Building a gaming rig. First timer.

[sygnus21]

But like I said, I'm not one for the upgrade here and upgrade there route. To me, upgrading like this seems to be a constant outpouring of cash slowly getting to what you want. I'd rather save up all of the money and invest in everything at once.

I think both sides has merit; I’ve done the nickel and dime upgrades, (HD, GPU, PS) however I tend to lean on your side in that I usually build my systems to last so that by the time I need to upgrade I'm pretty much forced (by new technology) to upgrade motherboard, processor, and RAM.

In fact I’m currently in the process of researching components for an i7 system since I'll be doing an upgrade within the next 30 days. (hopefully)

 

[sygnus21]

AHHHHH, now this is just an argument over processors.

I would say go with whatever processor "you're" comfortable with.

Do you prefer....

Coke or Pepsi
Chocolate or Vanilla
Ford or Chevy
ATI or Nvidia

Yankees )) or Redsox ()


In short, go with what you like.

 

[pparks1]

RileyRandom,

As you can see there are lots of choices out there. Without a doubt, for $500 to $700 you can build a box that is going to accomplish what you want to do. And you can do it with either an Intel CPU or an AMD.

 

[Heroxoot]

Well not really. Getting an E7500 leaves you with room to upgrade way up in to the Core 2 Quads, which are still great processors today. Like I started with an E8200 on a 750i motherboard with DDR2. Upgraded the CPU to a Q9550, upgraded the motherboard to a 790i and DDR3 RAM a few months later, still with my Q9550.

Now see, for me...I wouldn't be able to justify upgrading from the E8200 to the Q9550. I mean, you essentially go from a 2.66Ghz dual core to a 2.83Ghz quad core. I don't think that I would find that much difference to justify this. (and I have a Q9550 at home and an E8400 at work...so I have some experience with these levels of CPU's) But like I said, I'm not one for the upgrade here and upgrade there route. To me, upgrading like this seems to be a constant outpouring of cash slowly getting to what you want. I'd rather save up all of the money and invest in everything at once. But hey, it's just me.

Are you kidding? The performance is not based on their clocks. Its a lot different.

You guy sdo not have to upgrade, but Id rather not see him buy a totally new rig later on. A budget pc is always better as an upgradable machine.

 

[pparks1]

Are you kidding? The performance is not based on their clocks. Its a lot different.

I'm not going to continue arguing about this in this post as we are hijacking this thread a bit.

Yes, I understand the differences. As I said, I have an E8400 at work and a Q9550 at home. For some tasks my quad core tears the E8400 to pieces. But I'll be honest, for the majority of my day to day tasks, boot ups and shut downs....there really isn't all that much difference. That was the point that I was subtly trying to make. So, if I would have purchased the E8400 at home and later upgraded to a Q9550...I feel that I would have felt a bit of buyers remorse for 95% of my home computing tasks. At the end of the day, I'm very pleased that I held out and just went with the Q9550 right form the start. This machine should easily last me another 12-24 months without feeling outdated in the least...even though we already have fancy Core i7's and DDR3 ram.

A budget pc is always better as an upgradable machine.

I do agree...and that's why I tried to stick with a nice case, a decent power supply and a solid motherboard. It's easy enough to change out GPU's and RAM down the road if the need arises. And that's why I went with the ATI Radeon 4770 as my suggestion. It's not a super-duper king of the hill card, but it will get the job down for now without spending a ton of cash. An upgraded GPU can come later once this one no longer meets his/her needs.

 

[not so gray matter]

Everyone that's posting, please remember that he specifically wants to build a gaming rig. So going without a graphics card, or going with a lower end one just wouldn't be advisable considering how many of the newest games are pushing the limits of 4/9 series GPUs and only the latest or next to latest series are enough to handle them.

 

[Heroxoot]

Everyone that's posting, please remember that he specifically wants to build a gaming rig. So going without a graphics card, or going with a lower end one just wouldn't be advisable considering how many of the newest games are pushing the limits of 4/9 series GPUs and only the latest or next to latest series are enough to handle them.

