TE PC Buying Guide - April 2011 (Price update: 6.6.11)

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DarkAngel

DarkAngel

Skilled
General Purpose Office Machine + 24/7 Downloading(Budget 13.5k)

Components Description Price (INR)
Processor AMD Sempron 140(2.7Ghz, 1 core) 1500
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-MA78LMT-S2 2450
RAM 2GB 1333MHz Hynix/Dynet DDRIII RAM 800
HDD 500GB Seagate 7200.12 1950
GPU On Board HD3000 -
Monitor Dell E1609 4000
Cabinet Zebronics Kite with SMPS 1100
PSU/SMPS NA -
Key Board Zebronics OEM SET - Optical Blk Mouse+ KB 350
Mouse NA -
ODD Samsung 22X SATA DVD 950
Speakers Creative SBS SBS A35 - 2.0 400
Total 13500

  • Go for the Gigabyte GA D425TUD board + ATOM 1.8 GHz - 3.45k if it is only for 24/7 DLs and browsing.
  • If you have ~1k-1.5k more to spare then go for a AthlonII X2 250 ~ 2.6k+Asus M4A78LT-M LE~2.6k as it will give you much better performance in multitasking.

General Purpose Home Machine(Budget 18k)

Components Description Price (INR)
Processor AMD Athlon II x2 250 2750
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-MA78LMT-S2 2450
RAM Corsair 2GB DDRIII 1333MHz 1000
HDD Seagate 500GB 7200.12 1950
GPU On Board Raedon HD3000 -
Monitor Dell 1920IN 5000
Cabinet Zebronics Bijli W/O PSU 1100
PSU FSP saga II 350W 1500
Key Board Logitech SET - Optical Blk Mouse+ MMKB 650
Mouse NA -
ODD Samsung 22X SATA DVD 950
Speakers Logitech R20 2.1 850
Total 18250

  • To give it more gaming prowess add a HD4670 512MB DDRIII @ 3.5K.
  • If you are a heavy multitasker then get the AthlonII X3 440 ~ 3.3k.

General Purpose Home Machine + Casual Gamer (Budget 25k)

Components Description Price (INR)
Processor AMD Athlon II x3 445 3400
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-MA78LMT-S2 2450
RAM Corsair 2GB DDRIII 1333MHz 1000
HDD Seagate 500GB 7200.12 1950
GPU Sapphire ATI Raedon HD5670 512MB GDDR5 4300
Monitor Dell IN2020M 6250
Cabinet CM Elite 310 1500
PSU Gigabyte Superb 460 2000
Key Board Logitech SET - Optical Blk Mouse+ MMKB 650
Mouse NA -
ODD Samsung 22X SATA DVD 950
Speakers Altec Lansing 2.1 BXR1121 950
Total 25500
  • I would recommend a sligtly better cabinet CM ELite 310 ~ 1.6k and Kingston 4GB RAM stick ~ 1.95k is you have few more bucks to spend.

Low End Gaming Rig (Budget 31k)

Components Description Price (INR)
Processor AMD Athlon II x3 445 3400
Motherboard MSI 880GM-E35 3500
RAM Corsair 4GB DDRIII 1333MHz 1900
HDD Seagate 500GB 7200.12 1950
GPU MSI HD5770 1GB GDDR5 6800
Monitor Benq G2220HD 7400
Cabinet CM Elite 310 1500
PSU/SMPS Corsair CX400 2400
Key Board Logitech SET - Optical Blk Mouse+ MMKB 650
Mouse NA -
ODD Samsung 22X SATA DVD 950
Speakers Altec Lansing 2.1 BXR1121 950
Total 31400

  • If u have a couple more thousand to spare then you can consider a PSU upgrade to Corsair VX450 @ 3.4K.
  • If you want Intel you can opt for the Core i3 2100 ~ 5.5k + Gigabyte GA-H61-D2B3 ~ 3.5k
    [*]The HD5770 seems to be out of stock at few places and is being replaced by the HD6770 (Same GPU but with HDMI 1.4 and AMD 3D support. Pricing is in the 7k-7.2k range)

