OK, He wants his own PC because the one I built for my Father is OLD.

He wants to Mainly Run Final Fantasy 14,
So decent GFX Power, Moderate CPU, After market Audio isn't important..
Speakers aren't important, he's using headphones.
I'll Order Aftermarket CPU Cooler/AS4 and Fans later.

Basically he needs the Rig, and a Screen. I think He'll use the "IbuyPower USB Keyboard/Mouse"
(anyone got a recent picture of those?)


I have a budget of about $900 ish, i'd like to keep it around $750 though.

So My Family and I are trying to build him one for Christmas, I would like to just use Ibuypower because I've had good experience with them so far on my rigs. But if I have to I'll order from NewEgg/Tieger or whoever in waves and build it as the parts Come.

EDit: Shipping Parts in $300 Installments... See last Post

Maybe having an AM3 motherboard will add a bit more future-proofing to the system? It would mean going DDR3, but DDR2 prices are going up anyway and are about level with DDR3.

Asus has some boards in the same price-range:

Asus M4A785T-M (AM3, 785G, mATX, DDR3, 2x PCI, PCI-e 1x, PCI-e 2.x 16x)
Asus M4A77TD (AM3, 770, ATX, DDR3, 3x PCI, 2x PCI-e 1x, PCI-e 2.x 16x)
Asus M4A88T-M (AM3, 880G, mATX, DDR3, 2x PCI-e 2.x 1x, PCI-e 2.x 16x)

If ASUS isn't directly necessary, there's also Gigabyte
Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3 (AM3, 770, ATX, DDR3, 4x PCI-e 1x, PCI-e 16x, 2x PCI 32-bit, 66MHz)
Gigabyte GA-880GM-D2H (AM3, 880G, mATX, DDR3, 2x PCI, PCI-e 1x, PCI-e 16x)



[EDIT]Gigabyte

i dont really do "Upgrades". I just build a new rig and retire the parts or hand it down to one of my brothers.

FWIW: I just ran to Newegg and quickly put together a fairly high end quad-core DX11 system that will run any game currently on the market for $1035. If I shopped more intently, I probably would come close to your $950 mark. When the HD6xxx ATI cards hit the market at the end of November, GPUs of all makes will be cheaper. AMD is in the process of lowering the CPU costs too.

Phenom II X4 965
Gigabyte 890GX AM3 motherboard
4GB Patriot DDR3 1033 (more is meaningless)
ATI HD5830
Corsair 750W PSU
Seagate 1TB HD
ASUS 23" LCD monitor
Windows 7 HP
etc. etc. -- all the parts needed

So, by the end of November (the Newegg Black Friday weekend sale -- which I used last year to make an economical system), one should be able to build a system able to run anything and with "legs" for the future -- for under $950. No need to compromise with dual-core or any of that.

By the way, I agree with the above post -- I build a new system for myself -- my wife gets mine -- a grandkid gets my wife's -- sometimes there is a further bump -- lots of folks happy including me and my new system

For what its worth.

So far no where i've done Custom configurations came close to iBuypower.

half the "free Upgrades" i had the option for are gone now a week later.

Im prolly gonna wait to see if they do a "black friday" weekend special,

But even if i get a pre-built from IBP, I still have to take it apart and add some stuff to help with cooling, Add software to prevent him from screwing with settings and to monitor is system to protect it. etc etc, then run some CPU Burn Ins and GFX Burn Ins (Yeah IBP does that, but Im gonna fiddle with the cooling so I'm gonna have to re-burn in the Heatsinks and stuff.

I hate the stock HSFans they use, that was my only gripe from my system, their Certified Heatsinks are garbage, and killed my AthlonX2 6000+ in a month, i had to go out and buy a Zalman 9700NT to keep my temps down. and other than the Cert. Heatsinks they only offer water cooling. blah.

My Budget was around $750, so, even my $900 is over budget, but Im looking at some BF deals, and coupon codes that I'll have from google or whatnot.

I would not even fool with a dual-core anymore. And DDR2? No way.

Someway, I would work in a Nvidia 460 too.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/value-gaming-pc,2578.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-pc-build-a-pc-overclock,2739.html

Yeah, I was looking at the eVGA 450 SSC because they use a different cores than the stock 450s, so its OCd and has more CUDA cores *supposedly*, and a lifetime warranty.

I'll wait to see what tom's says abotu the $750 PC, then make adjustments,

I saw that i can get a cheap Dual core Phenom and turn on cores 02 and 03 to make it a legit Quad w/ a lil program.

I was looking into making the adjustments to get DDR3/USB3.0 and prolly quad core, That brought it to $896 without a LCD, Shipping/Tax and Add On Heatsink/Fans.

The egg has a heck of a sale on right now. 72 hours. You can pick up a 750Gb Seagate 12 series for 49.99.

LINK

Here are some budget system recommendations by a few well known sites:

ArsTechnica latest
Bit-Tech.net's latest
TechReport's latest

So I Guess im building it myself based on some info. Like i said, buying 3 core and activating the 4th

Using the Above guides, and making substitutions i want (ie eVGA 460), and replacing the CPU/Mobo I can build a system for liek $599 without Windows

Case
Mobo
AMD Phenom X4
4 GB Corsair Dominator
500GB HDD (might just buy a 1tb from local walmart for $70, w/ 32 MB cache)
SATA DVD-R
2 Sata Cables
Evga 460 SSC
4 120MM Fans.

Allocated about $100 for PSU and Another $130ish for Display.
Didnt look at aftermarket cooling until i see what kinda room I got. might not need it anyway.
Just gotta make sure the mobo's onboard sound is a "DirectSound® compatible sound card (DirectX® 9.0 or higher)"

I think most onboard sound is done by realtek, anyone know if they work in newer games or will I have to buy a SB XFi. (I think would be overkill considering he's gonna be using Stereo Headphones)

Keyboard and mouse are dirt cheap so I'll get those when Im moving the sytem from my house to his after assembly (I might toy with it too.)


I'll Post specs and links once I finalize my selections.