This is all about a gaming machine, and fact is, at one point he will need a new cpu and ram. A gfx card is always upgradable, but they rest not always solo. I'm just trying to realistically solve his problems for the future. Not all of us can afford to just buy a new pc every few years. We have mortgages and car payments and who knows what else could come up? But with new stuff coming he could go with AMD parts and buy a mobo that can go from athlon II to phenom hex. he could get lowly ddr3 1066 and be able to go to 1333 later.

He should definitly get a 5770 as the minimum. Ok so I saw a 700 max limit?

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Quad Core Processor & Diamond Radeon HD 5770 Video Card Bundle at TigerDirect.com
OCZ OCZZ550 Z Series Power Supply - 550-Watt, 120mm Fan, 80 Plus Silver Certified, SLI Ready at TigerDirect.com
Crucial CT25664BA1339 2GB PC10600 DDR3 Desktop Memory Upgrade - 1x2048MB, Non-ECC, Unbuffered, 1333MHz at TigerDirect.com
Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H Motherboard - AMD 890GX, Socket AM3, DDR3, PCIe, LAN at TigerDirect.com

He could get cheaper ram, he could get a cheaper mobo. But for the mobo this way when the phenom II x6 hits he can just pop it in and FLY.
He said he had all the trimmings, monitor, keyboard and mouse, speakers, dvd drive. So he could go to town on the core parts. He just needs to pick out a case.

 

[thefabe]

Well nobody as suggested an after market cooler from what I've read so I'll push my latest favorite. it's not that much more than a really good air cooler so the Corsair H50 Newegg.com - CORSAIR Cooling Hydro Series CWCH50-1 120mm High Performance CPU Cooler It's a sealed unit and I know doesn't fit into a real budget build but it fits so many different boards and CPU's it could be used for many future upgrades. Fabe

 

[Heroxoot]

Well nobody as suggested an after market cooler from what I've read so I'll push my latest favorite. it's not that much more than a really good air cooler so the Corsair H50 Newegg.com - CORSAIR Cooling Hydro Series CWCH50-1 120mm High Performance CPU Cooler It's a sealed unit and I know doesn't fit into a real budget build but it fits so many different boards and CPU's it could be used for many future upgrades. Fabe

The odds of him OCing are slim. Diamond and amd stock fans arent that bad. In fact mine work wonderful, but I have a sapphire card.

 

[pparks1]

Everyone that's posting, please remember that he specifically wants to build a gaming rig. So going without a graphics card, or going with a lower end one just wouldn't be advisable considering how many of the newest games are pushing the limits of 4/9 series GPUs and only the latest or next to latest series are enough to handle them.

Yes, but even more important than that is the budget that the person has to stay within. As he said, he wants to stay between $500 and $700 and doesn't care if he cannot play the latest games on high. So, we are trying to find the happy middle ground.

 

[Heroxoot]

Everyone that's posting, please remember that he specifically wants to build a gaming rig. So going without a graphics card, or going with a lower end one just wouldn't be advisable considering how many of the newest games are pushing the limits of 4/9 series GPUs and only the latest or next to latest series are enough to handle them.

Yes, but even more important than that is the budget that the person has to stay within. As he said, he wants to stay between $500 and $700 and doesn't care if he cannot play the latest games on high. So, we are trying to find the happy middle ground.

any budget pc with a 500USD limit can play games on high. He could easily get a 4850. 100USD card, very nice, very powerful. Unless the game needs dx11 hardware, it will run perfectly fine on max.

 

[not so gray matter]

If he's got a $700 dollar limit then here's a decent build:

NZXT Beta Evo Case - $40
GIGABYTE GA-MA78LM - $50
Patriot Viper II 4GB DDR2 1066 - $93
AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black - $100
NVIDIA 9800 GT - 1GB 256-BIT GDDR3 - $100
Antec 550W PSU - $50
Cooler Master 120MM Case Fans (4) - $10
2 x NZXT 140mm Case Fans - $20
Caviar Black 640GB HDD - $75
Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio 7.1 - $55
SAMSUNG SATA DVD WRITER (24x, 16x) - $25

Total: $615 before tax and shipping.

