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decent gaming rig at 400-450ish.

N

nyker96

Diamond Member
a friend of mine asked me to help her build a rig just to game on 1280x1024, mostly older games, a few blizzard games like D3, SC2, Wow. I checked the egg, at 400 it's tough to build one decent rig with all new parts that can play all that. So I cased out some used parts on ebay plus just a few parts from newegg, here's what I came up with, what do you guys think? any good suggestions on maximize money for a gaming rig in 400-450 range would be great! we are really talking about getting best bang/every dollar here.

from newegg:
G690 cpu + H61 board = $70+$50 = $120
Antec 300 Illusion = $60
memory 2x4gb gskill = $60

from ebay:
Earthwatts 500D = $45
500GB HD 7200/5400rpm = $50
HD 4770 or HD 4850 = $50

total: $385 total.
 
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It should do. I don't think there's much else you could do to squeeze out a few dollars.

The forum was suggested first as people here are more reliable than ebay and would be willing to help you out if you had issues setting everything up. There's too many ebay "no returns" listings.

Also you can be assured that most gear sold here isn't abused, overvolted, burned up, or missing pieces (motherboard i/o panels).
 
for any budget build/upgrades I always go with the F/S forums here, ars-technica, hardocp, etc. Techies from these places generally know their stuff and will give incredible deals for still-viable hardware(esp. year old stuff).
 
nyker96 said:
unfortunately I'm quite far from MC. ;[ or I'd definitely get their mb+cpu combo.
but why do you suggest the forum before ebay?
Click to expand...

Easier to research the reliability of a used gear user (for example, he made a thread about horrible CPU temps a few months back and now selling it 🙂 ). Its a hit or miss on eBay.

It seems you have a good idea on what parts to get, and you're pretty much restricted on the available deals. If possible, I suggest to go with at least HD 5000 series due to:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5775/...4000-gpus-being-moved-to-legacy-status-in-may
 
i-xgcwxkM-X3.jpg


Here's what I quickly came up with. All new parts except for the Video card. Total comes to ~$358 before $35 in rebates. That leaves about $65 or more depending on what video card you get.
 
thanks guys for the suggestion on buy/sell forums, I will check them out.

to gevorg, yes I also heard about hd 4xxx moved to legacy status, but honestly 4770s are just 5770s etc. basically rebranded. but thanks for the reminder.

richierich1212, thanks for the shopping list, gives me a few ideas as well.
 
nyker96 said:
thanks guys for the suggestion on buy/sell forums, I will check them out.

to gevorg, yes I also heard about hd 4xxx moved to legacy status, but honestly 4770s are just 5770s etc. basically rebranded. but thanks for the reminder.

richierich1212, thanks for the shopping list, gives me a few ideas as well.
Click to expand...

4770's are not 5770's

4770 640 shaders ,16 rops, dx10.1, mostly 512mb versions around, limited overclocking on early 40nm process.

5770, 800 shaders, 24 rops, dx11, 1gb, much higher clocking memory,

I'd try to get a 5000 series if you can.

5830's are often found reasonable.
 
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Heck, I've seen i7 920/x58/6GB of ram go for $240 in the forums... I'd stretch the budget to nab something like that if you can find it.

If you are going AMD graphics, go at least DX11 at this point. A 5770 type card (5750, 6750, 6770) would likely be a great fit.

That is not to say the 4770 isn't capable @ $50 (free shipping @ geeks.com, new...) it's just that driver support may be drying up momentarily.

Richie has a great build there, but I would go for a 128GB SSD, personally. Big enough for OS and a few games, but so much snappier.

Add a mechanical drive (or another larger, cheaper) SSD down the road as needed/funds become available.

GX450 is a solid PSU choice... I've used several for 24/7 crunchers, no issues.
 
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Also, forum here is policed really well. Deadbeat traders are few and far between.

Just picked up a 6850 for $90 shipped in the FS/FT forum, for example... Solid deal, IMHO and is going to age better than any of the cards listed so far.
 
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U can make do with 4gb ddr3 1333 ram, and a $60 cabinet is excessive for this build. Go local there. U will save some $50 btw these two
 
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