Mid level gaming pc

[hex]

I want to build a mid level gaming pc with a budget of 30k. As in complete system, input and output. Last time na nagbuo ako was 4 yrs ago with amd 64 bit 3000+ / palit 6600gt / ecs mobo / 1gb ram / 17" lcd and some other peripherals. I shelled out around 48k for that system.

Ngayon parang wala na akong idea sa mga kung ano yung mga lumabas na bagong vc,proc, and mobo.

Basta malaro ko lang yung mga latest games sa medium settings sa 1280 x 1024 resolution. last na nalaro was fear w/ almost all the eye candies turned on.

TIA

[Jun aka Pekto]

I want to build a mid level gaming pc with a budget of 30k. As in complete system, input and output. Last time na nagbuo ako was 4 yrs ago with amd 64 bit 3000+ / palit 6600gt / ecs mobo / 1gb ram / 17" lcd and some other peripherals. I shelled out around 48k for that system.

Ngayon parang wala na akong idea sa mga kung ano yung mga lumabas na bagong vc,proc, and mobo.

Basta malaro ko lang yung mga latest games sa medium settings sa 1280 x 1024 resolution. last na nalaro was fear w/ almost all the eye candies turned on.

TIA

I'm in the process of building a mid-level pc myself. The motherboard of my Socket 939 AMD Athlon X2 4200+ went kaput recently.

This isn't finalized yet:
AMD Phenom II X3 2.8ghz Black Edition (boxed, retail)
GIGABYTE GA-MA785GMT-UD2H AM3 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX
XFX HD-487A-ZWFC Radeon HD 4870 1GB
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
Rosewill RCR-IC001 40-in-1 USB 2.0 3.5" Internal Card Reader
CORSAIR CMPSU-550VX 550W ATX12V V2.2 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS

From newegg.com. After rebates, it's $497. The price of the HD 4870 will probably drop some more as the HD 5850 and HD 5870 become more available.

I'm using my older Aspire X-Cruiser case, hard drives, and dvd burner

[hex]

Its quite expensive for me sir juan yung ganyan setup. Kahit na siguro malaro ko yung crysis w/ med settings with a decent framerate pwede na.

[Jun aka Pekto]

Its quite expensive for me sir juan yung ganyan setup. Kahit na siguro malaro ko yung crysis w/ med settings with a decent framerate pwede na.

You could go with a dualcore cpu and a 9600GT or an HD 4830. Crysis would probably still be laggy. But, there are plenty enough other games that'll run fine on those cards.

[hex]

*Jun aka Pekto, thanks boss for the suggestion.

this is what i have in mind:

AMD X2 ATHLON 64 7750 (2.7G) 3MB DC
MSI K9AGM3-FIH AMD690G HDMI/RAID
9600GT OC 512MB DDR3 DVI 256BIT
geil DDR2 667 2GB
SEAGATE 250GB 7200RPM SATA 8M
HANNS-G HG216 HDMI
SEAGATE 250GB 7200RPM SATA 8MB

prices from pccorner

wala pa yung ps and casing dyan. basta max budget is 30k (excluding speaker).
any suggestion will be much appreciated mga boss.

TIA

[hex]

i can sacrifice some parts like instead of 22" na lcd gawing 19" nalang or mas murang mobo para mas magandang vc mabili.

[safeorigin]

what i'd pick. . .
phenom x3
emaxx amd 790gx-xtrm
geil dual ddr2 4gb 800
ati hd 4830 ddr3

should pretty much end up a gaming whore rig

[safeorigin]

also for additional inspiration

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wB0JodKgZ0A"]YouTube - AMD Phenom II Overclocked to 6.5GHz - New World Record for 3DMark[/ame]

[Horsepower]

scrap the Hanns, that's a no-name brand. Its actually obnoxious for a generic to charge so much for an unknown product.

Best go with an LG display. Cheap and reliable with good specs to boot.

Same with Seagate, scrap that and go for Western Digital Black series (up to 32MB cache).

You might wanna try ATI 4770, i think it's only 5k+.

Go with an AMD 785 board, the gigabyte arrived already in Gilmore I think.

Have you considered Phenom II?

[Revenant]

If you still have your old midtower casing, then I suggest keeping it. As for the monitor, buy something with a resolution of 1680X1050 or below to prevent any hiccups. For visual eye candy, and since this is a new system, 22" and with at least a resolution of 1600 x 900 or 1680 x 1050 is a must hehe.

Prices are based on my copy of PCExpress and PCHub's latest.

Intel Build:

CPU: Intel E6300 (C2D w/ 2MB L2 Cache) 2.8Ghz: 4,100
Board: Asus P5QL-SE P43 or any P43 board: 3,700
GPU: Palit GTS 250 Green Edition or Sapphire/Powercolor Radeon 4770: 5,770
Memory: DDR2 2GB 800: 1,550
Hard Disk: Seagate 500gb 7200.12: 2,550
Power Supply: Acbel Ipower 610w: 3,300
Monitor: Dell 22" e228wfp or any 22": 9,000

Total: 29,970

AMD Build:

CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 (Phenom II X4 with 2 cores and w/o L3 cache) 2.8Ghz: 3,150
Board: Any AM2/AM3 board with an SB710-SB750 southbridge : 3,200 - 3,800
GPU: Sapphire/Powercolor Radeon 4770: 5,550 - 5,770
Memory: DDR2 2GB 800 or DDR3 2GB: 1,550 - 2,340
Hard Disk: Seagate 500gb 7200.12: 2,550
Power Supply: Acbel Ipower 610w: 3,300
Monitor: Dell 22" e228wfp or any 22" : 9,000

Total: 28,300 - 29,910

Try playing around with lower monitor and motherboard prices and see if you can increase your budget a little bit. A Radeon 4850 512mb can be had for as low as 7,000.

