Ok, my 5 year old P4 3.5ghz PC is going bye bye. Im looking to build a new Gaming PC. Can someone make suggestions as to what combination of MoBo/processor/RAM/Power Supply/Case (already have a ATI 4300 video card) I should get? looking to spend roughly 500$ although that is not a hard ceiling.
Thanks!
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Is it a Radeon HD 4350? If so that card is not going to cut it for a gaming rig.
My suggestions:
Case - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147153 Rosewill
PSU - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005 650W Corsair
CPU - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103704 AMD X4 630
Mobo - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131626 AM3 Asus
RAM - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227541 8GB DDR3
GPU - http://www.frys.com/product/6159169 GTS250
Total - ~$586 shipped, ~$506 after rebates
My suggestions:
Case - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147153 Rosewill
PSU - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005 650W Corsair
CPU - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103704 AMD X4 630
Mobo - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131626 AM3 Asus
RAM - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227541 8GB DDR3
GPU - http://www.frys.com/product/6159169 GTS250
Total - ~$586 shipped, ~$506 after rebates
That is a fairly decent list, but you will not be happy playing the game with a GTS 250. That card is simply nowhere near powerful enough for FFXIV.
I would suggest getting only 4GB of RAM for about half that price like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145218
and using the difference to buy a 5770 like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102873&cm_re=5770-_-14-102-873-_-Product
I would suggest getting only 4GB of RAM for about half that price like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145218
and using the difference to buy a 5770 like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102873&cm_re=5770-_-14-102-873-_-Product
Well the thing is, with only 2 slots of memory available, it is best to go big, and not have to change it for a long time.
The 5770 costs twice as much as the GTS250, but is only marginally better for most applications.
FFXIV does work well on a GTS250.
Getting a mid range card such as this leaves the future open to upgrade significantly without spending too much money.
The 5770 costs twice as much as the GTS250, but is only marginally better for most applications.
FFXIV does work well on a GTS250.
Getting a mid range card such as this leaves the future open to upgrade significantly without spending too much money.
We will just have to agree to disagree I guess. Nothing I have read nor seen suggests that a GTS 250 would make FFXIV playable by any definition other than being able to log in and stare at the ground.
Having said that, I just realized the OP never actually mentioned FFXIV, so my advice is pretty meaningless if they don't plan on playing the game.
But I would still rather have a 5770 and 4GB of RAM than a GTS 250 and 8GB of RAM, no matter what game I was playing.
Edited, Aug 7th 2010 10:47pm by Enscheff
Having said that, I just realized the OP never actually mentioned FFXIV, so my advice is pretty meaningless if they don't plan on playing the game.
But I would still rather have a 5770 and 4GB of RAM than a GTS 250 and 8GB of RAM, no matter what game I was playing.
Edited, Aug 7th 2010 10:47pm by Enscheff
Well I must respectfully disagree on agreeing to disagree. I have first hand experience that 250GTS works fine. And I just think that instead of throwing away 4GB of ram later in order to upgrade, just get the 8GB now.
http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=606&card2=615
ATI's have insane shading powers, but as you can see, they aren't much different.
http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=606&card2=615
ATI's have insane shading powers, but as you can see, they aren't much different.
Thank you both so much for your input. if yall are ever in the central valley in CA, i'll buy you a beer. You must have a camera in my office because I do indeed have the HD 4350 Video Card. I do not play any FF games. Mostly I want to be able to play SC2/Bioshock2/Dragon Age/WoW (when the xpac comes out I want to check it out.) on good settings. As to the 8GB RAM, XP does not recognizing anything over 4GB. I have been toying with getting Win7 so maybe i'll just go that route.
That chart is pretty good actually.
Never by a rosewill case. Ever. they suck, the few people I haven't been able to talk out of them hate them, and your case is the single component of your PC that you will have the longest.
I tend to prefer Intel over AMD personally, but you definitly get more bang for your buck with AMD.
$500 is very low for a gaming PC, especially if you factor in operating system cost. You can build a pc for that price, but it will not be a high end machine.
Here's where I would start with a budget in mind, but not limited to $500:
Case: Cooler Master CM 690 II $89.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119216
Roomy, looks nice inside and out, rails and toolless screws for almost everything. There are better cases available, but there are no better cases in that price range.
