With a thousand bucks in the budget, I am strongly considering finally building a gaming rig. It's been a long time since I've kept up with the latest hardware trends, so the past few days of research have, at times, been a little overwhelming. This is what I've assembled together:

1. Case: Apevia X-cruiser $70. A nice-looking case that's reported to be fairly roomy with good air flow (top, side, back, and front fans). Has three fun gauges on the front that display heat, fan speed, and volume.

2. Power Supply: Corsair 650W $100. A lot of power on just one +12V rail, sleeved cabling, and an excellent 80% efficiency.

3. Motherboard: Asus P5Q Pro $130. Researching video cards, processors, power supplies, it gets a little exhausting, and by the time I got to deciding on a motherboard I was spent. I am unsure what I should look for in a motherboard based on my needs. I did select this one for its CrossFire capability should I decide in the future to add another Radeon. On NewEgg, there is an Open Box option $50 cheaper, but I'm not sure if that'd be a wise purchase. What are the risks with Open Box purchases? There must be something to be concerned about with such a massive price reduction. I could also go for the top-of-the-line Rampage Formula, which is normally $290, but an Open Box is available at only $150, a mere $20 more than the unopened Asus Pro. But would that just be overkill for someone like me? I am also unsure about what boards/manufactures are best, such as Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, Biostar, and others. Anyone have a better grasp on the mobo scene?

4. CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 $185. A nice 8MB L2 Cache, which according to what I've researched is very important when gaming. I had also been looking at the AMD Phenom 9950 Black Edition Quad-Core, but from what I read it doesn't perform as well as Intel's Core 2 line. The new Intel i7-920 looked interesting, too, but at only 256KB L2 Cache per core it seems gaming would take a hit.

5. Hard Drive: 300GB Raptor 10,000RPM $230. I was considering a RAID-1 solution with standard HDs for both performance and data security, but am unsure how it would compare to the Raptor in gains. I could also go dual 74GB Raptors on RAID-0 for roughly the same price as the 300GB. What is involved with setting up a RAID? That ignorance is what shifted my attention to the simpler one-fast-drive solution.

6. RAM: 4GB (2 x 2GB) PC-6400 $40. Not the highest quality RAM, but very affordable. From what I read, higher speed RAM is really only important with faster CPUs, otherwise the speed is partially wasted.

7. Video Card: Radeon HD 4870 512MB $200. Apparently, this card kicks ass. Reviews I've read with it against the GeForce 260 GTX are a bit of a rollercoaster depending on the game and resolution. Both cards come pretty close in performance and price, but the GeForce is larger and draws more power at full load. The Radeon is smaller but burns hotter, and uses less power at full load but more power at idle. I figure heat can be easily solved with various cooling solutions, but size cannot change and the larger power draw of the GeForce would mean I might need a more expensive power supply to feed it.

8. Optical Drive: LG 22x DVD+-R Burner $25. Something simple. I actually haven't burned a CD or DVD in years due to the prevalence of thumb drives and the handiness of my external hard drive.

Subtotal: $980
Shipping: $25
Total: $1,005

Mail-In Rebates: $85
Final Cost: $920

So, I'm not yet certain about the motherboard or hard drive, and I do not know if I should also pursue a cooling system. I don't plan to overclock, but I do have some hot hardware. I'd like the most bang for my buck, as this is far from an ultimate gaming rig with only a $1,000 budget. I am also concerned about synergy, and the possibility of losing performance due to less-than-optimal part combinations.

Aside from my questions, what do you think of the components? Any suggestions?

Ditch the case, buy a heat exchange, an aquarium, and a lot of mineral oil, and build a submersion cooled rig. The do the rest, and overclock the every-loving shit out of it.

Is that practical?

As far as motherboards, I love Gigabyte. I believe I heard ASUS is quite great as well. I would avoid MSI, but that is because my MSI video card is a bit screwed in a couple of ways.

$230 seems to be excessive for such a small harddrive, regardless of how good it's supposed to be. I think you'd get better performance out of a RAID and it would be cheaper. You'd need 4 disks for performance + security. Two for either one of the two. However, you'd lose everything if either harddrive dies if you go for just performance. It might be worthwhile if it's purely a gaming machine or you backup essential stuff every once in awhile. I might be wrong here. Also, I have an extreme hate for western digital from the early years. Seagate / Maxtor all the way ;o

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Dec 28 2008, 1:52 pm by isolatedpurity.

