Best bang for your buck challenge

Cybordolphin

Platinum Member
Oct 25, 1999
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Hello all.... I have not been on for like.... a VERY long time. I used to build and overclock many years ago, but have been out of the hobby for awhile.

I am wanting to upgrade my HTPC and am looking at the below for best bang for the buck with a little lean toward just have to have it (case).

I run to a projector and that runs to a 15' screen. The higher the resolution the better. Do not run cable so I don't need a tv tuner. Strictly stored movies played and streamed.
Blu-ray is dominent.

Purpose: Home theater, however must also play Minecraft (can't help myself)
Budget: Best bang for the buck
Country: USA
Brand Preference: none (I used to be an AMD guy, then went back to Intel)
Overclocking: Stability is king for me
Resolution: 1080p
Plan to Build: Within the next week
Dealbreakers: Case that will hold 8 plus HDD


I am looking at the below so far:
Case: Fractal Design Define XL R2 Full Tower Case FDCADEFXLR2BL - Black Pearl
http://www.amazon.com/computers-acce.../dp/B00ATXA4TA
Motherboard: Nothing found yet
CPU: Core i7 2600k
GPU: GTX 560ti
Mem: 8 gig - not sure best for buck brand
Power supply: I have an Antec true 430 watt I'd like to keep using
HardDrives: I have (6) 2tb sata hard drives I will be keeping in the build.
Blu-ray drive: Already have that.
Sound card: Used to run Soundblasters but now onboard audio is fine.

I don't need to have RAID.


Anyway... could use some ideas on what currently offers the best bang for the buck CPU/Motherboard combos, memory, GPU's.

Doing some searching during my quest as well. But need some help.

I could probably get by with lower priced/slower parts, but want to get as much out of my $$ as I can.

Thanks to anyone who takes time to respond
 
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Blain

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
23,643
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o_O False economy...

"Bang for the buck" doesn't count for much when an old PS gives up the ghost and takes new components with it.
 

BrightCandle

Diamond Member
Mar 15, 2007
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A 2600k is the wrong choice if you aren't overclocking. Considering your intend usage the highest CPU would be an i5, you just aren't using software that benefits from the hyperthreading.
 

sm625

Diamond Member
May 6, 2011
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I know minecraft doesnt need more than a 1.8GHz sandy celeron. What do you need all the cpu and gpu power for?
 

Termie

Diamond Member
Aug 17, 2005
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I'd go with a lot less CPU (an Intel i3-3220, for instance), and pair it up with a more modern GPU, like the HD7770 or GTX650Ti, which can both be had for under $100. Depending on the age of the PSU, I'd also consider replacing it with a new model. I wouldn't use it if it's over 5 years old, based on lower efficiency alone.

By the way, for your purposes, an inexpensive B75 motherboard would work, such as the ASRock B75 Pro3-M.
 

Cybordolphin

Platinum Member
Oct 25, 1999
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Thanks for the input. Yea.... best bang is kinda wide open I spose.

I will look at those video cards. And lower powered CPU's. I wanted to put together a system that was getting the best performance for the buck. For instance if the cost difference from an i5 vs an i7 was not much..... then I wanted to go with the faster CPU just for performance increase sake. Same thing with the video card.

I was finding the i5 2500k and i7 2600k running just about the same $$ on some auction sites.

It looked to me like the 560ti was outperforming the 650ti in benchtests.... but I will have to look again. That or the cost difference did not support the performance difference.... and for price the 560ti made more sense?

I may upgrade my PS... but it is a top brand and not too old. I have only had 1, maybe 2 ps fail in over 20 years.... and it was not one of my purchased ps (uber cheapo brand/build quality). I normally do not scrimp on the ps. But the modular ps do look sexy.
 
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DaveSimmons

Elite Member
Aug 12, 2001
40,730
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I was finding the i5 and i7 running just about the same $$ on some auction sites.

Be careful about buying used, especially video cards and K version intel chips, since you don't know how much the seller has abused the part with overclocking, overvolting, and improper cooling.

If it's someone in FS/FT here with a decent postcount and Heatware rep they will probably be honest about the history of a part. An eBay seller can't be trusted.
 

Torn Mind

Lifer
Nov 25, 2012
11,567
2,626
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Strictly speaking, performance per dollar is a ratio. Dollars is easy to determine, performance is a bit more grey as benchmarks vary in their output value. Different combinations of numbers can result in the same final ratio value. 100/50 and 2/1 both equal 2, for example.
 

Cybordolphin

Platinum Member
Oct 25, 1999
2,813
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Does anyone have an opinion on what is the best CPU price/performance at the moment? Say keeping around $200 for the cpu. Looking at the i3's now as well.

I am looking at the ASrock mb. Any particular reason you like that board over say an ASUS? I'd like to stay with a full size ATX board likely. With as many SATA3 ports on the board as possible. Altough a PCIe card for more ports will work too.
 
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Torn Mind

Lifer
Nov 25, 2012
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A Core i5 or Xeon E3-12xx at that price point. A Core i5 is most suitable in your case, since single-threaded performance is what matters for Minecraft. Although, since Minecraft is written in Java, bugs might cause slowdowns even with a Core i5. Since you don't want to overclock, you don't really need to get a "K" chip or Z-series chipset, although Z-series boards typically offer more features than their lesser counterparts.

I do not have personal experience with Minecraft, but an APU or i3 could be sufficient.

As for playing 1080p, even an IGP these days is enough.
 
