$500 Gaming: Update

[230G]

 I ordered and assembled my system. It is as follows:

Rosewill Smart One ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Rosewill Green Series RG700-S12 700W Power Supply

GIGABYTE GA-EP43T-UD3L LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard

Intel Core2 Duo E7500 Wolfdale 2.93GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory

XFX GeForce GTS 250 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

LG 22X DVD Burner - Bulk Black SATA Model GH22LS50 LightScribe

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium

TOTAL after rebates 7 shipping: $667.46


Easy to assemble and the system is awesome. I'm running 1600 x 1200 and 1024 Textures and FR's stay at 60 99.9% of the time. Last night during a furball over a base, I deliberately flew through the flames/smoke of a burning hangar and FR's dipped to 49 for maybe a nanosecond. I'm sure there's some tweaking I could do in the bios are to the vid card, but I figure if it ain't broke....


  thanks to everyone for their advice.

  230G

[guncrasher]

dang it, pictues, post lots of pretty pictures, we wont believe anything till you post pictures of your pc  .


semp

[Tigger29]

Pretty similar to what I have except

• My processor is a tad slower (E7400 2.8GHz but overclocked to 3.0GHz with no issues)
• My hard drive is a bit faster (160GB WD Velociraptor 10k rpm but also have a second 320GB drive for data)
• My memory is a bit slower  (DDR3 but only DDR1066)
• My video card is a bit better (ATI 5830 which replaced a Nvidia 9800GTX+ which is close to the same as the 250GTS you got)
• Also running Win7HP 64bit (Got an upgrade three pack from Amazon last Christmas for $149!)

I wish I had held out for a 5850 video card as while it's nice, the 5830 didn't quite 'wow' me as much as I had hoped, but it's still a big improvement over my 9800GTX+, but that card runs Sims3 quite nice in my G/F's box.  I have to say, it's a nice system.  I'm sure yours is too.

As far as price, it's hard to say how much total I have in it, as I worked on it a bit at a time but let me try:

• $75 for the Motherboard (ASRock G43Twins-FullHD)
• $220 for the Video Card (HIS ATI 5830 1GB)
• $50 for the Case (NZXT BETA EVO)
• $110 for the Power Supply (Corsair 650HX - rebadged Seasonic)
• $54 for the Memory (Crucial 2X2GB DDR3 1066 Dual channel)
• $120 for the Processor (E7400 2.8GHZ)
• $26 for the Optical Drive (Samsung DVD Burner)
• $130 for the Hard Drive (160GB WD Velociraptor 10,000 RPM)
• $50 for the O/S (Win7HP 64 bit.. one of three of three-pack I got for $150)
• $50 for Fans, HDMI Cable, etc.
• $8 for the Monitor (Remanufactured HP w2408 24" Widescreen LCD - "Famous Maker" brand)

This adds up to about $893 and I've gotten about $140 in rebates so the whole thing came in at just about $750.  Like I said, this is what is in it now.  I upgraded some components which were 'recycled' into my G/F's system, and a system I built for her dad.  My dad's system is all new (finally).  An old Motherboard I had that I put in his system once when I upgraded finally junked out on him.  His latest build was DIRT CHEAP using the cheapest stuff I could find, but it's been working great for him for almost two years now, and the most gaming he does is playing Pogo, or FARKLE on facebook.  He was all excited to be getting a 'new' system that wasn't being built with second hand parts! haha But he used to LOVE when I upgraded, because it meant he got upgraded too!

My only concern about your build is you mentioned 1600X1200.. are you still using a CRT???

[Noir]

You'd get a better bang for the buck with AMD/ATi instead of Intel/NVIDIA in that price range IMO

[230G]

You'd get a better bang for the buck with AMD/ATi instead of Intel/NVIDIA in that price range IMO

  True...but when I first solicited advice here on building a system, Krusty himself said 'though an AMD would work, that with an Intel processor, there were NO issues at all...period. So I figured for a few extra bucks, I'd go Intel. I'm glad I did.
   230G