[Jun aka Pekto]

what i'd pick. . .
phenom x3
emaxx amd 790gx-xtrm
geil dual ddr2 4gb 800
ati hd 4830 ddr3

should pretty much end up a gaming whore rig

If you're not planning to do Crossfire or SLI, it's better to stick with a single PCI-E 16x slot (785GX). I noticed there's substantial price-savings when going with the single slot.

[safeorigin]

it's using pci-e 2.0 btw not to mention that it has a heat pipe, all solid caps and glan. however, if the budget is like 50k php, i might go for an FX :drool:

[Jun aka Pekto]

This is a Gigabyte 790GX motherboard


Here's a Gigabyte 785GX


The heatsink looks attractive especially if I plan to overclock. But if not, the tried and true HSF should be effective enough for cooling.

In my case, I haven't seen the need to overclock anything ever since overclocking a P-166 made the difference in making the original Quake playable.

But, if there's a 1 PCI-E slot 790GX with the same cooling pipes, I may consider it.

[Revenant]

The heatsink looks attractive especially if I plan to overclock. But if not, the tried and true HSF should be effective enough for cooling.

In my case, I haven't seen the need to overclock anything ever since overclocking a P-166 made the difference in making the original Quake playable.

But, if there's a 1 PCI-E slot 790GX with the same cooling pipes, I may consider it.

How about the MSI 785GM-E65? The aluminum heatpipes look "boring" compared to the "striking" Gigabyte pipes though.

[Jun aka Pekto]

How about the MSI 785GM-E65? The aluminum heatpipes look "boring" compared to the "striking" Gigabyte pipes though.

I might consider it too. I'll have to do some thinking first because I'm usually wary of buying the same brand as my motherboard that just went kaput (MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum).

I did notice two things that changed with motherboards since 2005.....

1. None use the type of (defective)capacitor anymore (PSU's still use them)
2. Fans have been replaced by heatsinks

Technically, that should mean a jump in durability and reliability for most boards.

Add: Reading the reviews for that MSI 785 board, Some hinted at bios issues. I recall having had to update the bios of my Neo4 Platinum too many times just to get the second core of the Athlon 64 X2 4200+ to be recognized. So, I'll probably pass on that board.

But, Gigabyte seems to have earned quite a reputation since 2005. I'll give that brand a shot.

[Horsepower]

Yeah Gigabyte is a proper motherboard. Better than Asus even.

Another one was Abit, too bad the company went under.

[Jun aka Pekto]

Yeah Gigabyte is a proper motherboard. Better than Asus even.

Another one was Abit, too bad the company went under.

Abit also let me down. That was back in the Athlon XP/Via KT266a days.

It's a little embarrassing when my wife's pc (has the older and slower ASUS Athlon XP motherboard based on the AMD760/761 chipset) outlasted the newer Via KT266a motherboards and the MSI board of my X2 4200+. It's over 8 years old now and have gone through W2k, XP, and now, Vista Basic.

I had 3 Athlon XP 1700+ pc's. One has the AMD760 board, one had a Soyo Dragon Plus, and the last one had an Abit board. The last two croaked within 3 years. I was tempted to go Intel once more. But, the Athlon 64 X2 dualcores kept me interested in AMD.

I'll stick with AMD for now. I figure the Phenom II X3 would be the sweet spot for multicore processing. I can always unlock the 4th core if I decide to overclock. I didn't realize the Phenom II X3 has 4 cores with one core (the 4th) turned off.

[Jun aka Pekto]

I've been watching the availability of the 5870 and 5850 at newegg. They're not lasting very long. They're being bought up as soon as they arrive. There's no way I'm buying a video card priced over $200.

The last time I did that was when I bought two Voodoo 2's for $600 (March 1998). The wife had a fit when she found out.

[Jun aka Pekto]

I guess it's a good thing my frst order didn't go through. I'm now able to fine tune my requirements for a midpack pc......

$559.00 - $20 rebate = $539.00
AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz
GIGABYTE GA-MA785GMT-UD2H AM3 AMD 785G
CORSAIR CMPSU-550VX 550W ATX12V V2.2 SLI Ready
Combo deal:
SAPPHIRE 100269HDMI Radeon HD 4890 1GB
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1600

Compared to the last specs ($552.00 with no rebates)
CPU: AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz Black Edition
M/B: GIGABYTE GA-MA785GMT-UD2H AM3 AMD 785G HDMI
RAM: Crucial Ballistix 4GB DDR3 1800
VIDEO: SAPPHIRE 100279-1GL Radeon HD 4870 1GB
PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V (2 x 6-pin)

I love the combo deals. They knock off $20 here, $20 there plus rebates if there's any.

[hex]

guys thanks for all the suggestions. it will surely help me decide which system will i build.