So i'm building a new comp.

[Darksider]

So my desktop is about five years old, and some of the parts are starting to show their age. I've already had one of my hard drives fail on me, and one ff the fans no longer works. I've decided that it's time to build a new computer, but unfortunately, I haven't really kept up with the latest hardware in this regards. I used to have friends who kept up with that kind of stuff, but they've all lost interest. I've budgeted around 700-1000$ dollars (note: 1000$ is the EXTREME HIGHEST i'm willing to go) to build the rig, and would like to know what some good parts might be for that budget. I'm not looking for the absolute best performance wise, but I want something decent that'll be able to run games at decent settings for the next couple of years or so.

Can any of you guys give me some advice?

[Eternal_Freedom]

Definitely dont skimp on the motherboard. If you have a good MB and mediocre other parts, it's easy to upgrade later. The reverse is not true. Other vital parts are the PSU and CPU. Having those three be good at the expense of other components is IMHO the best way to go (and the way I went with the two build's I've done).

[Rabid]

[Disclaimer : I'm NOT an expert, and I'm speaking out of my ass here]


Dumb question, but do you have access to a 64-bit OS ? 'Cuz if you are restricted to a 32-bit OS, in Windows' case you will be limited to 3 GB of RAM, and your fancy 64-bit CPU will only give you half its performances - waste'o'money, ya dig ?


Anyway, to give you an indication, as I don't know the latest hardware & current prices, I'll tell you what I have. It cost me ~€950 when I bought it a year and a half ago, and you can certainly downgrade several components without problem, as this configuration let me run the latest games at max detail level at 1360*768 without lag ("Batman : Arkham Asylum" benchmark at max specs : lowest 31 FPS, highest 60+ FPS, average 55 FPS).


- Motherboard : Asus P6T Deluxe V2
- PSU : Corsair modular PSU @ 1000 Watts (you can without any problem downgrade to 650 Watts or even 550 Watts with this config)
- CPU : i7 930 (4 cores @ 2.6 GHz & 64-bit). With the native hyper-threading, this gives you EIGHT logical cores - that's a total overkill. Maybe an i5 (or the corresponding thing in AMD's product range) could still adequately serve you for a lower price ?
- RAM : 6 GB DDR3 @ 1600 MHz
- GPU : Nvidia GTX 285 (2 GPU & 1GB DDR5 RAM)
- HDD : 1 TB, 7200 RPM & 64 Mb cache (you can downgrade to a 32 MB cache without problem IMO)


A word on my config : I built it with the goal of keeping it for 5 years (2010-2015). At ~€950, that's less than €200 per year. I have also budgeted €500 for exceptional upgrades (I've already upgraded the HDD).

For equal performances, the CPU & GPU prices might be lower now than then, but in the other hand HDD prices have skyrocketed since the floods in Thailand (the 2 TB HDD I bought the other day cost me €220... [admittedly it was a high-performance HDD, but the point still hold]).


If your current case is still good and big enough to comfortably fit-in today's ludicrously HUEG graphic cards, see if you can re-use it - at least that's something you won't have to spend money on.

[Darksider]

I don't want to re-use my case, since it has a couple of broken fans, but Cases don't really look that expensive. A few weeks of not eating lunch at school and i'll have the cash saved up. The other stuff on the other hand....

Damn. This is starting to sound way more expensive than I thought. I might have to wait until summer to save up some more money, or do like Freedom says and get lower grade parts and upgrade when I can save the money.

[Dominus Atheos]

I don't want to re-use my case, since it has a couple of broken fans, but Cases don't really look that expensive. A few weeks of not eating lunch at school and i'll have the cash saved up. The other stuff on the other hand....

Damn. This is starting to sound way more expensive than I thought. I might have to wait until summer to save up some more money, or do like Freedom says and get lower grade parts and upgrade when I can save the money.

Rabid doesn't have any idea what he is talking about, don't listen to a word he says. You can easily make a kick-ass gaming rig for well under $1000.

[The Vortex Empire]

Yeah, I made mine for $800 last summer, and it runs pretty much everything at max or nearly max settings. I've got Skyrim running near max with HD texture packs and such, and I have no framerate issues or anything.

[Rabid]

Yeah, like DA said, I don't really know a thing about hardware prices and things like that. I even said it at the top of my previous post.

But, you know, DA, this was exactly the thing I was telling him by giving him the example of my own computer : it cost me less than €1000 and it's already overkill, so it shows there a real margin here to build a good comp for far less than that.


TL;DR : Anyone who recommend you to spend more than $1000 to build a "decent" comp shouldn't be trusted.



PS : DS, you should ask yourself what is "good enough" for you, in term of performances.

[Darksider]

I'm not a gigantic graphics freak if that's what you're asking. I don't mind running games at even their lowest setting, which I kind of have to do right now 'cause my rig is so old. My biggest problem right now is running Starcraft II, DOW II, and Star Wars: The Old Republic. I have to run all of them at minimum settings, and i'd like to run them at mid-range settings. TOR is especially problematic because it keeps freezing my computer. I don't know if this is a hardware issue or just my connection being shitty though.

All in all, I like to play games on the Comp, but I don't really care about running them at max settings. The "Medium" preset is easily good enough for me on most games.

EDIT: From what I've been looking at with regards to the latest hardware, i'm looking for something with performance capabilities similar to this, except i'm going to build it so it's less expensive.

EDIT THE SECOND: Also, I want a larger tower and decent mobo so I have room to upgrade.

[Dominus Atheos]

But, you know, DA, this was exactly the thing I was telling him by giving him the example of my own computer : it cost me less than €1000 and it's already overkill, so it shows there a real margin here to build a good comp for far less than that.

€1000 is equal to 1319.8 USD. I admit I thought it was closer to $1500, but the point still stands. Here's a fantastic build that is about $400 USD less then €1000 EUR:

[Eternal_Freedom]

I heartily recommend that i5-2500. It's an excellent processor for the cost, or at least it was when I built my parent's a computer.