[Troy]

Oh my goodness! Barebones is cheating! BOOOOO! You already get minus one point. And there's no optical drive (i.e. DVD Burner), so that's minus another point. Oh the joys, this is fun.

Now let me have a good lookie here... As I'm Aussie, I find Newegg the easiest to use. Price match yourself if you can get stuff cheaper elsewhere, it's just to give you an idea. And a number of parts I chose below have manufacturer rebates - chase them up and you'll get a few dollars back.

Oh and also one thing, I won't be recommending wireless with 7 64-bit as I have been having issues with mine (used a number of different wireless adapters to test) and am using the ethernet cable for now - had to make some big changes to accomodate it.

Without further ado:
Case $39.99
Front Case Fan $5.99
Motherboard $52.99
Graphics Card $66.99
Power Supply $49.99
Processor $144.99
RAM $73.99
Hard Drive $49.99
DVD Burner $25.99

Total = $510.91

You may think I'm disqualified because it's over, but take use of the manufacturer's rebates on some of the items and it will turn out under.

I await Ron's reply with baited breath. (And of course, any comments/questions jdawg183 may have)

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Ahh the optical drive question.
I always take in consideration the possibility of using that from the existing system as a way to save some money.
Barebones is a great way to get a system built when you are running on a tight budget.
The PSu in most of those units are not any good but that is why I opted for the replacement PSU from the beginning.
I also am suggesting a 500 Watt Corsair and you have a 400 Watt Corsair.
Here the difference isn't that big as both units have a great record and stability.

Memory we are the same so no problem there

Hard Drive
You 320 gig Me 500 gig

Case...Mine is cooler looking.... just had to say that on one of these
This is a personal preference and I see no difference in them.


MOBO:
You are suggesting Gigabyte and I suggested Asus.
Both very good and highly rated boards.
Again not a big difference


GPU .... OK you may have me on that one but I have supplied the option and think if even using the card you suggest we would be almost identical in price.


I think we both have come up with great system and we both used the CPU we like.
Good job Troy and I like this kind of challenge.

[rshaffer61]

Ahh the optical drive question.
I always take in consideration the possibility of using that from the existing system as a way to save some money.
Barebones is a great way to get a system built when you are running on a tight budget.
The PSu in most of those units are not any good but that is why I opted for the replacement PSU from the beginning.
I also am suggesting a 500 Watt Corsair and you have a 400 Watt Corsair.
Here the difference isn't that big as both units have a great record and stability.

Memory we are the same so no problem there

Hard Drive
You 320 gig Me 500 gig

Case...Mine is cooler looking.... just had to say that on one of these
This is a personal preference and I see no difference in them.


MOBO:
You are suggesting Gigabyte and I suggested Asus.
Both very good and highly rated boards.
Again not a big difference


GPU .... OK you may have me on that one but I have supplied the option and think if even using the card you suggest we would be almost identical in price.


I think we both have come up with great system and we both used the CPU we like.
Good job Troy and I like this kind of challenge.

[Troy]

Your case is "overkill" in looks, not my style. But then again, that's personal preference. What I do like about my case is the meshed front (and the fact I added a front case fan) for better airflow - it's gonna help my better graphics card. I also chose a higher-clocked dual core as this would help better in games, specifically the games the OP has mentioned.

I do really like the 500GB drive and 500W PSU, although for this machine the 400W would also be fine and if the OP doesn't need the extra HDD space then it becomes moot point, and I like your motherboard with 4 RAM slots, mine would be full. Given the budget, it was pretty tight though. It'd be good if you could throw in your mobo and a good processor into my system. There's about $200 to play with for those parts. Hhhhmmmm let me see...

Well these two would knock us over the budget a bit, but are great choices for the money:
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813128394
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819103656

Would that be a decent setup you think? Or still go the barebones?

So much for the showdown - we're on the same team!

[rshaffer61]

Yep I think purchasing the parts from both places and mixing the components as you suggested would be a great system.
Your case, Fan, Video, PSU and HD
My Mobo, Cpu, memory

Sounds like a great system huh?

[jdawg183]

I find myself a bit torn. I like the price of the barebones system, but I did some mixing and matching from things both of you have posted and ended up with this.
$50-Visiontek Radeon HD 3450 Video Card - 512MB DDR2, PCI Express 2.0, CrossFireX Ready, (Dual Link) DVI, VGA, HDMI http://www.tigerdire...e...&CatId=2349

$50- CORSAIR CMPSU-400CX 400W ATX12V V2.2 80 PLUS http://www.newegg.co...N82E16817139008

%50- Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3320418AS 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s http://www.newegg.co...N82E16822148469

$80-GIGABYTE GA-MA785GM-US2H AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813128394

$150-AMD Phenom II 925 Deneb 2.8GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819103656

$73-CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820145238

And then my case from the OP
$60(little cheaper without the PSU) PSI Zodiac Case - Black w/3fans http://www.xoxide.co...case-black.html
$513
What do you think?

[rshaffer61]

Is the 513 including shipping from the different vendors?
the build and the specs seem good to me and with the combination of parts suggested along with your original case and upgraded PSU makes it look really nice.
What do you think Troy?
BTW Troy I am not much on a pretty case either but as you said it is a barebones and that was the case it had.
I would rather have a plain Jane case and add the extra fans myself. I do have to agree with you on this point 100%

[jdawg183]

Ok, did some jostling and ended up getting a WD 320 GB HD from Tiger and with that ended up being able to get free shipping from both sites. Now the only issue is the shipping on the case, which it wont tell me how much that is until I provide card information. Anyone used that site before to know if it is trustworthy and how much shipping is? I trust the Egg and Tiger, just dont know anything about xoxide.

[rshaffer61]

No I have never used that site before. I have used TigerDirect and NewEgg with no problems.

[Troy]

You really should consider grabbing the cheaper case I mentioned and upping the graphics card, the 3450 is not a gaming card at all. For not too much more, the 4670 would give you much better performance.

[jdawg183]

Ok, I think I will go with the 4670 card off your recommendation. Out of curiosity, what makes the 4670 a better gaming card?

What about this one? It appears to be the same card except a 1GB.
MSI R4670-MD1G Radeon HD 4670 1GB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814127440

Edited by jdawg183, 29 October 2009 - 05:34 PM.

[Troy]

For the performance of the card, 1GB is not necessary - it wouldn't be used. The 512MB version would be fine - just get whatever's cheapest.

Look up Tom's Hardware, they have a graphics card chart hierarchy thingo that lets you compare graphics cards up and down the scale.

[rshaffer61]

[jdawg183]

Ok, this is kind of interesting. I was just looking at Toms Hardware and it actually has the Phenom II X3 higher ranked than the Phenom X4. Any thoughts?
http://www.tomshardw...0b200,1396.html

[rshaffer61]

Actually it depends on which Phenom you are looking at because the top dog on that list is the:

AMD Phenom II X4 955 (Deneb 4c)

* 3.2 GHz, DDR3-1333, 2 MB L2, 6 MB L3

[jdawg183]

My brain went to the one in the BB system, so I was looking at the Phenom, not the Phenom II. Thanks for the catch! You guys have DEFINITELY given me some good information to think about. Thank you very much!