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Old 03-22-2009, 06:18 PM   #1
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New PC
Hey everyone, after I returned from the army I was given an excellent list of advice on my first PC to build. It worked out flawless. I ended up having to sell it because of some problems I ran into. I'd like to get a new one now that things have leveled out. I do no intensive gaming anymore, just World of Warcraft, and lots of alt tabbing with many windows up. So I'm looking for something that'll play those games nicely and let me have a good number of things up without bogging down.

Here's the thing though, last time I knew it'd be cheaper to build one because I wanted something on the high-end. Now I'm looking for something not so spectacular. Would it still be cost effective to build, or am I better suited going with a pre-built?

My price range is $400-$800.

Thanks again for everyone's time and support on these forums.
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Old 03-22-2009, 08:29 PM   #3
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Socket 478 is severly obsolete, for the same price you could build a MUCH faster/more futureproof AMD PC with better quality parts. Here is a parts list for a PC with good performance (good for multi-tasking, gaming, pretty much anything you throw at it) for about $700 (you can get a good PC for lower, however this seems to be the best bang for the buck price range and gets you good quality parts):


LITE-ON 22X DVD Burner Black SATA Model iHAS322-08
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827106286
$25.49

Antec Sonata III 500 Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 500W Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129024
$119.99

Seagate ST3640323AS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148335
$64.99

ASUS M3A78 AM2+/AM2 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131340
$79.99

SAPPHIRE 100265HDMI Radeon HD 4830 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102822
$99.99

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231166
$52.99

AMD Phenom 9950 Agena 2.6GHz Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Black Edition Processor Model HD995ZXAGHBOX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103291
$149.99

Microsoft Windows XP Home SP3 for System Builders
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16832116511
$89.99

Subtotal: $683.42
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Old 03-22-2009, 09:26 PM   #4
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Oh please - not a 478 with a VIA chipset!

A Dell Inspiron 530 with the HD3650 video option will play WoW fine.
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Old 03-22-2009, 10:30 PM   #5
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Quote:
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Oh please - not a 478 with a VIA chipset!

A Dell Inspiron 530 with the HD3650 video option will play WoW fine.
I wouldn't go with a Dell for a gaming computer; less upgradability and by the time you add the options to make it good enough for gaming, it will cost you about the same or more than if you built it yourself. The HD3650 isn't a very powerful card and costs $150 as an option (I could actually find only the HD2600XT, but the peformance is pretty much the same), the HD4830 is much faster and only costs $100. A dual core isn't that great of an option for multitasking either, a quad core is a much better option and doesn't necessarily cost all that much more.
Last edited by Masaki 7-11; 03-23-2009 at 12:59 AM.
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Old 03-23-2009, 12:45 AM   #6
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You guys are too good, that's why I love coming here. I suppose I forgot to mention I don't have a monitor. I've been shopping around a bit. I was using a nice 22" widescreen last time, now I'm on a tiny laptop screen so I was thinking a 19" will be most cost effective.

Again, I appreciate your time.
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Old 03-23-2009, 12:58 AM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sprinter922 View Post
You guys are too good, that's why I love coming here. I suppose I forgot to mention I don't have a monitor. I've been shopping around a bit. I was using a nice 22" widescreen last time, now I'm on a tiny laptop screen so I was thinking a 19" will be most cost effective.

Again, I appreciate your time.
A pretty good 19" will cost around $120: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824254029 (1440x900 resolution)
OR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824236056 (1680x1050 resolution)

A pretty good 22" will cost around $150: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824254035

If you don't need anything fancy (USB inputs, speakers, ergonomic options such as swivel and height adjustments), you can get monitors for a pretty inexpensive price.
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Old 03-23-2009, 03:11 AM   #8
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In the US, a HD3650 is a $100 option on a Inspiron 530, and it will play WoW just fine. I have grandkids playing WoW just fine on a E2180 rig with a X1650GT and an old 2.4 Ghz AGP box with a 7600GS. They both just happen to have 19" flatscreens.

A Inspiron 530 with a E5200, 3gb ram, HD3650, Vista Home Premium, 320gb hard drive, DVD burner, and a 19" flat screen is $619.

I am not pushing the Dell, but just showing you how competitive it is. However, I will say it one more time - it will play World of Warcraft JUST FINE.
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Old 03-23-2009, 03:44 AM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by glc View Post
In the US, a HD3650 is a $100 option on a Inspiron 530, and it will play WoW just fine. I have grandkids playing WoW just fine on a E2180 rig with a X1650GT and an old 2.4 Ghz AGP box with a 7600GS. They both just happen to have 19" flatscreens.

