Computers & Electronics

Help w/ building gaming rig

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  • Jun 7th, 2010 12:30 am
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Newbie
Jun 19, 2009
6 posts
Niagara Falls

Help w/ building gaming rig

Hey everyone,

I need some help building a gaming rig with SC2, D3, FF14, and other high end games in the works. I've got a $2000 budget more or less. 1700-2300 or so.

Thing is, I want to possibly use or sell parts from my old PC. It has a junky motherboard because I purchased the entire PC overpriced from MDG. Yeah, I was a sucker back then and bought a Stealth for 4G. Flame away... It was 6 years ago, and the sales man said it would last 7 years. I'm glad it sort of did.

Possible salvageable parts
- 2 250GB HDDs which I'll probably turn into external backup since I need them.
- BFG GTX 260 <-- might want to sell it though, get something with more umph
- 700W power supply (recently purchased from newegg, should I use it or just sell it and buy one?)
- 2 1GB RAM, I'm not really sure of the type
- Pentium D CPU 3.4GHz
- Funky looking case, aluminum shell with blue LCD that tells you temp (going to sell, not much room)
- Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Extreme Audio (will probably give it to my cousin for free haha)

I would like to build a PC using i7 as my CPU. I'm pretty much clueless on what the best choices would be for a gaming PC with that budget. I'm looking for a good synergy between the products, and possibilities of upgrades. I've been trying to read up on it, and found that intel boards have a dead end socket? Not even sure what that means but it doesn't sound too good. There is just so much to read up on, which I will eventually, but would appreciate if someone can help me out here and possibly give me a build I can use to buy an assembled PC from NCIX.


Approx Purchase Date: Soon (within 2-4 weeks)

Budget: 1700-2300

System Usage: Gaming

Parts not required
- Power Supply, as long as i only require 700W. Otherwise I could sell the PSU.
- keyboard
- mouse
- monitor: I have a BENQ gamer monitor that was continued years ago. It's still kicking!
- speakers/headphones

Preferred Website: NCIX

Country: Canada

Part Preferences: Please advise ^_^

Overclocking: Maybe?

Monitor Resolution: 1920 x 1200

Additional Comments:
18 replies
Deal Addict
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Jan 21, 2010
3373 posts
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Scarborough, ON
myLumee wrote: ...I've been trying to read up on it, and found that intel boards have a dead end socket? Not even sure what that means but it doesn't sound too good.....
It basically means that when you buy an Intel based motherboard right now, you won't be able to use it on the upcoming next architecture CPU Intel is releasing called "Sandy Bridge". With AMD systems you can use the old AM2+ motherboards on new systems.

To put it to perspective however, the next big architectural jump AMD is going to do is most likely not going to be on the same socket and definitely the chipset will be different, so it doesn't really matter whether you choose AMD or Intel right now. Besides, the latest Intel based systems right now that are so called "dead end" are almost 2 generations ahead of AMD.

It boils down to, are you the type of guy to upgrade incrementally (change CPU every so often?) then go AMD if you are the type of guy who buys the mobo+CPU at the same time when you upgrade then go Intel.


What brand/model is your 700 power supply?
Your budget is actually pretty damn good, you can build a high end gaming system with dual monitors with that.

If you have a Pentium D you probably have a DDR RAM (not DDR2).

If you want a sample i7 (x58) build: (current prices checked via pricebat.ca)

i7 930 - $300
Asus P6X58D Premium - $300
3x2GB DDR3 - $200 (Any brand that isn't Corsair that will give you overclocking options are around this price range, I suggest G.Skill)
ATI HD5870 - $420 to $450 (I suggest XFX if you want Lifetime warranty, but Sapphire, Gigabyte, Asus are pretty good too.)
1TB HDD - $100
Case - $100 (Plenty of cheap options, Good bang for buck would be something like Cooler Master 690 II Basic ($70-80) or 690 II Advanced ($80-95), It really depends on what you want.
total = $1450 + tax/shipping

You can also go AMD or i5 build instead if you want to save more money and put an SSD drive in there as an OS drive.
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Feb 11, 2004
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Midland
poster above is incorrect with this info, the new AMD sledgehammer cpu's will be supporting the AM3 cpu architechure. AMD will have support for there AM3 sockets going into next year vs intel making you buy new motherboards & cpu's AND those with not have Sata6 nor USB 3 support on them.

what is the PS you have now ???

Beyond that I can help with a AMD or intel solution in that range but will say right now that if your looking for value/preformance & future upgradeability it will be on a AMD Phenom II X6 1090T based build.
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Jan 21, 2010
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Scarborough, ON
lol Sledgehammer came out in 2000-2001, you mean "Bulldozer"?
Newbie
Jun 19, 2009
6 posts
Niagara Falls
Hey, thank you for the replies and help guys.

The powersupply is actually purchased from futureshop at stock price because my brother worked there. My newegg one was actually a 650 for my cousin's PC. I just mixed them upp.

Its a rocketfish 700w
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/556
Deal Fanatic
Oct 1, 2004
5862 posts
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myLumee wrote: Hey, thank you for the replies and help guys.

The powersupply is actually purchased from futureshop at stock price because my brother worked there. My newegg one was actually a 650 for my cousin's PC. I just mixed them upp.