Medium End Gaming Rig (Budget 41k)

Components Description Price (INR)
Processor Core i3 2100 5500
Motherboard MSI H67MA-E35 4600
RAM Corsair 4GB DDRIII 1333MHz 1900
HDD Seagate 1TB 7200.12 2750
GPU MSI Cyclone OC HD6850 1GB GDDR5 PE 10200
Monitor Benq G2220HD 7400
Cabinet NZXT Gamma 2100
PSU Corsair VX 450 3400
Key Board Logitech MMKB 400
Mouse Gigabyte GM6800 650
ODD Samsung 22X SATA DVD 950
Speakers Altec Lansing 2.1 BXR1121 950
Total 40800

  • Alterate option if you want to a quad or want to OC is the PhenomII X4 840 ~ 4.8k or the PhenomII X4 955BE ~ 5.9k + a decent 880G mobo for ~ 5k.

Med End Gaming Rig (Budget 51k)

Components Description Price (INR)
Processor Core i5 2400 9100
Motherboard MSI H67MA-E35 4600
RAM Corsair 2*2GB DDRIII 1333MHz 1900
HDD Seagate 1 TB 7200.12 2750
GPU MSI Nvidia N560GTX-Ti Twin Frozr II/OC 1GB GDDR5 14000
Monitor Benq G2220HD 7400
Cabinet NZXT Gamma 2100
PSU Corsair VX550W 4600
Key Board Logitech MMKB 400
Mouse Logitech MX 518 1200
ODD Samsung 22X SATA DVD 950
Speakers Altec Lansing 2.1 VS2621 1650
Total 50650

  • But keep in mind that the H67 MSI mobo has only 2 RAM slots and so add a single 4GB stick of RAM.
  • Grab a AMD Radeon 6950 2GB reference version ~ 15.5k, if you are interested in trying your luck in unlocking it to a HD 6970.

Med End Gaming Rig (Budget 65k)

Components Description Price (INR)
Processor Intel Core i5 2500K 10800
Motherboard MSI P67A-GD55/Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD3R-B3 9400/9600
CPU Cooler CM Hyper 212+ 1850
RAM Gskil F3-12800CL9D-4GBXL 1600MHz 2600
HDD Seagate 1 TB 7200.12 2750
GPU MSI R6950 Twin Frozr II/OC 2GB GDDR5 15000
Monitor Benq E2220HD 8700
Cabinet CM RC-690 4300
PSU Corsair VX550 4600
Key Board Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000 1100
Mouse Logitech MX 518 1200
ODD Samsung 22X SATA DVD 950
Speakers Altec Lansing 2.1 VS2621 1650
Total 65100

  • If you are interested in SLI/XFire in the future then go for a MSI P67A-GD65 ~ 9.6k or Asus P8P67 Pro ~ 11.6k (You will have to get a better PSU too when you do XFire/SLI)

High End Gaming Rig - XFire (Budget 77k)

Components Description Price (INR)
Processor Intel Core i5 2500K 10800
Motherboard MSI P67A-GD55 9400
CPU Cooler CM Hyper 212+ 1850
RAM Gskil F3-12800CL9D-4GBXL 1600MHz 2600
HDD Seagate 1 TB 7200.12 2750
GPU 2*R6850 CYCLONE 1GD5 PE/OC 20400
Monitor Samsung P2350 10800
Cabinet CM RC-690 4300
PSU Corsair HX650 6600
Key Board Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000 1100
Mouse Razer Death Adder 2000
Mouse pad RantoPad H3 300
ODD Samsung 22X SATA DVD 950
Speakers Altec Lancing VS4621 2900
Total 76750

