Gaming Rig

[Suite307]

Need a gaming rig, between 900$ and 1200$. No Hard Drives, No Sound Cards. Just Case , Cooling if needed , Mobo , Cpu, Ram, PSU.

EDIT : yeah, a video card >.< ( Main reason i want to upgrade my rig, it's still on AGP 8x , a measly little N6600GT. )

Memo : So Far .... *(BOLD = ACQUIRED ) ( UNDERLINED = TO be Bought )

GPU : XFX 8800GT for 150$
HD : 320gb Seagate 7200.10 for 65$
PSU : ...
Mobo : ...
CPU : ...
Case : ...

Total so far : 215$

[Icculus]

Here's what I use:

Antec Sonata III case $129.99 (W/500W PowerSupply)

Intel Core2 Duo E650 (3.00 GhZ - $189.99

Asus P5N-D motherboard - $149.99

Kingston HyperX memory (2GB) $47.99

You didn't mention video card but I use a GeForce 8800GTS (640MB) - $234.99

Total price (not including shipping) $752.95

There are better/faster parts out there but with this setup I can run Crysis at1280x1024 on high detail settings with no hiccups or freezes.

Hope that helps get you started,

-Icculus

[Suite307]

Noice. Move this to tech by the way.
Yeah. I'll probably go to NCIX and order those. I'll need a canadian supplier :P

[puppychow]

if ur bored heres 2 configurators ive used in the past. you will pay a bit more than getting the components straight yourself, but sometimes im too lazy to slap everything together..

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/
unitedmicro.com

posted before i saw the canadian part...

[uBeR]

• AMD Phenom 9750 2.4GHz Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Processor ($215)
• JetWay HA04-Extreme AM2+/AM2 AMD 790FX ATX AMD Motherboard ($155)
• CORSAIR Dominator 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory ($64)
• GIGABYTE GZ-FA2CA-AJB Black Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case ($135)
• PC Power & Cooling S75QB EPS12V 750W Power Supply ($119)

Total: $768 (after mail-in rebates and before shipping).

With a video card:

• EVGA 640-P2-N824-AR GeForce 8800GTS 640MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card ($225)

Total: $993 (after mail-in rebates and before shipping).

[zSilver_Fox]

Last I heard the phenom dropped the ball in comparison to the Intel C2D series, but that may just be for overclocking.

[Innoc]

Originally Posted by Suite307

Need a gaming rig, between 900$ and 1200$. No Hard Drives, No Sound Cards. Just Case , Cooling if needed , Mobo , Cpu, Ram, PSU.

EDIT : yeah, a video card >.< ( Main reason i want to upgrade my rig, it's still on AGP 8x , a measly little N6600GT. )

No hard drives? Are you using SATA2 already? If not you'll certainly see a performance hit from using older drives. Also, what interface does your optical drive(s) use? If it's not SATA as well I'd be careful that the Southbridge controller fully supports ATAPI...that seems to be more and more common nowadays. Also P5N-D board quoted ITT is an SLi board right? If you're not going to use SLi why pay for it? If you are going to use it I seem to recall reading something about both PCI-e ports being throttled in SLi mode. Food for thought anyway.

[Suite307]

sata = speed eh ? Damn it. I want to keep my Dvd burner too. But nothing's Sata on this board currently, the rig's almost 4 years old.

[Innoc]

Originally Posted by Suite307

sata = speed eh ? Damn it. I want to keep my Dvd burner too. But nothing's Sata on this board currently, the rig's almost 4 years old.

That board that was quoted only has a single PATA port and that's fairly common....if they have pata at all. Like I said, you typically have to dig to determine whether the controller for that pata port will work reliably with atapi devices.

[Suite307]

Originally Posted by Innoc

That board that was quoted only has a single PATA port and that's fairly common....if they have pata at all. Like I said, you typically have to dig to determine whether the controller for that pata port will work reliably with atapi devices.

Should i list my current parts ?

[Ihmhi]

Originally Posted by Suite307

Should i list my current parts ?

That would be a good idea, yes.

[Suite307]

SiSoftware Sandra

Processor
Model : AMD Sempron(tm) Processor 3000+
Speed : 1.89GHz
Model Number : 3000
Cores per Processor : 1 Unit(s)
Threads per Core : 1 Unit(s)
Internal Data Cache : 64kB, Synchronous, Write-Back, 2-way, Exclusive, 64 byte line size
L2 On-board Cache : 128kB, ECC, Synchronous, Write-Back, 16-way, Exclusive, 64 byte line size

System
Mainboard : Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. K8M800-8237
Bus(es) : AGP PCI IMB USB i2c/SMBus
Multi-Processor (MP) Support : No
Multi-Processor Advanced PIC (APIC) : Yes
System BIOS : Award Software International, Inc. FD
Total Memory : 1GB DDR

Chipset
Model : VIA K8M400 CPU to PCI Bridge
Front Side Bus Speed : 2x 840MHz (1.68GHz)