Motherboard: Asus P7P55D-E $109.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131634
Decent solid board with USB 3.0 ports and 6GB/Sec SATA ports. you wont need either initially, but 2-3 years down the road that will be important for continued upgradeability. Especially when the affordable 6GB/sec Solid State drives show up. This is a socket 1156 motherboard. There is also the higher end Socket 1366. The only advantage you get with socket 1366 over 1156 is that socket 1366 boards have 6 ram slots as opposed to 4 here. The processor prices for 1366 are usually about $100 more.
Processor: 2.93 GHz Intel Core i3 Socket 1156 dual core $114
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115222
This is the low end of the Core i3 line, but plenty fast for gaming at the moment. You could throw another $100 at it and get a comperable i5 Quad core http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115067
Or $200 more and get a Core i7 quad core with hyperthreading for a total of 8 logical cores http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115214
Power supply: Antec 750 watt $89 after rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371025
We have about 200 of these at other work. They are reliable and have a decent warranty. I tend to prefer Enermax power supplies in my personal builds, but the budget prohibits that here.
Ram: Corsair 4GB ram kit 2x 2GB $99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145251
Go with windows 7 64 bit, and eventually get a second one of these kits as funds permit.
Video card: If that 4300 is PCI express, you can use it short term. If it is AGP, you are screwed and will need a new card. Eventually you will need a new card regardless. You can still get a 9800 GTX for around $134 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130339, though they are starting to get a bit long in the tooth. There are equivelent ATI cards avaialble as well. I know the Nvidia side better than the ATI side. if you download and run GPU-z and post a screenshot here, we can tell you exactly what type of card you have. I'm going to leave videoo card out of the price total for now.
Optical drive: 22x LG SATA DVD RW $17
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136180
optical drives are dirt cheap these days, no need to try and use the old IDE drive. also less airflow restriction from big ribbon cables
Hard drive: WD 320 GB SATA hard drive 7200 rpm $47
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136098
You may have a working hard drive, but hard drives will eventually fail, and 5 years is getting pretty old for a drive. That and you don't want to mess with IDE anymore. There are bigger, better drives, but you are looking at around $100 for a really large one, or $140 for a really fast one.
Total so far:
$564 without the video card. Expect to pay $100 more for windows 7 64 bit home premium
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116754
unless you have an educational license source or something similar. That would allow you to use the full 8GB ram when you buy the second ram kit.
You should also budget an additional $250 or so for a really good midrange video card.
If you don't have one handy, grab a tube of artic silver as well, just in case.
You won't need any other additioanl cables or fans or anything. Everything else comes with the case or the motherboard.
Never by a rosewill case. Ever. they suck, the few people I haven't been able to talk out of them hate them, and your case is the single component of your PC that you will have the longest.
I tend to prefer Intel over AMD personally, but you definitly get more bang for your buck with AMD.
$500 is very low for a gaming PC, especially if you factor in operating system cost. You can build a pc for that price, but it will not be a high end machine.
Here's where I would start with a budget in mind, but not limited to $500:
Case: Cooler Master CM 690 II $89.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119216
Roomy, looks nice inside and out, rails and toolless screws for almost everything. There are better cases available, but there are no better cases in that price range.
Motherboard: Asus P7P55D-E $109.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131634
Decent solid board with USB 3.0 ports and 6GB/Sec SATA ports. you wont need either initially, but 2-3 years down the road that will be important for continued upgradeability. Especially when the affordable 6GB/sec Solid State drives show up. This is a socket 1156 motherboard. There is also the higher end Socket 1366. The only advantage you get with socket 1366 over 1156 is that socket 1366 boards have 6 ram slots as opposed to 4 here. The processor prices for 1366 are usually about $100 more.
Processor: 2.93 GHz Intel Core i3 Socket 1156 dual core $114
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115222
This is the low end of the Core i3 line, but plenty fast for gaming at the moment. You could throw another $100 at it and get a comperable i5 Quad core http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115067
Or $200 more and get a Core i7 quad core with hyperthreading for a total of 8 logical cores http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115214
Power supply: Antec 750 watt $89 after rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371025
We have about 200 of these at other work. They are reliable and have a decent warranty. I tend to prefer Enermax power supplies in my personal builds, but the budget prohibits that here.
Ram: Corsair 4GB ram kit 2x 2GB $99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145251
Go with windows 7 64 bit, and eventually get a second one of these kits as funds permit.
