Poor College Student Build

[Negawing]

Hey there everybody. I have been wanting to build a gaming computer for a while now, and now that my job is bringing in "decent" money (7.44 an hour, but I don't have to do anything but sit here. Heck, I am writing this from work!), I can finance one. The overall goal is to have a pretty good gaming computer that can run newer games well. Sick and tired of using my laptop.

I mainly play games from Steam, so stuff like Borderlands, TF2, CDMW2, ect.

Here are the parts that I have selected, thought it would be a good idea to run them by you guys to make sure they will all play nice.

Case
RAIDMAX SMILODON Extreme Black ATX-612WEB 1.0mm SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Foldout MB Computer Case - Retail
http://http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811156078&cm_re=similodon-_-11-156-078-_-Product
$70


Hard Drive
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD3200AAJB 320GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA100 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
http://http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136109&Tpk=Western%20Digital%20Caviar%20Blue%20WD3200AAJB%20320GB%207200
$60


MoBo
GIGABYTE GA-MA785G-UD3H AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 785G HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
http://http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128395&Tpk=GIGABYTE%20GA-MA785G-UD3H%20AM3%2fAM2%2b%2fAM2%20AMD%20785G%20HDMI
$90


Graphics Card
EVGA 01G-P3-1155-TR GeForce GTS 250 1GB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
Newegg.com - EVGA 01G-P3-1155-TR GeForce GTS 250 1GB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards
$148


Power
Antec TruePower New TP-750 Blue 750W Continuous Power ATX12V V2.3 / EPS12V V2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE ... - Retai
http://http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371022&Tpk=Antec%20TruePower%20New%20TP-750%20Blue%20750W
$105


RAM
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ - Retail
Newegg.com - G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ - Desktop Memory
$85


CPU
AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Black Processor Model HDZ720WFGIBOX - Retail
Newegg.com - AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz 3 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Black Processor - Processors - Desktops
$120


I will also throw in a $20-40 dollar cd reader/burner and find a monitor somewhere. So it's sitting on about $700 right now. If you guys see anything that could be cheaper that I missed, I would love to hear about it.

Thanks a ton!

 

[Yami]

All good. However as unknowledgable as I am with US pricing, $60 seems a bit much for 320GB?

 

[Negawing]

I will take a look and see if I can't find anything cheaper.

 

[Muffin Man]

different build you could look at. this totals $665 + shipping (possible $45 back in rebates). you get a quad-core, a 5770 which will blow away that gts 250, and twice the hdd space. this rig is also crossfire ready if you want dual gfx cards.

Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more!
Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more!
Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more!
Newegg.com - RAIDMAX SMILODON Extreme Black ATX-612WEB 1.0mm SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Foldout MB Computer Case - Computer Cases
Newegg.com - Sony 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 DVD/CD Rewritable Drive - CD / DVD Burners

 

[aliasaid]

nice build Muffin Man.

Nega, i'd look at muffin's build cuz it looks like it'll outperform yours.

 

[Negawing]

Woah!

Your my hero! That rig is much better than the one I had planned out. Cheaper too, which is always nice.

Thanks!

 

[Negawing]

Should I invest in a sound card? And does that CPU come with a heatsink? I can never tell from the newegg page.

 

[Fat.Clown]

Should I invest in a sound card? And does that CPU come with a heatsink? I can never tell from the newegg page.

1) probably not unless you got some nice headsets/speakers to go along with a sound card

2) yes

 

[Negawing]

So with this build I should be able to run Borderlands at full settings with no problem? I sure hope so! The game looks awful if its not on max graphics.

What are everyone's thoughts on the Geforce GTX 260 vs the Radeon HD 5770

 

[Trotter]

Averaging the total performance change from all of the benchmarks today, the 5770 comes out 27.92% ahead of the 4850 overall, and a minuscule 1.75% slower than the GTX260+ overall. This is a good result for launch drivers, especially considering the GTX260+ has vastly superior fillrate and memory bandwidth compared to the 5770. We once again see that theoretical specifications don't necessarily translate into reality.

The 5770 represents a clear performance upgrade over the 4850/4770, so it's a no-brainer there.

In the case of the GTX260+ however, things get a bit trickier. The 5770 is basically equal in overall performance, but in many games it's significantly slower. You can either choose between the two based on which games you play, or you could get the 5770 and hope that driver improvements will fix the underperforming games.

We've seen excellent performance from the 5770 in the titles where the drivers are optimized, and I firmly believe history will repeat itself with ATi wringing out some great performance in the end. I also suspect that both Cypress and Juniper are underperforming at the moment (intentional or not), and future driver updates will address this. In particular, I would not at all be surprised if a major driver performance update comes when nVidia's Fermi launches.

This review was written before the release of the newest drivers.