PC Setups (Post yours here!)

Hey everyone,

I've been into PC gaming and building my own computer as of late. I've actually become addicted to PC gaming ever since I saw the STEAM sales starting from the Black Friday sales. This is my PC and it's bound to last me a while. I wanna see what you guys are playing on! Here's my setup:

Processor - Intel i7-970 @ 4.12Ghz (6-Core, 12-Thread)
Heatsink and Fan - Cooler Master Hyper 212+ with 2 Fans
Motherboard - EVGA X58 SLI 3X
Video Card - 2x Gigabyte GTX 460 OC (SLI)
RAM - G-Skill PI DDR3 1600Mhz 6GB (3 x 2GB)
Boot Up Drive - Intel X25-M (160GB)
Storage Drive - 2x WD Caviar Black 1TB (2TB Total)
Case - Antec Nine Hundred Two
Power Supply - Rocketfish 900w Modular
Monitors - 2x AOC e2243Fw LED @ 1920x1080 (3840x1080)
Sound - Logitech G930 Headset

http://home.comcast.net/~PootieThang/Desktop1.jpg

Processor - Intel i7-870 @ 4.0Ghz
Heatsink and Fan - Corsair h50, dual fan
Motherboard - Asus P7h55/usb3
Video Cards - Gigabyte 5850 OC 1GB, XFX 5850 1GB Crossfired
RAM - OCZ Gold series DD3-1333 (2 x 2GB)
Optical Drives -Samsung SH-B083L/RSBP Internal SATA 8x Blu-ray Drive/16x DVD Burner, LG GH22NS50 22X Internal SATA Super Multi DVD Drive OEM
Hard Drive - Seagate 1.5 tb drive
Case - Antec 300 mid tower case
Power Supply - Cooler Master 750w
Monitors - Emachines E211H Bb 21.5 @ 1920x1080, Gateway FPD 2275W 22 @ 1680x1050

Processor - Q9550 @ 3.2ghz
Heatsink - Xigmatek Rifle
Mobo - DFI Lanparty P45
GPU - Radeon 5850
RAM - G.Skill DDR2 800 4GB
HD - Seagate 500GB Barracuda
Case - Antec 200
PSU - Antec 650W TruePower
Monitor - Gateway 24" 1920x1200

Highly considering upgrading to a new Sandy Bridge i5 2500k.

[quote name='SEH']
Highly considering upgrading to a new Sandy Bridge i5 2500k.[/QUOTE]

Go for it! The reviews for Sandy Bridge are awesome.

Main Rig - Argo

CPU: AMD Phenom II X3 720
Heatsink: Custom Grimrocked plates
MB: MSI DKA790GX
RAM: Kingston HyperX 4GB
Videocard: HIS Radeon 5870 1 Gb
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar 500 Black x 4
PSU: Rosewill RP550V2-S-SL
Case: Antec Skeleton PC Case
OS: Windows XP Professional SP 3 (Gamer Edits) and Ubuntu 9.10 (Gamer Edits)

Connected to Acer V223W 22 inch monitor and Acer H5360 DLP Projector HDTV - 1080p

Along with 4 wireless gamepads - Logitech F710. I don't particularly like these but other ppl in the family do so it's more for them. I prefer my Saitek P220.

Living room rig is about the same except no monitor just connected to the main projector.

Edit - Did not know we was adding prices...

$188.93

[quote name='Megazell']Main Rig - Argo

CPU: AMD Phenom II X3 720
Heatsink: Custom Grimrocked plates
MB: MSI DKA790GX
RAM: Kingston HyperX 4GB
Videocard: HIS Radeon 5870 1 Gb
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar 500 Black x 4
PSU: Rosewill RP550V2-S-SL
Case: Antec Skeleton PC Case
OS: Windows XP Professional SP 3 (Gamer Edits) and Ubuntu 9.10 (Gamer Edits)

Connected to Acer V223W 22 inch monitor and Acer H5360 DLP Projector HDTV - 1080p

Along with 4 wireless gamepads - Logitech F710. I don't particularly like these but other ppl in the family do so it's more for them. I prefer my Saitek P220.

Living room rig is about the same except no monitor just connected to the main projector.[/QUOTE]

Mega, why are you still running XP? Is it for compatibility issues?

I know Vista wasn't that good, but I'm running Win7 64 bit and it does everything better than Vista and I find it runs much faster than XP.

Anyway, I'm currently running an Asus laptop as my main gaming machine.

Core i5 430M cpu
4 gig DDR3 1066 ram
500 gig 7200 rpm HDD
NVidia GTS360M 1 gig ram gpu
Win7 Home Premium 64 bit
16" 1360 x 768 screen

For my kids I have this set-up.

