budget gaming system.

[piercedandtatto]

I plan on ordering parts next wed. for a budget gaming system but i haven't been keeping up with whats new lately. the last pc i built is in my cig, so i could use a little help here. I have about $1100 to spend. Here is what i have so far.

Case: ABS Aplus ABS-CS-EL Diablo Black 0.8mm SECC ATX Full Tower Computer Case - Retail
Power supply: CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply - Retail
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz
Cpu cooler: ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler
Motherboard: ASUS P5Q-E LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard
Video card: MSI R4850-512M Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 Quad Heatpipe cooling system.
Ram: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB ) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Hard drive: HITACHI Deskstar P7K500 HDP725050GLA360 (0A35415) 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
Cdrom: LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black
Operating system: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic SP1 64-bit



I plan on adding a second HD 4850 in the next month or so. Any suggestions or criticisms welcome.

[Tonucci]

Nice parts ! See if you can fit an x48 board along with an Vendetta 2 cooler. They are worth the price difference imo.

2x effective 16x pci-e would help you CF setup, and the Vendetta 2 cools alot better for an small price premium

[adamsleath]

looks pretty good as is.
you might do better with case but that's personal preference in my opinion.
i was lookin at the hitachi 500GB the other day...
might be a better cpu cooler for the same money? i still reckon tuniq's are great if the price is right.
Asus p5e x38 or equiv is another option, but p5q-e seems to be a good board.
i'm 50-50 on the p45/x48 thing but 2x 16x pcie-2.0 may come in handy at high res cf....:shrug:

[perkam]

I plan on ordering parts next wed. for a budget gaming system but i haven't been keeping up with whats new lately. the last pc i built is in my cig, so i could use a little help here. I have about $1100 to spend. Here is what i have so far.

Case: ABS Aplus ABS-CS-EL Diablo Black 0.8mm SECC ATX Full Tower Computer Case - Retail
Power supply: CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply - Retail
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz
Cpu cooler: ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler
Motherboard: ASUS P5Q-E LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard
Video card: MSI R4850-512M Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 Quad Heatpipe cooling system.
Ram: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB ) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Hard drive: HITACHI Deskstar P7K500 HDP725050GLA360 (0A35415) 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
Cdrom: LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black
Operating system: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic SP1 64-bit



I plan on adding a second HD 4850 in the next month or so. Any suggestions or criticisms welcome.Dude...that ain't no budget gaming rig...that's an awesome high end rig once you add he second 4850 :stick:

That rig is good to go, except for the the HDD, which I usually tell people to get Samsungs or WDs.

Perkam

[piercedandtatto]

Dude...that ain't no budget gaming rig...that's an awesome high end rig once you add he second 4850 :stick:

That rig is good to go, except for the the HDD, which I usually tell people to get Samsungs or WDs.

Perkam

well, like i said, i havent been keeping up with the new hardware lately. I figured $1100 would be considered "budget...lol

im looking into a better cooler and ill see if i can find another hard drive in my price range. should be ordering tonight once my check clears the bank.

what the setup i have now and Next day air shipping (im very impatient) its gonna be $1,138.

Also the only 2 games i play right now is Cod4 and World of Warcraft. i think this setup will do well for me for a while, specially adding a second 4850 soon.

[Tonucci]

An DFI x38 board can be had for 20 more bucks. It runs 16x, 16x in CF mode, as opposed to 8x, 8x on p45 chipset. It does not help much but for 20$ its well worth imo.

Vendetta 2, along with some other HDT coolers are considered the best budget coolers nowadays. Very cheap and near TRUE performance.

[YukonTrooper]

You could save some money on the board by getting the Pro version, or get an EP45-DS3L, perhaps even a EP35-DSL to save even more. However, if you plan on going Crossfire, than don't look at anything less than X38/X48, but that's not really budget. In all honesty, though, I wouldn't go Crossfire or SLI, unless you plan on getting two cards right off the bat. By the time you want to upgrade - a single HD4850 will be fine for much longer than a month - there will be single cards available that will make adding a second card in Crossfire not really attractive.

Even though the E8400 isn't a budgest processor, CPU intensive games love the extra cache on Intel chips, so good choice there.

The Freezer 7 Pro is good for the price, and is the cooler I am running right now, but the Vendetta 2 and other direct-touch heatpipe design coolers are top performers for only a little extra $. I have a Vendetta 2 waiting to be installed with my E8400. I'm just waiting for my P5Q Pro to get here. Damn thing was on backorder.

[piercedandtatto]

im pretty much at the end of my budget so the dfi MB would put me over but i am going with the P5Q pro and i saw a review on the Sunbeam CR-CCTF 120mm cooler. Think ill be going with that.