A Geek’s Christmas in Oregon

[image error]So my daughter Nora and I have decided that for her “big” Christmas present this year we are going build her a geeked-out (well, reasonably geeked-out) gaming PC. The bargain-box HP Pavillion she’s had several years is, at this point, absurdly and comically insufficient to her needs. Our goal is to put one together that will hold her through high school (and one that will … ahem … keep her the hell off my Mac Pro.)

What makes this whole project extra awesome is that I’m going to let her do the actual build herself. (After making her watch this first.) When I was about Nora’s age, my dad and I used to build our own computers, so it will kind of feel like a holiday tradition. [image error]

RequirementsNora is a budding digital artist, and she wants a machine she can use with a Wacom tablet (the cost of which is not factored into this build, by the way.)She’s also a gamer (Skyrim, Minecraft, etc) and wants to escape the tyranny of her broke-down, largely unreliable Xbox. One of the tradeoffs we have agreed upon is that she won’t ask for any Xbox schwag for Christmas—this concession frees up significant coin that can be put toward the project.We’d like as many of the components as possible to be upgradable, so that if we want to throw zoomier bits in there at some future date we can do so.And of course she needs to be able to use the computer for all the normal stuff like internet surfing, email, schoolwork, and the like. It will likely be running Windows 7. (Blech.)Components

Below are the components we’re thinking of going with. We came up with this build after doing a bunch of internet research, but as a long-time Machead who has maintained a blissful ignorance of the intricate gnostic mysteries of PC systems, I am by no means confident we’ve arrived at that optimal intersection of “price” vs. “performance” that equals “value.” So I’m posting this in the hopes of getting feedback and suggestions from all my vastly tech-savvier friends. If you know of alternative components we should consider, please post them in the comments—but please try to keep them in the same price range as the ones shown. We’ve set a target of under $800, which is reflected in the build shown below. I know, we could get a gaming system off-the-shelf for less, but this way is so much more fun.

Motherboard

[image error] GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3 AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

CPU

[image error] AMD Phenom II X4 965 AM3 3.4Ghz 512KB 45NM 125W 4000MHZ

RAM

[image error] Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1600 MHz

GPU/Video Card

[image error] Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 6850 1GB
PCI-E Video Card

SSD Drive

[image error]Crucial 128 GB m4 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive SATA 6Gb/sSATA Drive

[image error] Seagate Barracuda 7200 1 TB 7200RPM SATA 6 Gb/s NCQ 64MB

Case (Option #1)

[image error] Cooler Master HAF 912 – Mid Tower Computer Case with High Airflow Design

Case (Option #2)

[image error] Cooler Master Elite 430 – Mid Tower Computer Case with All-Black Interior

Power Supply

[image error]

Coolmax 600W 140mm Blue LED Fan Power Supply

So, what do you think? As you can see, we’re of two minds on the case. Case #2 certainly has more of the “gaming rig” look, but on the downside I’ll have to bump the budget up to cover the bazillion LED fans Nora will surely demand (at $8 a pop they do add up!) There’s no optical drive listed because we’re planning on scavenging the old 16x one from Nora’s HP. I’m also hinky on the power supply. The alternative is this—it’s only 550 watts, and it’s about the same price, but it seems to have better reviews.

Anyway, if you have any suggestions, recommendations, questions, helpful hints, or dire warnings please leave them in the comments. Otherwise, we’ll be blogging the process as we proceed, just for fun. There may be a video involved. And for the benefit of Nora’s grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other interested relatives, the Amazon wishlist is here. [image error]