Core i3 530 cpu
6 gigs DDR3 1333 ram
1 tb 7200 HDD
ATI HD 5750 1 gig gpu
Win7 Home Premium 64 bit
1680 x 1050 22" LCD monitor

For older stuff I use this rig.

C2D E7500 cpu
3 gig DDR2 800 ram
2 x 500 gig 7200 HDD
NVidia GTS 250 1 gig gpu
Win XP Media Center Edition 2005 SP3 32 bit
1600 x 1200 21" crt monitor + 1360 x 768 42" LCD HDTV

I have nothing earth shattering, but all my rigs do their intended jobs quite well.

Athlon II x 4
3GB DDR2
MSI Cyclone GTX 460 768 MB
500 GB Seagate Barracuda (Main)
1 TB Seagate Barracuda
Corsair 750 watt power supply
Cooler Master HAF 932 Full Tower

Oh, I have a micro-atx motherboard.... yea, in a full tower!

[quote name='mogamer']Mega, why are you still running XP? Is it for compatibility issues?

I know Vista wasn't that good, but I'm running Win7 64 bit and it does everything better than Vista and I find it runs much faster than XP.[/QUOTE]

Vista is trash, IMO. Everyone I know - friends, family and customers from my store come to me for help on their rigs and 99% of the time it's an issue with Vista. A lot of games that I play run on XP, Linux and Windows 7 with NO PROBLEM but can't run on Vista.

I find no reason whatsoever to move on from XP. It's does everything I need/want it to do and I have zero issues. I have a copy of Windows 7 unopened that was gifted to me awhile back but I have no reason to upgrade. I am also moving on to Linux for the entire home.

I need a strong reason to upgrade my tech. If I don't need it. It won't happen.

As for speed...I've been bringing my little fragbox with me for LAN and also my main rig at my store is about the same as the one in my home with the exception of the case...I have compared it to others running Windows 7 and there's been no speed difference for any of the programs and games that I run so until I see something that really wows me I'll be riding this train til the wheels fall off

Here's my old clunker. I have not PC gamed much in the last couple of years due to a memory problem on my PC but I have amassed a big enough list of PC games I want to play now that I find myself caving to the justification of buying/building a new PC.

CPU: AMD Athlon X2 4800+
Case: Shuttle XPC ST20G5 (this covers the case, cooler, PSU, and mobo)
RAM: 1GB (will explain later)
GPU: ATi X1950GT 256MB
HDD: 120GB Samsung Spinpoint
CD/DVD writer
Built-in wifi card
Dell 2209WA 22" 1680x1050 monitor (IPS FTW!)

I can only run 1GB of RAM right now as my mobo only has 2 slots in it, and one of them is bad thus I can only put 1 stick in. I am not 100% sure the mobo will support a 2 or 4GB DIMM so I am not going to bother wasting the money to try. The 1GB of RAM is my real limitation right now, game performance suffers noticeably due to it, but as the mobo is proprietary and the system so old, there is little practical alternative other than building a new system (which I intend to do).

Having seen the light and embraced SFF computing, I refuse to build another mid-tower or anything like that. I will miss the ultimate compactness of the shuttle but I think moving to a more modern SFF format (miniITX in my case) will be ultimately more flexible and more powerful. The Q08 is not too much larger than my current case and it supports dual-slot GPUs, full-size ATX PSU, can support larger (thus quieter) cooling solutions, and has interchangeable mobos.

Here's what I plan to build, as soon as the SB parts are released. My goals are upper mid-end performance, with quietness/efficiency being an important factor.

Core i5 2600 (or something around that)
Corsair H50 (intend to use 2 Noctua 120mm fans run at low voltages)
Some miniITX mobo that has built-in wifi (I need the wifi, likely to be an ASUS or a Zotac mobo)
8GB RAM
ATi 6870 1GB or 6950 2GB GPU
Seagate momentus XT 500GB HDD (or maybe just a standard 3.5" 7200rpm HDD)
Lian Li PC-Q08 case
Seasonic PSU, X650 80+ Gold rated

[quote name='docvinh']Processor - Intel i7-870 @ 3.6Ghz
Heatsink and Fan - Corsair h50, single fan for the moment[/QUOTE]

docvinh- what is the TDP of your CPU? I am thinking about using the h50 in my upcoming build and was curious if you found a single fan sufficient to cool a hot CPU. What fan do you use on it, and how loud does it get? I heard it was more efficient (in terms of cooling per noise) to run 2 fans at lower rpm vs. 1 fan at higher rpm. The CFM may work out to be the same but the 2-fan setup would be quieter.

