Budget bodging

[Night Ninja]

My ancient laptop has finally given in (Acer 6935), and I'm looking to build a gaming desktop with good longevity and capacity for upgrading in the future. My budget's about 1500 SGD, or about 1200 USD.

I'd like some advice on purchasing components, especially graphic cards and storage memory. I've been doing a bit of reading, but the research I've done so far strikes me as pretty inadequate.

Currently, I have these bits in mind. Feel free to tell me if I'm trippin' balls/a ****ing imbecile/etc.

http://www.thepotterhouse.net/livestore/product_info.php?products_id=7089
http://www.videopro.com.sg/products/product_info.php?products_id=11116

http://www.thepotterhouse.net/livestore/product_info.php?products_id=7251

http://www.thepotterhouse.net/livestore/product_info.php?cPath=78_184&products_id=5552

http://www.videopro.com.sg/products/product_info.php?cPath=75_290&products_id=9482

http://www.videopro.com.sg/products/product_info.php?products_id=11038
http://www.thepotterhouse.net/livestore/product_info.php?products_id=7280

http://www.videopro.com.sg/products/product_info.php?cPath=44_246&products_id=8658

Note that the prices are in SGD.

 

[Fehnor]

This looks great! You may need more RAM down the road, but that is easily upgradeable.

Don't forget a Win7 OEM dvd (unless you plan on running WINE) about $100

 

[Night Ninja]

Thanks!

Already have one, so no issues there.

Would you recommend the EVGA or the MSI card?

 

[Fehnor]

All the same. EVGA has a good, longstanding reputation. That's pretty much all you're buying with vid card manufacturers.

 

[Elisianthus]

I have a personal preference for MSI cards myself, because I've never had an issue with them and they tend to stand up to stress well.

 

[Night Ninja]

I may be taking a significant budget cut.

My original intention was to get this:
http://www.thepotterhouse.net/livestore/product_info.php?cPath=263_298&products_id=7251

Would this:
http://www.thepotterhouse.net/livestore/product_info.php?cPath=263_266&products_id=7245

or this:
http://www.thepotterhouse.net/livestore/product_info.php?cPath=263_298&products_id=6795

be a tolerable replacement?


Sushiman also pointed this out as an alternative to the MSI card:
http://www.thepotterhouse.net/livestore/product_info.php?cPath=51_150&products_id=6974


Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[hairfree]

Sushiman's suggestion is a fine piece of hardware. A friend bought it recently, and couldn't be more pleased with it. It's definitely worth it's price, in his words.

...The i3 2100 at 3.1GHz one is what I bought a couple of months ago (slightly different motherboard though). Was  $40 saver for me, so it's a good budget build part for me, especially compared to the rest, while being a decent performer. Up to you, really, but if I could afford it, I'd go for an i5 - sort of future proof and all...

 

[Night Ninja]

I was hoping it'd be worth more than its price.

I'm trying to bring the total to about 1100 SGD so I have a decent shot at convincing my father that this is not a massive ripoff. He's insistent that desktops that cost around 1.5k are 'very high end'.

 

[hairfree]

Well, the Palit versions of Nvidia's stuff (which is what he bought) are usually cheaper, so, I guess my friend's is worth more than it's cost, after all  You might want to check those out too. Wouldn't be a huge difference, but some $30-40 price cheaper wouldn't really surprise me. Reliable enough, too.

As for a motherboard...I suppose I'm a bit of a fanboy of Gigabyte's. Like this one.