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12-03-2012, 07:49 AM
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#1
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Diamond Member
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Corner of FORECLOSURE and BÅNKRUPTCY ST.
Posts: 8,228
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Friend wants to build a new gaming system on a budget
A good friend of mine has decided it is time to upgrade. It is long past due but money is tight, so he has been putting it off. As a consequence, he doesn't have anything that can be salvaged other than an ATX case. I have a lightly used 4890 I can give him for free to help keep down the cost, but I'm looking to you guys to advise if that is even worth it. It seemed to be working fine for me a year or two ago; I only upgraded to a 5870 because I saw a hot deal. It was running everything I threw at it acceptably at 2560x1600.
Template:
Quote:
1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing. Gaming/Photoshop
2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread. Trying to keep it to $700
3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from. US
4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc. No preferences, purely bang for buck
5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are. Only available parts to be reused are a case and a Sapphire 4890 and he already has a monitor.
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7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds. Overclocking is an option if necessary, but would rather avoid it for now
8. What resolution will you be using? 1920x1200
9. WHEN do you plan to build it? ASAP
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X. Do you need to purchase any software to go with the system, such as Windows or Blu Ray playback software? Maybe Windows, I have to check though  Don't factor this into the cost for now
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Thanks in advance for any advice. 
__________________
Nemesis 1: Above your age please. The climate is in fact warmer now . Maybe this erection will cool things down mother earth shes hot.
pcgeek11: IMO: Being gay is not a minority. It is a genetic defect
Idontcare: dank69 is hereby permabanned.
Last edited by dank69; 12-04-2012 at 08:48 AM.
Reason: He has a monitor
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12-03-2012, 09:43 AM
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#2
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Lifer
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Raleigh. NC
Posts: 11,559
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I would get mfeen's budget build which is stickied and just take out the GPU and case and you'll be good to go (IMHO)
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E4300 (Looking for a free Q6600), 9800gt, 3.5gb RAM
I have a 660ti, but it won't fit in my case  (Dell OEM POS)
Forever in debt to VirtualLarry, Jupiter57, Face2Face, Jfree
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12-03-2012, 12:03 PM
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#4
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Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2012
Posts: 993
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dmoney1980
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I think this i5-3470 is a better deal than the 3350P if he's willing to buy from Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Core-i5-.../dp/B0087EVHVW
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SR061| Asrock H77M | 2x2GB G.Skill 1333Mhz NS RAM | PowerSpec TX-606 Case| 500GB 7200RPM Seagate Drive| Antec Eartwatts EA-500 (2006) | Asus DVD Burner | parallell and COM port header | Old Dell Keyboard
I game on a 7770 at 1024x768.
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12-03-2012, 03:29 PM
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#5
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Diamond Member
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Corner of FORECLOSURE and BÅNKRUPTCY ST.
Posts: 8,228
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dmoney1980
... Your sticky states that he'll be playing at 1900x1200, so I take it he already has a monitor?
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Oops, yes, he has a monitor already. I updated the OP.
Thanks for the suggestions so far. 
Oh, also, I see no AMD recommendations. I thought they used to be the bang for the buck guys. Is this not the case anymore?
__________________
Nemesis 1: Above your age please. The climate is in fact warmer now . Maybe this erection will cool things down mother earth shes hot.
pcgeek11: IMO: Being gay is not a minority. It is a genetic defect
Idontcare: dank69 is hereby permabanned.
Last edited by dank69; 12-03-2012 at 03:32 PM.
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12-03-2012, 03:57 PM
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#6
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Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2012
Posts: 993
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dank69
Oops, yes, he has a monitor already. I updated the OP.
Thanks for the suggestions so far.
Oh, also, I see no AMD recommendations. I thought they used to be the bang for the buck guys. Is this not the case anymore? |
AMD laid an egg with Bulldozer. Piledriver is an improvement, but satisfactory performance vs. Intel pretty much requires overclocking their chips. The FX-8350 can overclock easy, but max overclock roughly equals an i5 at stock settings. Their Trinity APUs is interesting in some situations, but not yours.
The FX-6300 beats out the i3 Ivy Bridges when overclocked. but again, it won't match up with an i5. I'm not sure it is suitable for your needs.
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SR061| Asrock H77M | 2x2GB G.Skill 1333Mhz NS RAM | PowerSpec TX-606 Case| 500GB 7200RPM Seagate Drive| Antec Eartwatts EA-500 (2006) | Asus DVD Burner | parallell and COM port header | Old Dell Keyboard
I game on a 7770 at 1024x768.
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12-03-2012, 06:32 PM
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#8
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Elite Member
Join Date: Dec 1999
Location: Colorado
Posts: 7,377
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If you don't get a new case, you might be able to squeeze a Xeon E3-1230 V2 into the budget. It would be better for Photoshop, and maybe BF3, but not most other games.
A Corsair Builder 600W PSU for $52 AR with shipping could also help your budget, though it's not modular.
That corner you're on doesn't happen to be near a Micro Center, does it?
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12-04-2012, 07:30 AM
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#9
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Diamond Member
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Corner of FORECLOSURE and BÅNKRUPTCY ST.
Posts: 8,228
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Torn Mind
AMD laid an egg with Bulldozer. Piledriver is an improvement, but satisfactory performance vs. Intel pretty much requires overclocking their chips. The FX-8350 can overclock easy, but max overclock roughly equals an i5 at stock settings. Their Trinity APUs is interesting in some situations, but not yours.
The FX-6300 beats out the i3 Ivy Bridges when overclocked. but again, it won't match up with an i5. I'm not sure it is suitable for your needs.
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Thanks for the great explanation. 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken g6
If you don't get a new case, you might be able to squeeze a Xeon E3-1230 V2 into the budget. It would be better for Photoshop, and maybe BF3, but not most other games.
A Corsair Builder 600W PSU for $52 AR with shipping could also help your budget, though it's not modular.
That corner you're on doesn't happen to be near a Micro Center, does it? |
No, he is nowhere near a Micro Center. 
You say the Xeon is good for BF3 but not other games? Can you elaborate on that a bit? I know he always liked BF and BF3 is one of the reasons he wants to upgrade. How much of a hit are we talking with other games?
__________________
Nemesis 1: Above your age please. The climate is in fact warmer now . Maybe this erection will cool things down mother earth shes hot.
pcgeek11: IMO: Being gay is not a minority. It is a genetic defect
Idontcare: dank69 is hereby permabanned.
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12-04-2012, 11:03 PM
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#10
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Elite Member
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 16,767
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dank69
You say the Xeon is good for BF3 but not other games? Can you elaborate on that a bit? I know he always liked BF and BF3 is one of the reasons he wants to upgrade. How much of a hit are we talking with other games?
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A CPU with Hyperthreading like the Xeon might be better for BF3, but it's a not sure thing and that the gains won't be huge. It is a good bet for Photoshop tasks though.
The reason for this is that BF3 is one of the few games that scales well with the number of logical cores, even up to the 8 that are presented with a Hyperthreaded quad-core. Hyperthreading doesn't matter for other games because most games barely take advantage of the 4 logical cores present in a non-Hyperthreaded quad-core.
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