[quote name='Megazell']I find no reason whatsoever to move on from XP. It's does everything I need/want it to do and I have zero issues. I have a copy of Windows 7 unopened that was gifted to me awhile back but I have no reason to upgrade. I am also moving on to Linux for the entire home.[/QUOTE]

One legitimate reason for upgrading from XP is that it can only handle 4GB of RAM- and actually it's more like 3GB (or less) due to the way it handles video cards with large amounts of memory. XP is only 32-bit and it can only address a total of 4GB RAM, and yes total. That includes the video memory. So if you have a 1GB card, 1GB of your 4GB addressable memory space is used up by the video card, leaving only 3GB for your "actual" RAM. Back in the day it wasn't a problem because your video card only needed 128 or so MB of address space, and people rarely had 4GB RAM installed. But nowadays with 4 and 8GB so common, and 1GB+ cards out, address space is a real issue.

I know of at least one situation where this affected real-use applications. I used to play a lot of flight sim, and the complexity of the software and the popular add-ons made it such that the program would actually max out the 4GB limit. People were getting all kinds of strange "out of memory" errors and nobody could figure it out for a while until they started to realize there was nothing wrong with their setups/hardware, except that they were running things so complex that they maxed out their OS. I'm not 100% sure on other games but I could see a similar thing happening. If you're not having problems now I guess there's no need but RAM/memory limitations may be the straw that breaks the camel's back so to speak.

[quote name='Ruahrc']One legitimate reason for upgrading from XP is that it can only handle 4GB of RAM- and actually it's more like 3GB (or less) due to the way it handles video cards with large amounts of memory. XP is only 32-bit and it can only address a total of 4GB RAM, and yes total. That includes the video memory. So if you have a 1GB card, 1GB of your 4GB addressable memory space is used up by the video card, leaving only 3GB for your "actual" RAM. Back in the day it wasn't a problem because your video card only needed 128 or so MB of address space, and people rarely had 4GB RAM installed. But nowadays with 4 and 8GB so common, and 1GB+ cards out, address space is a real issue.

I know of at least one situation where this affected real-use applications. I used to play a lot of flight sim, and the complexity of the software and the popular add-ons made it such that the program would actually max out the 4GB limit. People were getting all kinds of strange "out of memory" errors and nobody could figure it out for a while until they started to realize there was nothing wrong with their setups/hardware, except that they were running things so complex that they maxed out their OS. I'm not 100% sure on other games but I could see a similar thing happening. If you're not having problems now I guess there's no need but RAM/memory limitations may be the straw that breaks the camel's back so to speak.[/QUOTE]

Even with the limitation of addressing 3 to 4 Gb of RAM - Which I know is true - there still no reason to upgrade. The example of the flight sim may or may not be valid but it's so small and insignificant to me or my household because no one here rocks any sims like that. I have the freeware sim FlightGear. I have not played it in 2 years but from time to time I have ran it when a new mod has came out that was worth looking at and it runs like water.

The only thing that is holding me on to XP are the games and the ladies need of a MS OS for work purposes. My kid's schools have Mac, Linux and Windows machines for the kids to use for HW and activities and my oldest is already using Linux like a pro. All of the machines at the house (8 PCs, 2 Laptops and 2 Netbooks) are dual boot with the exception of the 2 laptops for the ladies.

I'm sure Win7 is a blast but XP is awesome for me and I hate those beginning years of commercial OSs where everyone is playing 'find the bug.'

Gaming Rig
Processor - Amd Phenom 2 965BE
Heatsink and Fan - stock
Motherboard - Asus Am3a78 Pro
Video Card - Nvidia PNY xlr8 GTX 460 (upgrade from GTS 250 about a month ago)
RAM - G-Skill DDR2 8gig(4 x 2gig )
Boot Up Drive - WD VelociRaptor 300gb
Storage Drive - WD black 500gb
Case - Rosewill CHALLENGER Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Power Supply - CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W
Monitors - 1 Acer 1680x1050 dvi
Sound - Creative Labs 7.1 running as 5.1 speaker setup and Rosewill Audio Pro RHM-6308


Not entirely happy with my 460 GTX if the landscape doesn't change the next video card will be ATI

Processor - Intel Core i5 760/w stock heatsink and fan.
Motherboard - Asus P7P55D EVO
Video Card - MSI 460 GTX 1GB factory OCed.
RAM - G.Skill 8GB (2x4GB sticks) DDR3 1600
Hard Drive - WD Caviar Black 1TB
Case - Cooler Master HAF 922
Power Supply - Rosewill BRONZE series 750W
Optical Drives - LITE-ON Blu-ray reader, LG DVD burner.
Monitor - HP w2207 1680x1050 DVI (A little old now, but still a great monitor.)
Keyboard - Razer Tarantula (Needs an upgrade.)
Mouse - Razer Deathadder
Headset - Steelseries Siberia v/2

Really happy with my current build. Thinking about upgrading the keyboard since Razer no longer supports it, and I still need to replace my broken Z-2300 speaker system with some new speakers (If I decide I want speakers), but as a whole it's good.

