Building a Gaming PC (€800 // $1,000)

[the1chaos]

Hey all. A friend of mine was thinking of making a new gaming computer, and I offered to ask the help of some of the tech guru's I know.

The computer will mainly be used for gaming and watching movies. He has the screen, keyboard, speakers etc. It's all just the computer itself. He was hoping to be able to construct one with ordered parts which would last him a couple of years without having to upgrade. Meaning that in say, three years, he still wants to be able to pick up a new game and play it, even if the settings are on medium or whatnot.

Online ordering is perfectly fine and dandy, though shipping costs would have to be included in the calculations if it's ordered from the US, for example. His budget is around €800, which translates to slightly over $1,000 US. He wanted to have at least 800GB on his HD(s), and was also looking for 3-4 GB RAM. He also indicated a preference for a Quad Core processor, if that's possible within the budget.


So, to make it shorter:
Budget: ~€800 // ~$1,000 US (Screen, keyboard etc not needed)

Preferences:
800Gb HD
3 or 4GB RAM
Preference for Quad Core processor

Used for:
Gaming, music and movies.


Thanks in advance, everyone.

[Mastershroom]

Here's a rough idea of what I would do on that kind of budget (keep in mind, this is Newegg, an American retailer, so I don't know what kind of price differences to expect with a foreign retailer):

Case: Newegg.com - Antec Nine Hundred Two Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Computer Cases

Power supply: Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power RP-550-PCAR 550W ATX from factor 12V V2.01 Power Supply - Power Supplies

Motherboard: Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more!

Processor: Newegg.com - AMD Phenom II X4 920 2.8GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops

RAM: Newegg.com - OCZ Reaper HPC 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory

Hard drive: Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD7500AAKS 750GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - Internal Hard Drives

I went with 750GB here because the 1TB models cost almost twice as much. A 1TB model of this same hard drive would still keep the system well under $1,000 though.

Optical drive: Newegg.com - LG Black 22X (CAV) DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X (CAV) DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 22X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe - CD / DVD Burners

Graphics card: Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100259-1GL Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

(of course, your friend may prefer nVidia graphics instead of ATi. In that case, I recommend the GTX 280 or 285.)

On Newegg, after mail-in rebates and discounts, this comes out to just under $900 US, so somewhere around 700 Euros. If your friend has a bit more room to spare, I would recommend getting a 4870X2.

[>Omen<]

You neglected to mention what resolution his display is, it makes a big difference.

[Mr. Pedantic]

Does he need a dedicated sound card, as well? If he does, that's something else to consider budgeting for.

[the1chaos]

Thx for your help Zamamee, he is indeed a nvidia guy...

Further more, he still has an old CRT screen, but is planning to buy a new screen in December. So not to bad, but no need to have the best of the best. I think the GTX 280 or 285 might be good for him.
As for the sound card, on-board is good enough. He only listens to music on small speakers and plays games with a pair of small headphones on.

[Mastershroom]

Originally Posted by the1chaos

Thx for your help Zamamee, he is indeed a nvidia guy...

Glad to help.

Further more, he still has an old CRT screen, but is planning to buy a new screen in December. So not to bad, but no need to have the best of the best. I think the GTX 280 or 285 might be good for him.
As for the sound card, on-board is good enough. He only listens to music on small speakers and plays games with a pair of small headphones on.

If he can afford it, the GTX285 would be ideal. It's basically the 280, but with a 55nm core instead of 65nm, which means less heat and power use, and faster clock speeds. Price difference isn't too huge, so this is one thing I suggest you go all out with.

The motherboard has two PCI-e x16 slots as well, so if he ever wants to upgrade to SLI in the future, he can just get another GTX 285 and bend any game over. According to benchmarks, dual GTX 285's perform better than pretty much any other single- or multi-GPU setup.

Of course, the 285 is notably more expensive than the ATi 4870, but well worth the premium, I think.

[kow_ciller]

I would say go for a gtx260 192sp version. Sure its not as fast as the 216sp version or the 55nm version, but it has one thing neither of those have. The ability to overclock a ton. If I were to get one for around $150 I would jump on that instead of a 4870 or 280/285. Sure the 280/285 are bigger but they're just the same card with more stream processors unlocked. Also, if he's not on a big screen he should just something mid-ranged. A 260/4870 would be useless if he's playing on anything less than 1680x1050.

[Mastershroom]

Originally Posted by kow_ciller

I would say go for a gtx260 192sp version. Sure its not as fast as the 216sp version or the 55nm version, but it has one thing neither of those have. The ability to overclock a ton. If I were to get one for around $150 I would jump on that instead of a 4870 or 280/285.

I respectfully disagree, sir. I'm definitely an nVidia proponent, but even I advise against the 260 Core 192. I have a friend who bought two of them for SLI just before the Core 216's came out, and even with substantial overclocking, he seems pretty disappointed in their performance, on a 1280x1024 CRT, so not exactly high resolution shit either.

If he's going to get a GTX 260, I recommend the Core 216. There's also not a lot of cost difference either, so he wouldn't be saving much money, if any at all.

Sure the 280/285 are bigger but they're just the same card with more stream processors unlocked.

That may be true, but the difference in performance is substantial, and not something you can overcome simply by overclocking. A 285 would make it far more future proof than a 260, and judging from my friend's computer, probably better than two 260's as well.

Also, if he's not on a big screen he should just something mid-ranged. A 260/4870 would be useless if he's playing on anything less than 1680x1050.

If he plans on buying a new monitor in December, it will probably be at least 1680x1050, probably 1920x1200.