Seeking PC build advice/feedback

[Whiskey]

Whiskey needs a new $800 budget gaming rig. My current PC is getting long in the tooth. The old Del Inspirion 531 treated me well enough but it's high time I spent some rare coins on a new machine. This time around I'm going to gird my loins and build a machine from components rather than buying another pre-built system. Before I start ordering parts could y'all give me some feedback? Am I missing anything obvious?

I'm debating between buying from New Egg or Amazon. Amazon.com for the Prime discounts, free shipping , and no tax. That and I trust their customer service should I need to return something. I’m using Newegg links as they more compact.

Any feedback would be most appreciated. I’m new enough at this that I’m worried I’m mising something really obvious or over looking some component synergy.


Rosewill Challenger Black Computer Case. $50.00
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147153

Western Digital Caviar Black 500 gb $150.00
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136795

Corsair Vengeance 8 gb Ram $47.00
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145345

Intel Core i5-2400 Sandy Bridge 3.1 Ghz quad CPU $190.00
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115074

Asus 24x dvd burner $20.00
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204

Gigabyte GA-Z68xp-ud3 atx intel motherboard $150
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128512

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal compound

Rosewill Hive series Hive-650 power supply $90.00
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182132

HIS Radeon HD6850 IceQ x turbo GPU $165?*
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161363


* I’ve been agonizing over what GPU to use. Does SWTOR favor Nvidia over Radeon?

A new monitor will have to wait until next year. Likewise, an SSD drive will be an eventual upgrade should the prices come down. Finally I’ll add another 8gb of Ram next year.

It’s a giant leap up from my old Dell with AMD athalon, 2 gigs of ram, and over heating Radeon 4850 gpu. J

[Rer]

If you're really in it for the long haul I'd say just get a 1TB hard drive honestly.

Corsair RAM, good choice and Intel always makes good processors obviously .

As for the motherboard and video card I went with ASUS company-wise but absolutely love the HD Radeon series as a whole. I've had very few graphical issues with the game other than some bugs (and hell I'm only using a 4870), but those weren't card related.

Seems like a good rig to me. Is a 650 power supply still the standard these days? I haven't looked much into building a new rig yet so I'm 3 years behind the curve

[GrilledCheese28 (aka Aruth)]

I think thats solid, although I would change:

Instead of +8gb next year, add WD green 1tb HDD and back up your 500gb & future SSD to it using Windows 7's backup features. Personally, I'm still only rocking 4gb RAM and haven't encountered a situation yet where more would really help me out. Backups, however, have saved my bacon twice now this past year.

Just my $0.02!

[Whiskey]

Thanks for the help!

I'll try to fit a larger hard drive into the budget.

[Slurm]

Not sure if this helps (or if your proposed mobo can use it), but...

In ONE HOUR (at the time of this writing), Amazon will have 16 gigs of Corsair as one of the deals of the week:

www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0054KPK9C?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

you can watch the clock here:

www.amazon.com/Black-Friday-After-Thanksgiving-Sale/b/ref=cm2011_gwcsm_camera?ie=UTF8&node=384082011&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=right-csm-1&pf_rd_r=0K1J8T9R80ZTYF25YWDK&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1333278182&pf_rd_i=507846

Just skip ahead until you see it on the list. (should be at 10:45am PST, which would be 1:45pm EST). It's already 86 bucks, so any discount on that would be pretty amazing.

[Whiskey]

Thanks Slurms!

[darean]

I buy most of my components from Newegg or Micro Center (which is local to me as well). I haven't been let down by any purchases from either place.

As for video cards, I used to be a NVidia nut, but then I tried an ATI HD Radeon. I haven't looked back since. I've had less "driver" problems with ATI than NVidia.

I'm currently running an ATI 6870 and it runs the all the games I've thrown at it easily.

Good luck with whatever you do decide.

[Whiskey]

Thanks for the reply Darean.

I ended up going with the Radeon 6850. The Tom's Hardware SWTOR Benchmarks seem to indicate there is no obvious advantage between them and Nvidia and the prices certainly favor Radeon for someone on a tight budget. IE: Me.

www.tomshardware.com/reviews/star-wars-gaming-tests-review,3087.html

Cheers!

[GrilledCheese28 (aka Aruth)]

Solid card, you will be fine!

[Slurm]

Well, I wanted to get a new monitor after the holidays, but I may go the route of a new video card instead. My 5770 has been just fine for games until now, but seeing as I'll be playing alot of TOR, I think I'll invest in an upgrade to a 6950 so I can bump up my settings from (mostly) low.