Introduction
Building a new computer can be a daunting task (I know I have done it several times). There is a lot of research that has to be done to determine your budget, and then to find all the best parts that fit in that budget. I recently built a new mid-range gaming computer and I thought I would share the process with you. Hopefully my pain can help you make better decisions.
Before I go over the components, lets talk about what the goal is. What you plan on doing with the computer determines what parts you are going to need. If your goal is to surf the internet, write papers, and possibly do a little casual gaming then you can save yourself a lot of money by buying a lower end CPU and Graphics card. However, if you want to play current games at their highest settings then you are going to need a high quality graphics card and a fast CPU. My goal, as I stated in the title, is to build a mid-range gaming computer. This means I don’t need the best graphics card and CPU, but I am going to need good ones. In fact, whenever someone asks me how much they should spend on a new computer I always recommend about $1500. So that is where I have set my own budget.
Let’s look at the components. First, keep in mind that component prices are constantly changing. It takes a few weeks to put together a review like this so the price of the parts will have changed. I also looked far and wide for sales and discounts. Some of the parts even came with rebates, but the prices below do not reflect any rebates.
Here is my parts list:
| $1,500 Mid-Range Parts Prices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Motherboard |
EVGA E758-A1 |
$294.99 |
| Processor |
Intel Core i7-920 |
$279.99 |
| CPU Cooler |
XIGMATEK Dark Knight-S1283V |
$39.99 |
| Memory |
Corsair XMS3 TR3X6G1600C8 6GB DDR3 1600 |
$139.99 |
| Graphics |
XFX GX260NADBF Black Edition Geforce GTX 260 |
$208.99 |
| Hard Drives |
2 x HITACHI Deskstar 7K1000.B (Raid 0) |
$139.98 |
| Optical |
LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner |
$31.99 |
| Case |
Antec Nine Hundred Two Black Steel ATX Mid Tower |
$139.95 |
| Power |
Antec Signature SG650 Modular 650W |
$174.99 |
|
Total Cost |
$1450.86 | |
On the next few pages we are going to analyze each part and talk about why I picked them.
| JusTech'n editors' rating | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
||||||||||||||
Click here to go to the forum for this post
Loading ...
Thank you for writing your experience. Now that you have had everything for a little while, are there any other things you would’ve changed in retrospect?
loading...
Thank you for the question. I am actually very happy about the whole system. As I mentioned in the review the motherboard has some heat issues when overclocking, so I would probably pick a different one. However, because I am not doing any overclocking right now it works just fine.
loading...
i just came acrossed your article and i liked it alot. my computer building started this past march 09. (NEVER EVEN LOOKED INSIDE A COMPUTER BEFORE THEN)i have built 3 since then finishing the 3rd in august 09, i built almost the same computer with minor differences. i used a zalman cnps 10x cpu fan plus i did double up the evga gtx 260core216sc cards. i haven’t over clocked it yet because like you had said i have zero knowledge of that. my computer skills are only 6 months from ground zero. the MB has a couple issues, 6 SATA connections run flat with the MB which are hard to connect. the fan was really tight. i will take a couple pictures and post.
loading...