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greenmedic88 on 11 November 2010
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The Ghost of RubangB said:
Squilliam said:

The way I build computers is this

I put the 'fixed costs' I.E. Motherboard, case, PSU, HDD, ODD, Windows etc into one tally. These don't change no matter what you choose.

Then I put the performant items into another tally this is the CPU, Graphics card and quantity of memory as these can be varied as much as you want.

Then I try to find the best balance between price / performance by chopping and changing the CPU, GPU, and memory to find an appropriate balance.

However you also have an alternative:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883227291

Something like that would be excellent for media and games and that 5770 is all you need for Starcraft 2.

It depends on how comfortable you are with building a system.

So far the only computer I've ever taken apart and put back together is a Nintendo Entertainment System, but I'm ready to build a PC if it will save me a hundred bucks that could go towards a bigger screen.  I'm more confused about what parts to pick than putting them together.

Do the DIY combos at Newegg make sense?  They give pretty good discounts for buying the parts in these specific packs, but I can't really tell the difference between this $655 combo, this $623 combo, or this $480 combo.  Those are cheaper than the iBUYPOWER one, but without Windows or the keyboard/mouse.

I guess my budget is about $1200, but that's including a screen big enough to play Wii on.  Basically, the cheaper I can build a PC for, the more I'll dump into a screen for it.  I'm currently TV-less.

If I wait two weeks, I can increase my budget if necessary, and possibly take advantage of any Black Friday deals, but I imagine those would help more with the screen than with the parts?

You might want to hold out for crazy Black Friday deals, but... know exactly what you are looking for (map out all preferred components) as well as appropriate replacements to tell whether a bundle deal is good enough to accept some alterations to the exact specs (if you're selecting certain brand components) you mapped out.

A lot of the DIY combos are good when starting from scratch although it's possible to get just as good a deal on specific components bought separately if you pick up each component when it's temporarily on sale and/or has a rebate. 

Even if you spent $300 on a very decent 24" display, $900 will buy you components for a very capable gaming PC. The only problem with the Wii is you'll need a monitor with component input which is pretty rare as few PCs use such a set up. You may be better off buying a budget HDTV with component and HDMI input.