  • Those who prefer single GFX can go for a HD6950 2GB/ HD6970 2GB/ GTX570 according to preference and the kind of gaming prowess needed!
  • If you have a bit more to spare and are a hard core OCer then opt for CL8 RAM sticks and Noctua NH-U12P SE2 120mm SSO ~ 3.75k
  • If you are skeptical about going for a tier-2 brand MSI mobo then opt for the Asus P8P67 Pro ~ 11.6k (Though the MSI P67A-GD55 has good good ratings in newegg and couple of reviews)
High End Gaming Rig - XFire (Budget 1.1L)
Components Description Price (INR)
Processor Intel Core i5 2500K 10800
Motherboard Asus P8P67 Pro 12000
RAM G-skill 1600MHZ F3-12800CL8T-4GBRM (2GBx2) 3000
HDD 1 TB Seagate 7200.12 2750
CPU Cooler Noctua NH-U12P SE2 120mm SSO 3750
GPU 2*MSI R6950 Twin Frozr II/OC 2GB GDDR5 30000
Monitor DELL U2311H 14500
Cabinet CM HAF 922 6600
PSU/SMPS SeaSonic X 850 SS-850KM 850W 9900
Key Board Razer Arctosa 2200
Mouse Razer Death Adder 2200
Mouse pad RantoPad H3 300
ODD L.G./Samsung OEM SATA DVD-Writer 950
Speakers Altec Lansing 2.1 VS4121 2900
Total 101850
  • Those who prefer single GFX can go for a GTX580.
  • In case you want a small HDD then wait for the latest SF based SSD's to hit stores. As of now OCZ Vertex3 120GB and 240GB is listed in PrimeABGB.
  • A better set of speakers.
High End Gaming Rig (Budget 1.42L)
Components Description Price (INR)
Processor Intel Core i7 2600k 15900
Motherboard Asus Asus P8P67 DELUXE B3 15500
RAM G-skill F3-12800CL8D-8GBXM 1600MHz 5400
HDD Seagate 1 TB 7200.12 2700
SSD OCZ Vertex 3 VTX3-25SAT3-120G 120GB 16800
CPU Cooler Noctua NH-D14 120mm & 140mm SSO CPU Cooler 4800
Monitor Dell U2311H 14500
GPU 2*MSI R6950 Twin Frozr II/OC 2GB GDDR5 30000
Cabinet NZXT Phantom 8400
PSU/SMPS SeaSonic X 850 SS-850KM 850W 9900
Key Board Razer Arctosa 2250
Mouse Razer Death Adder 2200
Mouse pad Razer Sphex World Elite Edition Gaming Grade Desktop Skin 1000
ODD L.G./Samsung OEM SATA DVD-Writer 950
Speakers Logitech 2300 2.1 7400
Sound Card ASUS Xonar DX 4200
Total 141900

  • Optional ugrade to Dell U2711H ~ 40k.
  • A 8GB CL7/CL8 kit. Currently not able to find such kit listed online!
Ultra High End Workhorse/Gaming Rig

Components Description Price (INR)
Processor 2 * Xeon X5650(6 cores, 12M Cache, 2.66 GHz)
Motherboard EVGA Classified SR-2
RAM GSkill F3-12800CL6T2-12GBPIS
HDD 2*1 TB WD Black
SDD 2*OCZ Vertex 3 VTX3-25SAT3-240G
CPU Cooler 2*Noctua NH-U12P SE2 120mm SSO
GPU 2*ZOTAC AMP! GeForce GTX 580
Monitor DELL U2711
Cabinet LIAN LI PC-P80(modded)
PSU/SMPS Corsair AX1200
Key Board Razer Tarantula
Mouse Logitech G9 Laser
Mouse pad Razer Sphex World Elite Edition Gaming Grade Desktop Skin
ODD LITEON 4X BLURAY ROM IHOS104- 06
Sound Card Creative PCI-E Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion
Speakers Logitech Z-5500 5.1Ch

