opinion - building a semi-gaming rig on a budget.

i'm thinking about building a sort of gaming rig. it's really more for creating animations on 3ds max studio, but i'm going to play a little on it too.

it's got to be on what i'm considering a decent budget, a lot of bang for my buck (i think, that's why i'm asking). i don't know a whole lot about this sort of thing.

can this be built with the 585 power supply???? is this worth it??? would I end up with a monster of a machine?? or will it be a dissapointment???

here we go,

specs:

a barebones system. this one:

Venom VBBI-0H5510 Barebones Gaming System - Intel Core i3-530, 4GB DDR3, Pre-Assembled, Integrated Video, 585 Watt PSU, No HDD, No Optical Drive, No OS

I would upgrade the ram to 8gb DDR3 (2x4gb). Specifically this one:

Patriot PGV38G1333ELK Gaming i5 8GB PC10666 RAM - DDR3, 1333MHz,
2x4096MB, 9-9-9-24

for the video card i'd put on is this one:

GeForce GTX 460

I want to upgrade to a better one in the long run, but this will be good to start.

I would use a 1 TB hard-drive. probably nothing too fancy.

i want something good, but from here on out i'll recycle some of my old parts until i can afford something better.

the DVD drive will be recycled from my old computer.

for the OS i'm going with Windows 7. if that doesn't work out too well, i'll find xp somewhere and run that.

a 20" flatscreen i already own, I have a good semibrand new keyboard n mouse.



any opinions welcome.

I3 processor for 3d animation? Might wanna step that up to at least an I5. About the power supply, video cards really suck down the juice. I had to upgrade my power supply when I got a new video card and that was in a 1 yr old pc. If I were you I would take a look and see what kind of power requirements the video card you want to upgrade to has. Then you can make a decision on whether that power supply will be enough. Power supplies are pretty cheap 50-100 bucks so no biggie if the one that comes with the pc isn't enough.

i'm no pro designer or anything.

i do it for fun, and the freelance income comes in every once in a while.

3ds max works alright in the computer i'm using now. and it's nothing close to that computer.... i'm on a budget too....

you seem to confirm my fears on the power supply though.

i mean the minimum that video card requires is 450 or something like that.... but i still think the juice won't be enough for all the stuff i want to put on it......

500 sounds pretty fuckin steep to me. if you build it your self you could get a i5 processor,hdd, etc for 500. maybe just a lil more. i've been lookin at building my own, but with amd quad core.

http://educations.newegg.com/tool/psucalc/index.html is i nice tool to help you figure out what power supply to use. they might have some better deals too.

Honestly your better off building your own PC with dual video cards from newegg.com. If you must go with this system, then I would definitely upgrade that power supply to at least a 650 and I would also upgrade the processor to an i5. Especially if you want to do some graphic design and editing.

tigerdirect and newegg are almost the same thing....

i'll look at what i can find in newegg...

this looks good for 500. http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.467750
unless you're just dead set on intel.

i dont know the situation your in, but if you need a computer now then go for it. I would wait till you have a bit more like 750. I would hate for you to build something and wish you had waited 2 months for more money, also the more you wait the lower prices get.

I've built 5 gamers, but not recently. It's been 2 years since I've built a computer, but my main gamer is still the best machine I've played on. Don't skimp on motherboards, cpus, memory, and hard drives. I wouldn't buy a Maxtor hard drive no matter how cheap they might be selling them. Unless something has changed in the past couple years, NewEgg.com is a very good place to find good deals on components. You'd do well to read a lot of computer magazines before starting your project to get in touch with what's hot and what's not. Good luck with your project.

Yea go to the store and get the latest issue of pc mag or pc gamer or w/e and they have like budget pc issues all the time. I think if your on a budget thats the smartest thing to do.

i was thinking more along the lines of a Western Digital HD....

AMD and ATI/NOW ALSO AMD graphics are gonna get you the best bang for your buck. Fuck Intel and NVIDIA. Seriously listen to blazin.

Kodank Moment said:

AMD and ATI/NOW ALSO AMD graphics are gonna get you the best bang for your buck. Fuck Intel and NVIDIA. Seriously listen to blazin.

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I second this. It's been a few years since I built my rig as well, but it still does very well and I can play all the latest stuff with no problems. Its an AMD system with a FOXCONN Destroyer MB, 8G ram, Raid 0 setup. You just can't beat AMD's prices and you'll see little gains if you use intel and pay twice as much.

i have been building/cooling pc's for quite some time now,
currently im on water but have done phase change.
i also consider my self to be a avid gamer,
for cpu i would go with intel with out a doubt.
for gfx i would go with ati,
my current rig is quite old now but still puts the map load times of most to shame.

my current setup is:
intel qx9650 overclocked to 4.0
8gb ocz reaper 1066 pc8500,
evga 750i sli ftw
bfg 295gtx
and last but by no means least 4x ocz vertex 30gb ssd drives in raid0 128k stripe.
psu is also important and i run a corsair 1000hx.
i only went with nvidia gfx so i could use the 3d gaming side of it.

go with the new 6 core cpu from amd and use a ati graphics card coz they are very good for a smaller budget, 6-8 gb ram ddr3 a nice multi gpu motherboard so u can go crossfire next year or the year after, use a ssd for the os and a hdd for storage, 750 watt psu, i cant think of anything else, amnesia haze is fucking amazing.

finally have my rig on the way. total cost will come close to 1400 (tax included, also including cost of trackball mouse and new keyboard), all components shipped and being put together ATM, 23" monitor off overstock was a steal, going to get a trackball mouse, my old keyboard n mouse will do for now.

i settled for:

i5-650 processor, 3.66ghz
12gb DDR3 ram
1.5tb westerndigital harddrive
additional 500gb SATA internal harddrive for harboring all the 3dsmax and photoshop files.
can't remember what motherboard i'm going to use, i'm not all that computerized so yeah, all i know is that it had 5 stars on newegg.com...hehe....
dvd-drive came from my old computer.
wireless LAN card integrated, found on craigslist, off a xps 8100
ATI 5770 video card.
Coolmaster case < these things are more expensive than I expected.

windows 7 professional OS.

should be ready by the end of the year, FINALLY!!!!!

redivider said:

windows 7 professional OS.

Click to expand...

please get the 64bit

sincerely,
everyone in the world

brandon. said:

please get the 64bit

sincerely,
everyone in the world

Click to expand...

of course i am.

i think i did pretty well for 1400 bucks.... for cooling i'm using several case fans that move 100cfms a piece, i don't think i need any liquid cooling contraptions.... do you???

redivider said:

of course i am.

i think i did pretty well for 1400 bucks.... for cooling i'm using several case fans that move 100cfms a piece, i don't think i need any liquid cooling contraptions.... do you???

Click to expand...

Just making sure. You have no idea how many clients I had that bought 6+ gigs of ram for their 32bit machine haha.