Help me build my new computer!

In My Humble Opinion
1

Well, after browsing around Tom’s, and getting confused thereby, and reading a few threads of folks asking for critiques and opinions on their builds, I figured I would jump in and start one of my own.

My needs are pretty simple: gaming.

But not super high end FPS gaming. I want to be able to play Civ 5 at max settings. My son will want to be playing Diablo 3 when it comes out. That sort of thing.

I have been picking up a few bits and pieces as they came up in the budget. What I am mostly concerned about is getting the best bang for my buck in CPU, a good video card that will handle what I want it to handle for a few years, and making sure my stuff doesn’t melt or explode.

I have a budget of around $600. I usually do all my buying at TigerDirect, but I’m open to other options.

Things I have, with TigerDirect links to same:

Dokker Mid-Tower case that I picked because I liked the HDD port on the top, and because of the expansion capabilities. The fact that it can take a full ATX MoBo is a nice benefit I didn’t see at the time.

8 Gigs of RAM. If the budget allows, another set of these is in the plans.

Cooler Master 120mm fan. I will want at least one more of these.

Tiger usually sells an OEM Win7 disc, 64bit version, for $99 if you’re buying a mobo. That is my plan for that need. :slight_smile:

I’ve also got a keyboard, mouse, a 19" HP w1907 Monitor, and a DVD burner I have to pull out of my previous rig.

So, suggestions and advice would be HIGHLY appreciated.

2

I guess nobody has suggestions or advice then? Dang.

3

With any kind of video gaming rig, you pretty much have to build your computer around the video card. These things are huge monsters nowadays. I’ve had trouble in the past having to buy/return different GPUs because I didn’t have enough room the way my motherboard was arranged.

And any system you build that can run those games should be able to do anything else you need without trouble. So basically you’re going to end up building a gaming rig.

4

Yeah your basically building around your gpu. You said you have a $600 budget.does that need to include the windows OEM license?

The biggest bang for the buck right now is a sandy bridge 2500k system built around an nvidia gtx 560 ti gpu. That system will last you many years, well into the next gen of games at 1080p or so. But that build will be closer to 800. With 600 I’d recommend either building the core sandy bridge system and waiting to save up for a gpu upgrade down the line, our going with an amd CPU and mobo plus amd gpu. Amd systems are cheaper but the performance is not up to par with what Intel brings to the table. Which is why I would suggest building Intel and worry about the gpu later.

5

Also check out Toms hardware bang for the buck gpu article (they have a new one every month). Then price put the rest of the build.