So my gaming laptop has been dieing on me slowly. Lately it's just become too much though. I've been getting fan issues and, today, have been getting tons of BSODs. Fixing that is beside the point though, I want it to die so I can finally move on to a desktop without regret.

I have ~$600 to work with and am looking to make a gaming desktop. I know everyone recommends building a computer, so I decided I'm finally gonna give it a try. But I'd like your help. I have no idea what I'm doing and I don't trust myself at all when it comes to picking out parts, so I'd love it if someone could pick out the parts I would need for a basic gaming laptop (I'd like it to be able to run StarCraft 2 on Medium-High settings smoothly at least.) All help would be appreciated. ^ ^ A little over $600 would be fine.

Just the tower or what else do you need? Monitor/mouse/keyboard/speakers/ect?

If you make the decision today, there's a few deals that end today, mainly the i3-2100 which is $125-$15 today only, and a shell shocker SSD that's under $1/GB.
today only:
i3-2100 for $110
ocz agility 3 60 GB for $70-$15AR

Motherboard/RAM:
RAM/Mobo combo - Team elite ddr3-1333 with asrock h61 motherboard for $101
RAM/Mobo combo - Team elite ddr3-1333 with asrock z68 motherboard for $131
I'd go for the z68 for room to upgrade. The ram IMO doesn't matter, but $30 for 8 GB is a good buy. You might try looking for some different brands if you're worried, but performance isn't affected much by RAM.


Graphics:
Radeon 6850 for $145-$10AR
Radeon 6870 for $170-$30AR
GTX 460 for $140-$10AR
You might get a GTX 560, but the prices on the GTX 560 Ti are crappy right now (which is really want I want to recommend). The 7000 series is too expensive and will go down in price when kepler gets a better release.

Case/PSU combos to consider:
Corsair cx430 psu for $45-$20AR
Rosewill Challenger and Hive 650W - 3 fans for $105, promo code PSUMar2012 for extra $8 off.
Rosewill Future and Hive 550W - 4 fans for $100. - may have shipping.
If you can afford it, the rosewill stuff is a very good buy and will let you do a lot more later on. And if you pay your power bill, a rosewill capstone gold PSU will pay the difference in a year or so. The hive series is also modular, which is a huge plus.

So there you have it. without HDD, my total comes out to:
$555.26 with shipping to me, no tax.
$25 in MIR as well not included for the gtx 460 and the SSD.

You can forego an SSD for a bigger hard drive, but since $600 is your budget, and with $70 to spare, you can wait a while for a 1 TB green drive to go on sale (avoid hitachi, I wouldn't buy a refurbished either, but that's just me). 60 GB is plenty of space, so long as you're not pirating out the wazoo. Otherwise you can use that on your monitor/mouse/keyboard/speakers/etc. You can get a decent monitor for $80 or so, but the ideal range is $120-$150.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0069RZ0LW/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?t=slicinc-20&tag=slicinc-20&ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER
There you go, $220 - $30 for a GTX 560 Ti.

Bought these. Came out to a total of just under $614. I scavenged a few old computers for a 40 GB and a 60 GB hard drive. Not very much space to work with, but should be fine for the necessities for now.

A few questions.

• Considering those purchases and the two hard drives, would there be anything else I need outside a monitor, keyboard and mouse?
  
• Would buying a sound card be necessary?
  
• Is it possible to use a laptop's hard drive with this setup?

Thanks for all the help. I'll post when I get all the parts and have it assembled (in 2-3 days).

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Apr 11 2012, 12:11 pm by Artanis186.

1. Optical drive (If you cannot install the OS via USB). Wireless adapter also if you need it for some reason.

2. No.

3. Yes, assuming it's a SATA drive. It will require special mounting since it'll likely be a 2.5" drive, though.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Apr 11 2012, 10:35 pm by Aristocrat.

oh shoot I linked the wrong combo.

I meant this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.867806

Oh well. My total is only coming out to $560 though, I'm not sure where the extra $60 came from.

