03-11-2011, 02:07 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-12-2011, 11:14 PM by getsomepie.)
Aside from fixing a few links to accommodate 1155 motherboards being sold again, this is up to date and last had a major change on 2/13/11. We'll have to see how the 590/6990 performs on a larger scale and price/performance wise, so I haven't really considered adding them yet. I don't know why but the costs of a lot of components has went up 5 or 10 dollars since I made those builds for some reason, so unfortunately the builds will be on the higher-end of the budget range. (e.g. 500-600 build close to 600, 600-700 build close to 700 etc) It wasn't always like this. Next time a new series of cards or processors (probably Bulldozer) comes out I'll revamp it again. Remember that prices do fluctuate, and when some of the SB mobos were fixed their price went up.
Last updated: 3/11/11
$300-400
$400-500
$500-600
$600-700
$700-800
The following boards utilize 1155 mobos, and since their 3gbps problem has been fixed, many of them have raised in price so the real price of these builds could be slightly higher (and even go into the next price range) in price. Again, I won't bother to fix these until something is released that requires me to rewrite the entire guide.
$800-900
$900-$1000
$1000-1100
Low-end "Dream Machine"
Med-end "Dream Machine"
High-end "Dream Machine"
I don't even know what I'm doing anymore "Dream Machine"
You can go ahead and change these builds to your liking, but there are a few things to take into consideration when buying components.
Do NOT buy an AMD CPU on a high end machine ($800+), Intel processors perform much better when you get into high-end CPUs. Always remember that GHz/Cores are not the only determining factors in CPU performance.
Avoid Seagate HDDs, most importantly the Barracuda series.
Do NOT buy a shiny/fancy case, they often cost more and have worse airflow/perform worse than a case that is "duller" and cheaper.
Do NOT buy a cheap Chinese brand of PSU. If it's not Antec/OCZ/Corsair/XFX/Seasonic, then try to stay away from it. There are other nice brands but these are generally guaranteed to be of good quality.
Do NOT buy (PSUs aside) according to a brand. No matter how much you like x brand, if y brand is better then buy y brand.
Do NOT buy an SSD unless you have a very high budget, and never sacrifice other components to buy one.
Do NOT pair different types of ram with eachother/buy triple-channel ram for a dual-channel motherboard. If you buy 2GB of G.Skill ram and want 4GB, buy the same kind of ram.
Last updated: 3/11/11
$300-400
Spoiler (Click to View)
$400-500
Spoiler (Click to View)
$500-600
Spoiler (Click to View)
$600-700
Spoiler (Click to View)
$700-800
Spoiler (Click to View)
The following boards utilize 1155 mobos, and since their 3gbps problem has been fixed, many of them have raised in price so the real price of these builds could be slightly higher (and even go into the next price range) in price. Again, I won't bother to fix these until something is released that requires me to rewrite the entire guide.
$800-900
Spoiler (Click to View)
$900-$1000
Spoiler (Click to View)
$1000-1100
Spoiler (Click to View)
Low-end "Dream Machine"
Spoiler (Click to View)
Med-end "Dream Machine"
Spoiler (Click to View)
High-end "Dream Machine"
Spoiler (Click to View)
I don't even know what I'm doing anymore "Dream Machine"
Spoiler (Click to View)
You can go ahead and change these builds to your liking, but there are a few things to take into consideration when buying components.
Do NOT buy an AMD CPU on a high end machine ($800+), Intel processors perform much better when you get into high-end CPUs. Always remember that GHz/Cores are not the only determining factors in CPU performance.
Avoid Seagate HDDs, most importantly the Barracuda series.
Do NOT buy a shiny/fancy case, they often cost more and have worse airflow/perform worse than a case that is "duller" and cheaper.
Do NOT buy a cheap Chinese brand of PSU. If it's not Antec/OCZ/Corsair/XFX/Seasonic, then try to stay away from it. There are other nice brands but these are generally guaranteed to be of good quality.
Do NOT buy (PSUs aside) according to a brand. No matter how much you like x brand, if y brand is better then buy y brand.
Do NOT buy an SSD unless you have a very high budget, and never sacrifice other components to buy one.
Do NOT pair different types of ram with eachother/buy triple-channel ram for a dual-channel motherboard. If you buy 2GB of G.Skill ram and want 4GB, buy the same kind of ram.