Looking for Mid-range gaming computer

[Azuremen]

Yes, going with parts and building it yourself will always be the cheapest route.

Not quite true, actually. Getting a legal/legit copy of Windows can break the deal. As a student/ninja, I have my site license, etc for Windows.

So, you got the shopping list that was posted above I assume? Its almost identical to mine, brand name changes here and there. If you didn't, can I see a recap of what you got? And an update on status, I am quite curious

Building a PC isn't hard at all BTW. And people here will answer all questions

 

[Blackbird.]

What i'm going to get is exactly as Burnout posted.

 

[Azuremen]

I'm gonna make a few tweaks... if you haven't bought already.

Brisbane AMD 64 X2 3600+ 65nm
-Its slightly slower at 1.9 GHZ, but it has 65nm arch, which means less heat and power consumption.

Rosewill case with 400W PSU
-Its a good case and I've had good experiences with their PSU's. Its also a good looking case and with a removable hard drive bay and such, working in I find is a bit easier compared to other cases.

MSI Motherboard
-Its a bit cheaper and I am a big fan of MSI. While it only has 2 memory slots, running more than 3 gigs of ram is pointless unless you run a 64-bit OS, in which case gaming becomes an issue. I also believe the nForce 4 north bridge it has is better than the Biostar board.

Wintec Ampo 2 gigs of PC6400, for less
-Its cheaper to buy a package for the ram than two separate 1 gig sticks. Just figured I'd save you a few bucks.

Just my small tweaks... I would also go with a 7600 GT instead of an 8600 GT, but I do a bit less gaming and don't care about the DirectX 10.

 

[GT3mich]

In the value segment, the price cuts on July 22nd will bring the cheapest Core 2 you can get to... $112 or so, which will be an E4400. Now, at nearly twice the price lets see the performance difference:

Where did you get this price? Right now the E4400 can be bought for $138 from MWave.
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?scriteria=BA23789
I was under the impression that Intel was cutting the prices in half on July 22 and dropping the lower end processors to produce the E6450 E6550 E6750 E6850 1333Mhz FSB Processors.

 

[Iceman]

If you wish to go the C2D route:

https://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/WishList/MySavedWishDetail.asp?ID=7464287

Comes to a total of $529 before rebates of $60 for a final total of around $470. Major differences from burnouts setup include the processor, motherboard and videocard. Instead of the the 8600GT I'd go for an 7900GS or an x1950 PRO, both which can be found for nearly the exact price of the lower priced 8600 gt. Although the 8600 GT supports DX10, it'll perform terribly on DX10 games (although that might change a bit with driver improvements and more development of DX10 games), so that shouldn't be a big concern to you. On older games like BF2 the X1950 PRO and 7900GS are equal or sometimes greater in performance to the 8600 GT, so they may be another route for you to consider. If noise is an issue to you, the 8600 GT is probably a better choice.

 

[Azuremen]

ICEman, yer link does not work. You can't link Wish lists, etc.

That aside, someone posted earlier the mild performance gains for the Intel chipset are kinda outweighed by the fact that it costs twice as much as the X2 64. That, and the X2 has been shown to have better power consumption under normal usage, so its cooler and keeps the power bill at little smaller.

 

[Blackbird.]

If you wish to go the C2D route:

https://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/WishList/MySavedWishDetail.asp?ID=7464287

Comes to a total of $529 before rebates of $60 for a final total of around $470. Major differences from burnouts setup include the processor, motherboard and videocard. Instead of the the 8600GT I'd go for an 7900GS or an x1950 PRO, both which can be found for nearly the exact price of the lower priced 8600 gt. Although the 8600 GT supports DX10, it'll perform terribly on DX10 games (although that might change a bit with driver improvements and more development of DX10 games), so that shouldn't be a big concern to you. On older games like BF2 the X1950 PRO and 7900GS are equal or sometimes greater in performance to the 8600 GT, so they may be another route for you to consider. If noise is an issue to you, the 8600 GT is probably a better choice.

Even at $470 you don't have to pay sales tax (I don't think), but unfortunately I do.

Just as an example Burnout's final price was $506 but after sales tax it came out to roughly $542 for me.

 

[Burnout]

I'm gonna make a few tweaks... if you haven't bought already.

Brisbane AMD 64 X2 3600+ 65nm
-Its slightly slower at 1.9 GHZ, but it has 65nm arch, which means less heat and power consumption.

Rosewill case with 400W PSU
-Its a good case and I've had good experiences with their PSU's. Its also a good looking case and with a removable hard drive bay and such, working in I find is a bit easier compared to other cases.

MSI Motherboard
-Its a bit cheaper and I am a big fan of MSI. While it only has 2 memory slots, running more than 3 gigs of ram is pointless unless you run a 64-bit OS, in which case gaming becomes an issue. I also believe the nForce 4 north bridge it has is better than the Biostar board.

Wintec Ampo 2 gigs of PC6400, for less
-Its cheaper to buy a package for the ram than two separate 1 gig sticks. Just figured I'd save you a few bucks.

Just my small tweaks... I would also go with a 7600 GT instead of an 8600 GT, but I do a bit less gaming and don't care about the DirectX 10.

The processor change.. Eh, whatever. They're so close in speed it wont make a difference.

I would definitely recommend finding a board with 4 RAM slots. If he ever wants to upgrade, he'll be screwed out of the money he's spent on the two 1GB sticks. These days, it's absolutely not pointless to have more than 2GB either. I've also had multiple bad experiences with MSI boards, but never with a Gigabyte, and I've used plenty of each.

The RAM is Wintec Ampo, however it is not AmpoX, which changes warranties and adds ram heatsinks. I would spend the extra money.

 

[Azuremen]

The processor change.. Eh, whatever. They're so close in speed it wont make a difference.

I would definitely recommend finding a board with 4 RAM slots. If he ever wants to upgrade, he'll be screwed out of the money he's spent on the two 1GB sticks. These days, it's absolutely not pointless to have more than 2GB either. I've also had multiple bad experiences with MSI boards, but never with a Gigabyte, and I've used plenty of each.

The RAM is Wintec Ampo, however it is not AmpoX, which changes warranties and adds ram heatsinks. I would spend the extra money.

I can't really agree on your RAM comment regarding 4gigs, as only 3 of it will go to use on a 32bit OS, and using a 64 bit OS = driver hell normally, along with legacy apps and such. I can think of very little that would benefit from the increased ram, more so for anyone that is not using it as a professional workstation. Gaming and even doing quite a bit of photowork and media editing rarely exceeds 2 gigs.

By the time he needs the new memory upgrade, PC6400 will likely be out dated and thus cost more than newer memory types. Also, newer generation stuff on the whole would be a better idea.

And you are the first person I have known to have problems with an MSI board. No one else, my self included, has had issues with MSI boards.

 

[standard235]

No, no overclocking. I'm not going to do anything like that.

I said the same thing when I was pondering my rig.


Now I have my rig twice over, and I have my Opteron 146 at a 1ghz overclock.

You really need to OC AMD's to perform on par with C2D. You would be better off saving up for C2D. Much more future proof. Trust me, it's silly to do otherwise at the moment.