Aug 11, 2008
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A Core i5 or Xeon E3-12xx at that price point. A Core i5 is most suitable in your case, since single-threaded performance is what matters for Minecraft. Although, since Minecraft is written in Java, bugs might cause slowdowns even with a Core i5. Since you don't want to overclock, you don't really need to get a "K" chip or Z-series chipset, although Z-series boards typically offer more features than their lesser counterparts.

I do not have personal experience with Minecraft, but an APU or i3 could be sufficient.

As for playing 1080p, even an IGP these days is enough.

An apu at 1080p should be able to handle minecraft, at least an A10, but some modern graphically intense games will not perform well or even be unplayable.

For a basic gaming rig today, I would not want to go lower than an athlon x4 750 with a HD7750 discrete card. That will give basically twice the gaming performance of any current apu, while costing only slightly more.
 

mfenn

Elite Member
Jan 17, 2010
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Mathematically speaking, the best price/performance is almost always at sub-$100 GPUs and CPUs because the higher-end ones are not multiple times faster. However, most people don't want mathematically price/performance, they want the best price/performance assuming a given minimum level of performance.

Anyway, I think there's a couple important unanswered questions here:

1. What kind of PSU do you have (be specific).
2. What kind of projector do you have?
 

Termie

Diamond Member
Aug 17, 2005
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^ Actually, mfenn, that's not really true. Sub-$100 GPUs have terrible price/performance ratios, often providing half the performance of GPUs in the $120-140 price bracket. The same goes with CPUs to a certain extent - Intel's Pentium offerings at $100 are significantly slower than the i3-3220 at $120.

But I agree with your general point, which is that when someone wants "bang-for-the-buck", they have a given number of bucks in mind as well as a primary usage scenario, even if they haven't stated it. For older games, a $90 HD7770 or $110 GTX 650 Ti are big winners, and for modern games, it's either the HD7870 or GTX760. And there are definitely $120, $140, $180, and $220 CPUs that are all bang-for-the-buck winners depending on need.
 

Torn Mind

Lifer
Nov 25, 2012
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And there are definitely $120, $140, $180, and $220 CPUs that are all bang-for-the-buck winners depending on need.

$120: A-series
$140: FX-8320
$180: Non-K i5
$220: 4670K/3570K or Xeon E3-12xx v2 or v3

The Celeron G1610 has the sub-$50 budget CPU area cornered, and is probably the absolute bang-for-your buck winner. Well, if you use Passmark. :D
 

Cybordolphin

Platinum Member
Oct 25, 1999
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Thanks for the input.

PS is an ANTEC true 430. I can upgrade if needed.

I run to an Epson 8500UB to a large electric Daylite screen (can't remember the diag on it.... but measures like just under 14ft across).

I run HDMI from the HTPC to a Surround receiver. Then HDMI video out to the projector.

I do most of my gaming from a PS3, soon to be Ps4 (Clan tag HURT).

I am using an EVGA 730i motherboard using onboard graphics, 4 gig ram now. Its actually a pretty nice mother board.
http://www.evga.com/articles/00435/
It does have 8 SATAIII ports. It works ok for a HTPC. But could use a little performance boost.

I am also kicking around just upgrading to a dedicated GPU and adding more ram into the larger case mentioned in my above post the Fractal Design. And maybe throw in a Q9550 cpu. That should reduce the lag in Minecraft I experience. Currently I am using hard drive caddies that are really hard on my drives (never spin down). My current case sucks and only holds 2 hard drives comfortably. It is a nice looking HTPC (supposed) case that sits desktop style, but I don't know what the manufacturer OR myself were thinking as it really does not have enough drive space for a real HT setup. One of my worse buying choices for sure. I have had the case for 5 or 6 years.

Anyway... I found it can get easy to throw $$ away if you head down the wrong path to an upgrade. So just wanted to try and make the best choices.

I see that Newegg has a pretty darn good deal on a motherboard/cpu combo:
ASUS P8Z77-V LK LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

$319.00 - Pretty good package price

But again.... it sounds like I will not realize much performance gain for what I am using the PC for.... as the applications may not see any gains.

I will look at the HD7870 and GTx760.
 
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Torn Mind

Lifer
Nov 25, 2012
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Current CPU is a core 2 2600.

Both your current graphics and CPU are pretty slow. In particular, the graphics is the primary culprit for your Minecraft woes. I think noise would be a concern for an HTPC, so an A10 APU would give "enough" of what you need without adding another noise-making fan from a discrete GPU. Of course, if you need Minecraft to run at the absolute max settings, an A10 APU probably isn't enough, but an A10 APU is still a significant jump from what you currently have.

The A10 is ever-so-slightly faster than a Core 2 Quad Q9650. Link: http://anandtech.com/bench/product/49?vs=675

I assume that the 2600 is in reference to the CPU's clock speed in Mhz, as there is no E2600 processor that I am aware of. I am not sure if you have the E4700, but it does have 2.6 Ghz clock speed.
http://anandtech.com/bench/product/675?vs=63

Also, your current mobo has 8 SATA 3.0 GB/s ports. SATA 3.0 GB/s is equivalent to the colloquial "SATA II" while SATA 6.0 GB/s is equivalent to the colloquial "SATA III".

I think mfenn misunderstood you. You don't need to replace the Antec True 430 if it is still working. An A10 system will be very light on most PSUs.
 

mfenn

Elite Member
Jan 17, 2010
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I think mfenn misunderstood you. You don't need to replace the Antec True 430 if it is still working. An A10 system will be very light on most PSUs.

A True 430 is around 5 years old, minimum and couple be more like 10. I think that warrants a replacement. Especially since newer PSUs are quieter due to larger fans and higher efficiency (less heat).