Building my son a computer for rift.

[Simnir]

Hello!
I built my wife a $3k computer for this game, and anything she needs for the future for a wedding present.. HOWEVER.. I really don't want to spend the same and build my son a computer that only needs to run RIFT and anything below it (minecraft, and some other web based games).. SO..

Anyone have a good build? Cheap, but able to run the game? I don't want a "put together system". I can do all that on my own and save some money. Just looking at a good system that will run well within itself, and a decent case for this game.

Thanks for any help!
Simnir a.k.a for those that know me on a different game (Goblin).

[Kadeth]

500 watt PSU
Quad core 2.3 or equivalent
4 gig RAM
60 Gig HD (or 1TB if your going for longevity)
Sound Card
A decent video card, I like the GTX 460 but, something with 1 gig on board.

Speaker, mouse, keyboard, DVD drive, 4-5 USB ports Ethernet other means of connecting to the internet. That should do it for a basic rig decent for gaming and general purposes. Toss in an expansion bay and a slot or two here and there and, it will be easy to upgrade for years to come.

[Hotter]

Heck if you've put together one for the wifey, shirley you can put one together for the son? Unless the $3k build was an Alienware you configured online...?

[Rounded]

Proper CPU cooling
i5-2500k/i7-2700K and overclock it to pieces, RIFT loves CPU and CPU only.
Any decent Z68 motherboard
8 gigs of DDR3
120gig SSD OR HDD of any size
GTX560 or above.

[Sariina]

Proper CPU cooling
i5-2500k/i7-2700K and overclock it to pieces, RIFT loves CPU and CPU only.
Any decent Z68 motherboard
8 gigs of DDR3
120gig SSD OR HDD of any size
GTX560 or above.

Pretty much this, but I think at this point you want a z77 motherboard for upgradability sake.

i52500k or i5-3570k
4GB or 8GB of RAM depending on Budget
Any old Hard Drive will do, generally a 1TB spinning disk. If you want you can throw a 64GB SSD on there in SRT to speed up load times, but it's not really required.
NVidia GTX560ti or AMD7850 or so . . .

I have no idea how you spend 3K on a gaming machine, mine is pretty much this and was more like 1350 . . .

[Simnir]

Heck if you've put together one for the wifey, shirley you can put one together for the son? Unless the $3k build was an Alienware you configured online...?

No, was no Alienware, or other prebuilt configuration. She always used my old rig to play games.
Dell XPS Gen 2.

We got married, and for a wedding present (among others, lol), I researched the best parts at the time and built it from scratch.

Its the price tag for my son is all. Something that I can upgrade from time to time, but not the sticker price. His birthday is July 22nd, and he will be 10. So, I want to try and put something together by then.

[Simnir]

Proper CPU cooling
i5-2500k/i7-2700K and overclock it to pieces, RIFT loves CPU and CPU only.
Any decent Z68 motherboard
8 gigs of DDR3
120gig SSD OR HDD of any size
GTX560 or above.

again, lol. Without the price tag, haha.
Wife's:
i7-2600 (would have gone for the 2700, but for only 100 mhz more for a couple hundred extra, it wasn't worth it).
z68 MB
16gig RAM
120 SSD, 1 TB HD
6670 Radeon Ice-x (I think)
650 PSU

I think that is all correct.

[Simnir]

Pretty much this, but I think at this point you want a z77 motherboard for upgradability sake.

i52500k or i5-3570k
4GB or 8GB of RAM depending on Budget
Any old Hard Drive will do, generally a 1TB spinning disk. If you want you can throw a 64GB SSD on there in SRT to speed up load times, but it's not really required.
NVidia GTX560ti or AMD7850 or so . . .

I have no idea how you spend 3K on a gaming machine, mine is pretty much this and was more like 1350 . . .

Well, I what I meant was that I was upgrading some of my parts along the way too, haha, which came to about 3k.

