Computers & Electronics

Suggestions for a PC ($1500 budget)

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  • Jul 28th, 2010 12:47 pm
Deal Guru
Aug 14, 2007
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Suggestions for a PC ($1500 budget)

Hey everyone, within the next month or 2 I am going to start building a PC.

In the END I am going to want a triple screen setup, but at first I can grab my dads 24" LG screen since he doesn't use it anymore (he uses his 52" plasma for his mac so he offered to give me his LG one)

Regardless. I don't play alot of games but I will want to play newer games as they come out, so the video card is important.

I also am not sure if I should get an i7 or wait for the supposed i9 CPUs to come out later in the year...

So with those 2 things out of the way, minimum I need 1TB of space, not sure if I am going to go with SSD for the OS or not, how big of a difference (really) does it make?


So please make some suggestions on the case and everything else (with link if possible), I will probably be buying everything from the local CanadaComputers but will buy online if its substantially ($30+) cheaper. For the case, I prefer it to look more plain than flashy, I don't really want a side window and lights and all that, but we'll see.


Also, is there any benefit other than size of a full-tower case rather than a mid tower?


Once again, budget (for now) is $1500, dont need a monitor, feel free to add $100 or even better feel free to take away $ from the budget :D I can use on-board audio.
32 replies
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Feb 11, 2004
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And why are you ignoring a AMD Phenom II X6 1090T solution then ? it will allow you to do multiple things as well allow for both a SSD & 1 tb drive with the cost savings.
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Deal Guru
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I'm not ignoring anything, just looking for suggestions
Member
Jan 28, 2008
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Video Card: I would recommend Ati 5850 since you going to go triple screen. You will benefit from their Eyefinity. Some people may tell you to get 460 gtx but you going to need a 1gb version for your 24" monitor and the price difference is like $40. So 5850 would be better.

Hard drive: If you spending $1500 for a computer, you should definitely get a SSD. I got a 40gb SSD and it's hard to fit everything I need. I recommend getting atleast a 60gb SSD, if you are getting one.

CPU: Get a i7 or AMD Hexacore, if you need a computer right now. Both CPU are great as a average user you won't see much a difference between the two. If you don't need a CPU right now then you can always wait for intel's new sandybridge. If you go AMD their motherboard will be cheaper compare to i7 and save you some money.

PSU: Get a Seasonic/Antec 700watt or higher PSU, if you planning to crossfire or sli in the future.
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XtremeModder wrote: I'm not ignoring anything, just looking for suggestions
Fair enough I'll show you 3 parts that I'm looking at that are $740 amdwise then that should be considered:

AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Thuban 6 Core Processor 3.2GHZ Socket AM3 Retail Box
Usually ships in 1-2 business days.
In Stock 52067 $309.99 $309.99

G.SKILL F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL Ripjaws 8GB 2X4GB DDR3-1600 CL9-9-9-24 240PIN DIMM Memory
Usually ships in 1-2 business days.
In Stock 44267 $289.99 $289.99

Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H 890GX AM3 ATX DDR3 2PCI-E 2PCI SATA3 USB3.0 HDMI GBLAN CrossFireX Motherboard
Usually ships in 1-2 business days.
In Stock 51021 $140.99 $140.99

YOUR TOTAL $740.97

There's still about another $40-50 in wiggleroom off of it after price matching. You could then if you wanted to take abit more off grab the 870a board insted if you where not requiring more then 1 videocard anyways.

I can firmly say the setup I have in a SSD/harddrive tandem is definatly the way to go especialy when you offload your larger unassential games/programs/torrents to the physical hard drive or any of your encoding work audio or video & you let the SSD do its job with the main app.

update I can confirm almost $70 off of those prices. :D
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Oct 7, 2007
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If OP wants triple monitor setup then I actually recommend 5870 over the 5850. That extra boost in performance will help in driving the 5760 x 1080 resolution of a eyefinity setup.

