building my first pc i would appreciate some help =)

[gamerx1988]

My budget is $900 I would like to build a pc that runs almost any game at max settings. Would anyone be kind enough to list some parts I can buy from bestbuy to build it.

[jimbo_limited]

Bestbuy is pretty limited. Can you use an online distributor like newegg or tigerdirect?

I've just built my parents an Intel gaming rig just under $900

[gamerx1988]

sure

[jimbo_limited]

Can't link items (iPhone) but search all parts on newegg.


Intel i5 3390 $190
Rosewill challenger U3 $60
ASRock extreme3 $130 or extreme4 $143
OCZ ModXStream 600w Modular $75
G.Skill ripsaw 8gb (4gbx2) 1600mhz $40
Western Digital Black WD1002FAEX 1TB $118
Kingston HyperX 3k 120GB SSD $100
HIS IceQ X Radeon HD 7850. $200


This is slightly over $900. $913 shipped. If your into overclocking drop the SSD and buy a intel i5-3570k and a Nvidia 560Ti video card


I've used the Motherboard and its great. Easy to use. I'll get the memory listed today for my current rig. Video card is great. Plays borderland 2 on max and I'm sure it'll play BF2 on almost max (not ultra). Case doesn't offer much cable management but that's why I selected a modular power supply

[ShyguyXPC]

My budget is $900 I would like to build a pc that runs almost any game at max settings. Would anyone be kind enough to list some parts I can buy from bestbuy to build it.

Do you need a copy of Windows with that as well?

What about Monitor and other parts?

[gamerx1988]

Am I able to instal a graphics card to this pc?

[gamerx1988]

Do you need a copy of Windows with that as well?

What about Monitor and other parts?

Im going to try to upgrade my old pc

[gamerx1988]

I have a gateway DX4840

[ShyguyXPC]

Is this your PC? https://support.gateway.com/s/deskto...X4840sp2.shtml

Do you know what the exact CPU you have in there is? Its an H57 Chipset, so we already know its a 1st Generation Socket 1156 CPU, but no telling what the exact model is, if its a Dual Core, Quad core, clock speed, what?

How Much RAM you already have?

Are you running Windows 32 or 64-bit?


What are you trying to upgrade in the PC, just the CPU, Video card, More RAM?

Etc?


Your also going to have to look at the Power Supply that is in there look for a label on it, find the Brand name if any of the PSU, find out the wattage rating of the unit, and look for a +12V Rail Amp Rating if it even shows one.

[gamerx1988]

Is this your PC? https://support.gateway.com/s/deskto...X4840sp2.shtml

Do you know what the exact CPU you have in there is? Its an H57 Chipset, so we already know its a 1st Generation Socket 1156 CPU, but no telling what the exact model is, if its a Dual Core, Quad core, clock speed, what?

How Much RAM you already have?

Are you running Windows 32 or 64-bit?


What are you trying to upgrade in the PC, just the CPU, Video card, More RAM?

Etc?


Your also going to have to look at the Power Supply that is in there look for a label on it, find the Brand name if any of the PSU, find out the wattage rating of the unit, and look for a +12V Rail Amp Rating if it even shows one.

intel core i3 cpu 550 @ 3.20ghz
64bit
300watt
8.00GB of ram

I want to upgrade the video card and the power supply and cpu

[ShyguyXPC]

well, the CPU is going to be a bit of a Problem, Socket 1156 is Dead, has been for a year or two now, ever since the 2nd Generation Core series came out on Socket 1155.

And we are now into 3rd Generation Core series on same platform.

Don't feel bad, my Core i7 system is FIRST Generation socket 1366, and has been replaced by Socket 2011. But thankfully 1366 i7's are still able to hold their own against most lower to mid range Core i5/i7 Quad cores on 1155.

Even 4 years later.



well, if you have 8GB RAM right now, there's no need to upgrade that.