A Inspiron 530 with a E5200, 3gb ram, HD3650, Vista Home Premium, 320gb hard drive, DVD burner, and a 19" flat screen is $619.

I am not pushing the Dell, but just showing you how competitive it is. However, I will say it one more time - it will play World of Warcraft JUST FINE.
That's exactly how much a similar configuration came out to on newegg (differences being that the case/power supply from newegg is much better, 4GB of ram was used, and you have a choice between vista and xp). I don't think the HD3650 is a very good choice because for a small amount more you can get a much faster HD4830; while the HD3650 may be fine for some of the current games (at lower resolutions and settings), why not spend a bit extra and have a video card that can run current games at high resolutions/settings and be able to run future games reasonably well. I think a quad core is better for multitasking than a dual core; as fast as dual cores are, they still get bogged down once you have a decent amount of programs running. I think the only time it's actually less expensive to go with a Dell is when you are using their base configuration or when they have a big sale.
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Old 03-23-2009, 05:53 PM   #10
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i posted this on the wrong board, had 2 going... uughhh now thats a little embarrassing. the other message board had the wrong cpu (northwood won't work), memory (800)and everything for that biostar board and I was suggesting that person to use this setup instead. the response looked worse on the other board.... well maybe not
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Old 03-23-2009, 05:56 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by glc View Post
Oh please - not a 478 with a VIA chipset!

A Dell Inspiron 530 with the HD3650 video option will play WoW fine.
posted by accident, did you think I lost my marbles glc?
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Old 03-23-2009, 06:39 PM   #12
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I was beginning to wonder!
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Old 03-23-2009, 10:59 PM   #13
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Quote:
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i posted this on the wrong board, had 2 going... uughhh now thats a little embarrassing. the other message board had the wrong cpu (northwood won't work), memory (800)and everything for that biostar board and I was suggesting that person to use this setup instead. the response looked worse on the other board.... well maybe not
There are OTHER boards?
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Old 04-30-2009, 08:19 PM   #14
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Back again!
Evening everyone, I posted a month or so ago with an $800 budget. Things got worse and before I could order the parts, my medical bills came in, moved houses, etc. etc... you know the drill.

Anyways now I'm on a roughly $600 budget. I do not play World of Warcraft anymore, but I'd like to use that and Starcraft II as the standard of playing good. I don't do music, or any of that other fun stuff you should do with computers. I just soak knowledge on forums and play video games.

Here's the deal - I need a box, and a monitor, for roughly $600. I've searched these forums for builds relatively similar, then looked at the parts and looked at similar parts and did some part building of my own, but yielded problems.

As far as brands go, I don't have any bias towards anything!

I feel like a complete leech, so if you need physical fitness training help or some sort of home renovation...let me know. It's hard finding places where people freely and continuously help people just out of passion for what they do.
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Old 04-30-2009, 09:23 PM   #16
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Threads merged to keep continuity.
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Old 04-30-2009, 09:45 PM   #17
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This should work out well for your budget:


LITE-ON 22X DVD±R DVD Burner with Smart Erase Black IDE Model iHAP322-08 - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827106268
$25.99

Rosewill R218-P-BK Black 0.5mm SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811147073
$24.99

Western Digital Caviar SE WD1600AAJS 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136075
$41.99

Acer X203Wbd Black 20" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824009126
$139.99

GIGABYTE GA-MA74GM-S2 AM2+/AM2 AMD 740G Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128342
$56.99

HIS Hightech H467QT512P Radeon HD 4670 IceQ Turbo 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported ... - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161252
$69.99

COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power Plus RS-460-PMSR-A3 460W ATX12V V2.3 Power Supply - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817171028
$34.99

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBNT - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231207
$42.99

AMD Athlon 64 X2 7750 Kuma 2.7GHz Socket AM2+ 95W Dual-Core black edition Processor Model AD775ZWCGHBOX - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103300
$59.99

Microsoft Windows XP Home SP3 for System Builders - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16832116511
$89.99

Subtotal: $587.90
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Old 04-30-2009, 09:53 PM   #18
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I would not recommend an Acer monitor, I stopped selling them after so many had to be RMA. The RMA was a slow process.
Hanns-G is a much better monitor, Masaki's list looks good other than the HIS video card, Sapphire is much better and longer lasting.
The 160GB hard drive is slow and will get full rather quickly, not the best for gaming.
I think my list has much better quality components but at least you have another choice with Masaki's list.
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Old 05-04-2009, 06:27 PM   #19
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Ok so Khalil's build comes to just under 510 or so but there's no monitor, Masaki's at 587 with monitor.