Its a rocketfish 700w
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/556
Oh god. Get rid of that pile of junk. You wouldn't want that to take out $2000 worth of parts.

I guess if you're spending $2000, you would want the best.
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Feb 12, 2005
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I've tried pricing a system @ NCIX and it came out to $2100 + shipping and taxes. I was just doing it last night for fun to see how much an "OKAY" system would cost me these days. I'll post a screen shot of it and I'll post it later. Everyone is welcome to give their opinion of which part should be replaced to what.. But I think the system I did is pretty solid unless someone says otherwise.
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Feb 11, 2004
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Midland
flyz wrote: Oh god. Get rid of that pile of junk. You wouldn't want that to take out $2000 worth of parts.

I guess if you're spending $2000, you would want the best.
+1000 !!!

Rocketfish = below OEM.
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X | Gigabyte X570 Aorus Elite | Crucial Ballistix MAX DDR4 4000 32 gig kit
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Feb 11, 2004
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Akraz wrote: http://ncix.com/products/?sku=26415&vpn ... omoid=1027






Do you even know what OEM means? Original Equipment Manufacturer.

That literally doesnt make sense what you just wrote.

OEM = Not retail packaged.
yes it does cause its just like buying a ultra product for the most part, underpowered, crappy part produced componet.
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X | Gigabyte X570 Aorus Elite | Crucial Ballistix MAX DDR4 4000 32 gig kit
Asus Xonar AU | Asus ROG 6600 XT | Corsair RM850X | Fractial Designs Refine R5
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Heatware 45-0|RFDware 13-0
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Oct 1, 2004
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jEnkinsX wrote: I've tried pricing a system @ NCIX and it came out to $2100 + shipping and taxes. I was just doing it last night for fun to see how much an "OKAY" system would cost me these days. I'll post a screen shot of it and I'll post it later. Everyone is welcome to give their opinion of which part should be replaced to what.. But I think the system I did is pretty solid unless someone says otherwise.
You could probably do better. Post away.
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Newbie
Jun 19, 2009
6 posts
Niagara Falls
jEnkinsX wrote: I've tried pricing a system @ NCIX and it came out to $2100 + shipping and taxes. I was just doing it last night for fun to see how much an "OKAY" system would cost me these days. I'll post a screen shot of it and I'll post it later. Everyone is welcome to give their opinion of which part should be replaced to what.. But I think the system I did is pretty solid unless someone says otherwise.
I would be grateful if you could :)

Edit

Wow, haha thanks :) Fastest response ever imo!
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Feb 12, 2005
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myLumee wrote: I would be grateful if you could :)

Edit

Wow, haha thanks :) Fastest response ever imo!
Sorry I had to email it to myself from the other computer because my nephew is using my main LCD to play MW2..

Man IBM Thinkpads suck.. i don't even have a TOUCHPAD! I have this friggen red nipple!
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Oct 1, 2004
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jEnkinsX wrote: Sorry for the long list lol.. $2100+s/h+taxes is AFTER PM is approved..

[IMG]http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/4183 ... err.th.jpg[/IMG]

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Corsair H50, while a good kit, you can get better price/performance with a tower heatsink.

I personally don't see the point of Dominator RAM in the normal 1600 speeds. They're just your average 8-8-8 with a pretty heatspreader on them.

XFi, There are cards out there with better sound quality imo. I'd take sound quality over EAX support.
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Feb 12, 2005
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flyz wrote: Corsair H50, while a good kit, you can get better price/performance with a tower heatsink.

I personally don't see the point of Dominator RAM in the normal 1600 speeds. They're just your average 8-8-8 with a pretty heatspreader on them.

XFi, There are cards out there with better sound quality imo. I'd take sound quality over EAX support.
If you could suggest subs for those it might help OP if he is using the list to get an idea..
Deal Fanatic
Oct 1, 2004
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jEnkinsX wrote: If you could suggest subs for those it might help OP if he is using the list to get an idea..
HSF: CM 212, cheap and a great performer
RAM: Any 1600 kit from your typical RAM company is fine. OCZ, G.Skill, Patriot, Corsair etc.
Sound: ASUS or AuzenTech makes great sound cards.
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Feb 11, 2004
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flyz wrote: Corsair H50, while a good kit, you can get better price/performance with a tower heatsink.

I personally don't see the point of Dominator RAM in the normal 1600 speeds. They're just your average 8-8-8 with a pretty heatspreader on them.

XFi, There are cards out there with better sound quality imo. I'd take sound quality over EAX support.
I agree its a decent build but I feel could be configured better.
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X | Gigabyte X570 Aorus Elite | Crucial Ballistix MAX DDR4 4000 32 gig kit
Asus Xonar AU | Asus ROG 6600 XT | Corsair RM850X | Fractial Designs Refine R5
Samsung 980 Pro 1 TB M.2 | SG Firecuda 2 Tb | Win 10 Pro
Heatware 45-0|RFDware 13-0
Newbie
Jun 19, 2009
6 posts
Niagara Falls
Thank you so much for everything, everyone. I'm going to look into your build and fly's possible tweaks. I'll be purchasing this or a very similar build by the end of June.

Thanks again!

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