Building a PC...again

ok guys so my old Pc has become bottom of the barrel and I need a PC that is update-able at the very least.
I have a Thermaltake Tsunami Dream and I don't want to get rid of that since well its a tower case and well I wanna spend as little money as possible though but be able to run like Dragon Origins on medium at the least.
so whats the best but cheapest up to date hardware out there that would be good for gaming and Editing Video & making graphic art?
-Thanks guys!

 

So what is your budget?

Are you looking for an entirely new pc or looking for the parts required to be able to play this game?

I'm guessing your budget will be around £800 ($1200)

I would get - (my dollar conversion are estimates, could be wrong, as i am UK based)
i7 920 - $250
Asus Rampage II Gene Intel X58 $200
Corsair Dominator 3GB (3x1GB) $100 You should only need 3gb your your requirements, Do you have a 64 bit OS?

That leaves according to my estimated budget $250 for GPU HDD ect

XFX ATI Radeon HD 4890 1024MB GDDR5 $150
Western Digital Caviar Black $60
LG GH22NS50 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter $30

This would play nearly all modern games you could throw a it!

And is fairly future proof.

Burrell

 

800 quid? man thats a chunk of money, he said as little as possible lol

Also I wouldn't go for the XFX 4890, I just went through all this and aparently they have heat issues, I got the Sapphire 4890 vapor x 2gb for $280 CND (dellivered from Honk Kong lol) and it's running like a dream. 1gb version is hard to find but they are around and are about $200.

As for the rest I'll wait for his fund limit.

 

You could upgrade to play Dragon Age on max for <$500 but it looks like you'd need a new powersupply so about $560.
I'd aim for about 600 watts and effiicent find a Thermaltake on sale if you like that brand.

Video: Ati 5770 or nvidia 260 (216sp) GTX for $150-180
CPU Any AMD AM3 at 3.0 ghz or Intel 2.6 or higher (dual core) <$100
Memory dual channel $60 2GB-4GB (xp only uses 3 I think)
Motherboard An AM3 or Core 2 Duo $50-90 or alternatively an Intel 1156 board for i3.
Storage hdd you could use your current drive for boot and get another for data depending on sales, size $60-90.

If you were currently gaming at less than 1650 x 1080 on a 17 or 19 inch monitor, I'd definitely put some budget tp a 22-24 inch LCD. Dragon Age really isn't terribly demanding but if you were thinking about a quad in the future, i5/i7 is the way to go with i7 1356 socket being upgradeable to 8 core in the future. The above would only allow upgrade to current and some would say, soon obsolete quads.

I would agree on the 4800 series cards, they are power hogs which Ati fixed with the 5000 series. You may not care and if the 4890 is around for $150 that may offer more performance than my recs, not sure. But my 4850 was a space heater so I'd personally skip them.

 

On the 4800 series, my son has the 4850 sapphire and it's not bad for temps, I got the 4890 vapor x, big big difference and I'm running with an X2 and 3 drives on a 600w with no probs.
As for temps, I play Crysis maxed out and the temp stays at around 55-58C
But like I said, they are getting hard to find.
Also Dragon Age is more processor hungry than graphics, my X2 struggles a little when it gets busy while my 4890 is almost asleep lol
Thats settings maxed out on a 24" 1080p HDMI 1980x1050 res

 

well I'd like to keep my hard drives Idr which is which but I think they're Sata harddrives(whichever ones faster is the one I have Sata or IDE idk nor do I remember) but thats about all I'd like to keep besides the case.
and yeah my price range is about 1200$ to 1500$ I just want a mediocre PC that I'm able to build upon later cause I have an outdated everything now.Like 754 socket CPU at 2 GHz and a 6600GT AGP vid card. but 3gb sounds good so far.Also I'm more of an nVidia guy since thats what I started out on and I'm more familiar with.Plus I would be running it more on 2560x960 on one monitor and 1280x1024 on the other.I am looking into getting a Terabyte hard drive though.And I wanna keep my OS(windows XP home) since well it'll save me money and plus I know how to mod it.So we can basically cut out the Case,monitors,Hard Drives, and Operating system.And I only run a 32 bit OS(idk much about the bit factor on these things I just know how to build it, run it, and work the programs).Also an HD card would be the bomb man, so basically I want bottom of the barrel but good enough to run a Graphically intense game AND able to handle Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 and atleast 2 other Adobe CS4 programs with it as well as Itunes and Google Chrome whilst I am working.(sorry I should have been more elaborate on what I wanted guys) I hope that helps some guys.But so far I like the look of the 3gb RAMM & 3ghz processor. Can you guys also tell me whats the deal with these dual, triple, and quad processors? is it basically like 4 2ghz pocessors whenever you get a 2ghz quad CPU?

 

$1200-1500? Man take your pick, I could build my dream machine for that lol

So you want mobo/cpu/ram and GFX, PSU, correct?

Well you don't need that kind of money to build a medium machine, depends on your definition of medium, what are you looking to do on it?
If you're wanting a gaming machine then for that money you could build something that will blow away any game on the market right now.

 

Yes correct, mobo;CPU;PSU;Ramm;GFX
and I'm lookin to be able to play games like Dragon age and the witcher and the next gen games easily and yet be able to run multiple editing programs(not the game and editing programs at the same time mind you)
so mainly I want Power overall so I can run basically anything

 

Whoa, you're gonna be fun lol
I would advise you to wait on seveal ideas from several members.

Personally if I was spending that kind of money I would be looking at an AMD Phenom II X4 or an Intel Core i7 CPU. Matching ram and mobo and maybe either a Sapphire 5890 or the 4870x2 or an Nvidia GTX295
I like AMD, always have but others will tell you intel.
I like ATI others will tell you NVidia.

