Alright we got to start figuring out my end of year machine.

RainMotorsports

RainMotorsports

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While chances are by the end of the year prices will change something new will be out. If I dont have a plan now I probably won't buy a desktop so lets do this damn thing!

Cheaper the better but 1000 bucks is where its at. Do not need a monitor keyboard or mouse. I have a 1TB SATA HDD and a 5.25 Lightscribe DVD Burner to hold me off if I need to.I am intel all the way but lets face it probably going AMD.


Intel
i5-2500K anything less and its auto AMD. Now while the i7-2600K is bang on for 300 bucks its just not worth me stretching my broke ass minimum wage budget on.

AMD
On the high end the X6 1100T is the same price as the i5-2500K and in situations where the i7 might prevail over the i5 (thanks to hyperthreading) the X6 may as well.

I don't really need 6 cores and would be willing to pick it up later on when AM3 is phased to the back burner. I think maybe AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition @ 140 bucks would be a good price compromise and if I decide not to get the X6 later I can always overclock the piss out of it.

Motherboards
I am open to ASUS MSI, and probably other brands as well GIGABYTE whatever. This is probably gonna be a cheapout area for me but dual PCI-E slots are a must just incase.

What you think of these two inexpensive ones?
Newegg.com - MSI 870A-G54 AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
Newegg.com - ASUS M4A88T-M LE AM3 AMD 880G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

Graphics Cards
This one is a hard one for me I can not be sure where my happy spot is gonna be. They main reason for building a desktop isnt CPU power. We have 8 threading 3Ghz+ clocking i7's for laptops. The 460M is shitty and dual 485M's are just not in my budget.

So for 1080P gaming, Crysis 2, BF3 (I know were guessing there) whatever. I don't care about AA much I am interested in stepping my res up from 720P 768P to 1920x1080. With the AA down i dont see this actually being a problem but I dunno last time I was building desktops we had AGP!

GeForce 550Ti probably the MSI OC version, no nvidia comments yay or nay i think anything above that price is just not budget worthy.

6850 or maybe a slight stretch to the 6870?
 
A random build for 600. The Ram and case where just whatevers of the momentand the PSU there are plenty of options as well. Total came to 594.94!

CASE - Newegg.com - Thermaltake V3 Black Edition VL80001W2Z Black SECC / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
PSU - Newegg.com - Antec EarthWatts EA750 750W Continuous Power ATX12V version 2.3 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC "compatible with Core i7/Core i5" Power Supply
MOBO - Newegg.com - ASUS M4A88T-M LE AM3 AMD 880G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
CPU - Newegg.com - AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ955FBGMBOX
RAM - Newegg.com - G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-8GBXL
GPU - Newegg.com - MSI N550GTX-Ti Cyclone OC GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Hopefully I didnt make any mistakes so far lol my last AMD machine was an AM2. Will still need some cables etc. But as i said KB and Mouse I have, I will use my current external monitor and or my 32 inch 1080P TV i plan to get until i get a different monitor. I have a Hard drive and dvd writer for the initial usage.

EDIT - THE RAM DOES APPEAR TO BE WRONG. Not that it wouldnt work but its tailored at the minimum. I know someone with an i7-2600K machine who pointed it out no biggy plenty more out there.

Not sure if the PSU will be enough but changed it to this and then went 560 Ti and X6 for under 750 dollars.
PSU - Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power Plus RS-550-PCAR-E3 550W ATX12V V2.3 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Power Supply
GPU - Newegg.com - ASUS ENGTX560 TI DCII/2DI/1GD5 GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
CPU - Newegg.com - AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition Thuban 3.3GHz, 3.7GHz Turbo 6 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor HDE00ZFBGRBOX
RAM - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104231

Last thought if we do the 1090T X6 and go back to the 550Ti were at 630 and then i can add another 550Ti later.
 
Just my opinion but I've had bad luck with MSI and Gigabyte. Of the last three Gigabyte motherboards I've installed two have been DOA and one wouldn't recognize RAM in two of the four DIMMs.
 
Case; (The mid-towers struggle with the vid card you selected. This one will have no issues)
Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER HAF 932 Advanced RC-932-KKN5-GP Black Steel ATX Full Tower Compucase Case with USB 3.0 and Black Interior

Mobo; (not a Micro ATX board, it is full size)
Newegg.com - ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 AM3 AMD 880G HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

Video; (Nice, nothing special)
Newegg.com - ASUS ENGTX560 TI DCII TOP/2DI/1GD5 GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

PSU; (very reliable, quiet)
Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER GX Series RS750-ACAAE3-US 750W ATX12V v2.31 SLI Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply

Memory; (More than enough)
Newegg.com - CORSAIR XMS 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000) Desktop Memory Model CMX8GX3M2A2000C9

CPU; (Just a tad better than the 3.2 GHz)
Newegg.com - AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ965FBGMBOX

SSD; (for OS and increased performance)
Newegg.com - Intel 320 Series SSDSA2CT040G310 2.5" 40GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - SSD

Total Price - $ 1043.92


This would be my recommendation. Axe the SSD and you are at your $ 1000.00 price point. The Micro ATX boards may have issues with larger video cards and especially if you plan on adding a sound card or any other PCI device. Not sure at all if the video card and the case you choose would work at all. It would be tight to say the least, and hurt your airflow quite a bit.
 
