Gaming PC challange 2k10 (Rick plz Read)

[Justis]

Long story short, we finally got a new apartment that is in a better location and very quiet with nice neighbors that I dont want to kick in the face with a Golf shoe because they play techno at 4am... And I actually enjoy going home in the evening to relax, rather then sitting in the office till 2am.

So the Wife has given me a budget of $600-$700 to build a @home gaming PC so we can both be at home and I can actually game like a normal person in the comfort of a house rather then my work office.

Before last year Rick managed to sort me out a killer gaming rig that ended up being less then $1500-

This year I should be able to get something on par/maybe less for a little under half the cost.

Can it be done Rick?

I know your busy but if you could take a look around at what is available and possible and put up your build for a gaming PC in that budget range, it would be awesome!

Thanks

[Rick]

Yep. I can take a look. I've seen a couple of recent 'Cheap Gaming rigs' articles. Most involve AMD processors though. So if you don't mind that, it's technically possible to build a DX11 rig I think.

[Justis]

AMD is no problem, used them before and never had any problems with em.

[Rick]

OK here it is. THis is from Maximum PC's $647 PC build rig in their last issue. (http://www.maximumpc.com/article/fea...awesome_pc_647)

It's not fancy (hell the case is $30, its old school square and boring with unfolded edges made to slice hands), the upgrade path doesn't exist (this is as far as you can go without starting over. Though you might add some more RAM ). Pretty much it is built to a $ amount and not a performance goal but they still manage to put together a functional gaming PC. Not a barn burner, but for MMOs it should be more than fine (Though LOTRO on Very High might be pushing it and if half the rumors are true FFXIV will crush it to dust). It'll support DX11 when LOTRO adds it later this year and when DX11 games start to hit. Though by then, it'll probably be ready for a revamp.



CPU
AMD Athlon II X4 620

Motherboard
Gigabyte GA-MA74GM-S2

Memory
Patriot 4GB DDR2/800

Videocard
Sapphire Radeon HD 5770 (DX11)

Hard drive
Seagate 500GB Barracuda 7200.12

Optical drive - DVD
Samsung SH-S223C

Chassis
Rosewill R220

Power supply
Cooler Master RS-460

Operating system
Windows 7 Home Premium OEM

THe real world number (frome New Egg) is a little more than the $647 claim in Maximum PC. It's $660 and another $30 shipping (to my zip at least, no idea what the ship cost is to Germany). But it does fall into your price range.

My only comment is the Gigabyte MB. I'm no fan. I've seen too many die very early deaths. But it's cheap and most anything else will make the price go up.

[Justis]

Awsome Rick thanks for the info!

Any other recommendation on a MB that would be compatable with that setup? At a price increase of $50-$90?

[Rick]

Hmmm I'm going to have to do some research for that.

Ya know, if you were in the 900 range this would be MUCH easier. lol

[Rick]

After looking around a bit, that's about it in terms of that generation of tech and option. Changing around the MB is hard because there's not much comparable to that one that wouldn't require changing the RAM and processor too, making it a much more expensive alteration.

[Justis]

ok I think I will go for it, however one last question:

With this set up "if I did" want to upgrade later to a better MB, would this be easily done? or would it be a huge pain in the ass?

[Rick]

ok I think I will go for it, however one last question:

With this set up "if I did" want to upgrade later to a better MB, would this be easily done? or would it be a huge pain in the ass?

Huge pain in the ass. Mainly because the MB is the core of everything and since the basic build is based on somewhat older tech you're pretty much talking about replacing the MB, CPU, and RAM. Since we're talking an OEM version of windows, you'll have to replace that too as MS ties OEM copies to the Motherboard of the system it's first installed in.

So an 'upgrade' in 6 months or a year means pretty much ditching everything except the case, drives, and video card and starting over. A whole new build. So while it's cheap it's also pretty close to a fixed system configuration. You could throw more memory at it maybe.