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an Upgradeable Build on a Budget
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26-06-2008 10:31pm#1Well I promised my cousin I'd shop for parts for his new machine, he wanted something to blow Age of Conan out of the water for around US$1,100 but no more than $1,300. I figured I'd set him up with something that was mid-ish range but would be easy and painless and flexible to upgrade as time went on (and he found newer and more demanding games to play in the years to come), which is why I've put the 790i Ultra at the heart of the build, and aimed at 64-bit processing and future options for SLi.
then of course I went a little overboard
So what I've cooked up in the last couple hours for choice parts:
Antec Three Hundred ATX Computer Case
EVGA nForce 790i Ultra 3-way-SLi DDR3 Board
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4Ghz 8MB L2 1066Mhz FSB
150GB Raptor 10k RPM 16MB Cache
XFX GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB DDR3
Its at this point I realise I've already reached the 1100 ceiling without Ram, a PSU or an OS :pac:
Any comments and criticism would be swell of course0
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Is he an overclocker, big into hardware, etc? A budget build can branch off in two directions really, enthusiast budget and general gamer (with no general care for the make-up of his machine) budget.
New socket out very soon, so there's only so much you can 'future proof' a board of all things right now - I'd cheap out on the board personally in a budget build (decent-cheap, not Biostar-esque cheap
). I like to overclock and have a good board but I still don't spend more then 80-140 euro on mine, last one I got was the Gigabyte 650i for 80 euro, solid overclocker, Sli, supports 45nm, etc.
It's hard to price up a US build given the vast amount of sites, difference in prices, etc. But as a rough guide on a budget build I'd go for the following:- 750i board of some sort, possibly 650i/680i if there's really good prices
- 2gb decent ram (4 isn't really necessary for games right now, but if your budget allows it won't hurt of course)
- Fast dual core rather then quad core for games (overclocking comes into here, you can seriously cheap out on the CPU to a measly 70-80 dollars if he is and still get excellent performance and freeing up more $$$ to pump into the video card/a nice sound card/maybe even a monitor)
- Card like 9800GTX or HD4850 - high end gaming performance at a reasonable price. Don't buy XFX on a budget, buy one of the cheaper manufacters, Sparkle, PNY, Sapphire, etc - basically buy economically, with the amount of cards out now so competitive, 20 or 30 dollars/euro can transfer a bargain into a raw deal.
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