Save up some cash then expect to pay about $300 for the rest of your stuff ( RAM, GPU, PSU, HDD ). Sell drugs on the side or something.

LOL, Actually I have a bunch os stereo equipment from my car I've been trying to sell for a long while.

Does anyone want to tell me if I am at least on the right track with the following components?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148767

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125375

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127586

Unfortunately, as others have pointed out, building a decent gaming computer isn't cheap, that's why consoles took off. So, either you need to save some more money or rethink your platform.

I have an Xbox 360. But some games must be played on a PC. I will not play either BF3 or Skyrim on a platform. It will be a computer; I just need to build a new rig in the same fashion as the one I built in '04. The only difference between then and now is that in '04 I had no problem taking $3-$4K and building a computer. Now, I'm married with children so, a budget build is what it's got to be. I don't have to rethink the platform. Just need to find what works on a small budget. I already stated I'm spreading it out over several weeks (more like months) I just need some help finding the right parts.

He could spread his purchases in a larger amount of time, and with each purchase being something decent. I'm not really bathing in money either so I can't afford to buy anything even half decent at one time or even in two chunks, but after a couple of months of saving I already have almost half the parts I need for a quite decent rig (Win7, 8gigs of ddr3 1333, 1tb 7200rpm hdd which I purchased today -- the mobo has to wait for a month or so) and a growing sum for the more pricey ones (CPU, GPU).

Total Up-front (w/shipping**): 514.04

Total Rebates: $55 + free game Dirt3

Final after rebates: 459.04

Processor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103846

Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131699

Video Card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102908

Memory: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104203

Hard Drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148767

Power Supply: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341022

**Shipping price was to me so yours will be different

ALSO, I didn't read any of the reviews on these items. It would be a good idea to do so and make sure that there are no major issues with these items. I just selected items based off of the specs and brand.

ADDITIONALLY, you might be able to find similar items with better rebates or slightly cheaper price. The video card I selected should last you a fair amount of time.

The thing that is killing you the most is the hard drive. If you can find one locally that is cheaper, that would help a lot. Another option is to stick with the ones you have currently until the prices come back down. Dropping the HDD puts you at 417.95 with 55 in rebates. so Final 362.95 + dirt3.

THANK YOU!!

Man, I was getting frustrated looking for stuff and this helps me a great bunch. I've been out of the loop on building computers for so long I don't really know what to get, hence why I've asked here. I appreciate it.

On a not so related but sort of related note I was just watching Netflix on my 360 with my daughter and it just RROD'd, but after turning it off and then back on it is working again. I'm not sure what is going on with it. Its an old one with a build date of 2008 and it just came out of warranty. I'm gonna try calling Microsoft to see if I can possibly get it repaired.

Don't they RR when they overheat? Could just be that.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007589+600003707&QksAutoSuggestion=&ShowDeactivatedMark=False&Configurator=&IsNodeId=1&Subcategory=5&description=&hisInDesc=&Ntk=&CFG=&SpeTabStoreType=&AdvancedSearch=1&srchInDesc=

Hence the reason I said sub-1TB, not 1 TB. My comment on the samsung 1 TB was to point out how insane hard drive prices have gotten. You used to be able to get it for under $60, now it's $80

Anyway, DO NOT GET SEAGATE! I wouldn't wish seagate on my worst enemies. They've had so many bricking problems over the past few years it isn't even funny. Also all the seagates being linked are stupidly expensive (their price, though, is probably indicative of where HDD prices are going to be in a month or two's time, unfortunately)

After looking, this http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Western+Digital+-+Caviar+Blue+500GB+Internal+Serial+ATA+Hard+Drive+for+Desktops+(OEM/Bare+Drive)/9861713.p?id=1218186269659&skuId=9861713 is probably the best you can do in the current state of the hard drive market -- which is horrible as I've been saying.

This http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/105934/Hitachi-Deskstar-7K1000C-HDS721050CLA362-500-GB/?cm_mmc=Mercent-_-Google-_-Data_Storage_and_Media-_-105934&mr:trackingCode=04DF626C-59F5-E011-9F24-0019B9C043EB&mr:referralID=NA is also probably not that bad of a choice and a little cheaper (Office Depot improperly labels it a laptop hard drive, but it is clearly a 3.5'' desktop hard drive, even the name implies it). I've had good luck with Hitachi in the past, but cannot comment on their current quality

Unless someone offers up a better hard drive soon, I'd order this by todays end, as I've been saying, the hard drive market is getting worse with every passing day, so buy now lest you regret it.

YOu'll have to pay taxes on the above, since there's a BB (and in all likelihood an OD) in your state, but with BB you can negate that by getting free to-store shipping.


Anyone who has taken some accounting will tell you that spreading your costs over time is worse than spending all at once at a later time. You can earn interest while saving up your money, which you can't do if you buy-as-you-go. Also you run the risk of buying a bad part with no way of being able to find out, which means you lose out of the store-return window and'll have to deal with trying to get the manufacturer to replace it.

I have a 320 and a 1tb Seagate which are both fantastic. I believe you are referring to the incident in early 2009.

Its almost 3 years later. I doubt they still have that issue.

Just two or three weeks ago someone on this forum (Peace Bullet) had one brick. They never fixed their firmware problem. Good to see you haven't had one brick on you, but damned if I'll ever trust my data to seagate again.

Also, either way, the seagate linked is significantly more than the WD Blue or Hitachi Deskstar.

