The $2,000 build-it-yourself gaming/video editing/photo editing PC
Summary: OK, so what kind of PC can you build yourself for a budget of $2,000 (plus change)? Well, as it turns out, you can get yourself one heck of a system!
OK, so what kind of PC can you build yourself for a budget of $2,000 (plus change)? Well, as it turns out, you can get yourself one heck of a system!
This PC will be ideally suited to high end gaming, but if you're not into gaming then this system will also be able to chew through any photo of video editing jobs that you might have, as well as effortlessly convert your CD and DVD library into a digital library.
Check out the full parts gallery here!
Note: As always I start these builds with a disclaimer. The prices I list here do not take into account the ups (discounts, offers, rebates, bundles ...) or downs (taxes, shipping ...) of life. I'm also not including a monitor, peripherals or OS in the price list.
Also, I've chosen Newegg.com as the price benchmark, but that should not be taken as meaning that I endorse any one outlet over another. You should shop around and find the best deals you can yourself.
Let's get going!
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CPU
Since the CPU is going to be the most expensive part of this PC, it's a good idea to start right there. I've not chosen the most expensive Core 2 Extreme from Intel's silicon range, but I have chosen one of the best - the 3.0GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650.
This is a monster (and it needs to be since it's consuming half out budget!) 130W TDP CPU that has four cores humming away at 3.0GHz, backed up by 12MB of L2 cache and features a super-fast 1600MHz FSB. And if 3.0GHz isn't enough for you, you can easily and safely push this part up to a whopping 4.0GHz and beyond!
You can find faster CPUs, but you probably don't need it, and you'll be adding an extra $500 to the final build price!
Price: $999.99
Motherboard
I really like the Gigabyte EP35-DS3R for a number of reasons. It offers broad CPU support, decent overclocking facility, as well as support for both DDR2 and DDR3 (although not mixed). Oh, and it's about half the price of a high end ASUS board.
I also like the board because of the combo of the P35/ICH9R chipset, which in my experience is a good combination. But one of the most attractive features of the EP35-DS3R is the eight SATA ports.
Nice board, nice price.
Price: $139.99
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RAM
For this build I want to add 8GB of RAM to the system so that it is both future proof and ideal for running a 64-bit OS. However, I don't want to overspend on the RAM and need to find something good that sells for a reasonable price.
This is why I've turned to GeIL RAM - two sets of GeIL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) dual channel kits. This is reliable, robust RAM with a lifetime warranty and low latency. It's not the fastest around but at the price it's a steal.
Price: 2 x $82.90 = $165.80
Graphics card
I had a tough time picking a suitable graphics card. I wanted something powerful enough to be able to handle high end gaming, but I didn't want a noisy, power consuming card that cost a fortune - I also wanted a single powerful card because I didn't want the expense of having to go down the Crossfire of SLI road and fit two or more graphics cards (a path that delivers diminishing returns for the cash that you're injecting into the system).
In the end I chose the SAPPHIRE 100247L Radeon HD 4870 512MB that offers everything most gamers could dream of at a very competitive price.
Price: $279.99
Hard drive
What we're looking for here is huge capacity at a decent price. If you can also get a drive that sips Watts rather than gulps, so much the better. Also, to give the system redundancy I'm going to fit two drives, something which I find gives users greater flexibility.
I've chosen a 1TB 7200 RPM Western Digital Caviar GP WD10EACS SATA 3.0Gb/s drive. This one is out of Western Digital's Green Power range so it's thrifty with the Watts.
Price: 2 x $139.99 = $279.98
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Power Supply Unit (PSU)
It's tempting to put a whopping big PSU into a high end PC that's up in the 1kW+ range. These giant PSUs are both unnecessary and highly wasteful. A PC of the kind we are building here will happily run on a PSU in the 500W range.
The PSU I've chosen here is the SeaSonic S12 Energy Plus SS-550HT. This outputs 550W and is rated as 80 PLUS Certified so it's kind to the environment and your pocket.
Price: $89.99
Case
There's nothing I hate more than having to choose a case for a PC. There are just too many to choose from and while some people like to spend a lot of money on a stylish case, others want to spend as little as possible. Me, I just want a case to hold all the bits that isn't full of sharp edges.
Because I'm pressed into choosing a case, here's one I like - the COOLER MASTER Centurion 5.
Note: Don't choose a case that comes with a PSU ... I've yet to see a PSU bundled with a case that's any good.
Price: $54.99
DVD drive
I'm not going to waste too much time discussing the right CD/DVD drive here.
Let's just pick something cheap and cheerful - the LG 22X DVD±R DVD burner model GH22NP20.
Price: $54.99
Total build price: $2034.72
Alternative reality: What if you want to include the price of a copy of Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit System Builder ($99.99) into the deal and still keep the build price at under $2,000?
Easy! Buy one hard drive instead of two (a saving of $139.99) and add the copy of Windows Vista Home Premium ($99.99). This brings the cost of the build down to $1,994.72.
Thoughts?
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Talkback
Why such an expensive processor?
That way you could keep both hard drives (great for keeping the data separate from the OS) and run Vista Home Premium (which is kinda important if you're looking to show off what your nice new shiny PC can do).