SSD will be really good for fast boot up times. A smaller SSD drive for the boot disk and a 1TB WD Black HDD for media/games is a very popular setup.
There's a sucker born every minute.
Jr. Member
Jun 14, 2007
111 posts
42 upvotes
Processor (CPU)
Intel Core i5 750 Quad Core Processor Lynnfield LGA1156 2.66GHZ 8MB Cache Retail Box
$227.99


Motherboard
ASUS P7P55D-E Pro LGA1156 P55 DDR3 2PCI-E16 3PCI-E1 2PCI SLI CrossFireX USB3.0 SATA 6GB Motherboard
$194.27


DDR3 Memory (RAM)
G.SKILL F3-10666CL7D-4GBECO Eco PC3-10666 4GB 2X2GB DDR3-1333 CL7-7-7-21 1.35V Memory Kit
$120.26

Video Cards
GeForce GTX 470 625MHZ 1280MB GDDR5 3.348GHZ PCI-E Dual DVI-I Mini HDMI
$379.99

Computer Case
Antec Sonata Elite Quiet ATX Tower Case 3X5.25 4X3.5INT No PS Front USB Sound eSATA
$95.97


Power Supply
Seasonic SS-600ET 600W EPS12V 24PIN ATX Power Supply PFC 80PLUS Bronze 6PIN 8PIN PCI-E 120MM Fan OEM
(SS-600ET) (sku: 50988) In Stock
$99.99


Operating System
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64BIT DVD OEM
$119.78


DVD Writer
LG GH22NS50 Black 22X SATA DVD Writer OEm
$29.99

Solid State Drives - SSD (OS hard drive)
OCZ Agility 2 Extended 60GB 2.5IN SATA2 Solid State Disk Flash Drive SSD
$184.44

Hard Drives (Storage Hard drive)
Western Digital WD20EARS Caviar Green 2TB SATA2 3GBPS 64MB Cache 3.5IN Hard Drive OEM
$119.76

Keyboard and Mouse Combo
Logitech Deluxe 250 Desktop Black Keyboard & Optical Mouse PS/2 OEM
$34.99


TOTAL $1,607.42

Notes: no assembly, no speakers.
all original NCIX system builder prices, you should be able to price match / find deals or find alternative parts to save well over $100.

When you're ready for triple monitors, pick up a cheap 2nd video card and a couple of monitors.

I have been piecing together something similar to this, as the parts go on sale.

My general rule for building systems ( I didn't in this example) is spend good money on high quality parts that you'll use for many system builds. (ie: case, power supply, optical / storage drives, sound card, monitor(s), mouse & keyboard) then buy the best bang for the buck for the Motherboard/CPU//ram/Video.
Then the next few upgrades are an easy drop in for the MB/CPU/ram/Video as needed.
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naggz wrote: Processor (CPU)
Intel Core i5 750 Quad Core Processor Lynnfield LGA1156 2.66GHZ 8MB Cache Retail Box
$227.99


Motherboard
ASUS P7P55D-E Pro LGA1156 P55 DDR3 2PCI-E16 3PCI-E1 2PCI SLI CrossFireX USB3.0 SATA 6GB Motherboard
$194.27


DDR3 Memory (RAM)
G.SKILL F3-10666CL7D-4GBECO Eco PC3-10666 4GB 2X2GB DDR3-1333 CL7-7-7-21 1.35V Memory Kit
$120.26

Video Cards
GeForce GTX 470 625MHZ 1280MB GDDR5 3.348GHZ PCI-E Dual DVI-I Mini HDMI
$379.99

Computer Case
Antec Sonata Elite Quiet ATX Tower Case 3X5.25 4X3.5INT No PS Front USB Sound eSATA
$95.97


Power Supply
Seasonic SS-600ET 600W EPS12V 24PIN ATX Power Supply PFC 80PLUS Bronze 6PIN 8PIN PCI-E 120MM Fan OEM
(SS-600ET) (sku: 50988) In Stock
$99.99


Operating System
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64BIT DVD OEM
$119.78


DVD Writer
LG GH22NS50 Black 22X SATA DVD Writer OEm
$29.99

Solid State Drives - SSD (OS hard drive)
OCZ Agility 2 Extended 60GB 2.5IN SATA2 Solid State Disk Flash Drive SSD
$184.44

Hard Drives (Storage Hard drive)
Western Digital WD20EARS Caviar Green 2TB SATA2 3GBPS 64MB Cache 3.5IN Hard Drive OEM
$119.76

Keyboard and Mouse Combo
Logitech Deluxe 250 Desktop Black Keyboard & Optical Mouse PS/2 OEM
$34.99


TOTAL $1,607.42

Notes: no assembly, no speakers.
all original NCIX system builder prices, you should be able to price match / find deals or find alternative parts to save well over $100.

When you're ready for triple monitors, pick up a cheap 2nd video card and a couple of monitors.

I have been piecing together something similar to this, as the parts go on sale.

