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Building a budget gaming PC


DusK
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In a couple of months, I'm gonna be building my very first gaming PC. Tricky part being I'd like to pull this off with a $700 budget. I'll be reformatting this one and setting it up solely for music production, which means that I can buy a new (cheaper) PSU for this one and put my 700 watt GameXtream into the new system, which also means I'd probably be taking out the Radeon HD 4870 as well. I'm not planning on buying a new keyboard, monitor, or mouse, and my OS purchase isn't factored into the budget. I'd like the motherboard and CPU to be fairly recent, but a good price/performance ratio is top priority.

Any suggestions on a build?

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I'd highly recommend a GTX 260 if you don't mind the lack of DX11 support. They're just 80-90 bucks on eBay and they rip games to shreds. Check out the benchmarks.

I'll stay away from recommending CPU/mobo because I have zero knowledge of AMD hardware. AMD is apparently pretty awesome right now, but I've always stuck with Intel so I don't even know anymore.

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I'd highly recommend a GTX 260 if you don't mind the lack of DX11 support. They're just 80-90 bucks on eBay and they rip games to shreds. Check out the benchmarks.

For an extra $50-$60 I'd go with an nVidia GeForce GTX 460 (in fact, here's one on TigerDirect for $125 after rebate). It is commonly considered one of the best-performing video cards on the market for the price, and it has DX11 support. I recently bought one and can vouch for it being a great performer with all of the games I've used it with: I can crank up the settings pretty high in most games.

But DuSK isn't looking for a video card anyway, so this is pretty useless isn't it?

Anyway, I'm a diehard fan of AMD processors (I personally couldn't care less for their video cards though, ironically,) so that's where my main experience comes from. If you go with AMD and want to come in under budget, you may have to sacrifice a bit and go for an AM2+ board as opposed to an AM3. I actually have an AM2+ board with an AMD Phenom X4 9750, and while it's locked and can't be overclocked, it's extremely serviceable with the games I've played: GRID, DiRT 2, Bioshock, Mass Effect 2, F1 2010, City of Heroes in Ultra Mode (which is notorious for being a CPU and GPU hog,) and some low-end games. Windows 7 also boots up startlingly fast; it's almost practically ready as soon as the desktop pops up. You might be able to go with something better since you're not looking for a graphics card or power supply, but the Phenom I will do the job.

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No, Modus, you're on the money. The HD 4870 is old. I'd like to get something with a little more balls behind it.

Late mistakes, I'm looking to build an entire PC. I need pretty much everything that would go inside the case. That means that a setof combo deals that go over my budget themselves can't be done. Maybe something with the i5 Sandy Bridge? I actually found a DIY combo on Newegg that might suit my needs and budget, but I'm not that much of a hardware guy, so maybe someone could point out some flaws that I might have missed.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.634266

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That's what I was thinking too, but I think I'll hold out. The GTX 460 seems to be underperforming compared to the Radeon HD 6870, which was what I was considering prior. Not exactly in my budget, but I can put up with my 4870 until I can afford it if that's what it'd take. Pretty sizable boost, but I think I'd be willing to pay the extra $50.

Still, if anyone's got some nice money-savers, I'm still watching this thread. :)

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No, DusK, you can't buy that because it's cheaper than my rig costed me and more powerful too. This is bullpuckey O_O

Everything's there: a quad-core processor (a freaking Sandy bridge at that), a mobo that supports SATA 6GB/s (that's a big deal srsly), a hard drive with lots of storage and 32MB cache AND 6 GB/s transfer, a (modular!) PSU with recent good reviews, and lastly, respectable RAM.

And yes, that PSU will support a GTX 260, 460, and even a 470 with good headroom. No SLI though.

Good stuff.

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Seriously, if you want it to last, get a dual core Sandy Bridge (the i3's) or even a quad core Sandy Bridge if your budget can handle it.

It's really like, the fastest thing out there right now. (consumer processor wise) :tomatoface:

EDIT: That combo looks fantastic. Case looks fugly, though. :P $5 extra.