Ah well, doesn't matter so long as it doesn't actually affect anything negatively (I actually like the other case more visually anyways).


$124.99 CPU
$104.99 Motherboard
$259.99 GPU
$69.99 PSU
$54.99 PSU
$38.99 RAM +
----------------------
$653.94 Subtotal
$40.00 Combos -
----------------------
$613.94 Total

Post has been edited 6 time(s), last time on Apr 14 2012, 12:59 pm by Artanis186.

So the motherboard doesn't support IDE hard drives. This means I'll have to buy a new hard drive early. I have about $125 to work with. Some searching around Newegg, I found this hard drive:

Samsung by Seagate Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ/ST500DM005 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

I'll also be needing a wireless adapter. Chose this:

TP-LINK TL-WN722N Wireless Adapter High Gain IEEE 802.11b/g/n USB 2.0 Up to 150Mbps Wireless Data Rates Support 64/128 bit WEP, WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK, Wireless MAC Filtering

Are these good options? And with the setup I have, what will I need to attach the hard drive to the motherboard etc?

I'd go with the 1GB variant for higher GB/price. Also 500MB is kinda low when you have a good amount of movies, and games and don't want to start having to delete old ones after a year or two.

Or, if your IDE drives are not too old/bad/small, I'd consider http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812232004 an IDE to SATA converter.

Also I've been told for wireless adapters Ralink chips are the way to go. The one you picked has an Atheros chipset.

I think getting a new hard drive would be worth it more than getting a converter. What I really need is to know exactly what cables I would need to buy with one of the hard drives. Some links would be helpful.

The only cables you need for HDDs are SATA cables, and those should come with the hard drive itself.

Your motherboard should come with all the cables you need. However usually only one or 2 SATA cables so if you have more drives than cables you'd need to buy an extra one or two.
Just get a cheap one and keep an eye for the connector which can be straight or bent by 90°. Pick whatever suits your case best.

...unless you're buying a bare drive - they don't come with the cables.

Ah, thanks for saying this. Thought it didn't come with 'em, but wasn't sure, so I checked the site. Site said it did, so I looked around and it looks like I misplaced the pair under my bed. Looks like I'm set, then.


And the power ones.

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Apr 14 2012, 9:25 pm by Artanis186.

http://slickdeals.net/f/4223158-Seagate-1TB-7200-64MB-SATA-III-6Gbps-79-1-5-TB-99-both-AR-shipped
http://www.meritline.com/newsearch.aspx?SearchTerm=wireless+n Shipping for meritline takes 2 weeks or so, just fyi.

Sorry I didn't get a chance to tell you to check the HDDs for whether or not they were IDE.

It's not a big deal, just gotta wait a little longer. Not like I wasted any extra money on it. I'd have to wait for the GPU to be sent anywho. That hard drive looks like an amazing deal, though. Thanks for pointing it out. Should be able to order it before the 21st as well.

EDIT: I've switched over to Amazon for all of the stuff, as they seem to have it all for a bit cheaper.

For a Hard drive, I'll be grabbing a Seagate ST2000DM001 Barracuda 7200RPM 2 TB SATA 6 GB/s NCQ 64 MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Bare Drive.

The wireless adapter I'll be sticking with the TP-Link TL-WN722N 150Mbps High Gain Wireless USB Adapter, just at a slightly reduced price from Amazon.

I'll also be picking up a SanDisk Cruzer 16GB USB Flash Drive SDCZ36-016G-A11 in hopes to install an OS through that and transfer files.

Finally, I'll be grabbing a used Logitech Gaming Headset G330 (Black), as I've been stuck with some cheap-o ear bud headphones mixed with using a busted headset purely for the mic. I've also had experience with and enjoyed these headphones in the past, only thing that stopped me from doing so was someone sucking up and detaching the cord with a vacuum cleaner.

Post has been edited 3 time(s), last time on Apr 15 2012, 3:16 pm by Artanis186.