Low/Mid budget gaming build

[Lamb]

Hey guys,

My uncle just came home telling me he would like me to build a new 'puter for my little cousin since his old PC died this week (the PSU exploded ) Anyways, the PC is VERY old and he would like to get a new one, putting ~750$ to 1000$ (if he can convince my aunt) in the tower only + a good 23' screen and a new keyboard. We'd like the PC to be ''top quality'' for the price as he's going keep it for like 4-5 years.

Here's what I made from NCIX's boxing day rebates;

Case : Antec 300 NCIX.com - Buy Antec Three Hundred Mini Tower Gaming Case 300 ATX 3X5.25 6X3.5INT No PS Front USB & Audio - THREE HUNDRED In Canada.
CPU & Mobo : Phenom X4 9850 BE + Asus M4A785-M NCIX.com - Buy NCIX Gaming Bundle Deal Phenom X4 9850 Black CPU & ASUS M4A785-M DDR2 Motherboard - X4 9850 & M4A785-M In Canada.
RAM : 4 GB G.Skill NCIX.com - Buy G.SKILL F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ PC2-6400 4GB 2X2GB DDR2-800 CL5-5-5-15 240PIN Dual Channel Memory Kit - F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ In Canada.
GPU : XFX 4890 NCIX.com - Buy XFX Radeon HD 4890 HD489XZSFC 1GB 850MHZ 1GB 3.9GHZ GDDR5 PCI-E 2XDVI HDTV Video Card - HD489XZSFC In Canada.
PSU : Seasonic M12D 750W NCIX.com - Buy Seasonic M12D 750W EPS12V 20/24PIN ATX Modular Power Supply Active PFC 80PLUS 8PIN PCI-E 120MM Fan - M12D SS-750 In Canada.
HDD : WD Green 500GB NCIX.com - Buy Western Digital WD5000AADS Caviar Green 500GB SATA 32MB 3.5IN Hard Drive OEM - WD5000AADS In Canada.
OS : Window 7 NCIX.com - Buy Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64BIT DVD OEM - GFC-00599 In Canada.

Monitor : NCIX.com - Buy Samsung 2343BWX 23IN Widescreen LCD Monitor 2048X1152 50000:1DC 5ms VGA DVI - LS23MYZKFVA/ZC In Canada.
Keyboard : NCIX.com - Buy Saitek Eclipse Keyboard Black USB W/ 104 Silver Key & Red LED Key Illumination - PZ30AUR In Canada.

comes to ~1050$ with taxes and shipping (free)

Any of you could lower the price while keeping the same 'horsepower'?

This is a top-quality build IMO for a great price and my lilttle cousin won't have any issue playing all the games he wants

I chose the XFX 4890 because it's a great gaming card, plus it's XFX, so he'll have a great warranty.

Seasonic M12 for the PSU, can't go wrong with it, 750W might be a little overkill, but a Corsair TX650W will cost more and this one is a MUCH MUCH ....MUCH better PSU, and for 99$ The price/quality can't be beat.

Antec 300, sweet little case and cheap.

Went with AMD because obviously it's cheaper to build around AMD than Intel.

Comments?

[ayah]

I wouldn't go WD Green. They were designed around the idea of "power savings". Pretty much any mainstream drive will trump the poor greens.

[Lamb]

Originally Posted by ayah

I wouldn't go WD Green. They were designed around the idea of "power savings". Pretty much any mainstream drive will trump the poor greens.

But it's only 50$

[jcmaz]

I would get 720BE + Gigabyte 770. And save a bit of money but using the cheap OCZ Alechemy. I would get the NZXT Gamma or Beta EVO instead of the 300

[Lamb]

I don't see the 720BE in NCIX's lists

[jcmaz]

If you want to test your luck, then go with the 550BE, but for the price, the AMD 620 Quad core is a steal.

[johnny3144]

if you are fast, canadacomputers have corsair TX750 750W PSU on sale for 69 after MIR tomorrow(boxing day). i gonna grab one. think NCIX had the same deal, not sure if they still have it instock.

[Raserei408]

I'd swap out the 4890 for the 5770. It's a bit slower, but as the drivers mature it'll gain some FPS, not to mention it's got DX11, Eyefinity, etc.
As stated above, change to the NZXT Gamma, or a similar case.
Save some money and go with the S12D rather than the M12D.
Go with the MA770T or the M4A79XTD EVO if budget allows.
Try to get a WD Caviar Black, Barracuda 7200.12, Spinpoint F1, etc. Caviar Greens are terribly slow.
Don't go with an OEM Windows 7. It becomes tied to the motherboard on activation, so if you change motherboards you need a new copy. If you have an old Windows version lying around, just install it and then get a Windows 7 Upgrade for about the same price.
I've heard poor things about that keyboard. I'd say just get a simple Logitech one unless he's a heavy MMORPG player.

[MarkOne]

Originally Posted by Raserei408

...... change to the NZXT Gamma, ......

why a so ugly case ?

[hen555]

I think you can make an i5 build under 1k and maybe even an i7.