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Geek Culture / The search for low cost gaming rigs

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AutoBot
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Posted: 26th Feb 2011 18:28 Edited at: 26th Feb 2011 18:33
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I'm going to put together a thread that essentially consists of me going throughout TigerDirect, NewEgg, Amazon, etc. to find good deals on computer hardware. Heck, anyone can post their findings here too, or I will at the least. There's gotta be someone to make use of a hardware repository thread like this, right?

Some barebones kits a friend of mine emailed me:

ASUS M4A785-M PowerUp Barebones Kit

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7277057&Sku=ECSBareboneKitcm_re=Homepage-_-Spot%2001-_-CatId_31_ECSBareboneKit

Don't ask me why the href isn't working on the second link.


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PAGAN_old
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Posted: 26th Feb 2011 18:53
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if youre looking for a low cost gaming rig, AMD+ATI is a great combination. Dont bother buying fancy high latency ram either. standard Kingstons will do fine.

to save money you can always, buy parts yourself, and buid a computer

also be careful about the low cost because low cost means low quality.

stay away from elite group (esc) motherboards! they are low quality and will break.

MSI are the cheapest good quality motherboards, i was never disapointed by msi Asus and gigabyte boards are also among the best but they might be a bit pricey.

I would reccomend not cheaping out on the PSU. Id buy a corsair, they are the best quality. but other big name brands are ok too. small PSU brands selling cheap PSUs is not a good idea to buy. If you dont have enough money you can buy a basic config, with i dvd drive, 1 hdd, 2 gigs of ram, You can upgrade it later when you save up more. But id reccoment getting a good mobo, cpu and videocards (and psu) from the start, because upgrading/replacing those, you will loose money in the long run, the rest you can just buy later

dont hate people who rip you off,cheat and get away with it, learn from them
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AutoBot
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Posted: 5th Mar 2011 20:47
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Alright pagan, I'll think about that when looking around.

Currently I've found a pretty sweet case, 6 HDD space, fans for each, full tower, etc. $750!!!!

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5550536

I might take a look at some motherboards next. Oh, by the way, I found a pretty sweet full rig as well:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-Amstrad-PC1512-DD-Hard-Drive-and-Keyboard-/150561266423?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item230e269af7

It's only $50!


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Benjamin
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Posted: 5th Mar 2011 20:52
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Quote: "Currently I've found a pretty sweet case, 6 HDD space, fans for each, full tower, etc. $750!!!!"


I'd hardly call that 'low-cost'.



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charger bandit
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Posted: 5th Mar 2011 20:53
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My god 750 bucks for a case??!!! No thanks. Just buy a standard case.

I am pretty sure the second one is a joke,seriously a PC with tape player for gaming?


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AutoBot
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Posted: 5th Mar 2011 21:23 Edited at: 5th Mar 2011 21:40
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Quote: "I am pretty sure the second one is a joke"

Exactly

This case doesn't look too bad, has USB 3 support:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6526236&csid=_25

(HDD dock is awesome)

AMD Vision Barebones kit:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/sectors/campaigns/include/amd_visionBarebone.asp

As for a CPU, I'm not sure if I should go all for this:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7023169&Sku=A79-1100

Or this:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7026019&Sku=A79-1920

How much of a noticable difference is there between the two?


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Master Man Of Justice
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Posted: 6th Mar 2011 02:38 Edited at: 6th Mar 2011 02:41
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How exactly does a case give you USB 3 support???

Im pretty sure its the motherboard that does that.

Also, i had an old case that i shoved everything into and put some old fans in it, bought my new rig for around the price of your case, it runs everything thats out there now.

So im calling for a change of this threads name.

[edit]

This was the order and it was $709

1 x AMD Gift - Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 Coupon
1 x GIGABYTE GA-790FXTA-UD5 AM3 AMD 790FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
1 x HIS H465PS1GH Radeon HD 4650 1GB 128-bit DDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
1 x APEVIA ATX-AQ700W-BK 700W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Power Supply
1 x AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ965FBGMBOX
1 x G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3750528AS 750GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
1 x 1 Year Service Net Replacement Extended Warranty Plan For Item# N82E16817148040

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AutoBot
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Posted: 6th Mar 2011 02:42 Edited at: 6th Mar 2011 02:49
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Quote: "So im calling for a change of this threads name."

I'm just putting things together here right now, don't expect it all to be perfect. I'll try to look for a lower cost case later.

Quote: "How exactly does a case give you USB 3 support???"


"Built-in with blazing fast USB 3.0 SuperSpeed connector on the top front of chassis for easy access"
It's probably just a connector that plugs into the mobos SATA or something, I'm not quite sure how it works.


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charger bandit
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Posted: 6th Mar 2011 08:48
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You can't have USB 3.0 without a mobo that supports that.

You should go for something like this:

-any decent ASUS mobo
-AMD Phenom X4 (you can add those 20 bucks and get X6)
-4gb RAM DDR3
-Geforce GTX460

The rest is your choice.


