I'm looking to build a desktop computer with a monitor and all of the necessary accessories. If possible I would like to buy a desktop and monitor with 3D capability but I'm not sure if I can get all of the parts I need for under 1300$. I do not need speakers or a mouse but I need a nice monitor and I would like crossfire graphics if it could be worked into the budget. If anyone could help me with a build I would appreciate it I don't know enough about all of the components to find parts for the most bang for the buck. Also because of the monitor cost I looked at buying a laptop, would iBUYPOWER Computer :: Battalion 101 CZ-11 Ultra [2] Gaming Notebook be comparable to a desktop setup with a monitor at the same price?
3D gaming desktop setup for under 1300$?
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CalcProgrammer1
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No way on the laptop, the mobile i7's are far weaker than their desktop counterparts and are clocked way slower. The graphics on that laptop is fairly low end, it may be the current generation but it doesn't have much power. Also, from my experience with laptop gaming I would not recommend it, I've had overheating issues with laptops and wouldn't recommend them for gaming at all.
Also, ATi cards currently don't have any 3D functionality, so that laptop won't do 3D. If you want to do 3D you must have an nVidia graphics processor, a 120Hz monitor, and nVidia's expensive glasses. With the monitor and glasses you probably won't be able to get a nice build within $1300. However, if you ditch the 3D you can get a very good build for that, an i7 920 or 930 would be in that price range and it beats the mobile i7 by a huge margin, especially if you overclock it. You could also probably fit a high end ATi or nVidia, something like a GTX470, HD5850, or HD5870, all of which are very powerful cards.
With the HD5870 (and 5850 most likely) you won't need Crossfire as long as you stick with one monitor. I have 3 monitors on my 5870 (all are 1080p) and gaming on all 3 with Eyefinity works fine on everything except Crysis. The HD5870 is just a very powerful single card, crossfiring them would play Crysis on high settings on 3 monitors smoothly if you really need that kind of power, but that setup would cost near $800 for 2 discrete cards, $600 for a 5970 which is 2 5870 GPU's on one board.
Also, ATi cards currently don't have any 3D functionality, so that laptop won't do 3D. If you want to do 3D you must have an nVidia graphics processor, a 120Hz monitor, and nVidia's expensive glasses. With the monitor and glasses you probably won't be able to get a nice build within $1300. However, if you ditch the 3D you can get a very good build for that, an i7 920 or 930 would be in that price range and it beats the mobile i7 by a huge margin, especially if you overclock it. You could also probably fit a high end ATi or nVidia, something like a GTX470, HD5850, or HD5870, all of which are very powerful cards.
With the HD5870 (and 5850 most likely) you won't need Crossfire as long as you stick with one monitor. I have 3 monitors on my 5870 (all are 1080p) and gaming on all 3 with Eyefinity works fine on everything except Crysis. The HD5870 is just a very powerful single card, crossfiring them would play Crysis on high settings on 3 monitors smoothly if you really need that kind of power, but that setup would cost near $800 for 2 discrete cards, $600 for a 5970 which is 2 5870 GPU's on one board.
Thanks for your help I was unsure about the laptop supporting 3D graphics but if I cant get a good setup for under 1300 could you help me with a gaming desktop setup? I'm willing to put a good amount into an expensive video card as long as I have enough money for the i7 and other important parts, and I have no clue where to start budgeting the items piece by piece. I want to be able to run wow and possibly Crysis and newer games on high settings. I would need an OS, monitor, power supply, keyboard, also a good sound system would be nice for music and mixing programs I use but its not completely necessary to be worked into the budget.
Sean W.
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a laptop will never ever compete with a desktop computer in the same price range.
I understand that a laptop wont have as much power as a desktop for the same price but with all of the other parts I need and an OS I didn't know how much faster the desktop would be. Can anyone help me choose parts or atleast help me budget so I know how much I should be spending for each item?
ATI's Eyefinity doesn't offer 3D support, just multi-monitors as far as I know. Here's a link to the 3D Vision Requirements 3D Vision Requirements
CalcProgrammer1
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For reference, my build cost $1400. That is for an i7 930, Gigabyte motherboard, 6GB RAM, HD5870, 650W PSU, 640GB HDD, and Antec 900 case. I already had OS, mouse, keyboard, and monitor. I did later replace the single monitor with 3 new ones for Eyefinity which added about $450 but as that wasn't part of my original build I'll leave it out.
Going with your idea of 3D you'll absolutely need to go with an nVidia graphics card, preferably a GTX4xx series which are pretty expensive. You'll also need a 120Hz monitor which are more expensive than 60Hz monitors and you'll need the 3D Vision glasses. There's no way you'd be able to fit all that into $1300 unless you ditch the i7 and go with an AMD Phenom X4 CPU platform and cut way back on the graphics power.
What it comes down to is your priorities. How badly do you want 3D? If you want 3D you'll need some serious budget change or a whole platform change to AMD. If 3D isn't so important you can cut it and keep your i7 and high end GPU. As far as I've heard, WoW isn't too hard on graphics cards, but Crysis definitely is and you'll need some decent power to push Crysis at high settings.
For your graphics you'll most likely end up spending somewhere in the $300 to $400 range, especially if you plan on running 3D as you need more power. nVidia's GPU's typically run for higher prices than ATi cards and as nVidia is the only vendor with 3D support, you'll need one of their cards.
