Build me a rig

[slownsteadyz]

All right guys and girls,

I have recently purchased a MSI gx740 laptop that cost me around $1600+. A couple days in I came back to reality and realized this isn't the best time to buy a leet gaming laptop.

So,


I want to build a desktop computer to save some money I am aiming towards $1000 max. I do not have the first clue as to how go about doing this so I need some guidance. I don't play demanding games... L4D2 , TF2 , Day of Defeat Source but I also play Dawn of War 2 and Starcraft 2. I am looking for high settings in the first three with medium settings in the last two games. Of course I would also like to run Dolphin just as well

What do you all recommend? Build me a rig!


Edit: Oops I mean to post this in Off-Topic sorry mods! Could you move this thread please.

[darkshadw]

Well, if I was you, I wouldnt go for the i7, because its not worth the money, why dont you buy a AM3 motherboard and a AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition, also buy DDR3 1066 MHz RAM (1066 is not too expensive and can easy be overclocked to 1333 MHz) 4 GB is okay. The graphics card... Well, I dont know about that one, because I dont know if you want ATI or Nvidia. Just buy a 500 GB Sata Hard Disk, really, its more than enough :p. Air cooling .

Processor
RAM
Hard Disk

This is what I can find atm.

[NaturalViolence]

Power supply: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6817139006
Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6811119197
Optical drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6827136144
HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6822136319
Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6813131631
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6819103727
Memory: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6820231277
Video Card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6814161330
Air Cooler (if you plan to overclock): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6835233029

I'll post the less important stuff later

$1,075

I can achieve the same for much less money if you want to cheap out on some parts. But the motherboard and power supply are both future proof in that setup (they are expensive and you can get cheaper boards and power supplies that won't affect you at all now but won't last you as long down the road). This is a high end gaming system that will max out any of those games at any resolution and still have leftover gpu processing power. In fact this should max out any high end modern game at any resolution and still get over 60 fps except for a few exceptions like crysis and metro 2033 (since they require phenominal amounts of shader throughput). If you need to go cheaper just say so, I went for more of a top of the line setup since you said $1,000.

[darkshadw]

Just remember to not buy Intel :p.

[Ocean]

Power supply: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6817139006
Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6811119197
Optical drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6827136144
HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6822136319
Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6813131631
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6819103727
Memory: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6820231277
Video Card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6814161330
Air Cooler (if you plan to overclock): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6835233029

I'll post the less important stuff later

$1,075

Nice rig for relatively cheap (that's about 800e) If you want to cheap out to bring total price to under $1k, maybe buy a radeon 5770 instead cost $150-$170 but you would still play everything in full details at 1080p (yes dolphin too)

[NaturalViolence]

Nice rig for relatively cheap (that's about 800e) If you want to cheap out to bring total price to under $1k, maybe buy a radeon 5770 instead cost $150-$170 but you would still play everything in full details at 1080p (yes dolphin too)

Lol. Are you kidding? That's way overpriced, I can do way better than that. But I figured he has $1,000 budget so might as well future proof it. For example a good 600 watt psu or ok 650 watt psu would be plenty but I chose a 750 because if he ever need sto get a top of the line video card or do extensive overclocking he'll have the headroom. Also the motherboard is almost twice the price of a decent AM3 board but since it's an 8 series it's future proof and has sata3.

[slownsteadyz]

Thanks for the help. I like your build but I'm going to replace the gpu with the 5770 since it performs just as well as ati mobility 5870 which is fine with me.
I also don't plan on doing any overclocking mainly because I don't know how to. should I change the mobo and power supply to save costs and what could you recommend? I also have to throw in a soundcard and bluetooth any suggestions?
I'm going to be picking up some items at a local store price matched. Now for putting it all together I'm going to need to some more. Ill keep y'all updated.

Cheers

[Ocean]

Nice rig for relatively cheap (that's about 800e) If you want to cheap out to bring total price to under $1k, maybe buy a radeon 5770 instead cost $150-$170 but you would still play everything in full details at 1080p (yes dolphin too)

Lol. Are you kidding? That's way overpriced, I can do way better than that. But I figured he has $1,000 budget so might as well future proof it. For example a good 600 watt psu or ok 650 watt psu would be plenty but I chose a 750 because if he ever need sto get a top of the line video card or do extensive overclocking he'll have the headroom. Also the motherboard is almost twice the price of a decent AM3 board but since it's an 8 series it's future proof and has sata3.

But it's cheap for a high end rig that will run anything on maximum graphical settings without a hitch. Many people spend around $1.5k on gaming setups that don't differ much in performance from the rig you stated ($1k)

[NaturalViolence]

Thanks for the help. I like your build but I'm going to replace the gpu with the 5770 since it performs just as well as ati mobility 5870 which is fine with me.
I also don't plan on doing any overclocking mainly because I don't know how to. should I change the mobo and power supply to save costs and what could you recommend? I also have to throw in a soundcard and bluetooth any suggestions?
I'm going to be picking up some items at a local store price matched. Now for putting it all together I'm going to need to some more. Ill keep y'all updated.

If your sure about it. I personally wouldn't make that switch since I believe you will find yourself in need of a new video card within 2 years if you do.

Well if your not overclocking you don't need the air cooler. The high end mobo and psu are there to future proof the system, not to accommodate overclocking. You can use a much weaker psu but you won't be able to use high end video cards until you replace it, if your fine with that then get this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6817341022

As for the motherboard. That's also for future proofing. 8 series bords support usb 3, sata 3, and are more likely to support future cpus from amd (so you MIGHT be able to upgrade your cpu a couple years from now without changing your board). If your fine with geting a 7 series board this is a good choice: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6813131402

Also I would change your cpu to this to ensure that you get an air cooler and the cpu is compatible (the 965 with the new C3 stepping might need a bios update to work with the 7 series board that I linked): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6819103674

You can also save money by getting a cheaper case which I would actually recommend now that you've stated you don't want to overclock (I chose that one because of it's excellent airflow). So if you want to save money there this is a good choice (keep in mind this case is smaller and therefore large/high-end video cards won't fit in this one): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6811119161

You can also save money by getting a dvd drive instead of a dvd burner. I chose a burner because I wasn't sure if you needed to burn discs or not. If you don't then you can get a regular drive instead and save $5-10.

As for the memory. You could switch to ddr3 1333 since you don't need anything higher but I picked that ddr3 1600 ram because it's only $5 more and has amazing reviews (latency isn't to bad either).

I chose a 640GB HDD but you can save some money if you don't need that much space. Just make sure to get a western digital. The extra $10 you usually have to pay is easily worth the better warranty and quality you get from them.

As for your audio card. It depends on your os. I'm assuming you'll be using windows and if so creative is an excellent brand (just make sure to get your drivers off of the creative website instead of the cd that comes with the card). However creative cards don't play nice with linux. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6829102024

As for bluetooth. This is an excellent dongle: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6833340012

And if you need instructions I helped one of my friends in rl build his first system just a couple months ago. I wrote him up a list of instructions and lucky for you I still have them: http://naturalviolence.webs.com/

[shawnanastasio]

that gpu is overkill for dolphin..but good for others