Also, if I was building this for a savvy PC user I'd put a fast (see high RPM and large cache) but smaller first HD, somewhere in the 250GB range, and a larger second HD where the speed of the drive isn't as important.
Future proof?
spend a huge wad of money on the CPU and motherboard
and then add the other nice bits as I can afford them.
The CPU is the core of the system, and for me, I build
everything else around it, so it's shouldn't be the
item limiting what my new PC can do. If I want a nicer
graphics card in the future, I should be able to buy
one without having to worry too much about needing a
new CPU to keep up with it :)
E8400 is cheaper horse, but still a horse
Q6600 is faster and cheaper than E8400
meh
Total Agreement
I've kinda gone off the Q6600 ...
regardless....
How well does the Q9300 overclock?
But a Q6600 at 400MHz FSB is formidable too...
nVidia fan by any chance?
I like the way you're comparing a dual GPU card against a single GPU card. Funny thing is that the 4870 will keep up with the 9800 GX2, and beat it on most benchmarks. It also uses less electicity.
ATI beats nVidia on all levels except the very top high end (but then you really loose out on the bang for buck ratio. And is just 5-10% increase in FPS worth double the cost, especially when the FPS are above the 60FPS most LCD's are set at). Try not being a fanboi and let common sense dictate the best product rather than your biased opinion.
is E8400 a 45nm cpu?
;)
Yep ...
CPU does not match
I don't think the RAM is appropriate either. For budget reasons I would opt for DDR3-1333 which is much faster than DDR2-800.
Last but not least I would select a SLI/Crossfire mobo and a good quality soundcard. Cheers.
Way too much on the CPU.
It would be more economical to buy a cheaper but quality processor within this range and then upgrade in 2 years to one probably even faster than the $1000 for about $250 or less.
I learned this lesson when I built my last system and forked over $500 for a nvidia 5950 ultra only to have the 6800 come out less than 2 months later and decimate my card by a factor of 2 in benchmarks.
I agree with you on building around the CPU, then motherboard, then some quality low latency RAM, reasonable GPU, and so on.
I usually spend about a month researching before I build, and from my experience you may get a marginal performance increase by buying the latest and greatest but that performance percentage will be nothing compared to the price percentage.
Expensive components...
the price and not lose too much performance by
getting a lower spec processor.[/i]
True, but if you're after real computing power, and
Adrian's machine is as much for video editing as well
as gaming, the more power you have, the faster the
renders go.
[i]That way you could keep both hard drives (great for
keeping the data separate from the OS) and run Vista
Home Premium (which is kinda important if you're
looking to show off what your nice new shiny PC can
do).[/i]
Holy Smoke, Batman! Why would you want to use Vista
Home Premium when you really need the power of
Ultimate? It'd be like clipping the audio and video
signals at half their dynamic range!
[i]Also, if I was building this for a savvy PC user I'd put
a fast (see high RPM and large cache) but smaller first
HD, somewhere in the 250GB range, and a larger
second HD where the speed of the drive isn't as
important.[/i]
What?!!! Only 250GB? Ok, I don't argue that a smaller
primary drive helps reduce the load on the OS, but 250
isn't nearly enough! When playing games and doing
photo and video processing, the more the working data
resides on the main drive, the faster the whole process
runs. True, keep your raw files on a larger secondary
drive, but you really need enough headroom that the
machine doesn't have to access another drive during
the rendering and encoding will go. Considering this is
a scratch-built machine, it's not too far off of the basic
Mac Pro.
The Mac Pro is...
COMPLETE much more powerful computer for the
money. One of Apple's best kept secrets is that
they sell refurbished computers for a good
discount. They have the same warranty as a new
one. I got a dual quad core xeon 2.8Ghx 2GB box
for $2400. There is plenty of room for expansion. I
put in a 400GB HD I had lying around in to boot
Windows VISTA home premium. I also run XP in a
VM. The most CPU intensive work I do most often
is to encode Video. This machine gets all eight
cores humming do do such jobs in minutes rather
than hours. Recently I also added another 4GB of
RAM.
Problem with Mac Pro
Mac Pro isnt an all around computer
Mac Pro is very capable
it. "
OK bootcamp and Windows Vista loaded on Mac pro
Now what game can't I play???
"Sorry noone that wants to seriously game goes and buys a
mac unless they want to play 4 year old games. "
Well I will give you that people buy Mac pros for work not
play then they by a Game system and a large screen TV for
games. For $2000 I can get a 47" HDLCD TV and a Xbox or
playstation3.
"This article is about a gaming/photo/video computer."
Now tell me if Macs are not any good for video and photo
editing then why are they used by more film studios then
any other computer for post production???
My Mac Pro laptop is capable of doing video editing I do it
all the time with Final Cut on a mac pro lap top.
Now that said THe Article is not about gaming or photo or
video computer is is simply a article to see just what kind
of PC you can build for $2000.00 So the Mac Pro is not in
the discussion not because it is not capable but because it
is not a DIY built system even though you can expand it or
custom config. one it is not a WInPC een though it can run
windows.
you are correct,sir