DVD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204 $22 ($7 shipping)

Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129042&cm_re=antec_300-_-11-129-042-_-Product $60 Antec 300

CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115073&cm_re=Core_i5_2500-_-19-115-073-_-Product $209.99

RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231274&cm_re=4_gb_ddr3_1333_Ripjaws-_-20-231-274-_-Product $45 4GB G.Skill Ripjaws

PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371016&Tpk=Bp550 $45 after rebate Antec BP550 500W Modular 80 Plus PSU

MoBo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128476&cm_re=UD3-_-13-128-476-_-Product $123 GA-p67a-ud3

HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152181&cm_re=Samsun_Spinpoint_f3-_-22-152-181-_-Product $50 Samsung Spinpoint F3 500 GB | Caviar Blacks are popular but this is less expensive (and benchmarks higher with what I've read). I picked 500 for you because 1 TB is overkill for gaming.

GFX: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127519&Tpk=GTX%20460%20twin%20frozr $135 after rebate ($8 shipping)

Works out to be $705. You could even go for the Core i5 2400 to drop it under $700: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115074&cm_re=Core_i5_2400-_-19-115-074-_-Product Won't be much of a difference other than a .2 GHz change.

This is what I'm getting this summer, except my case will be the Storm Scout and I'm getting a 1TB HDD for music stuff. Don't need all the space now, but will eventually.

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This guide needs revision, because it doesn't include Sandy Bridge CPU's. The Sandy Bridge cores will perform better than those of the AMD X4, and it's not totally unrealistic to form his budget around that. He doesn't even have to get the 2500k i5, because it's not likely he'll need to pack the extra GHz from unlocked overclocking. 2500 or even a 2400 should be fine.

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Yes.. overclocking is time-consuming and risky with unimpressive payoff unless you have a hobby of encoding huge videos. Modern games are GPU dependent.

So k-series' unlocked multiplier shouldn't be a selling point for you.

K-series overclocking is NOT time consuming and risky with unimpressive payoff. That's the whole point of unlocked multipliers. :P You change the multiplier in the BIOS, don't have to do the voltage settings and the RAM speed and all that.

There are people who, with a decent cooler, got their processors up to 4-5 GHz in no time at all.

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Here's a guide that does include Sandy Bridge processors (though their "budget box" uses an AMD processor instead). Since you don't need a new monitor, you might want to spend that money on some of the components from their "hot rod" instead. The article is pretty good about explaining the rationale for their choices and offering alternatives even if you're not super tech-savvy.
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Here's a guide that does include Sandy Bridge processors (though their "budget box" uses an AMD processor instead). Since you don't need a new monitor, you might want to spend that money on some of the components from their "hot rod" instead. The article is pretty good about explaining the rationale for their choices and offering alternatives even if you're not super tech-savvy.

This guide is a bit flawed, because it has a "budget box" which has an AMD and a "hot rod" that has the highest level quad core Sandy Bridge processor. It doesn't really have a middle ground.

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don't have to do the voltage settings and the RAM speed and all that.

There are people who, with a decent cooler, got their processors up to 4-5 GHz in no time at all.

How can it be overclocked without changing voltage and RAM speed? Sounds like Intel just underclocked the thing and sold it with the illusion of being easy to overclock -.-

But seriously, the payoff is nothing unless you're encoding video. You just won't notice a difference in performance with a processor already that good, but you may notice a shortened lifespan, even if it's properly cooled.

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How can it be overclocked without changing voltage and RAM speed? Sounds like Intel just underclocked the thing and sold it with the illusion of being easy to overclock -.-

No, they allow you to mess with the multiplier instead of having to change voltage and RAM speed. Every other processor has a locked multiplier.

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No, they allow you to mess with the multiplier instead of having to change voltage and RAM speed. Every other processor has a locked multiplier.

There are non-sandy bridge i7s with unlocked multipliers, and just because you can change it to what you want does not meet you don't have to change voltage and RAM settings. It just makes it easier to maximize an overclock.

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There are non-sandy bridge i7s with unlocked multipliers, and just because you can change it to what you want does not meet you don't have to change voltage and RAM settings. It just makes it easier to maximize an overclock.

I think you're misunderstanding the point of buying an unlocked multiplier processor. I never said that changing voltage and RAM speed doesn't have any more effect. I only said that with unlocked processors, overclocking can (not should) be done solely from changing the turbo multipliers. That's really the easiest way to get a big overclock without having to spend a lot of time.

Also, there's only one first-gen i7 with an unlocked multiplier. It's the K series i7-875k. I never said there weren't non-sandy bridge unlocked processors.

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