Building a mild gaming/design pc

[rtbluver]

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.
Skyrim, BF3, and some others

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread
400ish

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
united states of america

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 specific company

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse, HDD(1tb,2x160gb), Disc Drive, Powersuply(500w) and case

6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.
Yah

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
OC

8. What resolution YOU plan on gaming with.

IDK

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?

Around Christmas or so.

10. Don't ask for a build configuration critique or rating if you are thin skinned.


Dont want to really spend more than 400ish, so new mobo,cpu,and gpu, and some coling


Moved from PC Gaming to General Hardware
-ViRGE

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

For gaming it would be poor due to the weak integrated graphics.

This would be good for light gaming.

I am not an expert on AM2+ compatibility but I would guess and say that your XFX 8200 would not work with a new X6 processor.

 

[AstroManLuca]

AMD CPUs are not the best for gaming, but the CPU is less important than the GPU for gaming anyway. If you get a cheap X6, that'll give you significantly more performance for the dollar for non-gaming purposes.

Really, the most important thing for gaming is the GPU. Get a Radeon 6850 and you'll be set for a couple years if you are okay with turning down antialiasing in some games. It's not a ton more expensive than a 65** or 67** GPU and provides lots more performance.

 

[Arglebargle]

Graphic design, however, may be quite processor hungry. Depends on the level of graphics work you intend, and the specifics of the program you use.

 

[DaveSimmons]

The General Hardware forum is a better place to ask this, and there you'll find:
- a sticky thread with questions for you to answer such as budget, screen resolution, etc.
- a bunch of other system threads to look at

You should define "mild gaming": what specific games, what screen resolution.

FYI, intel processors are much faster than AMD right now for both gaming and graphic design, while using less power.

Compare that AMD Phenom II X6 1055T ($150) to am i5-2400 ($190) -- the 2400 also beats an X6 1100T BE.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/147?vs=363

45% faster in PhotoShop, 20% - 80% faster in games,

 

[rtbluver]

So if i kept my current build which would be

-XFX 8200 MOBO
- 1tb Harddrive
- AMD athlon x2
- and a 500w power supply, would just adding RAM and a graphics card be okay? I mean, i only plan on running battlefield 3, Wow, and Skyrim. And im not to big on has to be perfect graphics, just good. Then slowly add to the cash pool for a big badA** build?

Edit: I run photoshop and thats about it.

 

[Mike Gayner]

What's with the big glut lately of General Hardware threads in PC Gaming?

 

[Kristijonas]

i5 2500k with integrated graphics. 4gb ram. Basic case, psu and mobo.
That is if you won't plan playing new sports and shooter games.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/147?vs=288

 

[DaveSimmons]

What CPU do you have now, and how much RAM? Can you overclock the CPU with the mobo and heatsink that you already have?

i5-2400 + H61/H67 chipset motherboard + DDR3-1333 RAM would give you a huge performance boost for work and would run Skyrim very well, once you add a discrete graphics card.

You don't need a $140 motherboard for the i5-2400, you can pay as little as $55:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157241

 

[mfenn]

Is that $400 including or excluding that particular case? Because if you need to include the case, mobo, CPU, RAM, and GPU in $400, you better not be buying a $100 case.

 

[rtbluver]

I have ddr2 ram, but if i get a new motherboard i will need new ram, and no, that case was just cool, but i dont need a case..i have 1, just need some more fans, so i dont need a case

 

[mfenn]

What kind of PSU do you have (model number would be great)?

Assuming that the PSU is of decent quality, $401 will get you:

i3 2100 $115 AP
Biostar H61MGC $50
G.Skill DDR3 1333 8GB $41
GTX 560 Ti $195
Total: $401