Decent Gaming Desktop PC

[Mr. Tastix]

I'm not good with building custom PC's, having never done so before, so I'd appreciate some help with making my own.

Later in the year (possibly nearer the end of the year) I will possibly be getting one, not sure yet. But I wanna sort a PC out before then, just in case.

I don't really have a budget, since I'm not paying for it. But it'll probably be no more than $3,000 New Zealand Dollars. That's roughly $1,671.40 USD, 1,223.89 EUR or 1,156.00 GBP.

I'm not good with parts, in fact, I suck with most of them. The only things that I'm OK with (and just that, OK) is RAM, HDD space and CPU clock speed, since those are fairly straight forward. Otherwise I am not a hardware person.

I'm looking to build a custom PC for gaming purposes as well as CAD (Computer Aided Design). The system will be used for gaming (I do want the latest graphics card in it, preferably NVIDIA since I'm used to them and have had good experiences with them in the past).

It will also be used for 3D and Graphic Design so if it can run Cinema 4D well, at least somewhat, then I'd be happy. It needs to be able to run Photoshop and Illustrator well, this doesn't sound like much of a problem for most (and it wouldn't be with gaming PC specs anyway, I would think) but I'll be working with fairly large images, from A4 size and up, possibly all the way to A2/A1 size when I start doing my degree work so if it lags out when I try to save the files, then that fucks me over.

RAM is fairly easy, I want 4GB at least. Done, I don't think I'd need more and RAM is cheap and expendable, I could buy more for incredibly cheaper than what it used to be, not a problem. I will most likely be running Windows XP on it (or Vista if I HAVE to, unless Windows 7 has come out by that time then I'd probably use that, who knows, I'll just go with "XP and up" for now).

I wouldn't mind a dual-core CPU since more games are supporting them now, and I like my laptop's dual-core, even though it's not the best it helps with shit that supports it. Otherwise I'm really just looking for one that'll play the latest games well.

Not too worried about sound so long as it plays well and doesn't make audio really choppy. I'm not good with power supplies, motherboards, cases and the like. That, I suppose, is the things I do need major help with apart from the other shit.

To anyone who helps, thank you. I appreciate it.

[Alex]

Budget includes monitor/mouse/keyboard/speakers? Or do you have em already or.. ?

[Siva]

Please google it. I do this all the time on a number of forums and I'm really tired of it. You can find builds by googling, please do so.

[Mr. Tastix]

You don't have to help me Protocol if you don't want, I just appreciate all the help I can get. And I've already did that and I get a lot of shit, some of it I don't fucking need. Most of it PC peripherals and gaming equipment.

Alex, my budget includes all of that EXCEPT the mouse.

[Alex]

Perhaps?

[clyzm]

Generic Microsoft Keyboard
Creative Inspire 5.1 Speakers
XCLIO A380 or similar cheap ATX full-towers
Corsair 750W
Sapphire 4870 X2
AMD Phenom 9950
Gigabyte's AMD 770 Board
4-gig or 8-gig G.Skill 1066mhz*
500 to 1tb Hard Drive**
LG 22X SATA
ASUS-brand 19" or 21.5" ***

* Depending on your C4D usage. I have 8 gigs of the stuff and occasionally when rendering, C4D says "Not enough memory..."
** Depending on your needs. If you want a lot of games on there, get a 500gig. If you're planning on storing a lot of work, get a 1TB as things can get really clustered.
*** Again, depending on your gaming. If you want a visually-enhanced experience, get the 21.5" HDMI for games. If not, stick with a regular 19" for rendering/work as those do fine.

Alternatively, nVidia/Intel setup:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400
GTX 280 by EVGA ($334 last i checked)
Gigabyte's series of Ultra Durable P45 chipsets, i.e. UD3P, UD3R... or nForce 780i or higher by EVGA if you plan to SLI.

Keep in mind though, Intel/nVidia setup might stretch the budget a bit far...

[Mr. Tastix]

Both sound like good systems thanks guys. And Cataclyzm, yeah I know how far Intel and nVidia setups can cost. I'm sorta leaning towards my cousins system atm since his is fairly good, cost $2,000 NZ. All I know is that he has a AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5200+, NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX with roughly 3-4GB of RAM.

Not sure how good that is though, I want him to do a benchmark.

