Quickly jump to: Gaming PC Build ( < $500 ) • Gaming PC Build ($500 – $1000 ) • Gaming PC Build ($1000 – $1500 )
Welcome to the Gaming PC Builds of the Month for November 2011. This is actually a quick overview of the three $500, $500 – $1000, and $1000- $1500 builds, but if you want to check out the full article please go to the Monthly Gaming PC Builds Page.
Otherwise, read the November 2011 gaming pc build schematics below for an overview of all the hardware being used. If you have any questions or need any help once to ever witch choosing your hardware please let me know via comment below, and if you would like to keep up to date with the lastest PC builds, hardware and gaming news here at Newb Computer Build then I urge your to subscribe using the form at the top right 🙂
Monthly Gaming PC Build (< $500 ): November 2011
Gaming PC Build Recipe:
| Estimated Price: $ 503.13 (Yes slightly more than $500 – but worth it!) |
Overview: Gaming PC Build ( < $500 )
I was so excited last month to include the AMD Phenom 955 processor into the $500 gaming pc build, but this month these AMD Fx 4 Core 4100 processors rolled out, and I could not pass up being able to fit it into this build. At only about $110, you cannot beat this price for 3.6Ghz quad core power.
With this new AMD Fx processor came the new socket required ( AM3+ ) so I had to choose a new motherboard. I chose an ASUS micro ATX motherboard based on user reviews, price, and it does everything we need it to for this quality budget gaming pc build.
I have also changed up the brand for the RAM this month to the Corsair series 4GB memory pack, as the prices dropped and they have heat shields on.
This is the first month I have not used this Western Digital Scorpio Blue 500GB hard drive for any of the builds. This is primarily due to the hard drive supply plummets for the Western Digital drives for November, but fear not these 1TB Seagate Barracuda drives will prevail! Plus this is an increase in drive space from 500GB to 1TB for the $500 gaming pc build.
Monthly Gaming PC Build ( $500 – $1000 ): November 2011
Gaming PC Build Recipe:
| Estimated Price: $1006 (Pushing it a tad this month hey?) |
Overview: Gaming PC Build ( $500 – $1000 )
Like all of the builds for this November, I have made changes to allot (if not most) of the hardware. Prices seem to have changed allot, I have done some more reading, and there were changes with some hardware throughout last month.
Keeping the Intel i5-2500K (as this processor still kicks a gaming PC’s but), I chose an ASRock motherboard to support it this month. Why? Because every thread I read I kept coming across this as a recommended board, plus the reviews are great.
I switched up the graphics card brand this month the an even higher reviewed brand – the EVGA Geforce GTX 570 – since the reviews of this thing are great.
My previous Western Digital hard drive choice have taken a dive in supplies this month, resulting in a huge jump in price. Therefore, I did not include them this month, but I did choose a relatively similar drive – the Seagate Barracuda 1TB drives – so really no loss there.
Another big change is the switch from the previous Corsair Power Supply to the Antec 750W power supply – I did this because the price for quality was of no comparision. Just like the ASRock motherboard, I kept seeing these paired with gaming PC builds in this price range, so decided to just go with the Antec.
Overview: Additions / Part Swaps
I have included these Additions / Parts Swap as these could be parts that may either be better suited for specific individuals, or those who can extend their budget a little further.
Note: Total Prices = Total for Whole Gaming PC Build with the addition / replacement.
This months addition / hardware swaps for the $500 – $1000 gaming pc build go over and above the $1000 allotted for this build (as they usually do). These are only suggestions and are here just in case you want to see some versatility to the already layed out gaming pc build.
Adding an SSD drive can act as a boot drive for your OS so that it loads much quicker (60 GB may give you enough space for the OS and maybe a couple to one game(s) ), more hard drive space may be handy if you have lots of software / media, a blu-ray drive may be useful if you watch want to also use your gaming pc to watch blu-ray videos with, and more RAM could future proof your build (as 16GB is a ton of RAM!!)
| Add a SSD Boot Drive: OCZ Technology 60 GB Agility 3 SATA III Sold State Drive = ~$1111 Total Price | Add a Blu-Ray Optical Drive: LG WH12LS30 12X SATA BLU-RAY BURNER = ~$1091 Total Price |
| More Hard Drive Space: Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1 TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s with NCQ 32MB Cache 3.5 Inch X2 = 2TB Space = ~$1081 Total Price | More RAM (16GB): Get 2X instead of one Corsair Vengeance Blu 8 GB (2X4 GB) PC3-12800 1600mHz DDR3 240-Pin SDRAM Dual Channel Memory Kit = ~$1056 Total Price |
Monthly Gaming PC Build ( $1000 – $1500 ): November 2011
Gaming PC Build Recipe:
| Estimated Price: $1462.84 (below the $1500 budget – room for expansion!) |
Overview: Gaming PC Build ( $1000 – $1500 )
For the $1000 – $1500 Gaming PC Build I have made quite a few changes and improvements for November.
Not only have I been able to muster together a build that is much cheaper ($1462 instead of slightly over $1500), but I have managed to double the RAM (8GB to 16GB), add a modular PSU, select a well reviewed motherboard, and use a singular discrete graphics card of similar performance (so not to bother with SLI or Crossfire).
Overview: Additions / Part Swaps
These additions will go over the allotted price of $1500 for the $1000 – $1500 gaming pc build, and are shown here to give you an idea of what you can get over and above what is already included in the build, or ideas for future upgrades. I would deem any of the additions /swaps below to be an improvement over the current build, but can make it quite a bit more expensive.
The cooler could be bought because you are more of an enthusiast and plan on doing some overclocking of the Intel i7-2600K processor, more wattage in the PSU could be because you are concerned with future upgrades (such as adding another graphics card), adding another graphics card (The GeForce GTX 580) is probably overkill but can be kept in mind for future improvements, and the larger SSD could help with storing some of your favorite games for faster load times.
Note: Total Prices are Total for Whole Gaming PC Build with the addition / replacement
| CPU Cooler: Corsair Cooling Hydro-Series All-in-One High-Performance Liquid CPU Cooler = ~$1529 Total Price | Double the Graphics Power w/ SLI add one more: EVGA GeForce GTX 580 1536 MB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 2DVI/Mini HDMI SLI Ready Graphics Card = ~$1963 Total Price |
| More Wattage PSU: Corsair CMPSU-950TX 950-Watt TX Series = ~$1510 Total Price | Larger SSD: Kingston Digital 96 GB Now V+100 SATA 2 2.5-Inch Solid-State Drive = ~$1492 Total Price |
Comments 1
Great post i like it. Is it cheaper to buy a gaming pc in the store or custom build it yourself?