Some thoughts:
I prefer XP to Vista, simply because it seems to run faster to me and with less complications. Does XP work fine with modern video gaming and computing parts? I think DirectX10 or what have you needs Vista but I don't think I'll be needing DirectX10 any time soon for what I do.

I used an Acer on my last build and it worked great, maybe I was lucky?

Here's what I'm thinking based off what I liked from the two builds.

Microsoft Windows XP Home SP3 for System Builders - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16832116511
$89.99

COOLER MASTER Elite 360 RC-360-KKN1-GP Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mini Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119195
$34.99

GIGABYTE GA-MA74GM-S2 AM2+/AM2 AMD 740G Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128342
$54.99

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200 Brisbane 2.7GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103210
$56.00

SAPPHIRE 100254L Radeon HD 4650 1GB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102807
$59.99


CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145184
$46.99

COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power Plus RS-460-PMSR-A3 460W ATX12V V2.3 Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817171028
$34.99

LG Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache IDE 22X DVD±R DVD Burner
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817171028
$34.99

Western Digital Caviar SE WD1600AAJS 160GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136075
$41.99

Acer X203Wbd Black 20" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 2500:1 ACM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824009126
$139.99

Total: 594.91

Looks good to me! Unless there's something I'm forgetting.
Thanks!!
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Old 05-04-2009, 07:48 PM   #20
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Thats an odd case. Where does the PSU go, in the front? I think I'd be weary of a case that costs only $35, especially if you'll be doing the assembly. (The fun part!)
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Old 05-04-2009, 08:41 PM   #21
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Yes, the PSU mounts in the front. There is nothing wrong with the quality of Coolermaster cases.
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Old 07-27-2009, 07:50 PM   #22
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Well the build went back to the bank. The military waiver process and such has really made getting and keeping a PC a tough task. I tried to use the build listed a few posts above by me the other day, but most of those items are now listed on Newegg as "deactivated". The last two PC's I built off your guys' recommendations and builds in this forum worked flawless, literally. However, both times I used a friends who's a computer guy to help me build them. This time I'd have to do it alone, and I seem to have severely lacking hand mechanics in building a PC. My budget is set at roughly 700-800. I'm looking to get, a case *everything in it*, a monitor, and MAYBE some nice sound. Although, I've been trying to do builds myself but I may be asking for too much to want a monitor, gaming rig, AND decent sound for less than $800. If anything I'd be willing to cut the speakers, but I do need a monitor.

The standard I'll be using to build the PC is Starcraft II and CoD. Nothing too fancy I suppose. Although I don't know if I want the builds listed yet, as it may take me another few weeks to a month for the money I need to build it and I do not want to wast your guys's time. Would you recommend building another one to fit that budget, or just go with a pre-built PC???

Summary - pre-built or self-built. Monitor, loaded case, speakers. Starcraft II as standard, far down from $800 as possible, with $800 being the limit.
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Old 07-28-2009, 05:07 AM   #23
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When it comes to gaming computers, a self-build will always be better than a pre-built. Here is a good list including a monitor, speakers, operating system and the parts for a good performance computer for under $800:

LITE-ON 24X CD/DVD Burner Black SATA Model iHAS324-08 - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827106291
$27.99

COOLER MASTER Elite 330 RC-330-KKN1-GP Black SECC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119115
$37.99

Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136319
$74.99

Hanns·G Hi-221DPB Black 22" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824254035
$139.99

ASUS M4A78 Plus AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131381
$79.99

SAPPHIRE 100265HDMI Radeon HD 4830 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102822
$89.99

OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ500MXSP 500W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC ... - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817341016
$58.99

Logitech S-220 17 Watts 2.1 Multimedia Speaker System - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16836121014
$23.99

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231166
$54.99

AMD Phenom II X3 710 2.6GHz Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Processor Model HDX710WFGIBOX - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103648
$99.00

Microsoft Windows XP Home SP3 for System Builders - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16832116511
$89.99

Subtotal: $777.90
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