You really don't need the latest and greatest quad core CPU for gaming. Especially if you're not planning on playing games on super high settings. Quad Cores are great for multi tasking but they're not being utilized by most games. Most of the newer games can utilize a dual core cpu but many of them can't even come close to utilizing a quad core cpu. Nor do you need a system with USB 3.0 or DDR3 if you're not planning on doing the latest and greatest. Moral of the story... Instead of buying the latest motherboard and processor, spend that money on your graphics card, you'll see more of a different gaming. Keep in mind though, that graphics card will need to be replaced in a year or two, you'd need a GTX 260 if you want it to last longer. That would cost you an extra $100.

   Tip

As mentioned many times before: I don't recommend that you skip buying a sound card because Realtek onboard sound absolutely sucks for gaming. You do not want to rely on an onboard sound card of any kind for your gaming needs, it's just ludicrous.

In response to Hexoroot: That's the point though, he'd be able to play the games now but he wouldn't be able to play them in a year or two when they all of the higher end games start requiring the newer spec. Even the GFX card I recommended would need to be replaced in that time period. It's really a matter of whether he wants something cheap that can get him through a few years or something that might last 3 or 4. Plus i was talking more to the people that recommended he buy a brand new quad core cpu with ddr3 ram and skip buying a graphics card to rely on the onboard junk. A gaming system will rely on graphics twice as much as it will a quad core cpu. Quad core is for multi-tasking, not gaming, atleast not yet that is.

 

[kurahk7]

Well not really. Getting an E7500 leaves you with room to upgrade way up in to the Core 2 Quads, which are still great processors today. Like I started with an E8200 on a 750i motherboard with DDR2. Upgraded the CPU to a Q9550, upgraded the motherboard to a 790i and DDR3 RAM a few months later, still with my Q9550.

Now see, for me...I wouldn't be able to justify upgrading from the E8200 to the Q9550. I mean, you essentially go from a 2.66Ghz dual core to a 2.83Ghz quad core. I don't think that I would find that much difference to justify this. (and I have a Q9550 at home and an E8400 at work...so I have some experience with these levels of CPU's) But like I said, I'm not one for the upgrade here and upgrade there route. To me, upgrading like this seems to be a constant outpouring of cash slowly getting to what you want. I'd rather save up all of the money and invest in everything at once. But hey, it's just me.

Are you kidding? The performance is not based on their clocks. Its a lot different.

You guy sdo not have to upgrade, but Id rather not see him buy a totally new rig later on. A budget pc is always better as an upgradable machine.

Your current system build would be perfect for the OP

 

[kurahk7]

Everyone that's posting, please remember that he specifically wants to build a gaming rig. So going without a graphics card, or going with a lower end one just wouldn't be advisable considering how many of the newest games are pushing the limits of 4/9 series GPUs and only the latest or next to latest series are enough to handle them.

This is all about a gaming machine, and fact is, at one point he will need a new cpu and ram. A gfx card is always upgradable, but they rest not always solo. I'm just trying to realistically solve his problems for the future. Not all of us can afford to just buy a new pc every few years. We have mortgages and car payments and who knows what else could come up? But with new stuff coming he could go with AMD parts and buy a mobo that can go from athlon II to phenom hex. he could get lowly ddr3 1066 and be able to go to 1333 later.

He should definitly get a 5770 as the minimum. Ok so I saw a 700 max limit?

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Quad Core Processor & Diamond Radeon HD 5770 Video Card Bundle at TigerDirect.com
OCZ OCZZ550 Z Series Power Supply - 550-Watt, 120mm Fan, 80 Plus Silver Certified, SLI Ready at TigerDirect.com
Crucial CT25664BA1339 2GB PC10600 DDR3 Desktop Memory Upgrade - 1x2048MB, Non-ECC, Unbuffered, 1333MHz at TigerDirect.com
Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H Motherboard - AMD 890GX, Socket AM3, DDR3, PCIe, LAN at TigerDirect.com

He could get cheaper ram, he could get a cheaper mobo. But for the mobo this way when the phenom II x6 hits he can just pop it in and FLY.
He said he had all the trimmings, monitor, keyboard and mouse, speakers, dvd drive. So he could go to town on the core parts. He just needs to pick out a case.

He can also drop to an AMD Athlon II x4 620/630, they perform aruond the Phenom II x4's, but at a better price, and he can still upgrade to an AMD hex.