Home Theater Enthusiast

Components Description Price (INR)
Processor Athlon II X2 250 2700
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H 4000
RAM Corsair 4GB DDRIII 1333MHz 1900
HDD Seagate 1TB 7200.12 2700
GPU Sapphire Radeon HD5670 512MB GDDR5 4300
Monitor Any Good Full HD LCD TV(32" and upwards) 30000+
Cabinet Silverstone SG02B 4500
PSU/SMPS FSP SAGAII 350w 1500
Key Board Logitech Wireless Desktop MK320 1200
Mouse NA -
TV Tuner Hauppauge PVR 150 + MCE Remote ~2000
ODD LITEON 4X BLURAY ROM IHOS104- 06 6500
Sound Card ASUS Xonar DX 4200
Speakers Altec Lansing 5.1 FX5051E 8000

  • Please suggest some alternatives for Hauppauge PVR 150 if still suffers 64-bit Windows issue.


P.S: Just found that Asus H67 and P67 mobos are listed for super prices in deltapage, Chennai in their website :)

COMPUTER HARDWARE - Mother Boards - For Intel CPU - www.deltapage.com

Also please let me know of any typos in the guide.
Suggestions and comments are welcome. :)
 
Just a few pointers from my end..

why is the newer core i3 2100 being ignored....at arnd 6k which puts it in the same bracket as the phenom 955...its a more potent gaming solution.
Agreed it wont be as fast as the quad solution coming to other enviroments, but when teh focus is on gaming , then the i3 has an advantage.

Also since the price of the phenom 840 has come down to 5k bracket, the charged up propus can be reccomended in lie of te athlon 640

Also folks can alo also consider the corsair GS600(CMPSU-600G) as an option between the VX 450 and VX 550....at arnd 4k with 48A on a single 12v rail and 80 plus certified, it looks pretty decent.
 
G80_gts said:
Just a few pointers from my end..

why is the newer core i3 2100 being ignored....at arnd 6k which puts it in the same bracket as the phenom 955...its a more potent gaming solution.

Agreed it wont be as fast as the quad solution coming to other enviroments, but when teh focus is on gaming , then the i3 has an advantage.

Also since the price of the phenom 840 has come down to 5k bracket, the charged up propus can be reccomended in lie of te athlon 640

Also folks can alo also consider the corsair GS600(CMPSU-600G) as an option between the VX 450 and VX 550....at arnd 4k with 48A on a single 12v rail and 80 plus certified, it looks pretty decent.
Click to expand...
Yes the i3 2100 is better in gaming as of now but people are not going to have a rig only for gaming and the quad comes on top for most other usage scenarios and thus gets the nod. Also the 955BE can be OCed and thus can trounce the i3 2100 which cant be OCed.

The PhenomII X4 840 and AthlonII X4 640 are both based on the same architecture with only a minor difference in clock speeds. But yes it is a decent alternative in the 40k rig.

The GS600 carries only 3 years warranty compared to VX's 5 years warranty and also it is rated @ 40 C compared to VX's 50 C. The build is not as good as the VX series and that is the general feedback across the forums. I would suggest the Seasonic S12II 620w~5k as alternate for the VX550.
 
DarkAngel said:
Yes the i3 2100 is better in gaming as of now but people are not going to have a rig only for gaming and the quad comes on top for most other usage scenarios and thus gets the nod. Also the 955BE can be OCed and thus can trounce the i3 2100 which cant be OCed.

The PhenomII X4 840 and AthlonII X4 640 are both based on the same architecture with only a minor difference in clock speeds. But yes it is a decent alternative in the 40k rig.

The GS600 carries only 3 years warranty compared to VX's 5 years warranty and also it is rated @ 40 C compared to VX's 50 C. The build is not as good as the VX series and that is the general feedback across the forums. I would suggest the Seasonic S12II 620w~5k as alternate for the VX550.
Click to expand...
but we are taggin it with "med Gaming Rig" aint we?? :)
Anyhow we may break it by saying if your looking at awesome gaming with NO OC, minimal work that needs more than 2 cores---core i3 solution will work out best
Oderwise the 955/965 retains the spot. Watsay??

yes ur correct about the temp rating , but how much of output will vary acrss 10 degress, im not quite sure

About the build quality, i would beg to differ. Its a corsair product and quality is top notch. From packaging to the cable sleeving, corsair wasnt partial to GS series compared to VX or even TX series.
 
