Need shopping List

I am looking to build a gaming desktop

My ideal processor is a i7-920. If there is a cheaper one that runs better, feel free to chime in.

Everything else is up in the air.

Will be running on a 20-23 inch monitor.

budget- $800

Goal: build an insane gaming pc.

Are you building a laptop or a desktop.

If you want "build" a laptop, the closest you can come to that would be to customize the configuration of a pre-built unit such as a Dell. Other than that, unless you want to go through a whole lot of expensive hassle, there is no way to "build" a laptop.

If you are building a desktop, and everything is "up in the air", then I can only give you general advice. The i7-920 would probably be overkill in an $800 machine - you would end up spending a large proportion of it on just the mobo, cpu, and RAM, and may not have enough left for the rest. I would suggest a Phenom 2 or Core 2 Quad with a good motherboard and 4 gigs of appropriate RAM. Then add a decent case and a 500-700 watt power supply. Add a good video card -ATI 4850 or better (ATI or nVidia). Then of course, there's the Optical drive, OS, keyboard, mouse, etc. - whatever floats your boat.

I don't think you can build an "insane gaming PC" for just $800.

I agree.

While i7 is the best processor in the market, its superiority is more related to stuff making heavy use of huge number of threads. Gaming isn't exactly heavy threading stuff. i7 on games only show a difference when u use multiple high end graphic cards, but that it will be out of your budget reach.

Core2Quads and Phenoms II are similar. I would personally go with the Phenom II just because the Core2Quad is an end of life platform while the AM3 isn't.

For example a cheap AMD Phenom II X3 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103649 can be had for $119.00 and its quite good for gaming. You might wish to have a quad core, and I believe they are more future proof, even though at this time the X3 is quite a bargain. The Phenom II x4 955 is $245.00 though ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103674 ). You can go with the intel Core2Quad 9550 which is around the 955 performance for a bit cheaper if you can find them.

Yes it is a desktop...a gaming laptop is what I currently own so I guess I just typed that by accident. I would only want a quad core processor. I would pick the i7-920 for $280 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115202) over the Phenom II x4 for $245.00. Thoughts?

How much is the cost of the motherboard and stuff though?

While the processor in itself is a bargain, the price of the motherboard can add up to.

For example you can have this ECS motherboard with the 750sb for barely $100 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813135236 for Amd phenom II processors.

The cheapest motherboards for an i7 (use X58 chipsets) I see in new egg are around $170 dollars.

Those $110 saved by going a Phenom II 955 only need 30 more or so to buy an ATI 4870 1GB or can buy you a 4850.

Look, as CPUs go, the i7 are the best. But for gaming both the core2quad and the Phenom II x3 and x4 can compare to it.

Sincerely for your $800 dollar budget I don't see how you going to get an i7 and then have enough graphic power to not be disappointed for gaming.

Unless the most demanding game you play/will play is Guildwars.

Then you can burn over half your budget on the i7+motherboard for it and buy a cheapo graphic card like the geforce 9600GT or an ATI 4670.

And do you have a monitor?

So you need:
-CPU;
-Motherboard;
-RAM;
-Hard drive;
-Power Supply;
-Case
-OS (vista);
-Mouse, Keyboard and DvD burner?

If we set aside some 80-100 dollars to get you a decent mouse, keyboard and burner, you 800 budget becomes 700.

That i7 920 for $270+ a motherboard around $170+ will put ur budget on 260.

Even a 4850 will eat around $100. So you have $160 for the rest... Even if you use a less than legit OS there is no way you can build the PC you want.

Tried ebay and found this

Dell XPS 435

Intel i7-920
6GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1066MHz - 3 DIMMs
Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium x64 Installed w/ COA
NVIDIA 9400GT 512 MB
1 Combo LG Blue Ray DVD Burner and a samsung 22x DVD burner
1 500GB SATA II and 1 640GB Sata II Hard Drive Installed
Power 550 Watt Power Supply

There is a starting bid of $700

What would be a solid bid on such a system. It has basically everything I want besides the graphics card which I can add later. Thanks.

Hi ^^
You can build one for cheaper than the starting bid.


