Daniel Valastro - Mid-range Gaming PC

Daniel Valastro wanted to build a PC that was cheaper than a regular gaming system but did almost as well. Daniel says he's only really been interested in computers for over a year. "I live in Sydney and I enjoy finding parts for computers that will increase the performance of a system. This is the first computer that I have made. I decided to build it in the mid-year school holidays, when I bought a game that wouldn’t run on on any other computer in the house. I wanted to fulfil the category “budget gaming computer” when I designed this computer, but I think that I got a bit sidetracked and spent a little more money than I intended, so I am officially calling it a “mid-range price gaming PC”. I made the computer late last year so obviously some of the parts are a little out-of –date."

CORE SYSTEM

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 - $322
Even though this isn’t technically the cheapest processor I could find, it was a bit cheaper than my original choice, which was a Core 2 Quad Q9650. I went a little extra on this one because I wouldn’t like to have a processor that couldn’t do what I wanted to. Also, I got this processor because of the cache size, which one person described as a “monster cache”. It has some good benchmarks  and is more than capable of doing everything I want it to do, so I don’t plan to overclock it. Halfway through the making of this computer though, I did begin to regret that I didn’t wait a little longer for the Core i5 to come out.

COOLING: Stock - $0
This will do the job when it comes to basic cooling. As I said, I don’t plan to do overclocking. It’s small enough for me to run the PSU wires around it and for them not to get caught in the fan. I really like how it has a fairly low profile compared to other (stronger) fans.

MOTHERBOARD: Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS4 - $161
This motherboard was cheap and has plenty of connections, but the eSata was a selling point for me. Motherboards are cheap now, especially the P45 series (the type that I chose for my system) with the release of the Core i5 and more people buying the Core i7. It doesn’t have Bluetooth integrated but I have a cheap dongle that I bought from Big W that I use rarely.This motherboard won’t run DDR3 RAM but it’ll do the job. It seemed suitable considering the price.

GRAPHICS: Gainward GeForce GTS 250 512MB - $150
It’s strong enough to play the games I want to play and I believe that it will last me a few good years! Essentially a 9800GTX+ but cheaper and faster. I’m looking forward to running “rubber” effects in Ubuntu. The frame rate is fine, able to reach 175 fps in Source-based games (Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike and the like). I play games at FullHD resolution at a reasonable fps.

RAM:  G.Skill 4GB PC2-8500 DDR2 – 1066MHz  - $125
As I’m still relatively new to computers, I didn’t know what would give me the best performance for money in a practical application (as opposed to someone simply saying something like “you only need 800MHz RAM”). I chose this RAM because there wasn’t anything else out there at the time that would give me the same clock speed, same timings and gigabytes for that price. This was a kit of two 2GB sticks placed in dual channel configuration.

HARD DRIVE 1: Samsung HD103UJ 1TB, 32MB Cache - $117
I needed a good HDD for my system because it is the only mechanical part left in the system (bar the DVD-RW drive), and is also a big bottleneck for system performance. I chose this HDD because of the cache size and I’d heard that Samsung make good, quiet drives. Transfer rates are fine but I do regret not getting something smaller that would have given me better performance. I would have made a compromise for speed over size. I don’t plan on buying another drive for RAID because I still haven’t filled even a quarter of this drive.

OPTICAL DRIVE: BenQ DW240S 24x Speed Internal DVD±RW Drive - $58
I was told by my local computer repair specialists (who helped me a lot during the building of this computer) to just get any DVD drive, as they are almost all the same. I spent about $10 more on this versus another available DVD RW drive because I liked the way it looked on my system, it has a very nice black brushed front. Blu-ray was never an option for my budget.

PSU: Corsair 650W PSU - $137
This PSU can run my graphics card and all of my peripherals to their full potential and this should last me at least two years (if I haven’t made another computer by then)! It wasn’t lacking any important connections but I noticed that the cords were a bit short when reaching to my DVD drive.

CASE: Antec Two Hundred - $70
A very lovely case to look at that has two 120mm fans on the top and the back that have two speed settings (high and low). Runs really quietly and it has a cable management section on the behind side so that I didn’t have any annoying cables getting tangled up in my CPU fan. Sturdy build quality and has plenty of space for 5.25” drives and 3.25” HDDs. I couldn’t help but notice that the USB ports on the front are upside down.

Core system cost: AUD $1,140

MONITOR: AOC 2236VW 21.5” - $185
When I took this out of the box when I brought it home I couldn’t believe how big it was. It dominates my desk. It has a piano-black finish, 60000:1 contrast but doesn’t have any speakers or HDMI input. I was going to get a BenQ screen but this one was cheaper for the same features.

KEYBOARD: Microsoft Wired Keyboard 600 - $50
Why you chose this keyboard/mouse    Basic, cheap, splash-proof and nicely-spaced keys (even for someone with gorilla fingers).

MOUSE: Gigabyte GM-M6880 Laser Mouse. $20
It's large, cheap and has an on-the-fly DPI button. I prefer to rest my hand on the mouse rather than wrapping my entire hand around it (like on a smaller mouse).

OPERATING SYSTEM: Windows 7 Professional 64 bit
Why you chose this OS    XP mode, HomeGroup hosting topped off with the Aero theme. It runs my games fine even though my graphics card is not Direct X 11. So far I haven’t had any driver issues.

SPEAKERS: Logitech Generic - $27
Instead of forking out $40 more on a monitor with integrated speakers I deliberately bought the model down (that didn’t have speakers) so that I could save money. The Logitech speakers have a surprising amount of bass considering how small they are but they aren’t brilliant for playing high-quality music but they are good for when I want to show a YouTube video to some of my friends. I also have a headset with a microphone for when I’m playing my games.