PSU, 300W doesn't say much, but if its 300W, it WILL need to be replaced for a GPU upgrade.


for the CPU, newegg doesn't have much of anything for Socket 1156 CPU's, other than this Refurbished Quad core:


Newegg.com - Refurbished: Intel Core i7-860 Lynnfield 2.8GHz (3.46GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor SLBJJ

but for that price, you can get a Socket 1155 Core i7 that would decimate this CPU.


Hell for $200 the more mundane Core i5 quads would ruin that CPU and still run at faster clock speeds.



Geeks.com no longer has any available, they had a nice Quad core for $250-300 a month or two ago, but no longer.

Directron.com has the same CPU you already have, and a slightly upgraded version, but not worth upgrading to.

Clarkdale Intel Socket 1156 CPUs Intel Core I3/I5/I7 Clarkdale Dual Core 32nm Processor-Best Computer Online Store - Buy with Discount Prices from Houston Texas-Directron.com




Tigerdirect has a i5 760 2.8GHz Quad core: Intel BX80605I5760 Core i5 760 Processor - 2.8GHz, LGA 1156, 8MB L3 Cache, Quad-Core, Lynnfield, Retail at TigerDirect.com

Though, in a way its not much of an upgrade.

your losing 400MHz on the core clocks, but gaining 2 extra cores.

For games that aren't optimized for more than 2 cores, your actually losing performance for games.

Though it can help in other ways, with managing the OS, and background tasks, taking the load off 2 cores, and spreading it around, allowing games to have more resources from 1 or 2 cores.


But at $238, you could still get a Socket 1155 Core i5, running 3.4GHz and be much faster, not only in clock speeds, but core performance as well.




Do you still have that $900 budget, or has that dropped, or increased since you started this thread?


Reason I ask is it might be better Performance vs Dollar wise to build a whole new system, than upgrade the CPU, and GPU.

you'd be looking at $200-300 for the CPU, unless you found one on the used market somewhere, $200-300 at least for the video card, and then another $50 or so for the PSU.

after spending that much, its not that much farther on buying a new Motherboard, RAM, HDD, OS and case.


Or you could even reuse your older systems parts, things like the case, RAM, HDD, etc could be reused.

[gamerx1988]

well, the CPU is going to be a bit of a Problem, Socket 1156 is Dead, has been for a year or two now, ever since the 2nd Generation Core series came out on Socket 1155.

And we are now into 3rd Generation Core series on same platform.

Don't feel bad, my Core i7 system is FIRST Generation socket 1366, and has been replaced by Socket 2011. But thankfully 1366 i7's are still able to hold their own against most lower to mid range Core i5/i7 Quad cores on 1155.

Even 4 years later.




well, if you have 8GB RAM right now, there's no need to upgrade that.


PSU, 300W doesn't say much, but if its 300W, it WILL need to be replaced for a GPU upgrade.


for the CPU, newegg doesn't have much of anything for Socket 1156 CPU's, other than this Refurbished Quad core:


Newegg.com - Refurbished: Intel Core i7-860 Lynnfield 2.8GHz (3.46GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor SLBJJ

but for that price, you can get a Socket 1155 Core i7 that would decimate this CPU.


Hell for $200 the more mundane Core i5 quads would ruin that CPU and still run at faster clock speeds.



Geeks.com no longer has any available, they had a nice Quad core for $250-300 a month or two ago, but no longer.

Directron.com has the same CPU you already have, and a slightly upgraded version, but not worth upgrading to.

Clarkdale Intel Socket 1156 CPUs Intel Core I3/I5/I7 Clarkdale Dual Core 32nm Processor-Best Computer Online Store - Buy with Discount Prices from Houston Texas-Directron.com




Tigerdirect has a i5 760 2.8GHz Quad core: Intel BX80605I5760 Core i5 760 Processor - 2.8GHz, LGA 1156, 8MB L3 Cache, Quad-Core, Lynnfield, Retail at TigerDirect.com

Though, in a way its not much of an upgrade.

your losing 400MHz on the core clocks, but gaining 2 extra cores.