G80_gts said:
but we are taggin it with "med Gaming Rig" aint we?? :)

Anyhow we may break it by saying if your looking at awesome gaming with NO OC, minimal work that needs more than 2 cores---core i3 solution will work out best

Oderwise the 955/965 retains the spot. Watsay??

yes ur correct about the temp rating , but how much of output will vary acrss 10 degress, im not quite sure

About the build quality, i would beg to differ. Its a corsair product and quality is top notch. From packaging to the cable sleeving, corsair wasnt partial to GS series compared to VX or even TX series.
Click to expand...
I was not speaking of packing etc.. But the internal components. Check out the reviews!

So looks like what we were expecting. The load regulation took a small hit vs. the VX550, and the ripple (already mediocre) got slightly worse. The capacitors are from "Man Yue" and according to Travis (the reviewer) are not as good as Japanese caps, but are still fairly decent. I'm going to class them in the same tier as Teapo and OST then. The heatsink design was obviously half-assed, there's barely any fins. And the build quality is solidly average.

About what was expected. Assuming these retail in the expected price range (~$70) then this would be a decent choice vs. the OCZ SXS 600W or GXS 600W. It can't hold a candle to other Corsair PSUs though, except the CX400 and maybe the VX450.
Click to expand...

Corsair GS600 Reviewed (ITOCP) - Overclock.net - Overclocking.net

Google Translate

Reg. the i3 2100 vs 955BE personally i wouldn't advice anyone going for a new rig to get a 6k dual core over a quad which can be OCed and has almost equal gaming performance even @ stock!

If someone wants more CPU Horse power they are better off with a i5 2400 ~ 9.7k and that upgrade is worth it which is what i recommended in the 50k rig.
 
Typo on the General Home user RIG, please correct to AMD Athlon IIx2 250 instead of IIx3 as mentioned.

Sorry for the nitpicking.
 
ALPHA17 said:
Typo on the General Home user RIG, please correct to AMD Athlon IIx2 250 instead of IIx3 as mentioned.

Sorry for the nitpicking.
Click to expand...
Thanks for pointing out. Edited correctly :)
 
In "High End Gaming Rig - XFire (Budget 78k)", why have you recommended the MSI motherboard? Doesn't MSI boards have issues of mosfet burning when overclocking?
 
DarkAngel said:
I was not speaking of packing etc.. But the internal components. Check out the reviews!

Corsair GS600 Reviewed (ITOCP) - Overclock.net - Overclocking.net
Google Translate

Reg. the i3 2100 vs 955BE personally i wouldn't advice anyone going for a new rig to get a 6k dual core over a quad which can be OCed and has almost equal gaming performance even @ stock!
If someone wants more CPU Horse power they are better off with a i5 2400 ~ 9.7k and that upgrade is worth it which is what i recommended in the 50k rig.
Click to expand...
that packing thing was more of teh spectrum of comparison :) anyhow thnx for review link mate.

regarding the i3 why i still consider is becos of teh following link. Even in the earlier anandtech reviews this dual core was was trumping the costlier quads from amd.
Conclusion: Sandy Bridge Has Game : Who's Got Game? Twelve Sub-$200 CPUs Compared
 
Casual Gamer said:
In "High End Gaming Rig - XFire (Budget 78k)", why have you recommended the MSI motherboard? Doesn't MSI boards have issues of mosfet burning when overclocking?
Click to expand...
Newegg.com - MSI P67A-GD55 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

MSI P67A-GD55 1155 Motherboard - Overclockers Forums

Particular board seems to be good. Will definitely remove it from the recommendations if there are issues with that model.

--- Updated Post - Automerged ---
G80_gts said:
that packing thing was more of teh spectrum of comparison :) anyhow thnx for review link mate.

regarding the i3 why i still consider is becos of teh following link. Even in the earlier anandtech reviews this dual core was was trumping the costlier quads from amd.