My general rule for building systems ( I didn't in this example) is spend good money on high quality parts that you'll use for many system builds. (ie: case, power supply, optical / storage drives, sound card, monitor(s), mouse & keyboard) then buy the best bang for the buck for the Motherboard/CPU//ram/Video.
Then the next few upgrades are an easy drop in for the MB/CPU/ram/Video as needed.
nice post but you didn't see that the user is already aware of the core i5 & core i7 platform changes, and the user isn't going to want a discontinued gpu based videocard. And if you where sugesting "best bang for your buck" you'd know that is not nessicarly intel right now ...
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Deal Addict
Jun 4, 2007
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terrybear wrote: nice post but you didn't see that the user is already aware of the core i5 & core i7 platform changes, and the user isn't going to want a discontinued gpu based videocard. And if you where sugesting "best bang for your buck" you'd know that is not nessicarly intel right now ...
Old rumor is old.

http://techreport.com/discussions.x/18975

With a $1500 budget this is going to be a fairly high end build so he may as well go Intel. There's an endless amount of benchmarks showing that Intel are the better performers clock for clock and are faster in games, encoding, etc. than their AMD counterparts (albeit depending on the application it may be marginal/even).
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Jan 31, 2004
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i would never buy a high end amd cpu. If you're spending >$300 on a cpu, i'd go intel all the way. Just my opinion.
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av3n wrote: Old rumor is old.

http://techreport.com/discussions.x/18975

With a $1500 budget this is going to be a fairly high end build so he may as well go Intel. There's an endless amount of benchmarks showing that Intel are the better performers clock for clock and are faster in games, encoding, etc. than their AMD counterparts (albeit depending on the application it may be marginal/even).
Do you see the gpu in the 460's ???? there NOT the gpu's that are in the 470 & 480 .... BUT they will be the gpu's nvidia WILL use in the replacement cards for those models ......
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macro6 wrote: i would never buy a high end amd cpu. If you're spending >$300 on a cpu, i'd go intel all the way. Just my opinion.
yeah IF your willing to also sacrafice up to $300 for a GOOD motherboard to run it ..... you don't need to do that with a AMD AM3 build + that savings goes into a SSD drive, 1 tb hard drive, higher end model videocard, more ram & ect ... PLUS IF he buys i7 right now there will be little to no support hardwarewise for it as intel will move to the tentativly named "i6" & "i9" "sandy bridge" & guess what .... no backwards support ...

hate to burst the bubble further but "true core" solutions are going to win over " hyper threaded" ones. more games are coming out this year with multi core support. Heck whats intel doing themselves .... moving to a "cores only" solution ....
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terrybear wrote: Do you see the gpu in the 460's ???? there NOT the gpu's that are in the 470 & 480 .... BUT they will be the gpu's nvidia WILL use in the replacement cards for those models ......
Where's your proof?
terrybear wrote: yeah IF your willing to also sacrafice up to $300 for a GOOD motherboard to run it ..... you don't need to do that with a AMD AM3 build + that savings goes into a SSD drive, 1 tb hard drive, higher end model videocard, more ram & ect ... PLUS IF he buys i7 right now there will be little to no support hardwarewise for it as intel will move to the tentativly named "i6" & "i9" "sandy bridge" & guess what .... no backwards support ...

hate to burst the bubble further but "true core" solutions are going to win over " hyper threaded" ones. more games are coming out this year with multi core support. Heck whats intel doing themselves .... moving to a "cores only" solution ....
Spoken like a true AMD fanboy. You don't NEED a $300 motherboard for an i7 build, there are plenty of $200~ motherboards that are more than enough if you have a tight budget. The OP is spending $1500. If he was spending like half of that, I'd definitely recommend going AMD as they have just much more value and much more competitive prices. I have nothing against AMD, in fact I was using an X4 965 in my old build. Do you remember when AMD was topdog a few years back and saw the prices they had for their CPUs? Businesses want to make money. In that regard, Intel and AMD are really no different, they're both just catering to different markets now.

Also please show show me some benchmarks where you see a 1055 or 1090t utilize all their cores. With the exception of a few games like GTAIV and BFBC2, there are barely any games that utilize more than 2 cores yet alone 4 so no going more cores now will not yield any performance increase now or in the forseeable future.