[quote name='JasonTerminator']Processor - Intel Core i5 760/w stock heatsink and fan.
Motherboard - Asus P7P55D EVO
Video Card - MSI 460 GTX 1GB factory OCed.
RAM - G.Skill 8GB (2x4GB sticks) DDR3 1600
Hard Drive - WD Caviar Black 1TB
Case - Cooler Master HAF 922
Power Supply - Rosewill BRONZE series 750W
Optical Drives - LITE-ON Blu-ray reader, LG DVD burner.
Monitor - HP w2207 1680x1050 DVI (A little old now, but still a great monitor.)
Keyboard - Razer Tarantula (Needs an upgrade.)
Mouse - Razer Deathadder
Headset - Steelseries Siberia v/2

Really happy with my current build. Thinking about upgrading the keyboard since Razer no longer supports it, and I still need to replace my broken Z-2300 speaker system with some new speakers (If I decide I want speakers), but as a whole it's good.[/QUOTE]

I have the Tarantula too, I had some issues with getting it to work with win 7 for a while, but it's finally working. Definitely a great keyboard.

My would-be HTPC hooked into my main TV in the basement of my house:

Processor - Intel Q9550s (pending overclocking)
Heatsink and Fan - MASSCOOL 8W553B1M3 90mm Ball CPU Cooler
Motherboard - ZOTAC GF9300-G-E
Video Card - on-board GeForce 9400, waiting for the GTX 560 to be released
RAM - G-Skill F2-6400CL6D-8GBMQ 8GB DDR2
Boot Up Drive - 2 x WD Scorpio Black 500GB (RAID 1)
Storage Drive - eSATA connected 2 x WD Scorpio Black 320GB (RAID 1) in Silverstone DS-221B external enclosure
Case - Silverstone SG06-B
Power Supply - Silverstone ST45SF 450 watts SFX
Monitors - LG 55LE8500 LCD TV
Sound - Onkyo SR-TX806 receiver + 7.1 surround sound (Energy C-50 (x6), Energy C-C50, Energy ESW-V8 subwoofer)

Eventually needs a TV tuner of some kind hooked into it, and I'm waiting on the GTX560 video card release to happen in a couple of weeks before upgrading to a video card besides the built-in GF9400. Was built last year after Black Friday, with 4GB of RAM and the 320GB drives internal. This BF, picked up the 8GB of RAM, the 500GB drives and the external eSATA enclosure.

Desktop - Mine is two years old now. Originally I bought the stuff below for about $850 after all was said and done.
MOBO - GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX
CPU - Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W
GPU - EVGA 512-P3-N873-AR GeForce 9800 GTX+
RAM - Kingston HyperX 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066
HDD - Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5
Monitor - Acer 21.5" 1080p (can't find exact model, not at home).
DVD - Lite-On iHAS222-06 CD/DVD Burner
Case & PSU - CASE COMPUCASE|6C28BBX585 RT
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit



Netbook - Bought on black friday, mostly for couch surfing and when im away from home.

Toshiba Mini NB255-N245 10.1-Inch Netbook (Black Oynx)

1.66 GHz Intel Atom N455 processor
2 GB DDR2 RAM (upgraded from 1GB)
160 GB SATA hard drive
10.1-inch LED backlit widescreen display
Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3150
Windows 7 Starter 32-bit

CPU-Intel Core2Quad 6600 @ 3.2ghz
CPU Cooler- Arctic Freezer pro
MOBO-Gigabyte EP45-UD3L
GPU-Gigabyte Radeon HD 4850 (I think it's factory OC)
RAM- Rendition by Crucial 4GB(2x2) DDR2 6400 800mhz
HDD- Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm 500gb, WD Green 5400-7200rpm 1TB
Monitor- Samsung TOC 22" 1680x1050
DVD-some LG one haha
Case-CM Storm Sniper
PSU-OCZ Modstream pro 600w 80+ Certified
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit

Mines pretty old compared to most of you guys ):

[quote name='drooli']Mines pretty old compared to most of you guys ):[/QUOTE]

That don't mean much. Have fun with what you got while you can. Upgrade when you're ready, willing and able.

CPU - AMD Phenom II X6 1100T (stock cooler)
Mobo - Asus M4A78T-E
GPU - Sapphire ATI Radeon 5870
RAM - 8GB G.Skill DDR3 1333
HDD1 - Seagate Barracuda 500GB
HDD2 - WD Caviar GP 1TB
Monitor1 - Samsung Syncmaster T220
Monitor2 - Dell 2005FPW
DVD - Samsung Super Writemaster
Case - Cooler Master CM690
PSU - PC P&C 750 silencer
Windows 7 Pro x64

Built this back in fall of 07 so let's see if I remember everything.