For games that aren't optimized for more than 2 cores, your actually losing performance for games.

Though it can help in other ways, with managing the OS, and background tasks, taking the load off 2 cores, and spreading it around, allowing games to have more resources from 1 or 2 cores.


But at $238, you could still get a Socket 1155 Core i5, running 3.4GHz and be much faster, not only in clock speeds, but core performance as well.




Do you still have that $900 budget, or has that dropped, or increased since you started this thread?


Reason I ask is it might be better Performance vs Dollar wise to build a whole new system, than upgrade the CPU, and GPU.

you'd be looking at $200-300 for the CPU, unless you found one on the used market somewhere, $200-300 at least for the video card, and then another $50 or so for the PSU.

after spending that much, its not that much farther on buying a new Motherboard, RAM, HDD, OS and case.


Or you could even reuse your older systems parts, things like the case, RAM, HDD, etc could be reused.

Ill go whit what you said ill reuse some of the stuff
and my budget has been reduce to $500
what motherboard would you recommend.

[gamerx1988]

is this stuff any good?
Athlon II 260 Dual Core CPU (3.2GHz)
Gigabyte 78LMT-S2P SKT AM3 MATX Mainboard
4GB DDR3 1333MHZ Dual Channel Ram
320GB SATA2 Western Digital Hard Drive
Cooler Master 460w Power Supply
MSI Nvidia 9600GT 512MB PCI-E Video Card
SATA CD/DVD Burner
Windows 7 Home Premium x64

[ShyguyXPC]

nope, your taking a step or two back in performance, with all that. 9600GT is old, outdated and under performing, Athlon II would be similar to a Core 2 Duo...

so no,



Ugh, this is a challenge trying to come up with a better CPU/GPU combo....

can't seem to do it.


Not for $500 budget, because if you reuse some older parts, and new upgrades to build a new system, you'll need a new copy of windows 7 64-bit for it, since the OEM (Gateway) version installed is tied to that system, and thats taking $100 chunk out of the budget.


Only thing I can suggest is maybe with that $500 right now, get a Good $200-230 range Video card, and an Upgraded PSU, and put those in your existing rig for now and then see how it does.


I've tried several Intel Quad core configs and I always end up over $500 with out the OS.


I even tried AMD's newer FX series 6 and 8 core CPU's and same thing. Anything less than an AMD FX 6 core and its not going to be any better than what you have right now.

Its bad enough in some games Intel's Dual Core i3's beat AMD's quad and 6 core CPU's.




I'd be looking at something like this: Newegg.com - EVGA 02G-P4-2663-KR GeForce GTX 660 FTW Signature 2 2GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

or These:

Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition OC 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card (11199-03-20G)

Newegg.com - XFX Double D FX-787A-CDFC Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card


At the least.


From what I have been reading, seems your 3.2GHz Core i3 should still be plenty fast to run with these more powerful cards, and not have much of any bottleneck issues.

So you could be fine with just spending on a better GPU and Power Supply combo.


if thats the case, then cards like these:


Newegg.com - EVGA 02G-P4-2678-KR GeForce GTX 670 FTW 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card


then toss in a PSU like this one:

Newegg.com - Antec NEO ECO 520C 520W Continuous Power ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply




or toss in this Modular Unit instead, Newegg.com - SeaSonic M12II 520 Bronze 520W ATX12V v2.3 / EPS 12V v2.91 SLI Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply


another card option is this one, slightly faster, and has a dual fan cooler, should run the card cooler and quieter than the EVGA above with a blower fan on it.

Newegg.com - MSI N670 PE 2GD5/OC GeForce GTX 670 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card


I just wish the Budget had another $150 more to it, and you could easily afford a newer CPU, Motherboard, PSU, Copy of Windows 7 or 8 64-bit, and a 2GB GTX 660 range card (less than these 670's, but not that far behind, while being nearly 1/3 to 1/2 the price.