Chipset
Model : AMD Athlon 64 / Opteron HyperTransport Technology Configuration
Front Side Bus Speed : 2x 840MHz (1.68GHz)
Total Memory : 1GB DDR
Memory Bus Speed : 2x 172MHz (344MHz)

Video System
Adapter : NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT (128MB DDR3, AGP 3.00, PS 3.0, VS 3.0)

Physical Storage Devices
Maxtor 6L160P0 164GB (ATA133, 8MB Cache) : 153GB (C:) (E:) (F:) (G:)
Maxtor 92041U4 20GB (ATA66, 512kB Cache) : 19GB (D:)
HL-DT-ST CD-RW GCE-8240B (ATAPI, CD-RW, 8MB Cache) : N/A (H:)
HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4167B (ATAPI33, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 2MB Cache) : 17MB (I:)
XY4108J CET705D (SCSI, DVD+-R-DL, CD-R) : N/A (J:)

Logical Storage Devices
(G:) : 10GB (NTFS) @ Maxtor 6L160P0 164GB (ATA133, 8MB Cache)
(C:) : 25GB (NTFS) @ Maxtor 6L160P0 164GB (ATA133, 8MB Cache)
(E:) : 98GB (NTFS) @ Maxtor 6L160P0 164GB (ATA133, 8MB Cache)
(F:) : 21GB (NTFS) @ Maxtor 6L160P0 164GB (ATA133, 8MB Cache)
(D:) : 19GB (NTFS) @ Maxtor 92041U4 20GB (ATA66, 512kB Cache)
CD-ROM/DVD (H:) : N/A @ HL-DT-ST CD-RW GCE-8240B (ATAPI, CD-RW, 8MB Cache)
(I:) : 16MB (CDFS) @ HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4167B (ATAPI33, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 2MB Cache)
CD-ROM/DVD (J:) : N/A @ XY4108J CET705D (SCSI, DVD+-R-DL, CD-R)
3.5" 1.44MB (A:) : N/A

[Innoc]

Holy multiple partitions Batman! Seriously, if you can swing it do not allow your current hard or optical drives to be carried over to the new system for anything other than transferring to your new drives. Plus, as I said before, you will likely only have a single PATA port on any new board...if you even have that one. So, two devices will likely be your max. That alone is going to force new drives. Also, when you compare that an ATA66 device will likely force all devices on that chain to operate at the ata66 threshhold it gets even worse. 66MB per second (ata66) or 300 MB per second (sata2)...the comparison seems pretty clear.

FWIW, I just retired a 5 year old system the only things that carried over to the new build were the Xfi, the case, the monitor, the speakers and the UPS...I did try the optical drives...but that was a real problem as I discovered later.

[פֿяαιп βαмαgεפ]

Solution for your old pc:

[Suite307]

Originally Posted by Innoc

Holy multiple partitions Batman! Seriously, if you can swing it do not allow your current hard or optical drives to be carried over to the new system for anything other than transferring to your new drives. Plus, as I said before, you will likely only have a single PATA port on any new board...if you even have that one. So, two devices will likely be your max. That alone is going to force new drives. Also, when you compare that an ATA66 device will likely force all devices on that chain to operate at the ata66 threshhold it gets even worse. 66MB per second (ata66) or 300 MB per second (sata2)...the comparison seems pretty clear.

FWIW, I just retired a 5 year old system the only things that carried over to the new build were the Xfi, the case, the monitor, the speakers and the UPS...I did try the optical drives...but that was a real problem as I discovered later.

Alrighty , Is there some budget Drives/Dvd/CD reader? I don't plan to spend more than 200$ on them

[Dragonjojo]

If you're trying to keep costs low here is a link to a GIGABYTE ATI Radeon HD3850 512MB DDR3 2DVI/HDCP PCI-Express Video Card, w/ Zalman Fansink for $82 plus shipping. Not sure how long it'll be available but I'm wondering if I should save myself $100 and get this instead of an 8800GT
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=GA-385_512

[Suite307]

Oh no, i was talking about the Hard Drive and CD-Rom/DvD. The rest is far more important.

[Innoc]

Originally Posted by Suite307

Oh no, i was talking about the Hard Drive and CD-Rom/DvD. The rest is far more important.

You should be able to buy a decent hard drive and optical drive for even 100.00. That drive should beat your existing drives for capacity.

250GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (ST3250410AS): This drive is a SATA2 drive that features PMR. Should be a good drive. It's 64.99

This SATA DVD is on sale this month with Newegg: Writes dual layer, SATA and is 34.99.

If you want to spend more on these two put it all into hard drive...easy really.

[Suite307]

Originally Posted by Innoc

You should be able to buy a decent hard drive and optical drive for even 100.00. That drive should beat your existing drives for capacity.

250GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (ST3250410AS): This drive is a SATA2 drive that features PMR. Should be a good drive. It's 64.99

This SATA DVD is on sale this month with Newegg: Writes dual layer, SATA and is 34.99.

If you want to spend more on these two put it all into hard drive...easy really.

Thanks for your help. I'll try and see how my budget goes.

[Suite307]

Is the XFX 8800GT any good ?