This.

I'm betting that if you cooled it like that, you could almost get 4 Ghz out of each processor, the computer would be crazy fast, and heck, you could have the cooling system also work on your videocard and overclock that as well

Syphon or Falk... show us your respective aquarium computers .

Although, I would switch for a Duo, they overclock a lot better than the Quad cores do, and just work better at gaming, since most games don't use multithreading. Even if you don't overclock it, I would get a Duo.

1. Case: Antec 900 $110. Classier than the previous case I was looking at, as well as superior airflow. This seems to be a very popular case as of late.

2. Power Supply: Corsair 650W $100. Same, as even though it provides more power than I probably need, it's an excellent PSU that I can always reuse and have the option to expand.

3. Motherboard: Asus P5Q Pro $130. Same.

4. CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 (3.0GHz) $160. Dropped the quad for a duo with a higher frequency, which is ideal for a lot of current games. Apparently, this is also a good overclock chip.

5. Hard Drive: 640GB WD Caviar $75. A good price per gigabyte. A few people have recommended Western Digital.

6. RAM: 4GB (2 x 2GB) PC-6400 $40. Same, though it's a shame XP won't recognize all of it.

7. Video Card: Radeon HD 4870 1GB $240. Only $40 more for double the memory. Why pass it up?

8. Optical Drive: LG 22x DVD+-R Burner $25. Same.

9. Cooling: AC Freezer 7 Pro $27. Effective and very affordable CPU cooling.

Subtotal: $907
Shipping: $42
Total: $950

Mail-In Rebates: $50
Final Cost: $900

I'm happy with the case, power supply, CPU, RAM, and video card. I've got a little extra left over in my budget, which I could use toward better cooling or a better motherboard. Hm...

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Dec 29 2008, 7:08 am by Hercanic. Reason: Wrong link for VGA

wait wouldn't mineral oil make a bad heat dissipation thing? and your computer would eventually overheat? (cause i dont think a heat exchanger would be good enough?)
(BUT IT LOOKS SO COOL )

Make sure you order some Arctic MX-2 thermal compound. The stock paste on the A7FP is shit, I'd know, I have one. I have an E2140 with an A7FP and MX-2 compound running at 3.2GHz, that's a 100% OC. Temps are about 28-30c idle and never more than 55c under load. And yes the CPU you selected is a very nice OC chip.

Hmm, 100$ left over = uber liquid cooling system for uber overclock?

$100 worth of liquid nitrogen.

Dear Excalibur:
Cool, thanks. I added MX-2 to my list. How much of it will I need to apply? What do you use to read the temperature inside your case?


Dear Falkoner:
I heavily considered liquid cooling. It's just so fun to say. =oD After adding the MX-2 and a keyboard, though, I'm now pretty much at my limit. I could throw on an extra $25-50 somewhere if needed, though.


Dear everyone:
I've read that the Radeon HD gets pretty hot. I'm wondering if I should get a VGA heatsink.

I don't read case temp. I read core temp, using CoreTemp. Case temp isn't as important as how hot the core is getting though obviously a cooler ambient temp will help the core temp.



Not really needed. Your case is a nice one with good airflow and plenty of fans. I've seen hotter cards run in worse cases. You should be fine just don't go OCing it.
Edit: Your GFX card link looks incorrect as that says 512mb. I'd go with this particular 1GB: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102801

CoreTemp? Is that a program, or a BIOS feature, or what?

I mislinked the video card. Corrected it in the post.

I'm now looking at the Cooler Master 690 case. As a result of that and finding a bundle deal for my mobo and CPU saving $20, I now have another $50 to spend. =oP

What are you planning to use as your monitor?

I already have a 22" LCD, so no worries there.


Right now I'm looking for extra 120mm case fans. Sleeves, Ball Bearings, Rifle, Hydro, Magnetic, oh my!

Google is your friend

Of course, CoreTemp bugs me since it doesn't support my computer

Yes, but Google only helps one person at a time. Links and a brief description about something you bring up in a thread helps everyone who might have similar questions.

CoreTemp is pretty cool, I just downloaded it for my laptop. It'll be nice when I feel my lappy getting hot to know just how hot it is.

I have an RC690 and I love it. It also has room for a LOT more fans. I added in a 140mm bottom intake, and another 120mm intake on the door. It has room for another two in the top for out take but I need to get extensions as the fans I have have short wires.