CPU - Intel Dual Core e6850 OC'd to 3.4
Mobo - Asus P5E
GPU - Radeon 4870 1gb
HD - 1x 500gb WD internal, 1x 1tb WD internal, 1x 1.5tb WD internal, 1x WD Smartbook or w/e it's called 1gb external, 1x random 1tb external
RAM - 8gb G Skill DDR2 1066
OS - Win 7 64x
Monitor - 22" (I think) Hanns G 1680x1050, 46" Toshiba Regza tv 1920x1080
DVD Drive - Does it work? Yes, who cares
Case - Lian Li K7 BONED EDITION

CPU: Intel E5200 2.5 Ghz overclocked to 3.3
Motherboard: Asus P5Q Pro
Graphics Card: Geforce 9500 GT
Memory: CORSAIR XMS2 DHX 4GB (2 x 2GB) SDRAM DDR2 800
Hard Drive: Western Digital
Optical Drive: Liteon
Power Supply: OCZ stealthstream 500W
Case: Antec 300
Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit


Built this 2 years ago around Black Friday with the help of CAG. Just got around to overclocking my processor, as I'm trying to get a bit more time out of the system, since it wasn't used for much gaming until the last few months, so I want to get my $$ out of it.

Now that I'm overclocked I know my GPU is my bottleneck. Neogaf isn't any help as their philosophy is always "buy, buy, buy", so I ask my CAG brethren, is it time for a GPU upgrade and if so what's going to give me the best bang for my buck? I'd like to wait for a good sale if so. Or should I wait till next Black Friday and possibly do a new build (seeing what I can move over, possibly the PSU/drive/not much else).

[quote name='contej85']Built this 2 years ago around Black Friday with the help of CAG. Just got around to overclocking my processor, as I'm trying to get a bit more time out of the system, since it wasn't used for much gaming until the last few months, so I want to get my $$ out of it.

Now that I'm overclocked I know my GPU is my bottleneck. Neogaf isn't any help as their philosophy is always "buy, buy, buy", so I ask my CAG brethren, is it time for a GPU upgrade and if so what's going to give me the best bang for my buck? I'd like to wait for a good sale if so. Or should I wait till next Black Friday and possibly do a new build (seeing what I can move over, possibly the PSU/drive/not much else).[/QUOTE]

My philosophy is don't buy til you have to. When you have to; read, educate yourself and buy the best quality item at the lowest possible price.

Are you running into games that are not running right due to your CPU bottleneck?

For a lower price do you have any computer shows in your area?

I'm getting ready to hit a liquidation sale in Yonkers NY just to see what's there but that's usually the best way to get the lowest price on an item.

[quote name='contej85']Now that I'm overclocked I know my GPU is my bottleneck.[/QUOTE]

In my opinion, I would recommend the GTX 460 1GB cards (got both of mine for $120 each after rebates on newegg). Absolutely great performance for the price. If you're looking to spend more then I would say the GTX 570.

I have a prebuilt HP computer that's almost three years old. Got a pretty great deal on it at the time (paid $819.99 for it with $42.90 tax). Still kicking just fine with no real problems. May need to upgrade the graphics card eventually but there hasn't been a great new game where I've felt the need (my main game, Team Fortress 2, runs like butter)

- HP Pavilion Elite m9200t PC with TV/PVR
- Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo processor E8400 (3.0GHz)
- 3GB DDR2-800MHz dual channel SDRAM
- 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT, TV-out, DVI-I, HDMI
- 750GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive
- LightScribe 16X max. DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti drive
- 15-in-1 memory card reader, 2 USB, 1394, video, audio
- ATSC-NTSC TV tuner with PVR, FM tuner, remote
- Integrated 7.1 channel sound w/front audio ports
- HP keyboard and HP optical mouse

I added

LG GGC-H20L Blu-Ray/HD-DVD drive
Windows 7
2TB Seagate external hard drive
Lenovo Multimedia Remote with Keyboard

[quote name='Pootie Thang']In my opinion, I would recommend the GTX 460 1GB cards (got both of mine for $120 each after rebates on newegg). Absolutely great performance for the price. If you're looking to spend more then I would say the GTX 570.[/QUOTE]GTX 560 is supposed to be released on the 20th, so you might want to wait for that timeframe.

I was debating between a Radeon 6950 or a GTX 460 1GB (need a 9" card for my SFF case), and with the rumors of the GTX 560 stirring up in the last month, it's worth waiting out a couple of weeks.

