Building a gaming PC

[Thomas]

So I know next to nothing about PC gaming, but would like to get into it more since I've been enjoying Half-life 2 on my shitty laptop a lot more then I did on the 360. I'm not looking to spend more then $500 for the system (not including the monitor, but it'd be awesome to get it all for under that). I'm mostly wanting to play Left 4 Dead 2 and Portal 2, but might be nice to play some other stuff in the future (Mass Effect Series comes to mind). Any suggestions for a first time PC gaming set-up?

[Ex-Cyber]

Here's a sample configuration that would at least be "okay" for games. With shipping, this should come out to just under $500:

Case: Cooler Master Centurion 5
PSU: Antec Neo Eco 520C
MB: Biostar A770E3
CPU: AMD Athlon X2 260
RAM: 4GB DDR3-1333
GPU: Sapphire 100283-3L Radeon HD 5770 1GB
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 500GB
ODD: Some ~$25 OEM DVD burner

Someone around here who's a serious PC gamer could probably do a bit better, but other than that a lot of it comes down to personal taste and brand preferences.

[Jeeba Jabba]

that's a reasonable build but I would do a 5870 instead, just because its that much of a difference for only 100 bucks more, and leaves much more room for upgrading with a second 5870 versus two 5770s, which run the source engine fine, but won't survive you much longer than the remainder of this year.

honestly, the absolute best bang for your buck as of right now is the 6950 for around $280 which can be flashed and unlocked to a full 6970, which goes for around 370 (of which I have two in crossfire). but you will void your warranty.

there's a lot to consider when it comes to video cards, but the top priority should always be future expandability. if you build this rig with low expectations of how much time you're going to spend on it, and go with something like the juniper you 5770, and then completely become buried in pc gaming, you're going to regret it. its always better to spend a little bit more on a more current single gpu than a cheaper crossfire config of two dated gpus.

modern cards are much more complex in their capabilities than just clock speeds and memory. stream processors and tessellation maneuverability are just a couple examples of the features to look for in dx11. I'm personally an AMD fan just because of power consumption and cooling.

[Zealous zerotype]

http://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/commen ... e_options/

excellent put together guide that is updated regularly that also gives you options to check out and doesn't sacrifice quality.

Another good pc building graph is http://media.photobucket.com/image/rece ... /Guide.png

I disagree on the constant bumping up of cases, but whatever.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811129042

Thats the case I'm using for my hackintosh system currently and it is wonderful. Few cons with it though - not the best for cable management (not terrible just could be better). Thats actually the only one I can recall right now. Really solid case though and comes with an excellent price. I just like the look of it too as I dislike OMG WINDOWS LEDS on my computers.

[pixel]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811129042

Thats the case I'm using for my hackintosh system currently and it is wonderful. Few cons with it though - not the best for cable management (not terrible just could be better). Thats actually the only one I can recall right now. Really solid case though and comes with an excellent price. I just like the look of it too as I dislike OMG WINDOWS LEDS on my computers.

Nice, that's the same case I bought last year. Like you said, the inside is spartan and doesn't have the luxuries of some other cases. It definitely makes up for its faults with its size and exterior. I've got some large, slow moving fans and it's whisper quiet. There's massive space inside and its easy to get at everything. The only negative would be its larger size if you're looking for something smaller.

[Ex-Cyber]

Yeah, I have that one too and am generally pleased with it. My only real complaint is that the front USB ports are kinda cheesy (poor fit/finish, iffy cable quality), but I guess that's likely with any lower-budget case.

[Jeeba Jabba]

Mine: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811133094


$40 case with over $2500 of hardware in it. Never given a shit about cases.

[Code-Red]

Go with a Coolermaster CM690 I or II. I've owned two of them now, and for the price they can't be beat.