Topic: It's ready... (sort of)

[D2Disciple]

So my new build is almost complete!

Just ordered a used XFX Radeon 6770 card on eBay for the very tasty price of 45 bucks shipped to the door, making this computer build (so far) less than 300 dollars.



The current specs:
Gigabyte FM2+ motherboard supporting 2x PCI-E lanes and 4x DDR3 2400 lanes
AMD Athlon X4 860k quad-core 3.7GHz unlocked processor
2x4GB G-Skill Sniper DDR3 2400 SDRAM
XFX Radeon 6770 DX11-compatible 1GB GDDR5 GPU
500w FSP Vital 80-gold certified PSU w/ 2x 12v rails and 2x PCI-E 6-pin connections
500GB 7200RPM Western Digital Green HDD
Crappy old no-name DVD-RW drive

This will meet or exceed the requirements of the new Unreal Tournament, and if community experiences are any indication, it should run at 768p on low at >45FPS or at medium at >25 FPS. D:U and SolC, here I come!

Future upgrades:
The Radeon 6770 is a "bridge" component until I buy a more powerful high-end card, such as a R9 270x or 280x. Hopefully that will be next year.
The CPU is currently underclocked to 3.5 GHz because the stock cooler is so terrible, it BSODs under load at stock speeds. Yeah, needless to say, it's getting a massive stack of heatpipes later so I can crank that thing to 4.2+ GHz.
Going to get a new case with USB 3.0 ports and an SD card reader on the front, as well as some better airflow and a bottom-mounted PSU slot to improve case cooling. Red LED fans, because I'm a sucker for case lighting.
Later, I'll definitely get a larger 1080p display, mainly for the increased screen real estate when recording music. 1366x768 is pretty cramped for a digital audio workstation.
An SSD much later, just for the speed and increased capacity.

Pretty stoked to get this card in and finally play something newer than Half-Life 2 

[-<WillyP>-]

Nice. Mine is an evga with a small fan that runs at high speed. Very loud, I hope yours is quieter. I was also surprised at the high temps the card runs at.

[D2Disciple]

I've heard EVGA fans tend to run pretty fast, especially the "superclocked" (OC'd) versions of their cards. I hope this XFX isn't too bad, but I'm anticipating a fair bit of noise.

I think the first order of business when I get the card in is downloading and playing Retrovirus 

[D2Disciple]

Well, the card came in. And it was non-functioning... No display through either of the DVI ports nor the HDMI port.

However, the seller refunded me the full amount plus five bucks for the inconvenience... That's hardcore customer service right there, and he's made a customer out of me! Unfortunately, he doesn't have any similar items at this time, so I ordered a Powercolor Radeon R7 250 refurb'd from Newegg instead.