CPU: Intel Core i5 650 @ 3.20 GHz
Heatsink: what?
MB: ?
RAM: idk but it's 6 GB
Videocard: nvidia Geforce 310M
Hard Drive: like 80 plus another one that is 800
PSU: idk
Case: some ASUS all in one thing
OS: Windows 7 Premium 64 bit

OS - Dual boot Vista / XP, Usually use Vista, rarely XP.
Processor - Intel E7300 @ 3.4ghz
Heatsink and Fan - Arctic Cooling Freezer 7
Motherboard - GA-P35-S3L
Video Card - Radeon Sapphire 4870 1GB
RAM - G-Skill DDR2 800Mhz 4GB (2 x 2GB)
HD1 - 200GB, Split into a 40gb and 150gb partition (xp on 40gb, vista on 150gb)
HD2 - 250GB, Program Install HD. Over half of this is taken up by Steam.
HD3 - 250GB, Storage HD. Movies, Music, Installers, etc.
Case - Cooler Master 5
Power Supply - FSP Group AX500-PN
Monitors -ViewSonic "Gaming" Monitor 22 in. 1680x1050
Sound - Creative X-Fi card Fatality Platinum something I don't ing know. I wanted it for ASIO drivers since ASIO4ALL is a crapshoot trying to get it to work. Plantronics headset that isn't made anymore which sucks because its the best headset I've owned and was like 20$ and the quality is amazing.

Originally made this in 2007 starting with 2gb of memory, an 8800gts 320mb, and a e4400 cpu. Upgraded those parts in 2009. Cycled old parts into second PC for friends/living room gaming/mediaing.

I may make a new build this year if AMD impresses me. I really want to go with AMD this time around since I haven't given them a chance since 2 PC's ago. My AMD PCs have always been rock solid, while my Intels are always a pain in the ass (read: fun) overclocking and getting to run stable. The Core 2 Duo series was just so nice for overclocking I completely missed a couple of generations of AMD cpus and I want to get back up to speed with them.

Processor - Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 (OC'd to 3.6 Ghz)
Heatsink and Fan - Zerotherm BTF90
Motherboard - GIGABYTE GA-EP45-DS3R
Video Card - Visiontek Radeon HD4850
RAM - 4GB Patriot
Storage Drive - 1 Seagate 640GB, 1 WD Caviar Black 640GB, 1 WD MyBook USB 3.0
Case - NZXT Apollo
Power Supply - Antec Earthwatts 500W
Monitor - Samsung T220 1680x1050
DVD - LG 22x DVD burner
Mouse - Microsoft Sidewinder X5
OS - Win7x64 Pro

It's held up quite well for the 2 years I've been using it, but I'm definitely starting to feel the upgrade itch now. I might get by with just a video card upgrade(6850, maybe 6870) and maybe an SSD though until AMD gets Bulldozer out and hopefully becomes a bit more competitive again.

cpu: AMD Phenom II X4 920
hsf: Kingwin XT-1264
mobo: Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4P
gpu: 512MB MSI 8800GT OC
ram: 8GB G.Skill PI Black DDR2
hdd: 1x640GB, 5x1TB, 1x1.5TB, 2x2TB (ext), 2x2TB (nas)
case: Antec 1200
dvd: Samsung SH-S223L
psu: Corsair HX620
monitor: Sharp LC40LE700UN
os: Win7Pro x64
mouse: Logitech G500
mousepad: Func F10.s
keyboard: Filco Majestouch Linear Force
sound: Yamaha RX-V795, Energy RC-10, Orb Audio Super Eight, Audio Technica ATH-AD700

http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/6384/desktt.png

I kind of want to get a new video card but all I play is cs so there really isn't much point :/

ASUS G51VX-RX05 Notebook | C2D P7350 @ 2.4GHz | GeForce GTX 260M 1GB DDR3 | 4GB RAM DDR2 | Windows 7 Pro x64

[quote name='shrike4242']GTX 560 is supposed to be released on the 20th, so you might want to wait for that timeframe.

I was debating between a Radeon 6950 or a GTX 460 1GB (need a 9" card for my SFF case), and with the rumors of the GTX 560 stirring up in the last month, it's worth waiting out a couple of weeks.[/QUOTE]

Makes me sad to see this when I just finally ordered the EVGA 768-P3-1362-TR GeForce GTX460 768 MB Superclocked DDR5 PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card

It was $150 after rebates, but the one I wanted wasn't in stock from Amazon, and I didn't want to wait on Newegg. Oh well.

I built my current rig back in early December. I actually added two more fans to it today.