I'd go with the Western Digital for that price for sure.

Not bad for most of the choices. However, gotta agree with getting the WD or Hitachi drive over the Seagate. The hard drive prices have been horrendous due to the Taiwan floods. It was only a few weeks ago you could get the awesome Samsung F3 1TB drive for about $50-$60...now they're sold out everywhere with a huge price hike. Hopefully, things get back to normal soon.


And I'd get this kit of RAM instead: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231427

How big of a gap in time are we talking about here to have the gathering interest mean anything at all? I'm not talking about a year or more, a couple of months at max. You don't lose anything in that time, and the components are all warranted.

Thanks for all the replies. I'll be back to reply to all of the above posts as soon as I am physically able to give detailed replies. I've lost power, again for the 90th time this year and I don't know when it will be back on. This is what I get living in Sussix County, NJ (the United States' third world country).

On a positive note, my mobo and proc should be here tomorrow, provided the UPS driver doesn't get hit with an RPG driving into my war torn lake community.

I'm going to be buying parts pretty much weekly as long as my wife allows it until the build is complete. I'm gather a list of parts I'll be buying this week as a matter of fact.

There is a Microcenter within two hours from me. The problem is, it's in the middle of a crime ridden slum in a city (Paterson, NJ) so I try to avoid it. I only go there when I'm literally working close to it and I'll only go there during the day time; when there is sun. When I lived in Colorado there was one within an hour of me that I went to all the time.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102873


I'll be ordering the following this weekend:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136236

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371035 I know someone had an OCz Fatality PSU but I won't buy anythign with Fatalities name on it. I have nothing against him personally, but I find that products with his name on it are over priced.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231427

Next week I'll be ordering the HDD and video card.

You need to buy your HDD NOW, you should have bought it already. HDD prices are getting higher and higher, the WD Caviar Blue I linked earlier is already gone and more are going every single day. At the current rate of increase, your 500 GB HDD is gonna cost you $100 if you don't buy one NOW (looking around: it looks like the vast majority of $500 GB HDDs are already priced over $100). If you plan on having this rig done before March of next year (which is when people are saying the HDD scarcity will finally be over) this should be a top priority.

The Hitachi DeskStar is still in stock. You also said you had a MicroCenter nearby, but hate going to it. My MicroCenter still has fair prices on a handful of HDDs, so yours might as well, and compared to the complete absurdity of HDD prices elsewhere, definitely worth considering.

I repeat: You can NOT wait on this, you already missed out on the best deal available for the foreseeable future by not buying one so far, don't make that mistake again.

I keep typing responses and they keep getting erased. Stupid smart phones.

At any rate. Unless you have the money to buy it for me I'm not going to be able to buy it before days end. I'm still researching both the HDD and video card. Im buying parts as decisions are made. I'm not about to jump on an HDD because the prices go up a little each day. I may swing by Microcenter this weekend.

We've already told you the hard drive to get. The hitachi deskstar linked is the best one available at a fair price short of your local store carrying something. The WD Caviar Blue was better IMO, but you didn't jump on that.

Pretty much all the parts have been suggested to you already by someone, you just keep choosing different parts for some reason.

And we aren't talking a few bucks here. Three weeks ago you could get a 500 GB HDD for $35, a week ago it was $70, now they are over $100. Who knows how bad another week will make, and it definitely won't be an improvement.

Well again, I'm buying things as the money allows me. I can't materialize money out of my ass. So, again you wanna buy it for me that'd be awesome.

Three weeks around building a new PC wasn't even going through my mind. So, you can't hold the price increases from then over my head.

I have bought parts based off of what was recommended. The mobo and proc I had originally chosen were not good choices, so new ones were given to me and I pulled the trigger. The DVD I've chosen is also from a list of suggestions. The psu is one I picked originally and got confirmation earlier in this thread as a good choice. The memory was changed because the one that was suggested did not list AMD as being compatible, I'm sure it would have worked but I didn't want to buy it then get screwed by it not working.

I told you I was going to swing by Microcenter this weekend. I am not working near it tomorrow and won't be able to do it tomorrow. I did check their website and saw that the HDD you, Defron suggested is still available and is still under $100. So, Saturday, instead of ordering the other things I had posted I'll go pick up tje HDD. But again, I get paid tomorrow so I will be able to buy it this weekend.

Not holding the price 3 weeks over your head, just exemplifying how fast the price has increased. You said in my original quoted post that you didn't plan on buying an HDD for yet another week. That is a bad idea, especially if you want to keep your rig cheap. It's much more important than getting a GPU or DVD drive which have relatively static prices.

Well see. I've considered your recommendation regarding the HDD and decided it may be best to move on it a bit sooner than a week. I'll take a trip to Microcenter on Saturday to buy the WD CAVIAR Blue and who knows, maybe I'll find one of the other parts recommended there as well.

So I went to Microcenter today afterall. My jobs kept falling through so I ended up working my way south east until I ended up driving right passed it.

Its funny how fast the prices went up between last night and this morning. On the website it listed the WD Caviar Blue for $84.99 and it showed two in stock. I get there they had twenty in stock and they were $94.99. I bought one. Then I bought an OEM LG DVD R/W drive for $18 and some change. So now all I need is the memory and a video card and a powersupply.

And there has been another change to the memory.

I've decided on the http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145261 and here is why, I decided to look through the book that came with my motherboard for memory on the approved vendor list. Figured it was better to get memory that was recommended by the manufacturer of the mobo then just guess at what would work.