Making Computer maybe

[Stevin05]

My video card just shit a brick and I've been thinking about making a new comp anyway so, I spent a while on tigerdirect and found these. I compared all the prices with newegg and they were similar.

I mostly know what I'm doing but I don't know much about brand reputation or the current "good stuff" for gaming, so if anyone has advice about that, please go for it.

I'm looking to keep the price of these 4 parts under $600 and then just throw on a cheap hard drive/cd/case.

Motherboard (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5083733&CatId=4720)
CPU (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4959973&CatId=4729)
Vid Card (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5274432&CatId=3669)
Memory (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5082127&CatId=3361)

[Jonclani]

OK.

For the processor - you are spot on in the selection. Nearly as good performance as a $100 more i7, for gaming kicks the crap out of anything AMD currently has (unless you are the overclocking type where AMD overclocks better currently).

For the motherboard - Is there a particular reason for this selection? A feature it has that you need, brand loyalty, style? I wasnt even aware EVGA made motherboards, but in my experience, once you get above the jetways and foxconns to the real brands, most motherboards these days are created equal. You could score a biostar or even an ASUS with similar specs for about $50 less

For the video card - The GTS 250 is basically a 9800 - ie 2 generations old, and slower than ATIs previous generation. Unfortunately, the 4850s and 4870s arent on the shelves any more most places. If you can find on of them, it should be about the same price point. If you go with a cheaper motherboard, you could fit a Radeon 5770 into your budget. The 5700 series isnt going to knock your pants off (its actually the same speed as a 4870 really), but its faster than a GTS 250 for about $30 more, and gets you direct x 11 support, and better multi-monitor selection. Of course, if you want to save a bit, I have a couple 4870s in my computer that I want to upgrade to a 5870, and would sell one at a reasonable price ;) I'd rather run all 3 of my monitors off of one video card than two.

For Memory - $100 for 4 gigs of ddr3 from a name brand? Go for it.

[hohfeld]

Craig is the coolest person who knows about computers and what not in the world.

[Jonclani]

stfu post whore! get this irrelevant crap out of here! and it should be taken care of.

[Tirrex]

Jawm is never mean to me.

[Stevin05]

I went with the motherboard because my last comp with an ASUS one did a lot of bluescreening and marb talked about and ASUS board causing him a lot of problems. He recommended EVGA, but the cheaper EVGA didnt have a 16x PCI E slot for some reason. Knowing that they're all about the same I'll probably swap to a cheaper one.

Thanks for the video card info, I basically just went for a GeForce around my price range since all the WoW boxes come with tons of adds for it.

New Motherboard (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5082025&CatId=4720)
New Video Card (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Category/guidedSearch.asp?CatId=28&sel=Detail;55_158_35919_35919,Detail;229_176_48676 _48676,Detail;229_1236_53737_53737)
-Exact same card and price made by 3 brands, any recommendations? ASUS vs XFX vs Sapphire

[Ectemian]

Why Intel over AMD ?

[Elandrafrost]

Kevin, I have a Maxtor 80 GB, 7200 RPM, 8MB Cache Hard Drive, Ultra Series Brand new in box if you want it. I'll pay to ship it to you for an ingame service. Send me a PM here if you're interested about the service. No powerleveling or anything like that :P

[Stevin05]

Why Intel over AMD ?

for gaming kicks the crap out of anything AMD currently has

And no thanks on the midget cricket hard drive =p

[Elandrafrost]

I swear it's bigger than it looks! :(

[Ectemian]

Ill take your 2.66 turboboosted to 3.2 for $190 and raise you a AMD 3.4 standard for $185 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103692

[Nihmm]

www.pricewatch.com (http://www.pricewatch.com) (usually the lowest price after using this that I can find)

[Tirrex]

I swear it's bigger than it looks! :(

My 2004 tablet PC has a 80gb HD, and yes its bigger than it looks if you use it only for school lol

Btw, what was the in game service you were goint to ask?

[Jonclani]

Ill take your 2.66 turboboosted to 3.2 for $190 and raise you a AMD 3.4 standard for $185 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103692

Ok, I hadnt realize'd the Black Editions had come down that much. When they launched, they were substantially more expensive than the standard Phenoms.

At the same time, for gaming, the Core i5 750 performs as well or better in most games. A couple tests are http://www.techspot.com/review/193-intel-core-i5-750/page9.html
And
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3641&p=7

Don't get me wrong, I'm a big AMD fan, and haven't built myself an Intel machine since the Pentium II days. Ubtil about 2 months ago, I wouldnt recommend Intel to anyone on a budget, but the new Lynnfield i5s pack quite a punch for the buck.

As for the video cards, I would go with either the XFX or Sapphire personally, just because before AMD bought ATI, Sapphire was their reference board manufacturer, and because the XFX cooler covers the entire card, but that being said, at the same price there really is no wrong answer.

[Elandrafrost]

My 2004 tablet PC has a 80gb HD, and yes its bigger than it looks if you use it only for school lol

Btw, what was the in game service you were goint to ask?

If he was interested my asking price woulda been a server xfer of one of my toons. So pretty much just 25 bucks.

[Ectemian]

Another perspective on cpu's

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-gaming-cpu,2466.html

tomshardware also has quite a few interesting articles on intel vs AMD etc..

[Stevin05]

I had already asked for a new hard drive for Christmas since mine was full, so now it's just going into the new one instead of old busted.

[Jonclani]

Another perspective on cpu's

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-gaming-cpu,2466.html

tomshardware also has quite a few interesting articles on intel vs AMD etc..

I always skip toms, because on their previous website design, it was seriously the slowest website to load ever, I just got out of the habit of checking. That being said, even that article states the i5 is faster, unless you are a tweaker. Which I'm fairly certain Shtevin is not (based on the thread asking for ideas)

[Tirrex]

Tigerdirect just threw a popup on my face, so dont buy from them!

[Stevin05]

But my stuff just got shipped...