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PAGAN_old
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Posted: 6th Mar 2011 15:34
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Quote: "I am pretty sure the second one is a joke,seriously a PC with tape player for gaming?"


Oh Come ON guys, Id totally buy that and build a gaming rig in it. My current gaming PC has a tape drive! and my other gaming PC is inside a 1989 server with a 3" floppy drive! i find this kind of stuff cool

dont hate people who rip you off,cheat and get away with it, learn from them
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charger bandit
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Posted: 6th Mar 2011 15:44
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Yeah well I also have a retro pc at home which I play games on sometimes,but this is a thread about buying a gaming rig,not some modding


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Posted: 6th Mar 2011 16:07 Edited at: 6th Mar 2011 16:08
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Quote: "i find this kind of stuff cool"

Haha, me too. In fact I'm currently expanding a partition on a fairly old PC, Xeon 2 GHz CPU, 2 GB RAM. I guess you couldn't consider it too old, but it has a GPU that can play some older games, and the OS is XP. I do actually have an old 95 machine too, 150 MHz, 256 MB RAM, etc. Hasn't there been a SNES that was modded to run Vista? (probably just a PC with SNES case) It has SNES controller support, though, which makes it fairly convincing.

At the moment my question is, would it be worth it to get a Phenom x6, or to stick with an x4?


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crispex
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Posted: 6th Mar 2011 16:33 Edited at: 6th Mar 2011 16:34
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I would go with an Antec 900 or Antec 300 case, basic, cheap, but gives you PLENTY of space to upgrade. Go with a solid ASUS motherboard, as I personally love ASUS and I've never had any issues with them, but that's your call. Go with an AMD Phenom II X6 3.2 GHz, expensive, but not as expensive as investing in an Intel chip with less power. I'd say get at LEAST an ATI Radeon HD 5450. I have one, it's not the top of the line, but I can run Crysis on Medium with some settings on High, and I can run Modern Warfare 2 and Black Ops on high. Go with about 4gb RAM, anymore is really unnecessary at the moment in my opinion. Get at least a 500 watt PSU, just to be on the safe side settle for 550 or 600, you'll need more if you plan to run SLI or Crossfire. Go with at least a 500gb hard drive. As said above, don't go too cheap because then you end up with bad hardware that breaks a year or so in.

As for your question, a 4x would be enough to handle every task you can throw at a PC, but to future-proof your rig for the next few years, go with an x6. I'm still running on a duel core, and I have no issues, so it really depends on your budget.

I just now realized I've had a typo in my signature for the past 3 years.
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AutoBot
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Posted: 6th Mar 2011 16:49
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Alright, good tips there. I think that an x6 is probably essential all the way, but an x4 is probably better for a "low cost". I suppose it's only a $100 difference, though.


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The Wilderbeast
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Posted: 6th Mar 2011 18:11
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Don't get an X66 unless you're doing some serious coding, there's nothing else that takes full advantage of all six cores. And if you do want to go for an X6, buy an X4 and unlock the extra 2 cores.


Blitzwerks | Indie Development Team
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puppyofkosh
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Posted: 6th Mar 2011 18:15
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I'd go with an x4 and put the money towards a better graphics card.

Quote: " I'd say get at LEAST an ATI Radeon HD 5450. I have one, it's not the top of the line, but I can run Crysis on Medium with some settings on High, and I can run Modern Warfare 2 and Black Ops on high."


At what res?
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That Guy John
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Posted: 6th Mar 2011 18:33
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Check out MaximumPC , they have had a few issues discussing budget builds. One or two (that I remember) actually had comparable benchmarks to higher end builds.
You can download their archived issues from here.
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crispex
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Posted: 6th Mar 2011 18:59
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Quote: "At what res?"


1440x900. I generally dislike monitors bigger than that, it just seems TOO big for me.

Anyway, as said, I don't see why you need 6 cores, but if you want to, sure.

I just now realized I've had a typo in my signature for the past 3 years.
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AutoBot
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Posted: 3rd Apr 2011 18:08
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Heh, almost forgot about this thread.
I've had cooling on the mind lately. Between water cooling and normal cooling, which one would be better/more worth it for a moderate gaming rig?


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Indicium
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Posted: 3rd Apr 2011 18:32
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I'd be scared to assemble water cooling myself, imagine if it leaked and your £100 graphics card got ruined , and getting it done professionally would probably cost a lot.

So my opinion is air cooling. I think it's cheaper too.
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The Wilderbeast
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Posted: 3rd Apr 2011 19:16
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Take a look at some standalone water cooling options. Corsair's H50/70 is brilliant, I got one for a friend and his hexacore is idling at 22C. It's a closed-system which means that it's completely isolated from everything else, so it only cools your CPU - but the radiator also doubles as the 120mm exhaust fan - it's well worth the £30 I paid for it!


Blitzwerks | Indie Development Team
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