Conclusion: Sandy Bridge Has Game : Who's Got Game? Twelve Sub-$200 CPUs Compared
Click to expand...
I agree with you and i agree the i3 2100 is better at gaming than 955BE at stock but as i said in my earlier i stick to the quad due to more muscle in parallelism and yeah if one wants a rig only for Gaming, movies and browsing then the i3 2100 does offer a good alternative. (Added the same to suggestions in the main post)
 
50k machine with only 22' monitor pairing with 560 ..... i think a better monitor was needed ... anyway just my suggestion ... no where close to an expert like u
 
kartikoli said:
50k machine with only 22' monitor pairing with 560 ..... i think a better monitor was needed ... anyway just my suggestion ... no where close to an expert like u
Click to expand...
Screen real estate is best chosen according to a person's taste. Yeah a 23"/24" can be added to that rig but then that would up the costs by ~4k. Budget constraints. ;)
 
@@ Med End Gaming Rig (Budget 50k)

In 'this' can we skip/ignore entire GPU with i5-2500 configurations ? If we are not interested in games now (can it be added later on ?) , but more interested in HD movies and photo/video editing ?
 
newboss said:
@@ Med End Gaming Rig (Budget 50k)

In 'this' can we skip/ignore entire GPU with i5-2500 configurations ? If we are not interested in games now (can it be added later on ?) , but more interested in HD movies and photo/video editing ?
Click to expand...
Yup. You can add a GPU later and use the i5-2500 and the H67.(The processor has a HD2000 IGP)

--- Updated Post - Automerged ---
newboss said:
@@ Med End Gaming Rig (Budget 50k)

In 'this' can we skip/ignore entire GPU with i5-2500 configurations ? If we are not interested in games now (can it be added later on ?) , but more interested in HD movies and photo/video editing ?
Click to expand...
Yup. You can add a GPU later and use the i5-2500 and the H67.(The processor has a HD2000 IGP)
 
In "Med End Gaming Rig (Budget 66k)" you rec to go for MSI P67A-GD65 ~ 9.6k for sli/xfire and also asked to go for better powersupply..what PS u recommned?
 
manuvikram007 said:
In "Med End Gaming Rig (Budget 66k)" you rec to go for MSI P67A-GD65 ~ 9.6k for sli/xfire and also asked to go for better powersupply..what PS u recommned?
Click to expand...
Depends on which GPU you want to XFire or SLI. Min. Corsair HX650~6.6k or Corsair TX650~5.5k in case you want to XFire HD6850.
 
has anyone in mumbai actually been able to buy a 880G ( or even 785G ) microatx mb in mumbai, in the past month or two ? Gigabyte or Asus.
 
PoBoy said:
has anyone in mumbai actually been able to buy a 880G ( or even 785G ) microatx mb in mumbai, in the past month or two ? Gigabyte or Asus.
Click to expand...
880G mobos are plenty.

Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H or Asus M4A88T M or M4A88T M LE are widely available across India.

You checked with TheITWares? He has loads of 880G listed in his website!

TheITWares - One Stop for all Gizmos!GIGABYTE GA-880GM-UD2H AM3 AMD 880G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

TheITWares - One Stop for all Gizmos!ASUS M4A88T-M LE AM3 AMD 880G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

TheITWares - One Stop for all Gizmos!ASUS M4A88T-M AM3 AMD 880G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
 
^^

What is the motherboard -- Intel original please try to get atleast a decent H67 ASUS OR Gigabyte board in its lieu, it will jack up the cost a bit but worth the advantages you get, especially ASUS in -- UEFI (Extensible Firmware Interface a step up from the good old BIOS), all solid caps etc.

here are boards I'll recommend -- ASUS P8H67-M PRO B3 ~ 7900/- TheITWares - One Stop for all Gizmos!ASUS P8H67-M PRO B3 Revision LGA 1155 Intel H67 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
 
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