Processor - Intel i7-950 @ 3.07GHz (will OC soon)
Heatsink and Fan - Cooler Master Hyper 212+ (one fan pushing)
Motherboard - ASUS P6X56D
Video Card - ASUS EAH5850
RAM - Corsair Dominator 12GB (3 x 4GB)
Boot-Up Drive - OCZ Vortex 2 SSD (60GB)
Storage Drives - 2x WD Caviar Black 1TB and 1x Samsung 500GB from my prior PC
Case - Cooler Master HAF X (three 200mm fans, one 140mm fan, one 230mm fan)
Power Supply - Seasonic X750 Gold (modular)
Monitors - 2x ASUS VH236H
Audio Card - Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Pro
OS - Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit)
Blu-Ray/DVD-RW Drive - Samsung SH-B083L
Speakers - Logitech Z5500
Keyboard - Logitech G19
Mouse - Logitech G6 and Cybord R.A.T. 7


I also have a HTPC but its specs are a bit more ordinary: Core 2 Quad Q6600, 4GB RAM, and other components I forget off the top of my head...nothing too special.

The parts for mine are incoming. I'm pretty pleased with meeting my goal of a new PC for under $800! Should serve me well for 720p gaming on the TV!

Processor: Intel Core i5 2500K
Motherboard: ASUS P8P67
RAM: G.Skill 4GB DDR3 PC-1333
Video Card: Gigabyte Super OverClock Radeon 5770
Case: Lian Li K-58W
Power Supply: Corsair 600W
Optical Drive: Lite-On Blu-Ray Combo Drive
HDD: 1TB Western Digital Blue

Super overkill for 720p gaming D:

Perhaps, but I'd like it to not have to be touched for a while and still handle newer stuff that comes along.

[quote name='contej85']Makes me sad to see this when I just finally ordered the EVGA 768-P3-1362-TR GeForce GTX460 768 MB Superclocked DDR5 PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card

It was $150 after rebates, but the one I wanted wasn't in stock from Amazon, and I didn't want to wait on Newegg. Oh well.[/QUOTE]Sorry to make you sad about your new video card.

I was pretty close to picking up the GTX460 1GB right before the Radeon 6950 came out (6970 is too long for my case), and right as I'm about to buy one of those, the info about the GTX560 started to come out, so it's waiting time again.

[quote name='shrike4242']Sorry to make you sad about your new video card.

I was pretty close to picking up the GTX460 1GB right before the Radeon 6950 came out (6970 is too long for my case), and right as I'm about to buy one of those, the info about the GTX560 started to come out, so it's waiting time again.[/QUOTE]

I guess I could just get stuck in the eternal waiting game. Coming from a Geforce 9800 I'm going to be thrilled no matter what.

Processor - Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16GHz LGA 775
Motherboard - EVGA 123-YW-E175-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 750i SLI FTW
Video Card - EVGA 512-P3-N873-AR GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB
RAM - G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500)
Hard Drive - Seagate Barracuda 320GB, Seagate 1TB (Storage)
Optical Drive - LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA
Case - Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower
Power Supply - Thermaltake W0116RU 750W (Modular)
Monitors - 1 Acer 24" Widescreen
OS - Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit)

I built this PC 2 years ago. My Next planned upgrades are for the Memory, I want to add another 4 GB of RAM, and maybe a solid state drive. I am thinking about upgrading the video card, but so far I have not had any issues running PC games.

9800's still hold up very well. I know my GTX 260M is about equal to a desktop 9800 GT or something, plays most of all the latest games without issues. Hope to not run into any problems playing Duke Nukem Forever (if it does and if the 360 version looks nice I'll just lower my graphics settings to match that).

I just built a PC as well.

i5 2500k
P67 MB
Corsair 650w PSU
Radeon 6850 GPU
1TB Samsung Spinpoint HD
4GB DDR3
21.5 Inch ASUS 1920x1080 LCD

Has played everything flawlessly that I've thrown at it so far. My first real gaming PC, and I'm really happy so far.

I plan on upgrading with an SSD in the next 6-8 months and probably adding another 6850 in Crossfire when I am feeling the need for a GPU upgrade.

Good luck with your build!

lets see some pictures

CPU: AMD Phenom X4 965
RAM: G-Skill Sniper 8GB DDR3 1333
PSU: Corsair 850w
MB: Asus M4a79XTD EVO
Case: COOLER MASTER RC-692-KKN2 CM690 II
HDD: WD Black 1TB
GPU: Radeon HD 5850 (DOA) waiting for replacement
OS: Win 7 64 PRO
Total $800

CPU: Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 slight overclock to 2.9ghz
Heatsink/Fan: OCZ Vendetta
Ram: OCZ DDR2 PC2-6400 SLI-Ready Edition 4GB Dual Channel
PSU : Ultra 1200w
MB: EVGA nForce 680i SLI
Case: Cooler Master HAF 932
HDD: Hitachi 1 TB Deskstar, WD 320 GB Blue Caviar and an external WB 1 TB myBook elements.
Optical drives: Two Sony DVD burners
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX
MONITOR: I-INC 28 in 1920X1200 monitor
OS: Win 7 64 Ultimate
I don't remember how much it cost to build, picked up pieces along the way.

