Most users which are into building their own PC’s are usually going to fall into the mid-range gaming category. I am in this category, because I don’t have unlimited funds to spend on unlimited FPS. I personally don’t even know anyone who spends thousands on their video card, but they are out there.
I’m the kind of PC user that wants to play all the new games at the high settings and not have any lag or skipping. In order to to this, you are going to spend mid-range money. I could have given a higher-priced model for a mid-range gaming PC, but I wanted to use my personal system as a model because I was able to do it fairly inexpensive and I get great results on benchmarks and gaming for the price.
Keep in mind that I put this PC together a few months back, so prices have dropped and hardware has become even less expensive.
Here are the specs for my Windows 7 mid-range gaming machine:
Motherboard
GIGABYTE GA-MA770-UD3 AM2+/AM2 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard $74.99
I spent a lot of time looking for the motherboard that had everything I would need and fit in my ATX case. I could have gone a little more expensive, but I read the reviews and found this particular motherboard to perform excellent.
Processor
AMD Athlon 64 X2 7750 Kuma 2.7GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache 2MB L3 Cache Socket AM2+ 95W Dual-Core black edition Processor $66.99
I wrestled with the idea of going quad-core, but I essentially found this processor, which is a great alternative. It runs very cool, overclocks high and was inexpensive compared to comparable models. Because there are not many programs and games taking advantage of four cores, I figured I would go with this chip and leave myself open for a processor upgrade later, if necessary. I am thrilled with this processor. It is essentially a quad-core with two cores disabled. This means that you’ll get all of the pros of a Phenom chip, without the price tag.
Video
XFX PVT98GYDLU GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card $129.99
I’ve had this card for almost a year and it performs wonderfully on every game and every task that I’ve tried. The 9 series cards are becoming a little dated, but this particular card plays Crysis on the highest settings on a 1440×900 resolution without any issues on my system, so I don’t feel the need to spend a ton on a better card just yet. (Oddly enough, the only game that I do experience performance issues is Guitar Hero World Tour, but I believe that’s because it isn’t ported very well for the PC)
Memory
Kingston HyperX T1 Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory $118.99
I’m right now in the market for a RAM upgrade. Running a 64-bit system, I feel that I should go a bit higher.
Hard Drive
Western Digital RE3 WD2502ABYS-01B7A0 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5″ Hard Drive $64.99
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200KSRTL 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5″ Hard Drive $64.99
A chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and in this case, I should have gone with either an SSD hard drive or a 10,000rpm. I haven’t experienced any issues using 7,200rpm SATA drives, but most gamers will want the faster drives.
Power Supply
OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ500MXSP 500W ATX12V V2.2 $59.99 After Rebate
Expansion Drives
SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 22X DVD±R DVD Burner 24.99
I reused my old PC case, Sony DVD 8x burner, case fans and TV Tuner, so I was able to save some money.
Total: $605.92
As I noted in my first article, I built this PC with Windows 7 in mind. I was running a very adequate system for Windows 7, but I wanted to make sure that I was ready for any changes that might come with the RTM. I was also trying to think ahead to Windows 8 and what changes and technologies we might see.
Next up: I’ll go through the specs for building a High-end Windows 7 gaming system.
