New Rig for under $700!?

[essential]

Hello everyone!

I originally came to this site about 5-6 years ago for suggestions on building my first computer. After getting a significant amount of help I purchased and built the computer and have been happily using it with little to no problems throughout this time. Unfortunately, this thing has had it. My videocard/motherboard are running faulty (seeing legend on boot and cannot view much other then text). This is a good enough reason to go ahead and get a new rig.

Objective :
-To build a personal computer to be used for general business uses and GAMING!

Requirements :
-To be able to run all games that are currently out and will come out for the next year or so (diablo 3/starcraft 2 ideally).
-Be small and portable.
-Be as close to $700 as possible while still meeting other requirements.

Parts Needed :
-CPU
-Motherboard
-Graphics Card
-RAM
-Hard Drive
-Power Supply
-Case
-Monitor


This is the first place I've come to get an idea of whats the standard for today's computing equipment. I'm looking to get the most bang for my buck in all area's.

Lets see what we can come up with!?

 

[orihS ‪‪‪Shiro]

http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/3332/suggestion1.jpg

That's my first suggestion.
It goes over budget by 33$ but can play pretty much all modern games, most at high settings.
The monitor is a 22" 1920x1080 monitor with a very very low pixel pitch. (.248) meaning that this monitor has amazing PPI(Pixels per inch) giving it great clarity and quality.
The Phenom II X2 550, has the potential to be unlocked on this motherboard and could potentially become a Phenom II X4 B50 quad core.
It has 4Gb of DDR3 gaming grade RAM, low voltage, decent latency, high frequency. It's good for overclocking.

The PSU is good. The case is amazing.
I'd stake any reputation I have on the case.
And the Hard drive is the samsung spinpoint f3 500gb
Newegg is out of stock, so I found one on ewiz for the same price, also Amazon is selling them right now I believe as well.

I'll try to make a second build that stays underneath the 700$ budget completely, but I won't lie, it's not easy lol.

 

[orihS ‪‪‪Shiro]

As far as portability goes... I'm not 100% sure on that with this case.
It's a mid tower so it's not absolutely tiny... Though it's a very good case if you look at it objectively.

 

[orihS ‪‪‪Shiro]

Aha! I shaved down the costs by $27-28 by finding the monitor on buy.com for $150 with free shipping!
AOC 2236Vw Widescreen LCD Monitor - 2236VW - Buy.com

Also a site called nextwarehouse offers the monitor for 150 with free shipping as well. ( I just gave out buy.com first because it's reputable)

So instead of being over budget by 33$ I'm now over budget by only about 5$ and I'm still looking for ways to shave the price down.

 

[orihS ‪‪‪Shiro]

I found a way to shave the price down further by $20, while still keeping the same performance and most of the parts, but I think within $5 of budget is fine.
Going cheaper would mean ordering the RAM from Axiontech and buying a cheaper motherboard from Newegg with slightly less features than the 770 I had selected.
(The Asus 780L is what I was thinking of)
AxionTech.com : AxionTech.com Shopping Cart : SSL Secured

So ordering your RAM from axiontech and buying a 780L instead of that 770 would save you $20 more putting your total at about $680
But... Ordering from multiple places can be a pain, and a 780L only has 2 RAM slots.

 

[orihS ‪‪‪Shiro]

Also if you want a quad core, instead of hoping the Phenom II X2 550 unlocks, you can just swap it with an Athlon II X4 620
(Though if you really want to game, I'd just stick with the Phenom II X2 550 which owns in gaming)

 

[Slaymate]

You need to quit making multiple posts minutes apart. Use the edit button on your 1st post if you wish to add more. Or just type everything 1st and then post your thoughts in a single entry.

 

[orihS ‪‪‪Shiro]

Sorry, I'm used to a faster response forum than this one, I'll try to keep the edit button in mind.
I'm still adjusting to this type of board.
(I'm not used to having an edit function. The forum I came from didn't have one, and post were made at high frequencies.)
You see, I came over to this forum, because I left the old tech forum I frequented because the moderators there are numbskulls, and this place looked like a nice tech place to settle down. (Sorry for an overflow of posts, I'll tone it down from now on)

 

[essential]

Wow. Thanks for all the information! I appreciate your budgeting skills but I have some new found capital and don't mind going over the 700 by a hundred bucks or so.

I've never overclocked a computer and (while I don't mind learning how) I'd rather keep my PC running stock as long as possible.

Questions:
1. Is their any better gaming CPU's within the $100-160 range (don't mind splurging for the brain of the operation) that you would recommend?
2. Is everything here fully compatible?
3. I have a version of Windows XP Home edition installed on this computer...can this same version be installed on my new computer?


Thanks!

 

[orihS ‪‪‪Shiro]

1. Phenom II X4 955
2. Yes.
3. Yes, but is it 32 bit or 64 bit?
Being as I showed you a build with 4Gb of memory, it would benefit you to use a 64 bit operating system.