Video card: If that 4300 is PCI express, you can use it short term. If it is AGP, you are screwed and will need a new card. Eventually you will need a new card regardless. You can still get a 9800 GTX for around $134 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130339, though they are starting to get a bit long in the tooth. There are equivelent ATI cards avaialble as well. I know the Nvidia side better than the ATI side. if you download and run GPU-z and post a screenshot here, we can tell you exactly what type of card you have. I'm going to leave videoo card out of the price total for now.
Optical drive: 22x LG SATA DVD RW $17
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136180
optical drives are dirt cheap these days, no need to try and use the old IDE drive. also less airflow restriction from big ribbon cables
Hard drive: WD 320 GB SATA hard drive 7200 rpm $47
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136098
You may have a working hard drive, but hard drives will eventually fail, and 5 years is getting pretty old for a drive. That and you don't want to mess with IDE anymore. There are bigger, better drives, but you are looking at around $100 for a really large one, or $140 for a really fast one.
Total so far:
$564 without the video card. Expect to pay $100 more for windows 7 64 bit home premium
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116754
unless you have an educational license source or something similar. That would allow you to use the full 8GB ram when you buy the second ram kit.
You should also budget an additional $250 or so for a really good midrange video card.
If you don't have one handy, grab a tube of artic silver as well, just in case.
You won't need any other additioanl cables or fans or anything. Everything else comes with the case or the motherboard.
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The only CPUs I would recommend for budget builds are AMD Athlon II X4 for a $600 build and an AMD Phenom II X4 for an $800 build. I would only recommend an Intel i7 for builds priced over $1000 with dual GPUs in mind. I would certainly not recommend anyone buy any i3 CPU for gaming, and I would stay away from the i5 as well considering the performance of the AMD quad cores.
Here is a link to a thread where someone just pieced together a pretty nice PC for well under $600 using some Newegg combo deals:
http://ffxiv.zam.com/forum.html?game=268&mid=128147810773185199&page=1
Here is a link to a thread where someone just pieced together a pretty nice PC for well under $600 using some Newegg combo deals:
http://ffxiv.zam.com/forum.html?game=268&mid=128147810773185199&page=1
Kao, thank you so much for your input. I think I will go with your suggestions and get the quad core I5 CPU. The ATI 4350 is a PCIe card, but i think ill spend extra cash and get a video card. what is your impression of the two suggestions above? also i have a copy of windows 7 pro 32bit that i was going to use. what would the difference be with home premium 64bit?
thanks again for your help!
thanks again for your help!
Aadyn Litefoot wrote:
Kao, thank you so much for your input. I think I will go with your suggestions and get the quad core I5 CPU. The ATI 4350 is a PCIe card, but i think ill spend extra cash and get a video card. what is your impression of the two suggestions above? also i have a copy of windows 7 pro 32bit that i was going to use. what would the difference be with home premium 64bit?
thanks again for your help!
thanks again for your help!
Windows Pro 32 bit is probably better than home premium, but you really want the 64 bit version so you can go above the 3.3 GB ram limit. running 32 bit will still give you a decent machine, but 64 bit gives you a lot more ram to play with theoretically. Could always upgrade later if it becomes an issue.
Video cards, I tend to prefer Nvidia cards, but there are some very nice ATI cards out there right now. If I were going to buy an ATi card in the $200ish range, I'd probably get this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121367
On the Nvidia side, the 460 GTX's are down to about $219 as well. Highly overclockable if you want to go that route
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130564
Next step above those would be the $300-$500 range really high end cards.
Don't go with a GTS 250. they are underpowered. Get the 9800 GTX+ instead if you decide to go the low price option.
Saphire is kind of a generic video card manufacturer. I've never used them, but have not heard good things overall.
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Kao and everyone in here, thanks for your input, i just placed the order for the following..
Case: Cooler Master CM 690 II http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119216
Motherboard: Asus P7P55D-E http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131634
Processor: Intel i5 Quad Core http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115067
Power supply: Antec 750 watt $89 after rebate http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371025
Ram: Corsair 4GB ram kit (got two for a total of 8gb) 2x 2GB $99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145251
Video Card: Nvidia 460 GTX http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130564
Optical drive: 22x LG SATA DVD RW $17 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136180
Hard drive: WD 320 GB SATA hard drive 7200 rpm $47 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16822136098
OS: windows 7 64 bit home premium http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116754
This PC should last me a good 4 years or more.