 

[not so gray matter]

Now see, for me...I wouldn't be able to justify upgrading from the E8200 to the Q9550. I mean, you essentially go from a 2.66Ghz dual core to a 2.83Ghz quad core. I don't think that I would find that much difference to justify this. (and I have a Q9550 at home and an E8400 at work...so I have some experience with these levels of CPU's) But like I said, I'm not one for the upgrade here and upgrade there route. To me, upgrading like this seems to be a constant outpouring of cash slowly getting to what you want. I'd rather save up all of the money and invest in everything at once. But hey, it's just me.

Are you kidding? The performance is not based on their clocks. Its a lot different.

You guy sdo not have to upgrade, but Id rather not see him buy a totally new rig later on. A budget pc is always better as an upgradable machine.

Your current system build would be perfect for the OP

I agree in that he won't need to upgrade a newer dual core cpu or ddr2 to ddr3 for gaming. The only thing he'd need to upgrade is the gfx card and the sound card if he doesn't buy a PCIe card at first.

Other guy: He doesn't need a quad core CPU for gaming. They don't use 4 cores. Max of two.

 

[kurahk7]

Well nobody as suggested an after market cooler from what I've read so I'll push my latest favorite. it's not that much more than a really good air cooler so the Corsair H50 Newegg.com - CORSAIR Cooling Hydro Series CWCH50-1 120mm High Performance CPU Cooler It's a sealed unit and I know doesn't fit into a real budget build but it fits so many different boards and CPU's it could be used for many future upgrades. Fabe

That or an CoolerMaster Hyper 212+

 

[kurahk7]

If he's got a $700 dollar limit then here's a decent build:

NZXT Beta Evo Case - $40
GIGABYTE GA-MA78LM - $50
Patriot Viper II 4GB DDR2 1066 - $93
AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black - $100
NVIDIA 9800 GT - 1GB 256-BIT GDDR3 - $100
Antec 550W PSU - $50
Cooler Master 120MM Case Fans (4) - $10
2 x NZXT 140mm Case Fans - $20
Caviar Black 640GB HDD - $75
Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio 7.1 - $55
SAMSUNG SATA DVD WRITER (24x, 16x) - $25

Total: $615 before tax and shipping.

You really don't need the latest and greatest quad core CPU for gaming. Especially if you're not planning on playing games on super high settings. Quad Cores are great for multi tasking but they're not being utilized by most games. Most of the newer games can utilize a dual core cpu but many of them can't even come close to utilizing a quad core cpu. Nor do you need a system with USB 3.0 or DDR3 if you're not planning on doing the latest and greatest. Moral of the story... Instead of buying the latest motherboard and processor, spend that money on your graphics card, you'll see more of a different gaming. Keep in mind though, that graphics card will need to be replaced in a year or two, you'd need a GTX 260 if you want it to last longer. That would cost you an extra $100.

   Tip

As mentioned many times before: I don't recommend that you skip buying a sound card because Realtek onboard sound absolutely sucks for gaming. You do not want to rely on an onboard sound card of any kind for your gaming needs, it's just ludicrous.

In response to Hexoroot: That's the point though, he'd be able to play the games now but he wouldn't be able to play them in a year or two when they all of the higher end games start requiring the newer spec. Even the GFX card I recommended would need to be replaced in that time period. It's really a matter of whether he wants something cheap that can get him through a few years or something that might last 3 or 4. Plus i was talking more to the people that recommended he buy a brand new quad core cpu with ddr3 ram and skip buying a graphics card to rely on the onboard junk. A gaming system will rely on graphics twice as much as it will a quad core cpu. Quad core is for multi-tasking, not gaming, atleast not yet that is.

For the same price, he can buy an AMD Athlon II x4 620/630 and overclock it to 3Ghz, which is a safer bet than trying to unlock the other 2 cores of the Phenom II x2.
Any Nvidia card that is used for gaming right now is kinda like a gamble since Directx 11 games will get popular and would thus require an Directx 11 capable graphics card (ATI 57xx and up), although the Nvidia Geforce gtx470 and 480 are good options, that would be pushing it.