[Simnir]

again, lol. Without the price tag, haha.
Wife's:
i7-2600 (would have gone for the 2700, but for only 100 mhz more for a couple hundred extra, it wasn't worth it).
z68 MB
16gig RAM
120 SSD, 1 TB HD
6670 Radeon Ice-x (I think)
650 PSU

I think that is all correct.

Guess I can't edit.. It is a 6790 Radeon HIS

[Simnir]

500 watt PSU
Quad core 2.3 or equivalent
4 gig RAM
60 Gig HD (or 1TB if your going for longevity)
Sound Card
A decent video card, I like the GTX 460 but, something with 1 gig on board.

Speaker, mouse, keyboard, DVD drive, 4-5 USB ports Ethernet other means of connecting to the internet. That should do it for a basic rig decent for gaming and general purposes. Toss in an expansion bay and a slot or two here and there and, it will be easy to upgrade for years to come.

This! Thank you for a simplistic build.

[Sariina]

This! Thank you for a simplistic build.

Except it's not specific, so if you just go an order a quad core you may end up with an AMD Athlon x4 or something, which would be terrible for gaming these days.

Take something like Newegg and put in:
Antec Sonata III Case w/ 500W PSU - 120
WD Caviar Blue 1TB 7200 RPM Drive - 100
XFX Radeon 6870 - 180 (30 Mail in rebate makes it 150, comes with Dirt 3)
Mushkin 8GB DDR3-1600 RAM - 46
Asrock Z77 MB - 110
Intel Core i5-2500k - 220
Zalman CNPS5X CPU Cooler - 20

All in all you're looking at 800 bucks, for one nice gaming machine. Add in a monitor, DVD-Drive, Keyboard and Mouse and the whole thing will be about $1K. In some cases and games will probably even out perform the other machine you have, mostly because the video card is way better.

[Simnir]

Except it's not specific, so if you just go an order a quad core you may end up with an AMD Athlon x4 or something, which would be terrible for gaming these days.

Take something like Newegg and put in:
Antec Sonata III Case w/ 500W PSU - 120
WD Caviar Blue 1TB 7200 RPM Drive - 100
XFX Radeon 6870 - 180 (30 Mail in rebate makes it 150, comes with Dirt 3)
Mushkin 8GB DDR3-1600 RAM - 46
Asrock Z77 MB - 110
Intel Core i5-2500k - 220
Zalman CNPS5X CPU Cooler - 20

All in all you're looking at 800 bucks, for one nice gaming machine. Add in a monitor, DVD-Drive, Keyboard and Mouse and the whole thing will be about $1K. In some cases and games will probably even out perform the other machine you have, mostly because the video card is way better.

Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Seagate Barracuda ST500DM002 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity (100315L) <will prolly go with what I have, which is the 6790 for a few bucks cheaper>

AMD Gift - Dirt3 Game Coupon <woot>?

SONY Black SATA DVD-ROM Drive Model DDU1681S-0B <or equivalent>

Antec EarthWatts EA-500D Green 500W ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply <again, something similar>

CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop

Intel Core i5-2500 Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core

ASRock Z68 PRO3 GEN3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard


Or something roughly equivalent to it. Roughly $750 with shipping. Got a monitor, Nothing special 19" flat panel, and i can get a relatively cheap mouse/keyboard combo at any store. A couple hundred more than I wanted to spend, but It is pretty much as minumum as I can find without much research. And, its all compatible, so I really don't have to worry about Conflicts. Newegg.com is what I always use. I just needed a bare idea as to what I was looking at. I like the whole "Go big or go home" when it comes to rigs.. but with my soon to be 10 year old, I was thinking that this could be a nice base, and when he gets older, he can upgrade with his own money, haha.

[Sariina]

Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Seagate Barracuda ST500DM002 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity (100315L) <will prolly go with what I have, which is the 6790 for a few bucks cheaper>

AMD Gift - Dirt3 Game Coupon <woot>?