I am intel all the way but lets face it probably going AMD.
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Why plan the year end rebuild now? New shit comes out in the fall, current prices drop. I'd just sit tight and wait for a bit and save your money. And if you're doing a new build, spend $200 on a decent SSD for the OS and games.

Just my opinion but I've had bad luck with MSI and Gigabyte.
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Agreed on MSI. I will never buy anothe MSI mobo ever. The boards are great, the weak and unstable bios ruin their boards.
 
My last two builds have been Asus and I don't think I'll be using anyone else anytime soon. I also agree on Microcenter for great CPU prices. The only downside is you have to pick up the processor from the store and not online to qualify for the price break.
 
If your doing a end of the year build still under 1K and would like to go AMD i'd say toss your money into a Bulldozer ;). Going to be a competing CPU with Intel. Not saying it'll take it out but it'll put up a battle. I recommend a SSD and going towards saving more so you can make a hell of a rig at the end of the year. :)
 
asus rox !

and u dont have a cpu cooler on that. do you?
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Agreed Asus is my MB currently. Who doesn't have a cpu cooler on their MB?

If your doing a end of the year build still under 1K and would like to go AMD i'd say toss your money into a Bulldozer ;). Going to be a competing CPU with Intel. Not saying it'll take it out but it'll put up a battle. I recommend a SSD and going towards saving more so you can make a hell of a rig at the end of the year. :)
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If you're getting an SSD why go AMD? Their chipsets don't properly support SSD right now and you won't get near their rated speeds. Also, bulldozer competing with I7 is pure speculation and will be a generation behind, two actually the current I7s by then.

For under 1k I'd still go Intel cpu and MB but AMD GPU-best bang for the buck by far.
Don't forget prices on all the current shit should drop, and sometimes significantly at the end of the year. I got my 120GB SSD with the, then, new Sandforce controller for $189.00 shipped.

Anyway, it's all speculation at this point, but don't get tunnel vision on one set of components because you don't know what all this shit will cost come fall/winter with the sales going on then.
 
I wasn't talking about the stock one, I just meant one in general. Besides, I don't know anybody that actually uses the stock coolers. I thought those were like nipples on men, useless decoration that serve no function.
 
@Sixer - I have to set a goal or I just give up sometimes, chances are I wont be doing the build as planned but with whatever is out. OR in 3 months ill end up doing one of my 600 dollar builds because its so cheap lol.

At this point I am already worried when I move to NC I wont be able to get a decent internet connection the DSL everyone in my family has is the worst on the planet 250ms ping and half meg the only other choice is time warner cable if theyll even run it to a middle of nowhere house.

Bad Company 2 is making me do bad things lol. First it made me spend 300 bucks on networking equipment, then it got me to join a clan where I will now buy a computer I WANT and games I WANT when in reality if I wasnt gaming I wouldnt actually NEED a new machine or a decent internet connection.

I havent written a single line of code, done much photography work or worked on my website since I installed this damned game.... I can't make it stop lmao!
 
@Sixer - I have to set a goal or I just give up sometimes
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There's your goal-save X amount of $$ for a new PC! No need to get specific until you do it; think of it as a lay away plan. :)

Seriously though that's always how I look at it-my goal is x amount of $$$ by 12/2011. That way I lay it out of 7 months/1000.00=$143.00 a month.

If it makes you feel any better, a lot of us do the same thing with builds. We rarely need new stuff for actual work, but for games we like to have the stuff to make them more enjoyable.
 
Thanks for all the advice so far, yeah the case was a random pick and the last time I had to worry about video card length we were actually running ISA/VESA cards.

I do intend atleast after initial assembly to run the stock cooler. I do plan to replace it asap as well I know a couple of people who have spare coolers that are epic or I might get the H70 I was going to use for my i5-2500K overclock build. I will keep an eye on temps if it bothers me I will do something quickly but I doubt what bothers you would bother a laptop guy like me.

I will definitly be adding at a minimum a Momentus XT as the boot drive after the fact, Boot times are the first to get better hopefully major apps as well. I have yet to really justify to my broke ass the cost benifit ratio of SSD's they are epic at times but.... I also tend to run multiple OS's so a 40GB SSD might be fine for one OS but not 2 or 3.
 
SSD's are great for speedy load times and software installation. You won't see your FPS increase in games by much, if any. You might see your map load times drop to 10-15 seconds, instead of 1 minute, though.
 
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