Help me build my first gaming desktop ($800 Budget)

I've never built a computer before so I'm looking to you hardware savvy blades for help.

I don't need the most extreme rig but something that will allow me to multitask a lot of shit and play most games that are out today.

I'm willing to spend up to $800 (not counting the monitor) but let's try to keep it cheaper if we can.

I've already created my Newegg account so that part is covered.

Let's get things rolling!

I use to know a site where you could customize prebuilts. Semicustom i guess? google that shit yo. Basically you picked a base price, threw in the features and upgrades you want, picked accessories you want, win? they start at like 200 bucks you pick your mb, processor, ram, cards, power supply, case, and w/e else you want.

If I were to build a PC for under $800 as a budget gaming machine this is what I would build.

Newegg.com - ASUS M4A78LT-M AM3 AMD 760G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

Newegg.com - AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ955FBGMBOX

Newegg.com - HIS H687F1G2M Radeon HD 6870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

Newegg.com - Patriot 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory Model PSD34G1333K

Newegg.com - SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER Elite 341 RC-341C-KKN1-GP Black Steel MicroATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER Silent Pro M600 RS-600-AMBA-D3 600W ATX12V V2.3 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Bronze Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

Newegg.com - ASUS Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - CD / DVD Burners

Add in some case fans (CM has a 4 pack of 120mm fans for cheap) and maybe a fan controller and you are set for a while. That card will last, and a quad core is relatively future proof (most programs suck at threading). In the cart this is ~$670. You could double your RAM, get a 6 core processor, or maybe up the graphics. None of that is necessary if you ask me. I would actually build a more power friendly computer (which is what I'm doing now, tired of having a 600w heater in my room). AMD has some 45w TDP quad core CPUs which I'm trying to get a hold of but I can't seem to find any in stock.

Edited by Buddy Dink, 28 February 2011 - 06:55 AM.

Wow, that's way more affordable than I thought it would be.

Is this pretty much set? or should I upgrade anything?

Looks pretty good. You'll just need peripherals... monitor, KB, mouse, speakers. Those, well... you got 'em handy already?

Looks pretty good. You'll just need peripherals... monitor, KB, mouse, speakers. Those, well... you got 'em handy already?

I already have a good mouse and speakers.
The only thing I need is a good monitor to go along with it.

Any suggestions? (around $200)

So far I'm leaning on towards this one:
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16824236052

Oh yeah, just out of curiosity, do I want to extend the warranty on any of this stuff? or would it be a waste of money?

Edited by ItsTheMystery, 28 February 2011 - 03:25 PM.

I already have a good mouse and speakers.
The only thing I need is a good monitor to go along with it.

Any suggestions?

Oh yeah, just out of curiosity, do I want to extend the warranty on any of this stuff? or would it be a waste of money?

I would say the extended warranties are pretty much useless... If this is your first build then they may come in handy, although if you do anything to fuck up the pieces yourself you've probably voided the warranty.

What is your budget for a monitor? Definitely look at SONY and Samsung, I have never had issues with either. What you want in a monitor (especially with your new beast graphics card with 1 gig of GDDR5) is high resolution and fast response time.

I personally would get something like this

Newegg.com - SAMSUNG XL2370-1 Charcoal Gray 23" 2ms Full HD HDMI LED Backlight LCD Monitor Slim Design 250 cd/m2 DC 5,000,000:1(1000:1)

It is full 1080, has a 2ms response time and a nice looking contrast ratio (although I get so confused looking at those numbers anymore).


EDIT:

What you posted looks like a nice monitor. ASUS isn't a terrible company, either. 5ms response time isn't the greatest but honestly you probably won't be able to see the difference. Good find.

Edited by Buddy Dink, 28 February 2011 - 03:30 PM.

I would say the extended warranties are pretty much useless... If this is your first build then they may come in handy, although if you do anything to fuck up the pieces yourself you've probably voided the warranty.

What is your budget for a monitor? Definitely look at SONY and Samsung, I have never had issues with either. What you want in a monitor (especially with your new beast graphics card with 1 gig of GDDR5) is high resolution and fast response time.