SONY Black SATA DVD-ROM Drive Model DDU1681S-0B <or equivalent>

Antec EarthWatts EA-500D Green 500W ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply <again, something similar>

CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop

Intel Core i5-2500 Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core

ASRock Z68 PRO3 GEN3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard


Or something roughly equivalent to it. Roughly $750 with shipping. Got a monitor, Nothing special 19" flat panel, and i can get a relatively cheap mouse/keyboard combo at any store. A couple hundred more than I wanted to spend, but It is pretty much as minumum as I can find without much research. And, its all compatible, so I really don't have to worry about Conflicts. Newegg.com is what I always use. I just needed a bare idea as to what I was looking at. I like the whole "Go big or go home" when it comes to rigs.. but with my soon to be 10 year old, I was thinking that this could be a nice base, and when he gets older, he can upgrade with his own money, haha.

The reason I chose the Z77, even with the i5-2500k, is so that iun the future you could pop an Ivy Bridge processor in there with a video card that may need PCI-E 3.0 bandwidth available.

For someone who is 10 I think this is a crazy amount of overkill.

I would seriously consider getting an i3-2100/2110, with a 7770 as the video card and 4GB of RAM instead. Stick with the Z77 though as the motherboard so that when he is 13 or so you can do a video/CPU/RAM upgrade so that he keeps up with the latest games at the time.

P.S. My 10 year old plays on an Athlon X3 with a 5770 and 4GB of RAM . . . I have yet to hear about them complaining of performance problems . . . The kids are more than happy to not have to share a machine with 'gamer Dad' who hogs it 24/7

[Simnir]

The reason I chose the Z77, even with the i5-2500k, is so that iun the future you could pop an Ivy Bridge processor in there with a video card that may need PCI-E 3.0 bandwidth available.

For someone who is 10 I think this is a crazy amount of overkill.

I would seriously consider getting an i3-2100/2110, with a 7770 as the video card and 4GB of RAM instead. Stick with the Z77 though as the motherboard so that when he is 13 or so you can do a video/CPU/RAM upgrade so that he keeps up with the latest games at the time.

P.S. My 10 year old plays on an Athlon X3 with a 5770 and 4GB of RAM . . . I have yet to hear about them complaining of performance problems . . . The kids are more than happy to not have to share a machine with 'gamer Dad' who hogs it 24/7

And that is exactly what he has to do. share MY rig. Yea, overkill. I mean, I could give him my old Dell XPS, with only 1 cooling fan running and an AGP setup that i Can't do anything with.. A completely proprietary machine that I can't work with at all, and a single core HT 3.0ghz.. But.. After playing it on my rig, i don't know if he can stand that one, haha.

[Sariina]

And that is exactly what he has to do. share MY rig. Yea, overkill. I mean, I could give him my old Dell XPS, with only 1 cooling fan running and an AGP setup that i Can't do anything with.. A completely proprietary machine that I can't work with at all, and a single core HT 3.0ghz.. But.. After playing it on my rig, i don't know if he can stand that one, haha.

Well, I just upgraded my i3-530 w/ 5770 which I was running Rift on at mostly medium settings at 1920x1200 on. If you are running on an i3-2100/2110 with a 7770 and at something like 1600x900 (A nice 19" monitor Res) then you will get much better performance than I was and it was completely playable on my machine.

My old machine now has become the home theater hub playing games and media on the TV at 1920x1080 and is doing just fine there as well . . . kids play games on the big screen all the time and are loving it. Still haven't heard anyone complain about performance.

I guess I just assumed that by building a machine for your son he was in the 15 age range and wanted something for a "serious gamer" . . . An i3, 7770, and 4GB is plenty powerful to play Rift, and pretty much any other game you would ever see a 10 year old play. With the z77 base it's a great platform to throw in some more serious gear in a couple of years when he gets to his teens and probably wants to play some good FPS games and needs to 'pwn noobs' at 120 frames a second