New PC: What, Where, How Much?

[Fangio]

Well, I have no clue how to build a PC and not much interest in learning. Reality is I have so much going on with work and kids and finding time to fly is a bit tough. Having to spend that time learning about and then building a PC... means it would be quite some time before having any actual fun.

I could be wrong, as I said I have never attempted to build a PC but it seems pretty dang complicated to me and I honestly just dont have the time to spend a months worth of evenings learning all about it.

So I want to purchase a system "off the shelf" or built to specs.

If what I need can be had for less than $2500.... then that is GREAT. Money is tight, that figure is the painful outside ragged edge of the affordability envelope.


Fang

[booterboy]

Originally Posted by Fangio

Well, I have no clue how to build a PC and not much interest in learning. Reality is I have so much going on with work and kids and finding time to fly is a bit tough. Having to spend that time learning about and then building a PC... means it would be quite some time before having any actual fun.

I could be wrong, as I said I have never attempted to build a PC but it seems pretty dang complicated to me and I honestly just dont have the time to spend a months worth of evenings learning all about it.

So I want to purchase a system "off the shelf" or built to specs.

If what I need can be had for less than $2500.... then that is GREAT. Money is tight, that figure is the painful outside ragged edge of the affordability envelope.
Hi Fangio,
Do not be afraid to build your own pc.After 15 years of paying over the top prices,i decided to build my own rig 2 weeks ago.Took about 2 days to
complete due to cable tidying/testing etc.
Was very easy and i shopped around on ebay for all the components
which came from Spain,USA,Ireland,UK.
TOTAL COST WAS ABOUT $2800,IF I WAS TO PAY DELL/ALIENWARE OR
OTHER CUSTOM PC BUILDERS IT WOULD HAVE COST A MINIMUM OF $5000.
Plenty of pc building guides on youtube if stuck.
My biggest expense was $500 for the new Silverstone TJ11 case(the best case ive used in over 15 years of pc gaming.
Will post pics of build if anyone interested.
Fang

[Triggaaar]

Originally Posted by Fangio

Well, I have no clue how to build a PC and not much interest in learning. Reality is I have so much going on with work and kids and finding time to fly is a bit tough. Having to spend that time learning about and then building a PC... means it would be quite some time before having any actual fun.

Personally I find it's learning how to sort out the software that takes all the time. Just building a PC is relatively straight-forward, and saves a chunk of cash.

If it's for CoD, then it might be worth waiting a month just to see what people are finding works well - eg, is it CPU or GC bottlenecked etc. You can get a fast PC without spending too much.

[Thee_oddball]

Fangio if you have to have something now than have a look at the specs below...this comes in around $1500 and should be able to play any game for atleast 2 years to come.

ASUS Crosshair IV Formula AM3 AMD 890FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard $229

SAPPHIRE 100312SR Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity $275

the MB supports true dual X16 slots so you can add another 6950 at a later date for Crossfire

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-8GBRL $85

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 $229

Pros: Overclocking is great. Got it stable at 4.1 ghz. Stays fairly cool with provided cooler, but recommend a good cpu coller!

Cons: none

CORSAIR HX Series CMPSU-1000HX 1000W ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC $229

Patriot Inferno PI60GS25SSDR 2.5" 60GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) $145

Western Digital My Passport Essential SE 1TB USB 3.0/USB 2.0 Black Portable Hard Drive $120

Keep your OS and games on the SSD and other files and backup on the external drive, externals are nice for portability.

add another $100 for a dvd burner and case and your set to go

[etzi]

Take the i7-2600K or the i5-2500K CPU. There is actual no way arround.

Asus P8P67 Board.

8 GB of Ram are enough.

And a video card of your choice.

Currently you can not say on which card CoD performs better (Nvidia or Ati).

I have a i5-2500K @ 4.9 GHz and a 6950 @ 6970.

I have enough frames. It´s all about the stuttering...

i5-2500K, Asus P8P67, 8 GB Ram, 6950 2Gb, SSD 120GB --> $ 1000

[Thee_oddball]

Originally Posted by etzi

Take the i7-2600K or the i5-2500K CPU. There is actual no way arround.

Asus P8P67 Board.

8 GB of Ram are enough.

And a video card of your choice.

Currently you can not say on which card CoD performs better (Nvidia or Ati).

I have a i5-2500K @ 4.9 GHz and a 6950 @ 6970.

I have enough frames. It´s all about the stuttering...

i5-2500K, Asus P8P67, 8 GB Ram, 6950 2Gb, SSD 120GB --> $ 1000

ASUS, the worldwide leader in motherboard design and sales, today announced the release of the industry's first AM3+ CPU enabled motherboard solution based on the existing AMD 8-Series Chipsets. Current owners of an AM3-based board* will make their AMD 8-Series motherboards compatible with the latest AM3+ CPUs with a simple BIOS** update from the official ASUS website

so he should be able to drop a bulldozer chip right in

[Armatian]

To wait until bull cames out will be wise, i'll not jump right in thoug, early adoption is not a nice way to build your first pc, there's always some tame to do on new architecture, but you can buy the now "obsolete" tech at much lower prices.

No matter how much you spend, in a year the tide will change, with that amount, you can build a seriously fast system right now, and make another step next year.

There's no point on spending 100 bucks for maybe a 15-20% improvement, that amounts to around 7fps.

For what i understand, having to sweat for those dollars, i'll do a two step rig.

Go for a good quad, with stock cooling and speeds, good amount of quality ram (don't bother on high performance kits, it does nothing for real world performance) and vga's like nvidia 560-570, or ati 6950.

Be generous with the psu, 650+ top quality, it will last years and will save you lots of headaches, bad energy supply can give you surprises like higher temps on your vga, bad 3d performance and even unstability.

PD:Custom vgas with slightly higer clocks and better than stock cooling doesn't hurt.

[OldBuzzard]

Fangio,

If you are looking for a pre-built system, then you might want to take a GOOD look at MAINGEAR:
http://www.maingear.com/index.php

They have an excellent reputation, and are quite 'reasonable' for being a high end boutique builder.

They used to offer AMD based systems, but it looks like now all they offer are Intel based ones. That's not all bad, but I am a confirmed AMD fan boy and it pains me to see folks like Maingear ignoring AMD.

OH, and don't worry about what some folks are saying about that little fracas sometime back. You and I both know that the history books have it wrong, and that it was really "The War of Northern Aggression".