Q. Can I build a $1500 – $2000 gaming computer?

See the previous article on building a sub-$1000 gaming computer

Once we get to a $1500 – $2000 budget for a gaming machine, we can look at a better-appointed case and some serious graphics power. We’ll start with the over-clockable Intel Sandybridge i5 2500K processor and work from there. The 3.3 GHz i5 2500K will give 90% of the gaming performance of the top-of-the-line i7, at a quarter of the price. The budget will let us go with dual Radeon HD6950 cards in Crossfire mode for serious frame rates.

As usual, prices are before tax, Canadian dollars, current to July 27 2011. In all of the configurations, we have gone with full sized motherboards that have:

• two PCI-e video card slots compatible with Crossfire (or SLI) for future acceleration
• USB 3.0 on board
• SATA III (6.0 Gb/s) on board
• Gigabit Ethernet (1000BT)
• digital audio out
• 4 RAM sockets with overclocked DDR3 capability

For multitasking and graphics/video/audio production we would recommend 8 GB RAM, but for games RAM over 4 GB is not as critical as the GPU. Feel free to double up on the RAM now, or as a future upgrade.

CPU:Intel Core i5 2500K unlocked 3.3 GHz SandyBridge LGA1155 Dual Core Retail box 6M cache $245
Motherboard: MSI P67A-GD53B3 SKT.1155 INTEL P67 ATX 4X DDR3,2PCI-E X16/2PCI/3PCI-E USB3.0, SATA 6.0 Gb/s $159
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD6950 870MHZ 1Gb RAM DDR5 256 BIT, DVI, DisplayPort, HDMI PCI-e $269 each x 2 = $538
Memory: Corsair CMX4GX3M2A1600C9 XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) Dual Channel 1600 MHz DDR3 RAM $42
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda ST3500413AS 500GB 7200RPM Hard Drive $47
DVD Drive: Asus DRW-24B3ST 24X Internal DVD Burner with Nero software $32
Case: Antec Six Hundred Gamer ATX case $99
Fan: Additional case fan 120 mm quiet model $19
Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower Grand 750W modular PC Power Supply 16dBA (quiet) 14cm fan, 80+ Bronze efficiency, Crossfire and SLI compatible $99
Cooling: Coolermaster HYPER 212 Plus CPU Cooler $35
Mouse: Comfort Optical Mouse 3000 $22
Keyboard: Wired Keyboard 600 Black USB Port English $15
Operating System: Windows 7 64 bit Home Premium $129

Total $1481
With 8 GB (Kingston KHX1600C9D3K2/8G 1600 MHz Dual Channel $75 (+$33) $1514

Upgrade options
Case: Antec Nine Hundred Gamer ATX case $139 (+$40)
Hard drive: Western Digital Caviar Black 1 TB 7200 RPM 5 year warranty $89 (+$42)
Video cards: Gigabyte Radeon HD6970 Overclock Radeon 920MHZ 2Gb RAM DDR5 256 BIT, DVI, DisplayPort, HDMI PCI-e 2.1 $379 each x 2 = $758 (+$220)
Optical Drive: Lite-On Blu-Ray ROM reader DVD-RW combo drive $69 (+$37)
Power Supply Thermaltake Toughpower Grand 1000W modular PSU $199 (+$100)
Cooling: Corsair A70 CPU Cooler $49 (+$14)
Memory: Corsair CMX4GX3M2A1600C7 XMS3 Low Latency (CL7) 4GB (2x2GB) Dual Channel 1600 MHz DDR3 RAM $76 (+$34)

Total $1968

With 8 GB, add Corsair CMX4GX3M2A1600C7 XMS3 Low Latency (CL7) 4GB (2x2GB) $76 (+$76) $2044

To either package you can add upgraded keyboard and mouse, although we advise to stick with wired, not wireless.

Add to this a monitor if you need one, labour to assemble and test if you don’t want to do it yourself, taxes, eco- fees and shipping as required.