I personally would get something like this

Newegg.com - SAMSUNG XL2370-1 Charcoal Gray 23" 2ms Full HD HDMI LED Backlight LCD Monitor Slim Design 250 cd/m2 DC 5,000,000:1(1000:1)

It is full 1080, has a 2ms response time and a nice looking contrast ratio (although I get so confused looking at those numbers anymore).


EDIT:

What you posted looks like a nice monitor. ASUS isn't a terrible company, either. 5ms response time isn't the greatest but honestly you probably won't be able to see the difference. Good find.

You obviously know your hardware so I trust your opinion. My budget was $200 for the monitor but I guess I can go over a little since you saved me money on the desktop part list and plus, some of the parts have rebates:D.

If you're going for the ubercheap, you can shave about $100 off the monitor with this beauty: [ame=http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003D59FEQ]Amazon.com: Acer V223W EJBD 22-Inch Wide LCD Display: Computer & Accessories[/ame] - just bought one of these at work and it seems to work just fine.

And don't bother reading any of the specs except the resolution and warranty, because it's pretty much all total marketing bullshit anyway. I dunno if it'd be worth the premium for the Samsung... guess it's all up to your budget and style considerations

That Acer one really looks like a perfect price-to-quality balance.

If you're going for the ubercheap, you can shave about $100 off the monitor with this beauty: Amazon.com: Acer V223W EJBD 22-Inch Wide LCD Display: Computer & Accessories - just bought one of these at work and it seems to work just fine.

And don't bother reading any of the specs except the resolution and warranty, because it's pretty much all total marketing bullshit anyway. I dunno if it'd be worth the premium for the Samsung... guess it's all up to your budget and style considerations

That Acer one really looks like a perfect price-to-quality balance.

Nice find but I need a monitor that supports HDMI. Because I might switch between the PC and a future PS3 on the same monitor.

Edited by ItsTheMystery, 28 February 2011 - 04:42 PM.

I might start ordering today or tomorrow, but I wanna knock out the expensive stuff first.

I was thinking of getting the getting the graphics card and processor first and just use my income taxes to get the monitor.

Then I'll just buy everything else within time.




This thread is gonna turn into a build journal pretty soon so I'd appreciate it if you guys stayed subscribed to help me out in the process.

And don't bother reading any of the specs except the resolution and warranty, because it's pretty much all total marketing bullshit anyway. I dunno if it'd be worth the premium for the Samsung... guess it's all up to your budget and style considerations

Good read on that article. It is easy to see how some of those numbers are bull shit. Contrast ratio is something that they always confuse the consumer with terms like contrast ratio and dynamic contrast ratio... I was completely unaware of that black to white to black and gray to gray thing about response time, though.

I would honestly just go with the monitor YOU picked out ItsTheMystery. It is a good price and still has native 1080 resolution with HDMI input. It is exactly what you need closer to your price point.

Good read on that article. It is easy to see how some of those numbers are bull shit. Contrast ratio is something that they always confuse the consumer with terms like contrast ratio and dynamic contrast ratio... I was completely unaware of that black to white to black and gray to gray thing about response time, though.

I would honestly just go with the monitor YOU picked out ItsTheMystery. It is a good price and still has native 1080 resolution with HDMI input. It is exactly what you need closer to your price point.

I didn't even read it, it would have confused me anyways lol.


Asus it is then, I guess I'll save even more money .

Okay, so right now I'm sitting at $853.91 including the monitor this time.

If I send in all the rebates then it'll put me right at $803.91 (Not including shipping).

Edit: I'm about to check out. I'm buying these two tonight.

COOLER MASTER Elite 341 RC-341C-KKN1-GP Black Steel MicroATX Mid Tower Computer Case

ASUS M4A78LT-M AM3 AMD 760G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

Edit2: I said screw it and went ahead and got the Hard drive, DVD-RW, and RAM too.

