As alot of you know Im about to buy every thing and make a new comp.
Its my frist build and before I buy I just wanted to see what you guys came up whit my budget.
I got $850 to spend just on the comp parts.
I dont need a OS, monitor keyboard or speakers just the case and every thing that goes in it.
And I am definately willing to wait for the 4850 and get a p45 to crossfire

Also I want to OC as much and still have a rig that runs for 4yrs.

THX!

8800GT(S) 512mb
E7200/E8400/Q6600
GA-(E)P35-DS3L/GA-P45-DS3L
WD6400AAKS
Antec/Corsair/PCP&C PSU

I'd get a GTX 280 and use some old fashioned hobo construction building the rest of it out of cardboard.

As much as I love nVidia cards, the benchmarks for the GTX280 might not be worth all that you pay considering what you could get relatively to it for cheaper. But I will say this, depending on the size monitor you are using, a single 8800gt(s) would be far sufficient for you. If you have a large display that yields great quality, then go SLI

What a waste of a post. Have something insightful to add or just don't bother.

Now then to the OP:


Middle Budget Build: Goal $800- Acutal Price- $761.65 shipped before rebates of $40

CPU: Intel Core2Duo E7200 $129.99 add $60 for E8400
Motherboard: MSI P45 Neo-F $99 (or Asus P5Q Pro- add $50) for Crossfire support
RAM: OCZ Platinum Revision 2x 2GB DDR2-800 ($20 MIR) $23 for 2GB of RAM
Video: Radeon 4850 Video card $199
Case: Antec Sonta III $129
Hard Drive: Seagate 250GB 16MB cache $59.99
Optical Drive: SAMSUNG Black 20X DVD Burner SATA $22.99
Thermal Compound: Arctic Cooling MX 2 $6.99
Cooling:XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 $36.99
Bracket:XIGMATEK ACK-I7751 Retention Bracket $6.99

Forget doing XFire with the 4850 and the P45.

The P45 only runs 8X PCIE for XFire.
I suspect you will be severly bottlenecked.

Get Cheaper GPUs or get a better Mobo.

the p45 has 2.0 pcie so its like haveing a 1.1 x16 and ive read that htey did tests with 1.1 x8 crossfire and there wasnt any bottlenecking

Someone posted earlier, the 4850 is actually on newegg at 199.99. If you want it, it's there.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Core-2-Duo-Gam [...] dZViewItem

Parts and shipping cost $799.51 I got to make a little profit and pay fees.

And I would like three wishes from the wizard.... You have champaigne taste on a beer budget. Lucky for you this cpu overclocks to speeds of up to 3.6 to 4.0. But for now I would just move up the FSB on this to 3.16GHz...it's the natural overclock for this cpu (9.5x333). Anyways there's your build.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811119152 $69.99
COOLER MASTER Centurion 590 RC-590-KKN1-GP Black SECC / ABS ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817139005 $109.99 ($99.99 after $10.00 Mail-In Rebate)
CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply 100 - 240 V UL, CE, CB, TUV, FCC, CCC - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115052 $131.99
Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 Wolfdale 2.53GHz 3MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835233001 $24.99 ($14.99 after $10.00 Mail-In Rebate)
XIGMATEK HDT-S963 92mm Rifle CPU Cooler - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835233019 $6.99
XIGMATEK ACK-I7751 Retention Bracket - Retail

http://secure.newegg.com/Shopping/ [...] ChangeItem $319.99<---Combo Deal
ASUS P5Q Pro LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard EPU w/ 8-Phase power, heat-pipe, designed for overclocker
&
ASUS EAH4850/HTDI/512M Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814121253

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820146731 $89.99 ($74.99 after $20.00 Mail-In Rebate)
mushkin 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822148262 $59.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827106263 $23.99
LITE-ON Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 20X DVD±R DVD Burner - OEM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 0&Tpk=mx-2 $6.99
ARCTIC COOLING MX-2 Thermal Compound - Retail

Total
$844.90
$804.90 w/mail in rebates

OP:

The extra $100 on Why_Me's build over mine will give you 2GB more of RAM and a better PSU.

Go with his build if you can swing the extra $100 which it looks like you can.

I have been wanting to upgrade my computer and have been reading the forums about gaming rigs for the last week. I really like Why_Me's build and just purchased the exact parts from Newegg except for the case and power supply. I got a NXT Apollo Case (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146025) and Antec 650 power supply (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371001).

I have never overclocked and will be reading those forums while I wait for my parts to come in. I was hoping to get some more info about how to "...move up the FSB on this to 3.16GHz...it's the natural overclock for this cpu (9.5x333)." THX!

The OP didn't even bother to try and do any research. Get over it Captain Serious-about-computers.

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/690/1/ <---Read that. There's a "drop down menu" at the bottom of that page. 9.5 is the multiplier for this cpu (E7200), so 9.5 x 333 = 3.16GHz. Now you can go higher than that, but don't until you get more experience with overclocking. With that clock up above you should't have to go out of the voltage bounds for this cpu, wich means little added heat and longer cpu life. Not only that, but you don't really gain that much after you clock to a certain point. Alot of guys on here overclock to the moon and back but that's becouse they are speed freeks.