~1500 New Build

G

Gongo

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 2, 2004
Messages
305
Hi all, Thanks in advance for the help. The last time I built a computer was.. well let's just say HT had just hit the market and Dual core was just coming up. Are we up to quad now? anyone see a resembalance to razor blades? (I think i'm using a 10 blade razor right now when I remember just starting on 2)

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
I will be gaming such as SC2, WOW, and a little bit of FPS. I will also be using this to web browse, watch HD movies and log into work to do extensive excel modeling

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
budget is ~1500 +/- 150 for parts only

3) Where do you live?
I live in Houston so access to many things.

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
I need CPU, Mobo, Ram, Graphics Card, PSU, sound card, upgraded fan for cpu, blue ray player/CD burner

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
I have a full tower case but thinking of getting a midtower, keyboard, mouse, I also have 2x 1 TB external WD HDDs I use for back up storage


6) Will you be overclocking?
Will not be OC'ing

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
So I plan on running 2x 22" widescreen monitors.. but have been thinking 3x 22" widescreen monitors would be more awesome - MONITORS NOT INCLUDED IN 1500 COST (any rec on monitors would be great too)

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
within a month

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
SLI/Crossfire is very tempting.. maybe necessary to run 3 monitors anyways?

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? 32bit or 64bit?

I have a legit Win 7 32 bit... can upgrade to 64bit if it'll be an improvement


So 1 more thing... I currently do not own a standalone blue ray player for my 56" lcd TV. I would like the option to run a HDMI corde from my vid card to my TV as well as optical sound to my speakers to watch movies with friends.

Thanks again
 
Last edited:
Overkill in terms of CPU power and RAM but takes advantage of your budget:
$480 - Intel Core i7-930 CPU + Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R X58 ATX Motherboard Combo
$165 - G.Skill F3-12800CL9T-6GBNQ 3 x 2GB DDR3 1600 RAM
$320 - Gigabyte GV-R585D5-1GD-B Radeon HD 5850 1GB PCI-E Video Card
$220 - Intel SSDSA2M080G2XXX 2.5" 80GB SSD
$105 - LG UH10LS20 BD-ROM and DVD Burner
$120 - Antec Truepower New TP750 Blue 750W PSU
-------
Total: $1410 plus tax and shipping.

Definitely upgrade to Windows 7 64bit to use all 6GB of RAM.

The above setup, as mentioned earlier, is a tad overkill for the games you've mentioned. Here's a more reasonable build:
$238 - AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition CPU + GIGABYTE GA-770TA-UD3 AM3 AMD 770 Motherboard combo
$105 - G.Skill Ripjaw Series F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL 2 x 2GB DDR3 1600 RAM
$320 - Gigabyte GV-R585D5-1GD-B Radeon HD 5850 1GB PCI-E Video Card
$220 - Intel SSDSA2M080G2XXX 2.5" 80GB SSD
$105 - LG UH10LS20 BD-ROM and DVD Burner
$120 - Antec Truepower New TP750 Blue 750W PSU
---
Total: $1,108 plus tax and shipping.

Similar performance in games but $300 less. Now what to do with that $300 is dependent on the following questions:
Will you actually get a 3rd monitor? If so, will that monitor have a display port? If you do get a 3rd 22" monitor with a display port, definitely up the video card to the HD 5870 and run Eyefinity. for some high resolution action :)

Don't bother upgrading to the HD 5870 for just two 22" monitors though.

Here's a list of cases to choose from:
$50 - Cooler Master Elite 335 RC-335-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$50 - Thermaltake WingRS 201 VJ60001N2Z ATX Case
$55 - Antec 300 ATX Case
$70 - Cooler Master RC-590-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$80 - Cooler Master RC-690-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$90 - Cooler Master HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$100 - Lian Li PC-7B Plus II ATX Case
$100 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K7B ATX Case
$110 - Lian Li PC-E8B ATX Case
$120 - Lian Li PC-7FN ATX Case
$120 - Thermaltake ElementS VK60001N2Z ATX Case
$130 - Cooler Master Storm Sniper ATX Case
$150 - Antec P183 ATX Case
$160 - Cooler Master HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$170 - Cooler Master Cosmos S 1000 RC-1100-KSN1-GP Full Tower ATX Case
$180 - Cooler Master ATCS 840 RC-840-KKN1-GP Full Tower ATX Case
$180 - Lian Li PC-B25F ATX Case
$210 - Silverstone FT01-B ATX Case
$240 - Lian Li PC-V1200A Plus II ATX Case
$300 - Corsair Obsidian Series 800D CC800DW Full Tower ATX Case
$330 - Silverstone Temjin SST-TJ07B Full Tower ATX Case
 
Also get a standalone Blu-ray player for the tv, pc playback of blu ray is not worth the extra cost and headache.
 
how does 3 monitors work with vid cards now? If it has 2x dvi ports and an HDMI port.. do you link through all 3?

And for the connection to my TV.. i was thinking of also being able to play back HQ streaming and dl'd movies, shows etc..
 
The video card drivers have the tools you'll need to manage multi-monitor configurations, though there is also shareware software capable of that task. For best results, you need to buy a video card that supports ATI's Eyefinity (or whatever Nvidia calls its equivalent).

IIRC, only the video card's HDMI port provides both HD video and HD multichannel audio. The DVI ports only support HD video.
 
Danny, does Display Port support audio and video, like the HDMI port does?
 
audio and video? do people actually run audio through their monitors now?
 
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