your setup was questionable).
I had to upgrade our office computer's ps to a 600/650w unit for it to work w/ the 5770.

btw - some stuff probably should be omitted in a public forum such as this.

dawagarage

oooh youre going to buy it. that sucks. OS' are expensive. i thought you were gonna pirate it, in which case i was gonna ask you where you gonna get it from.... cuz ubuntu is not cuttin it for moi. any1 w/ info PM me

BOROSUN

in general you mean nvidia power heaters.

S13shaka

what 120mm fans ya'll like for the front of the case

Freddy

this thread might help,

http://zilvia.net/f/off-topic-chat/2...iscussion.html

Gnnr

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FRpilot

interesting. I am building a pc for sc2 next month. (I think the release of sc2 alone next month is getting a lot of people to build/upgrade their pcs which is good good boost the sales for the PC industry. other companies should give Blizzard/Acitivision some money)

i am currently building a budget pc right now and piecing together/blueprinting my 2nd one to build for fun/minor overclocking/gaming, and blueprinting a 3rd PC as my dream PC (not sure if i will build this one, cost too much $$$).

i thought i could get away with a 700-800 budget too, but in the end, after tallying up all the cost, i ended up getting some fancier/costlier parts, and the total was low $1400. It could have been lower, but I opted for a more expensive case, i7 860 instead of i5 750, 8gb ram instead of 4gb, 2 hdd instead of just 1 hdd, and got a bd drive instead of just dvd.

if you're on a budget and going intel, stick with 1156 socket p55 chip. it will save you about $100, since the p55 mobos cost less and by running dual channel instead of triple channel memory (likely 2x2GB for budget build). also, if you're not overclocking, intel core i5 750 is best overall value and runs almost as a non-overclock i7 930.

My goal for this build was for stockclock (no overclocking) and least power consumption. I choose nvidia 9800GT (old ass card) over 5770 because i'm going to use it as a Phyx card for my next beefier/overclocking/fun build. I will most likely get a 5770 or better card to replace it if prices come down.

imo, for 160ish, 5770 is not a bad card and dx11 compatible. you might want to think about getting a motherboard that is usb 3.0/6gb sata compatible to future proof yourself a few years (even those these things wont be in widespread mainstream use for 2-3 yrs).

Here is PC #1 my "budget" setup:

Motherboard: EVGA P55 Micro $85
CPU: Intel Core i7 860 2.8GHz $220
Memory: Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1600MHz 7-8-7-20 8GB (4 x 2GB) $220
Video Card: Nvidia 9800GT 1GB DDR3 P/N: 010-p3-N981-TR $140
Power Supply: Corsair HX650w 650 Watt $90
Boot HDD/SDD: Western Digital Caviar Green 2.0TB 64MB Buffer $130
Storage HDD: Western Digital Caviar Green 2.0TB 64MB Buffer $130
Optical Drive: Samsung BD/DVD-RW/CD-RW $70
Case: Apevia X-QPack 2 $115
Cooling: Corsair H50 $60
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium Retail $150


Don't ask me about AMD. I have no clue, but if you go AMD route, their processor for the speed/features you get are more budget orientated.

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1on1

take out that 2tb for a 250gb or 500gb hdd with a 64mb buffer. you don't need a TB for your main hard drive and is a waste.

memory: you don't need triple channel memory if you're running a 860 processor, just stick to dual channel memory.

video card: i would say atleast a gtx 465 because of the DDR5 rather than ddr3. 9800gtx wont last you a long time.

if you want extra help on building a PC, give me a PM. i can help you on pc related parts.

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Finchie

I read as far as "6 gb of ram". You do not need that much RAM at all especially if your just playing SC2. Hell you can run SC2, PS CS4, and 10 internet windows on just 3 gigs of RAM.

It is also a waist of time to go 64 bit, it is horribly supported in many areas. Unless you are doing crazy 3D renderings or trying to find out the answer to Pi, you don't need 6 gigs of RAM or 64 bit.

Also one very important thing you left out is what size screen your going to be playing on, anything above 22" is going to be hard to play at full graphics & 1080p resolution. If your planning on playing on anything over 22" look into SLI or Crossfire.

I end with this, My current computer (E6600 OC to 3.8 Ghz, 2gb of corsair RAM, 8800 GTX OC) cost me almost $2000 when I bought it. It can run every game that has come out to this day on max settings without a blip. You could build a system similar, scratch that BETTER than mine for around your budget.

Learn how to OC and get your moneys worth out of your computer.

end rant

Woops almost forgot, getting a 32gb SSD hard drive is stupid as hell for a budget PC. Get a nice Western Digital and save a ton of money for your video card, or get a Raptor drive. Save the cash and spend it on a video card.

BOROSUN

wow really?

FRpilot

i know, my "budget" PC isn't really a budget PC anymore because i choose to splurge and went overboard.

the reason i got 2 2.0TB hdd is because eventually, i'm probably going to get an intel 80gb ssd for boot and keep the second 2TB for storage. then i will move the extra 2.0TB hdd as a storage hdd for my PC#2 build.

i am running 2 dual channel kits (2 kits of 2x2GB) so 4x2GB sticks that fills all my DIMM slots. i know, probably don't need 8gb total and should have just stuck with 4gb, but i choose to splurge.

the video card is the same situation with my hdd setup. i eventually plan to move the 9800gt to my PC#2 build and use it as a PhyX card mated to a GTX480 whenever those go down in prices. my replacement video card for this PC will probably be a 5770 since it is dx11 compatible and doesn't consume a lot of power. (maybe i'll opt for 5870 if prices come down enough)

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Crazyirish

Screen size is irrelevant. Only resolution matters. 1080p (really just 1920x1080) is just as hard on the system at 19" as it is at 52".

ronmcdon

I'm surprised the 5870's still as pricey as they are (around $500-ish?).
It probably cost the same today as it did 2 years ago.
5970's are only $600 so I don't think it makes sense to skimp $100 when you don't mind to spend that sort of $.

the 5970 toxic is nice too.
now there's a product I'm hoping the price will drop a little.

S13shaka

^yeah the jump from 5770 to 5870 is alot $$$$


question: im going to ahve to get a wireless card to put in a pci slot on my asus mb to run wireless internet?

Future240

That's what I said.

S13shaka, you could get a wireless card, or you could just use a USB adapter to pick up the wireless. I admit to not knowing much on this, as my PC is wired.

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