If there is a Micro Center store near you, with stock, you can grab a Core i7 920 for $199.99!

This MSI X58M motherboard is only $169.99, yet it comes with "a full feature set along with well balanced performance" (AnandTech review).

And here's 6GB of PC3-10666 Patriot Vipers for $74.99 after rebate.

I'd also like to refer eBillme to you. If you find anything on ZipZoomfly that you'd like to buy, you can get a $30 rebate if the order is over $100. XFX Radeon HD 4850s were just $52.37 thanks to the eBillme and Bing offer, but one of the rebates expired so it's back up to $72.37. I'd keep my eye on ZipZoomfly for more deals in the future.
Oh, and use the Shopping Search on Bing if you can. They have a program where you can get cash back by just using Micro$oft's search engine.

199 for a i7 920 is quite a deal!

***Off-topic***
I've got a question about the multi-threading. If you are running iTunes, Windows Live Messenger, FireFox, TeamSpeak and Guild Wars at the same time, is it useful to use the i7 then (I'm also going to build my computer in a few months)? Or is multi-threading something completely different? Please don't flame me if I'm being stupid..

Yes Multi-Threading helps with that stuff, but the i7 is beyond overkill for what you are describing. A simple Triple-Core at 2GHz could run all that at the exact same speed as the i7.

You guys have to understand, the i7 was not designed for gaming or Windows, it was designed for servers and for processor farms. It's not going to increase your framerate in games, not even by 1%.

CPU $140: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103649
Mobo $110: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128387
RAM $45: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145184
Videocard (Buy two of these) $300: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102801

$595 and your system will be awesome.

Ok thanks alot Kuntz, but I think I'll go for more and better RAM, and maybe a better videocard, I have a budget of €1000 to spend on my computer (if I don't use the full €1000 it'll be a waste because it's €1000 I'm getting from my parents to only spend on the computer).

4gb of ram is a lot for now, and faster ram doesn't translate to higher frame rate. However, fast RAM is only another $10 so you can buy it if you like.

For that money, you might as well buy a DDR3 mobo and memory, and get a mobo to support 3 or 4 videocards.

If you want better video, buy two 4890 OC's or two GTX 285's, if you still want better video, buy two 4870 X2's (Quad-Fire) and a Corsair HX850w PSU.

Note: Farcry 2 is an incredibly biased nVidia benchmark. I included it anyways though.

Ok thanks, very useful info. But what processor do you think I'll need for what I'm going to use it for? Running some programs at same time like: Guild Wars, iTunes, Outlook, Windows Live Messenger, FireFox, ...? I think I'll go for 2x GTX285 and 6GB DDR3 RAM.

You might also want to keep in mind the 4890 OC's are pretty cheap and have similiar performance to the GTX 285 as well:

GTX 285 is $345 x 2 = $690
4890 OC is $230 x 2 = $460

So you're paying 50% more money for 3% more performance.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102841

The Phenom II 920 would be good for 2 powerful cards, plus all of AMD's processors and motherboards are always backwards/forwards compatible, so in terms of future upgrade potential, AMD has you covered.

Thanks again Kuntz, and if I would like to buy my hardware components, would www.newegg.com be a good dealer for that? Or are there cheaper/better sites?

newegg is a great place to buy hardware, they have very good customer service as well as very good packaging and fairly good shipping times.

I personally buy from NCIX.com but I am Canadian and for us, they are the best choice. I think they ship to Americans now as well, and they price match, which means they'll always save you the most money, or tie, but never lose.

$786.70 will get you all the system you need to handle the games of today and tomorrow - an AM3 build will be just as good for gaming purposes as i7 and is significantly cheaper. You won't regret this build if you choose to get it.

CPU & Memory:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.206888

GPU & Free Game:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.194180

Case & HDD:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.206923

PSU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817341019

Motherboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128392

Optical Drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827151188

The end price includes shipping to NYS (where I live) and takes the $60 in rebates into account. That system will handle any game you have very well and is made of nothign but reliable and quality name brand parts. Good luck and enjoy!

Lol ok thanks, but I was just wondering about the graphics card, that one could be a bit better, no? Rest looks really good for a nice price!