As for Intel phasing 1156 and 1366, that's probably going to happen but so what? Technology changes literally every day. Unless the OP really wants to keep up to date with the absolute latest and greatest I don't think he'll have a need to upgrade to SB whenever it gets released. I also hear AM3 may only support one iteration of bulldozer before you have to move to a new socket.

tdlr; AMD is better for budget builds and better a price/performance ratio, Intel provides the *best* performance at this time.
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Mar 19, 2005
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1156 replacement end of 2010/start of 2011. Might have overclocking restrictions. 1366 replacement 2nd half next year supposedly. You should also post on other forums with your budget and you'll see what more technically inclined people recommend .
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av3n wrote: Where's your proof?



Spoken like a true AMD fanboy. You don't NEED a $300 motherboard for an i7 build, there are plenty of $200~ motherboards that are more than enough if you have a tight budget. The OP is spending $1500. If he was spending like half of that, I'd definitely recommend going AMD as they have just much more value and much more competitive prices. I have nothing against AMD, in fact I was using an X4 965 in my old build. Do you remember when AMD was topdog a few years back and saw the prices they had for their CPUs? Businesses want to make money. In that regard, Intel and AMD are really no different, they're both just catering to different markets now.

Also please show show me some benchmarks where you see a 1055 or 1090t utilize all their cores. With the exception of a few games like GTAIV and BFBC2, there are barely any games that utilize more than 2 cores yet alone 4 so no going more cores now will not yield any performance increase now or in the forseeable future.

As for Intel phasing 1156 and 1366, that's probably going to happen but so what? Technology changes literally every day. Unless the OP really wants to keep up to date with the absolute latest and greatest I don't think he'll have a need to upgrade to SB whenever it gets released. I also hear AM3 may only support one iteration of bulldozer before you have to move to a new socket.

tdlr; AMD is better for budget builds and better a price/performance ratio, Intel provides the *best* performance at this time.
1st off, NICE troll post & accusation. NICE try ....

Facts are facts .... you want to know how much my buds Core i7 build was that I helped him put together ..... Almost $2k .... AND that wasn't even more then a 6 gig kit of ram NOR a high end videocard.

And your bolded statement nails it right on the head of the 2 points that are underlined ...... You start looking $1500+ then ya should be looking at a Core i7, BUT if he wants the best videocard, best largest fasted preforming SSD drive 1 tb+ backup/additional data hard drive starting on a AMD AM3 DDR3 build will get him that flexability more so then vs a Core i7 say 930 build. Even IF you factor in the oc' aspects, the user will NOT notice a diffrence between the 2 systems built properly as myself & others on here will atest to.

Also the core's will be utilized by the os, the games, any apps he decides to use while he games, AND as I pointed out there are currently available games that do utilize all physical cores, as well as soon to be released ones as well as aps that will if he plans to do any encoding or ripping as well.

And kinda hard to acuse someone of being a amd fanboy when you admit as well to owning one & praising it .... :lol:

I'm pro consumer & every $ that AMD can get to help them up the ladder to help US the consumer is worth it & I also stated this recently as much as some peaple STILL wanted to deny that what I had stated had rational reasoning to it.

Also .... the OP hasn't specified what kinda future games / titles he wants to be able to play either .... I'm also not telling him he MUST buy a AMD AM3 build, i've made a sugestion to looking at the benefits of doing so .... I also didn't tell him to not wait to buy a I9 system now either now did i ??

Peaple REALY need to chill on the "rage posting" on here, including myself sometimes, But its hard to do when peaple make the posts like they do INSISTING they know there right or your not. And when peaple start calling others names thats the line that shouldn't be crossed. Cause I know I'M on this forum to help peaple .... not QQ & ruin peaples threads like you've done.
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Btw OP, as I said in my post. What games are you looking to play ?? anything else ??? use of voice chat programs ?? & ect ... :)
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dunno why ppl are recommending 5850s when the 470 can be had for the same/around the same price
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Jan 28, 2008
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-=Wraith=- wrote: dunno why ppl are recommending 5850s when the 470 can be had for the same/around the same price
470 10% increase performance vs 5850 less power, heat and noise. I doubt the op is a hardcore gamer from reading his post. Wouldn't 5850 be better? As for video card, If you are not a heavy gamer 5850 is enough to play all the game in max setting right now.

OP, how long are you planning to keep this PC for 1-2 years or 3+ years? AMD hexacore would be better in the long run. When I buy PC, I want to buy the one that can last me the longest before I need to upgrade. I still remember when I first brought my intel q6600 like 2 years ago, all my friend told me duo core is better and how they perform better in game and better value. Now look, everyone is suggesting to get a quad core instead of duo core.

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