Built this back in fall of 07 so let's see if I remember everything.

CPU: Intel Core i5-760 Lynnfield 2.8GHz
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB
PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W
MB: GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD3
Case: Cooler Master HAF 922
HDD: Western Digital 1TB SATA
GPU: XFX Radeon HD 6870 1GB
Monitor: ASUS 23" Widescreen LCD
OS: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit

Built it around the beginning of the month.

My current main gaming PC (a bit of a mix of new and older parts but I don't think anyone would claim it's not insanely capable of the 1080p gaming I ask of it ):

CPU: Intel Core i7-2600K, OC to 4.8 GHz
GPU: HIS Radeon HD 5870
Cooling: Water (both CPU and GPU in cooling loop)
RAM: 16 GB (4x4GB) Corsair Vengeance DDR3-1600
MB: Asus P8P67 Pro
PSU: Seasonic X650 Gold
Case: Antec P180B
Boot drive (SSD): Super Talent 64GB UltraDrive GX (Indilinx-based)
Storage drive (HDD): Western Digital 2TB Green
Display: JVC RS-20 projector, to a 110" 16:9 Screen Innovations Black Diamond II (.8 gain) screen
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

Next piece to be upgraded will probably be the video card but the 5870 handles everything I throw at it just fine at 1080p so that's probably another year or so down the line.

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.53 GHz
GPU: Nvidia Geforce 9600M GT 512 MB
RAM: 4 GB
MB: ...

... Oh whatever, it's a Late 2008 MacBook Pro.

I dual boot ever since I got a cheap copy of Windows 7 Ultimate, and since I spend a good majority of my time now PC-side playing games, I figured I'd be eventually creating my own rig for my fiancee and I.

I've got a good enough knowledge base about computers that building one wouldn't be too difficult, but I saw a few things in this thread that I just need clarification on. A few of you have a SSD as a boot drive and a regular SATA drive for data? Just wondering how this works out in most configurations. Is the SSD simply just for the OS, whereas all the programs and such are on the data drive? (Which would kind of defeat the purpose of a SSD, I think?)

Or is the SSD for OS AND programs, whereas the data drive is for movies, music, saves, etc.? How is a combo SSD+SATA setup normally used? I only ask because I easily fill up my Windows 7 partition with all the games and such that I have on here, but splurging for an SSD that's larger than my current 250 GB partition would be counter productive towards the price of the current build that I'm working on. Currently all of my "data", I.E. my music collection, movies, Photoshop files are all Mac-side.

Another thing is that I'm a huge noob when it comes to overclocking. I used to experiment with an ATI card I had in an older Powerbook G4, but it was in moderation and never permanent. Will I definitely need to purchase extra cooling outside of the fans that already come with the case?

Listen peeps, future-proofing is no good. Just get a computer that'll be good for now, and get a new one/upgrade when it gets too out of date. Which'll take a while.

Anyways, I may be 13, but selling stuff here and on Ebay is good for getting Mother's Day Presents. Oh, but after that day, I SHALL start saving to build my own...$500-$600 dollar computer.

I know computers pretty well, and I can take them apart and put them back together.

[quote name='airwalke']Another thing is that I'm a huge noob when it comes to overclocking. I used to experiment with an ATI card I had in an older Powerbook G4, but it was in moderation and never permanent. Will I definitely need to purchase extra cooling outside of the fans that already come with the case?[/QUOTE]

I wouldn't really recommend OCing your MBP. It's going to be pretty thermally stressed as it is, being a laptop and all. And I think MBPs tend to run a little hotter too in trade for being more compact/thinner than most PC laptops of similar power.

If you do want to OC I would definitely look into those cooling pads you can put your laptop on.

Ruahrc

[quote name='Ruahrc']I wouldn't really recommend OCing your MBP. It's going to be pretty thermally stressed as it is, being a laptop and all. And I think MBPs tend to run a little hotter too in trade for being more compact/thinner than most PC laptops of similar power.

If you do want to OC I would definitely look into those cooling pads you can put your laptop on.

Ruahrc[/QUOTE]

Oh, I wouldn't dream of overclocking this laptop. I run it on a cooling pad as it is when I game... and it has a tendency to run really hot under Windows 7. But I was wondering about if I were to build a separate DESKTOP PC.