The i7 is somewhere in the range of $300 for the CPU, $200 for a good motherboard, $160 for 6GB triple channel RAM, so for the core PC you're looking around $700 as a high estimate. You still need a hard drive/solid state drive, a power supply, a case, a video card, possibly an OS, and possibly a monitor. If you go with $300 for video card that puts you at $1000. That gives you $300 for HDD, PSU, case, monitor, and OS which is pretty much impossible unless you go with bargain bin cheap components which you will later regret.
My advice is this. If you want to go with a 3D setup, wait a little while longer, get another paycheck saved, do whatever it takes to afford a bit more hardware. With an extra $200-300 you could get your 3D setup and a nice one at that. If not you'll have to cut a ton of stuff and won't get a very good build or you'll have to cut 3D and go with a basic monitor. If you don't have this option, I'd look into AMD's platform as the Phenom X4's can be had for much less than the i7 which gives you more room. As with any gaming computer, the graphics card is the most important, so try to get the best one you can.
Going with your idea of 3D you'll absolutely need to go with an nVidia graphics card, preferably a GTX4xx series which are pretty expensive. You'll also need a 120Hz monitor which are more expensive than 60Hz monitors and you'll need the 3D Vision glasses. There's no way you'd be able to fit all that into $1300 unless you ditch the i7 and go with an AMD Phenom X4 CPU platform and cut way back on the graphics power.
What it comes down to is your priorities. How badly do you want 3D? If you want 3D you'll need some serious budget change or a whole platform change to AMD. If 3D isn't so important you can cut it and keep your i7 and high end GPU. As far as I've heard, WoW isn't too hard on graphics cards, but Crysis definitely is and you'll need some decent power to push Crysis at high settings.
For your graphics you'll most likely end up spending somewhere in the $300 to $400 range, especially if you plan on running 3D as you need more power. nVidia's GPU's typically run for higher prices than ATi cards and as nVidia is the only vendor with 3D support, you'll need one of their cards.
The i7 is somewhere in the range of $300 for the CPU, $200 for a good motherboard, $160 for 6GB triple channel RAM, so for the core PC you're looking around $700 as a high estimate. You still need a hard drive/solid state drive, a power supply, a case, a video card, possibly an OS, and possibly a monitor. If you go with $300 for video card that puts you at $1000. That gives you $300 for HDD, PSU, case, monitor, and OS which is pretty much impossible unless you go with bargain bin cheap components which you will later regret.
My advice is this. If you want to go with a 3D setup, wait a little while longer, get another paycheck saved, do whatever it takes to afford a bit more hardware. With an extra $200-300 you could get your 3D setup and a nice one at that. If not you'll have to cut a ton of stuff and won't get a very good build or you'll have to cut 3D and go with a basic monitor. If you don't have this option, I'd look into AMD's platform as the Phenom X4's can be had for much less than the i7 which gives you more room. As with any gaming computer, the graphics card is the most important, so try to get the best one you can.
Thanks for the help I don't know very much about computers I only get paid 200$ every two weeks but if i wait another two weeks I could afford a setup for about 1500. Is there anyway you could make me budget for a 3D desktop with all of the other components I need for 1500$ or if going 3D will reduce my budget too much what would be the best setup for 1300$ without 3D? I'm really looking to mainly play wow and do some music mixing but I would enjoy 3D.
probably as good as it gets for 3D and under $1300
ony Optiarc Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA CD/DVD Burner
GIGABYTE GA-890GPA-UD3H AM3 AMD 890GX HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
EVGA 01G-P3-1465-AR GeForce GTX 465 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMX4GX3M2A1600C9
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - Operating Systems
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3500418AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
NZXT GAMMA Classic Series GAMA-001BK Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor
CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W
Samsung 2233RZ 22 inch LCD 1680X1050 300CD/M2, 5MS 3D-Ready Monitor
Subtotal: $1189.47
does not include keyboard, mouse and speakers.
+shipping and or tax, don't know how much in your area.
then when you get your next paycheck
grab the 3D glasses.
NVIDIA 3D Vision Glasses Kit w/ Limited Edition Avatar 3D Stereo Glasses Model 942107010007001
ony Optiarc Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA CD/DVD Burner
GIGABYTE GA-890GPA-UD3H AM3 AMD 890GX HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
EVGA 01G-P3-1465-AR GeForce GTX 465 (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMX4GX3M2A1600C9
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - Operating Systems
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3500418AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
NZXT GAMMA Classic Series GAMA-001BK Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor
CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W
Samsung 2233RZ 22 inch LCD 1680X1050 300CD/M2, 5MS 3D-Ready Monitor
Subtotal: $1189.47
does not include keyboard, mouse and speakers.
+shipping and or tax, don't know how much in your area.
then when you get your next paycheck
grab the 3D glasses.
NVIDIA 3D Vision Glasses Kit w/ Limited Edition Avatar 3D Stereo Glasses Model 942107010007001
**** those glasses are expensive. Thanks a lot for helping I was just wondering how much of a difference in price and speed I would get by changing the processor combo to the i7? Also would it be worth getting 6gb of ram or would this setup run 3D well?
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