Edited by ItsTheMystery, 28 February 2011 - 11:22 PM.

haha... awesome. You're gonna choke on this though, but it looks like you just pretty much bought everything you need EXCEPT the CPU... lolol

edit: wait, DVD-ROM? No way... *scrolls up*... OK, cool, you mean DVD-RW. I was like, wtf, who the fuck told the poor guy to get a DVD-ROM? Not even a DVD burner?! LOL

haha... awesome. You're gonna choke on this though, but it looks like you just pretty much bought everything you need EXCEPT the CPU... lolol

edit: wait, DVD-ROM? No way... *scrolls up*... OK, cool, you mean DVD-RW. I was like, wtf, who the fuck told the poor guy to get a DVD-ROM? Not even a DVD burner?! LOL

I bought everything under $100.

I still have all the expensive stuff left.


Lol yeah, that's what I meant.

haha... awesome. You're gonna choke on this though, but it looks like you just pretty much bought everything you need EXCEPT the CPU... lolol

edit: wait, DVD-ROM? No way... *scrolls up*... OK, cool, you mean DVD-RW. I was like, wtf, who the fuck told the poor guy to get a DVD-ROM? Not even a DVD burner?! LOL

I would never .

Not when a DVD RW is only $20, anyway.

I was gonna add more ram in the near future but I was also planning on upgrading to this:
AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Thuban 3.2GHz 6 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor

Would it be worth it?

I was gonna add more ram in the near future

Not worth it, 4gb is pretty much the "amount anyone's ever used in one sitting in the past 3 years" limit. I've got 4gb and no page file*, next to no complaints. If my laptop allowed for use of a secondary HDD to put a page file on (so not to burn out the SSD), I'd be able to do anything with 4gb. No real use in adding more RAM, I figure.

but I was also planning on upgrading to this:
AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Thuban 3.2GHz 6 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor
Would it be worth it?

Hmm, my initial thoughts were "meh, probably not", but looking at the benchmarks:
PassMark - AMD Phenom II X4 955 - Price performance comparison
PassMark - AMD Phenom II X6 1090T - Price performance comparison
Holy shit, night and day, almost a 66% performance improvement between the two. Yeah, I'd say that's worth the upgrade.
* - removing the page file is a way to "lock yourself in" to the amount of RAM installed in your computer, instead of using the hard drive as "sissy rollover" when you have too much shit open. It completely removes the "slow because you don't have enough RAM" (because there's no longer a page file to swap memory in/out of, which causes slow performance with low RAM)... but it also means you sometimes run into low-memory conditions with too much shit open. It's pretty much required with a solid-state drive (SSD), since writing a page file on a SSD will kill it in no time.

Edited by FalconFour, 01 March 2011 - 03:01 AM.

Not worth it, 4gb is pretty much the "amount anyone's ever used in one sitting in the past 3 years" limit. I've got 4gb and no page file*, next to no complaints. If my laptop allowed for use of a secondary HDD to put a page file on (so not to burn out the SSD), I'd be able to do anything with 4gb. No real use in adding more RAM, I figure.



Hmm, my initial thoughts were "meh, probably not", but looking at the benchmarks:
PassMark - AMD Phenom II X4 955 - Price performance comparison
PassMark - AMD Phenom II X6 1090T - Price performance comparison
Holy shit, night and day, almost a 66% performance improvement between the two. Yeah, I'd say that's worth the upgrade.
* - removing the page file is a way to "lock yourself in" to the amount of RAM installed in your computer, instead of using the hard drive as "sissy rollover" when you have too much shit open. It completely removes the "slow because you don't have enough RAM" (because there's no longer a page file to swap memory in/out of, which causes slow performance with low RAM)... but it also means you sometimes run into low-memory conditions with too much shit open. It's pretty much required with a solid-state drive (SSD), since writing a page file on a SSD will kill it in no time.

Yeah, I guess you're right. Not that I doubted you, but I did some research on the subject and all signs pointed to 4gb being just fine.



I'm seriously considering the 1090T. I might get it today.




After I get all my parts together, what tools will I need? I'm just assuming I'll only need a few screw drivers, but will I need any grease or one of those bracelets that clip on to metal?