gout33

Hey Folks,

I'm looking to put a nice gaming desktop together around Christmas time. My budget is between $1000-$1300. I'm really interested in hearing what everyone here recommends. I have always been an AMD guy, however, after doing some research it appears that Intel is the way to go now.

If it helps, I'm pretty much a "Blizzard" gamer. Currently play WoW and will switch to Diablo III when that comes out. I'm looking for a machine that will last me a long time with high performance. I will be using a dual-monitor setup and I have my secondary monitor already. So, I will need to purchase another monitor (probably looking for around 21-24").

I'm very excited to build this PC and I really appreciate any feedback you guys can give me. I'm looking forward to discussing what you guys think will give me the best performance for the money. I'll be checking this thread often if you guys have any questions!

Cheers,
Gout

wrench97

What country are you shopping in?

gout33

United States.

Also to note. I don't need to include Mouse, Keyboard, OS, DVD drive into the price as I already have them.

I might be interested in the new Intel I7 CPU's if anyone has insight on them I'd appreciate it.

wrench97

i7 means a X58 motherboard brand new this week and $375-$465 plus Trichannel DDR3 Ram
Yes 3 DDR3 ram sticks, the i7 2.66 is $309, $590 for 2.93Gig Everything I've seen says not a vast improvement of current hardware, I would give it at least a couple of months until the bugs get worked out of it.

wrench97

Have a look over this the case may or may not fit your tastes and can be easily changed to a different one
Link........................................................................................ Discp. Cost Rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115036 E8500 $188.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2KIT25664AA80A DDR2 800 $82.99 30.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128359 GA EP45 UD3R $119.99 15.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148335 Seagate 640 $79.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827106100 CD/DVD Burner $22.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16832116485 Vista HP 32 $99.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130400 GTX260 $299.00 20.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139006 750tx $119.99 20.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811133062 Case $129.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835100007 AS 5 $5.99

$1,149.91 $85.00
Total $1,064.91

hamishgillan

nice^^^^^^

hamishgillan

but what about the E8600 cpu wolfdale @3.3 ghz (?)

hamishgillan

and is that gigabyte mobo with the new 'marvell' SATA controller, i heard that can be advantageous, See what wrench says.....

Mcninjaguy

with that system (i just bought a GTX 260) you can run crysis on almost the highest settings
plus you can easily overclock the CPu to around 4ghz

hamishgillan

no offence to those who know more than i do but

i was in your position a few months ago and bought some 'up to date' components but computer technology is improving so fast that no specifications will last for ever, so my advice is to strike a balance between quality and price,

i suppose a big case is a good investment so in the future you can add to your system - but there are nice standard cases such as a coolermaster centurion

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119152

where you could save about 100 bucks, looking at that 750tx power supply, the cables look pretty slim so they won't crowd the inside of the case too much, especially if you only have 1 VGA card

frankly you could probably cut corners on the VGA card you buy too, cos in only a few months whatever you buy will be old hat.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130416

you could save here-

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136218

hamishgillan

consider this too

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...5054&Tpk=E8600

Nferi0r

I would take a look at the ATI 4870 over the 260 from Nvidia. I do not have the charts (would appreciate of someone could post the VGA charts) but they put the 4870 competing with the 280 in performance, and even winning in some cases. Also, it is cheaper than the 260. The only game that I can see that you would do worse in is Crysis, and that is because they optimize the game for Nvidia, but the 4870 still is a good choice to play that game.

Also, since you play Blizzard games, you won't have any trouble running any of your games with either card. Blizzard games tend to have lower requirements for computers, which is why they are one of the best, if not the best, computer gaming company in the world.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814129113

One thing to note: the 4870 has one issue, and that is that it has a pretty bad built-in fan. It won't be a problem if you get a case with good cooling, but if you need to, you can get a decent aftermarket cooler for about $45 or so. I do not know much about aftermaket coolers, however, so somebody else will have to post on that.

wrench97

EVGA GTX260 Lifetime Warranty
ATI HD4870 Best I've seen is 1 year
Is the small performance gain worth it??

hamishgillan

i reckon the monitor is one of the most important parts of a setup at the other end of the spectrum from the PSU, because its what you end up looking at and if the image isnt clear its hard on the eyes and disappointing.

so be careful what you buy, see it in action first, the thing im going to look out for next time i buy is that there is no blurring between the letters, the 'L's for instance, i have to sony screens an hp screen and a sharp one and the sony screen clarity are in a class of their own though sony dont make cheap monitors mabye you can get away with one of these- which i'm going to look at soon myself for your comp/ other stuff too-

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...nnorswebguidec

but apparently it wont stand upright which may be a drawback.

im also going to check this one out as im getting sick of having a 22' monitor 2 FT away-

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...nnorswebguidec

its all very well bragging about playing on a massive screen but if you have a 30 inch monitor on your desk you will have to be at least 1 meter away from you to see it properly!

wayliff

The ATI4870 shown in the link is made by visiontek and it has a lifetime warranty too.

Not to contradict - i just wanted to point it out.

wrench97

Good to see that has changed ATI cards used to be a year maybe some of the other manufacturers will follow Visiontek