 

[not so gray matter]

If he's got a $700 dollar limit then here's a decent build:

NZXT Beta Evo Case - $40
GIGABYTE GA-MA78LM - $50
Patriot Viper II 4GB DDR2 1066 - $93
AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black - $100
NVIDIA 9800 GT - 1GB 256-BIT GDDR3 - $100
Antec 550W PSU - $50
Cooler Master 120MM Case Fans (4) - $10
2 x NZXT 140mm Case Fans - $20
Caviar Black 640GB HDD - $75
Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio 7.1 - $55
SAMSUNG SATA DVD WRITER (24x, 16x) - $25

Total: $615 before tax and shipping.

You really don't need the latest and greatest quad core CPU for gaming. Especially if you're not planning on playing games on super high settings. Quad Cores are great for multi tasking but they're not being utilized by most games. Most of the newer games can utilize a dual core cpu but many of them can't even come close to utilizing a quad core cpu. Nor do you need a system with USB 3.0 or DDR3 if you're not planning on doing the latest and greatest. Moral of the story... Instead of buying the latest motherboard and processor, spend that money on your graphics card, you'll see more of a different gaming. Keep in mind though, that graphics card will need to be replaced in a year or two, you'd need a GTX 260 if you want it to last longer. That would cost you an extra $100.

   Tip

As mentioned many times before: I don't recommend that you skip buying a sound card because Realtek onboard sound absolutely sucks for gaming. You do not want to rely on an onboard sound card of any kind for your gaming needs, it's just ludicrous.

In response to Hexoroot: That's the point though, he'd be able to play the games now but he wouldn't be able to play them in a year or two when they all of the higher end games start requiring the newer spec. Even the GFX card I recommended would need to be replaced in that time period. It's really a matter of whether he wants something cheap that can get him through a few years or something that might last 3 or 4. Plus i was talking more to the people that recommended he buy a brand new quad core cpu with ddr3 ram and skip buying a graphics card to rely on the onboard junk. A gaming system will rely on graphics twice as much as it will a quad core cpu. Quad core is for multi-tasking, not gaming, atleast not yet that is.

For the same price, he can buy an AMD Athlon II x4 620/630 and overclock it to 3Ghz, which is a safer bet than trying to unlock the other 2 cores of the Phenom II x2.

1. No clue if he wants to or knows how to overclock
2. There's no need to buy a quad core cpu if he's using it to game. Games will utilize quad cores in a few years but they're just barely utilizing two cores now.

Note: That's not to say that some games like Supreme Commander and GTA IV don't utilize quad cores, they do. It's just that 80-90% of games on the market don't. Nor do most source engine games and that's what a lot of the PC gamers play (TF2, L4D2, etc)

 

[kurahk7]

Are you kidding? The performance is not based on their clocks. Its a lot different.

You guy sdo not have to upgrade, but Id rather not see him buy a totally new rig later on. A budget pc is always better as an upgradable machine.

Your current system build would be perfect for the OP

I agree in that he won't need to upgrade a newer dual core cpu or ddr2 to ddr3 for gaming. The only thing he'd need to upgrade is the gfx card and the sound card if he doesn't buy a PCIe card at first.

Other guy: He doesn't need a quad core CPU for gaming. They don't use 4 cores. Max of two.

Actually, according to some review sites, they actually benefit from the 3rd core in some games, but in general, your right, 2 cores is enough. But some people, do like to multitask, so the other 2 cores would come in handy, not to mention a quad core is only $100.

 

[pparks1]

If he's got a $700 dollar limit then here's a decent build:

NZXT Beta Evo Case - $40
GIGABYTE GA-MA78LM - $50
Patriot Viper II 4GB DDR2 1066 - $93
AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black - $100
NVIDIA 9800 GT - 1GB 256-BIT GDDR3 - $100
Antec 550W PSU - $50
Cooler Master 120MM Case Fans (4) - $10
2 x NZXT 140mm Case Fans - $20
Caviar Black 640GB HDD - $75
Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio 7.1 - $55
SAMSUNG SATA DVD WRITER (24x, 16x) - $25

Total: $615 before tax and shipping.

Everything here looks good. Although I really don't think that 6 case fans are necessary. I'm running a Q9550 quad core overclocking to 3.2 with a stock Intel cooler, 8GB of G.Skill DDR 800 RAM, 1TB WD Black, and an EVGA 9800GTX+ and the stock fans on my Antec P182 (3 x 120mm) provide more than adequate cooling. Remember, the OP requested a quiet PC as well