I will look around more tomorrow, I'm a bit brain fried right now lol
Plus it will give others a chance to give their opinions, many of the guys here run circles round me, hell I learnt much of what I know from them lol

 

thanks I guess I shall wait then on other suggestions ^^

 

Ohhhhhhh yes this'll be fun!

Right...
Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping $250
Asus P6X58D Premium Intel X58 £300 (This is a real Kickass Motherboard)
G.Skill Trident 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-16000C9 2000MHz $200
Asus ATI Radeon HD 5970 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (The best money can buy) $600

Then that leaves $150 for a good PSUof your choice, theres too many or me to quote one. (I would recommend Corsair) if you can go modular.

BTW - This will handle ANYTHING you throw at it, and wont need upgrading for many years!

I'm officially jelous!

Burrell

 

anything oin the nVidia department my friend? :confused

 

I don't think I'd change much from Burrell's suggestion.

If you really want to go Nvidia then check out the GTX295. I'm an ATI man but aparently the 295 gives ATI's top dogs a run for their money.

 

Yep, also the 295 is a tad cheaper.

They are very similar performance wise. If you have the money, you could get another later for an SLI/Crossfire setup and have one of the most powerful home PC's on the planet!

Burrell

 

Yeah that's an option, personally I prefer ATI like you.

I was looking at the 4870x2, crossfire those babies and oooweee. But unfortunately they are a little outdated.
I would love the 5890 or 5970 but I'm happy with mine until I win the lotto lol

 

You need to for the price of these things!!

Burrell

 

just one more question, what is the best but cheapest PSU I could get cause I have a 480 watt, would that be sufficient?

 

whats the pin of the Ramm? I'm pricing it and theres like 15 different ones on Newegg

 

another thing but whats a cheap and I mean CHEAP video card that I can deal with for now that'll work ok thats Nvidia

 

There's no such things as a budget PSU IMHO.

Buying a budget PSU puts the rest of your $1200 setup at risk, it could take things with it when it blows!

I would recommend the Corsair tx 750, this is ideal for your setup, if you can afford it, get the HX version which is modular.

The RAM is DDR3, go with the one i suggested, Corsair, OCZ or Crucial, if you are unsure of what to search for, try visiting Crucial, and enter your MB model number and it will GUARANTEE compatibility with your board! If it doesnt work send it back for a full refund!

Burrell

 

If you want to go shupidly cheap, you may as well go with onboard graphics for now.

For £60 ($70! You can get a 9600GSO which will run most things you can throw at it, but won't be anywhere near the likes of the 5970 or the gtx 295 previously stated.

Burrell

 

I will repeat what Burrell said, Budget PSU's are for suicidal PC's.
While you may hit on a good one for little money, but is it worth the risk?
Specs don't mean anything when you are looking at a 750w PSU for $40.

Stick with quality, don't cheap out on PSU's, anything else fine, but not the PSU.

As for choosing RAM, you must first select your motherboard/CPU and the specs in the motherboard will tell you what RAM is compatible.

Cheap Video card also depends on your selected motherboard.

Decide what CPU and motherboard you are going to buy first, then choose RAM, Video card and PSU.

 

I third the PSU requirements.

Digerati was kind enough to provide me with access to this canned text shown below in reference to PSUs:

 

thats the thing, there isn't 16000 pin I searched for it O.O and the PSU has to be at least 750 watt?

 

Ok we just keep guessing here, you need to post what motherboard/CPU and GFX card you have decided on before we can tell you what RAM and PSU you need.

Your RAM is most likely 240-pin, not sure where you're getting 16000 from.

You say it has to be 750w but you havn't chosen a GFX card yet, wattage isn't the only defining factor in PSU as Collins post describes.

 

Maybe 160000 is refering to DDR3 1600 Mhz ram. ?????

Who knows.

I think you should do some reading on how to build PC's because (no offence) but you seem quite a novice and i'm sure you wouldnt want to break one of those top quality (top price!) pc parts, If you chose the ones i suggested, or similar.

As ned said, please tell us what you decided on.

Burrell

 

I have to agree here, it's not a bad thing not to know something but it could be a very bad thing not to know something that ends up costing you a small fortune and messing it up.

I would hate to see that happen to anyone.

Building a PC isn't exactly hard but it does require knowledge of how to do it, like many things.

If you want to practice get some older parts and build one just to make sure you know what you're doing before venturing into high end building.

 

I found your 600$ video card for 175$ :-D
also I found a Quad core 2.8Ghz I-7 for 329$
and that motherboard for 145$

 

Those $ conversions are mearly guestimates, i'm UK based, so things are cheaper of there and my conversions may not be too accurate,

BUT i VERY much doubt you found a new, working 5970 for $175, infact, i know you didnt.

 

lol Unless it says on the lable (Wear oven gloves when installing) :-D

Lets put it this way, I spent 2 weeks of 3-5 hours per day trying to find my 4890, granted it had to be the one I wanted and seeing the used prices of video cards showed me that you can usually find them cheaper new, but no store would sell a 5970 for $175.

Quick look over ebay showed the cheapest for $700 (although I didn't really search hard)
This is Newegg, one of the cheapest places to find PC parts, this is a list of ALL the 5970's they carry (note all out of stock lol)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...0048 106793261 1067950589&name=Radeon HD 5970

@Spawn... Not being funny but if you want help from the guys here you are going to have to work with them, just saying "I found these" isn't going to get you any help, you need to post a link or be specific and you need to make sure 100% you're right otherwise you're gonna run into problems.
We are willing to help but it's very hard to help when we have no infomation.
You may have found the things you said but it's unlikely for that kind of money but we can't say for sure because we have no info.
Also if you found a place that cheap everyone will want to know where it is because they are undercutting the cheapest by huge numbers.