I started this build out of necessity, because my old video card’s fan stopped working and was over heating. So went on to NewEgg.com and looked around for a new video card and found out that to upgrade my video card I was going to have to also upgrade my power supply. After buying the parts I stood back and thought while I am at why not just build my gaming machine that I have been wanting. I wanted to build some that would play the games that I want (more World of Warcraft then anything else) and I did not want to break the bank either. It took a lot of patients waiting for price drops and special deals.
- I was able to get a mid-tower case from a co-worker for $35 (will have to replace because the heat sink is about a quarter inch too tall)
- The motherboad and Processor was a bundle deal a GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3 AM3+ AM3 and an AMD FX-8350 Vishera 4.0GHz (4.2GHz Turbo) Eight-Core Processor for $315
- I went with a COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO $35
- Ram is G.SKILL Sniper Gaming series 16GB(2x8) 240-Pin DDR3 16000 $65
- Video Card EVGA GeForce GTX 550 Ti 1GB PCI Express 2.0 $105
- Power Supply Antec EarthWatts 650W $65
- Operating System Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit $89
- Harddrive ADATA S510 120GB SATA III Solid State Drive $105
- Mount for harddrive Rosewill 2.5’’ SSD/ HDD plastic mounting kit $6
The Grand Total: $820
This is where the patient comes in handy and checking email deals everyday.
The performance so far has been excellent. I have been playing World of Warcraft on Ultra setting with using about a third of the resources with no lag besides the network connection. Plays Tribes: Ascend on high beautifully. This is not the most high end PC I could have build, but it works as a good starting off point for those who want a good gaming computer without having the drain your bank account.