[Siva]

You don't want a 64 X2 5200+. I have a 5600+ and every waking moment I wish I had gotten a good Intel Dual Core or a good quad core instead

[clyzm]

You don't want a 64 X2 5200+. I have a 5600+ and every waking moment I wish I had gotten a good Intel Dual Core or a good quad core instead

Better than a P4

[Mr. Tastix]

You don't want a 64 X2 5200+. I have a 5600+ and every waking moment I wish I had gotten a good Intel Dual Core or a good quad core instead

Like I said, I'd prefer Intel, I've heard bad things about AMD... But anyways, why is it bad for you?

[~[ß]Lost~]

AMD's new Phenom II processors are either better or just as good as Intel's. The older models are not worth considering. I have Intel E8400 C2D overclocked to 3.6 GHz. You should always overclock your dualcore processors, because those overclock damn a lot and easy these days. Not doing that is a sin.

For a graphics card, get ATI Radeon HD 4870 or 4870X2.

[Dae]

Not doing that is a sin.

You've to have worthy cooling though.

[~[ß]Lost~]

Getting a decent case and a proper cooler for the CPU is important.

[Mr. Tastix]

Yes, that I know. I wouldn't overclock my own computers anyway because I do not know how to and because of that, wouldn't trust myself to do it without fucking something up.

[clyzm]

A couple of more setups, to give you some options.

Phenom II:

Coolermaster HAF
Corsair 850W
Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB SATA
Asus 21.5" HDMI Monitor
Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P
Creative Inspire 5.1 Surround Sound
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1333
AMD Phenom II X4 940 @ 3.0ghz
Sapphire Radeon 4870X2
Generic Keyboard
Generic LG 22X SATA DVD/CD Burner

i7:

Antec Twelve Hundred
Intel Core i7 920 @ 2.66ghz
Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB SATA
BFG Tech GTX 280
EVGA 132-BL-E758-TR
Corsair XMS3 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3 1333
Corsair 850W
Asus 21.5" Monitor HDMI
Generic Keyboard
Generic LG 22X SATA DVD/CD Burner

The first setup I told you about, was around $1,250. These two setups reach close to $1,600, with the latter being about $1,599. Although you do have a budget, remember the condition of the economy in the world.

[~[ß]Lost~]

Yes, that I know. I wouldn't overclock my own computers anyway because I do not know how to and because of that, wouldn't trust myself to do it without fucking something up.

Just increase the FSB After reading some overclocking tutorials on the internet, I was already a pro. It ain't fucking rocket science.

[clyzm]

Yes, that I know. I wouldn't overclock my own computers anyway because I do not know how to and because of that, wouldn't trust myself to do it without fucking something up.

Just increase the FSB After reading some overclocking tutorials on the internet, I was already a pro. It ain't fucking rocket science.

Yeah well, I didn't even read anything, just found an option called M.I.T. on my BIOS and messed around till I got 2.8ghz with stock heatsink

[~[ß]Lost~]

Yes, that I know. I wouldn't overclock my own computers anyway because I do not know how to and because of that, wouldn't trust myself to do it without fucking something up.

Just increase the FSB After reading some overclocking tutorials on the internet, I was already a pro. It ain't fucking rocket science.

Yeah well, I didn't even read anything, just found an option called M.I.T. on my BIOS and messed around till I got 2.8ghz with stock heatsink

Temperature? 2.8 GHz is nothing though

[Mr. Tastix]

Thanks for the help Cataclyzm, I know about how shit the economy is in the world. I'm hoping some of the parts I can buy locally anyways.

[clyzm]

Yes, that I know. I wouldn't overclock my own computers anyway because I do not know how to and because of that, wouldn't trust myself to do it without fucking something up.

Just increase the FSB After reading some overclocking tutorials on the internet, I was already a pro. It ain't fucking rocket science.

Yeah well, I didn't even read anything, just found an option called M.I.T. on my BIOS and messed around till I got 2.8ghz with stock heatsink

Temperature? 2.8 GHz is nothing though

Mid 30s idle, 45-60c gaming. This is with my new Q8300 which runs 2.5ghz stock.

Yeah, but still, it's stock. If I wanted to, I could get it easy to 3.6ghz with a Arctic Cooling setup, the EP45-UD3P by Gigabyte is a very easy and stable overclocker.