Again, thanks to everyone for their input.
Edited, Aug 11th 2010 6:15pm by Aadyn Litefoot
Case: Cooler Master CM 690 II http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119216
Motherboard: Asus P7P55D-E http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131634
Processor: Intel i5 Quad Core http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115067
Power supply: Antec 750 watt $89 after rebate http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371025
Ram: Corsair 4GB ram kit (got two for a total of 8gb) 2x 2GB $99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145251
Video Card: Nvidia 460 GTX http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130564
Optical drive: 22x LG SATA DVD RW $17 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136180
Hard drive: WD 320 GB SATA hard drive 7200 rpm $47 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16822136098
OS: windows 7 64 bit home premium http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116754
This PC should last me a good 4 years or more.
Again, thanks to everyone for their input.
Edited, Aug 11th 2010 6:15pm by Aadyn Litefoot
Nice! that should make a really decent gaming rig
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Aadyn Litefoot wrote:
Kao and everyone in here, thanks for your input, i just placed the order for the following..
Case: Cooler Master CM 690 II http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119216
Motherboard: Asus P7P55D-E http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131634
Processor: Intel i5 Quad Core http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115067
Power supply: Antec 750 watt $89 after rebate http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371025
Ram: Corsair 4GB ram kit (got two for a total of 8gb) 2x 2GB $99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145251
Video Card: Nvidia 460 GTX http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130564
Optical drive: 22x LG SATA DVD RW $17 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136180
Hard drive: WD 320 GB SATA hard drive 7200 rpm $47 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16822136098
OS: windows 7 64 bit home premium http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116754
This PC should last me a good 4 years or more.
Again, thanks to everyone for their input.
Edited, Aug 11th 2010 6:15pm by Aadyn Litefoot
Case: Cooler Master CM 690 II http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119216
Motherboard: Asus P7P55D-E http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131634
Processor: Intel i5 Quad Core http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115067
Power supply: Antec 750 watt $89 after rebate http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371025
Ram: Corsair 4GB ram kit (got two for a total of 8gb) 2x 2GB $99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145251
Video Card: Nvidia 460 GTX http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130564
Optical drive: 22x LG SATA DVD RW $17 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136180
Hard drive: WD 320 GB SATA hard drive 7200 rpm $47 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16822136098
OS: windows 7 64 bit home premium http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116754
This PC should last me a good 4 years or more.
Again, thanks to everyone for their input.
Edited, Aug 11th 2010 6:15pm by Aadyn Litefoot
You are going to kick yourself if you don't get the 1GB version of the GTX 460. I would even get less RAM in order to afford the 1GB version of the GPU.
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I could not get an answer on the other board so I will ask it here:
am thinking about buying a system so that I can enjoy FFXIV, and would like you guys opinion on this system for the price, or suggestion on a better system thats under 1k.
Best Buy has the Gateway FX FX6840 for 1200.00 but I can get it online for 870 is it a good PC for gaming, primarily for FFXIV. Specs below. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Gateway+-+Desktop+/+Intel%26%23174%3B+Core%26%23153%3B+i7+Processor+/+8GB+Memory+/+1TB+Hard+Drive/9974337.p?id=1218204534081&skuId=9974337
System Specs:
Intel® Core™ i7-860 processor
Features an 8MB L2 cache and 2.8GHz processor speed with Turbo Boost up to 3.46GHz.
8GB DDR3 memory
1TB SATA hard drive
ATI Radeon 5770 graphics
With 1GB discrete video memory
am thinking about buying a system so that I can enjoy FFXIV, and would like you guys opinion on this system for the price, or suggestion on a better system thats under 1k.
Best Buy has the Gateway FX FX6840 for 1200.00 but I can get it online for 870 is it a good PC for gaming, primarily for FFXIV. Specs below. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Gateway+-+Desktop+/+Intel%26%23174%3B+Core%26%23153%3B+i7+Processor+/+8GB+Memory+/+1TB+Hard+Drive/9974337.p?id=1218204534081&skuId=9974337
System Specs:
Intel® Core™ i7-860 processor
Features an 8MB L2 cache and 2.8GHz processor speed with Turbo Boost up to 3.46GHz.
8GB DDR3 memory
1TB SATA hard drive
ATI Radeon 5770 graphics
With 1GB discrete video memory
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