Economical Gaming/General Purpose Rig

mect

Platinum Member
Jan 5, 2004
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It's been about 5 years since my last build, so its time for an upgrade. I do occasional gaming, although not nearly as much as I used to. I usually wait until games have been out for a year or two before buying them. For example, the main game I'm looking to put on this initially is Skyrim. I'm mainly concerned with price per performance and longevity of the system. I don't ever plan to upgrade by replacing, but am fine with upgrading by adding on (for example getting 8 gb of ram now and then 8 gb later). Also do some video ripping/converting for my HTPC, basic photo editing, and other general tasks.

I don't really have a budget. Price really isn't an issue beyond bang for my buck. I'm not saving up for components or anything, I've just been waiting until I felt like my old PC was starting to feel sluggish. In other words, I'd be fine spending $2k on a pc if it meant I'd have a system that would last 20 years. As I know that isn't the case, I'm really looking more in the range of $550 - $700, although as I said, I'm fine going above that if it will really improve the system.

I'm reusing most of the components/have extras laying around for everything but the following:
MB
CPU
RAM
GPU

I already have the OS purchased, so I'm not counting that in the budget.

I'm in the US, although in a very rural area, so I'll be buying everything online. Sales tax isn't an issue (I'm in Oregon).

No brand preference.

Usually game at 1080P, but its not the end of the world if I have to drop the resolution.

I don't mind overclocking, but I'm not going to go out of my way to do it. It just seems like you lose all your savings once you start buying the better PSU, the better MB, the better aftermarket coolers, and on and on you go (no offense to those that do).

I plan to build during the coming month sometime, but am fine to wait a bit for better deals. So now that you have the story, here is what I'm thinking.

GPU - MSI AMD Radeon HD 7950 OC Boost 3GB GDDR5 DVI/HDMI/2Mini DisplayPorts PCI-Express Video Card $192 after $30 rebate plus 3 free games from AMDs current promotion. Superbiiz

Realize its only a single fan, but I usually game with headphones on, so if it gets loud while I'm gaming it probably won't matter. If it is too loud, I figure I can pick up an aftermarket cooler and still be cheaper than most of the dual fan setups. It's ordered right now, but is out of stock, so would still be easy to cancel if people think this is a bad call (I have an email from them asking me if I want to cancel or wait).

CPU - Intel Core i5 -4670K $219 Amazon Seems to be the go to CPU for system builders.

MB - GIGABYTE GA-Z87X-D3H LGA 1150 Intel Z87
RAM -Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (plan to bump up to 16GB eventually)

Newegg combo deal - $155

Total = $567

I plan to also pick up an SSD at some point, but I have an extra hard drive I can use for now while I watch for a good deal on one (I've been hoping they'd hit $.50/gb for awhile now, but they seem to have plateaued for the moment), but if people have a recommendation I'd still be interested.

Anyways, that's the story, tell me what you think.
 
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Cerb

Elite Member
Aug 26, 2000
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Can you list the parts you'll be re-using?

If you're going to get an OC-friendly CPU and MB, you may as well go ahead and spend $20-40 on a HSF that can take some OCing, IMO, unless you get the CPU+MB with a great sale.

As far as SSD prices go, they're probably not going to go down much, if at all, until the Black Friday time frame. Since availability is, "real soon now," look out for the Samsung 840 Evo series coming out in like a week, if you want to go ahead and get one. NAND prices, and SSD prices, have been falling, but not that fast.
 

mect

Platinum Member
Jan 5, 2004
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PSU - Corsair CX430 430W
HD - Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1 TB 32 MB Cache
Case - Not sure what the make and model is anymore, but its a midtower atx case.
LITE-ON Black Internal 12X Blu-ray
Logitech Easycall wireless mouse and keyboard
Monitor - 22" Dell 1920x1080 TN panel (I'd have to look up the exact model, but don't imagine it's that important, its a cheap dell monitor) + 17" really old Kogi 1280x1024 secondary display that's been kicking it for over 10 years.

One reason I'm not really serious about OCing is I don't know if my PSU could be pushed too far. I've checked it out, and it should be fine to run all my components under normal conditions (Extreme Power Supply Calculator recommends a 350 W PSU for my general setup, so I've got a little room to spare but not a lot). I considered going with a non K processor, but 4670 is actually a couple bucks more on Amazon, so I figure why not. It might be worth picking up an aftermarket CPU cooler, but not if it means also picking up a new PSU. Although, after adding an overclock to the calculator, it doesn't look like it increases the power usage that much, so maybe I'll look into it.

Maybe COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus RR-B10-212P-G1 "Heatpipe Direct Contact" Long Life Sleeve 120mm CPU Cooler Compatible with Intel 1366/1155/775 and AMD FM1/FM2/AM3+ It doesn't say its compatible with 1150 socket, does anyone know if it would work? Seems to get overall good reviews, and $20 isn't too bad.

Thanks for the input.
 

Sleepingforest

Platinum Member
Nov 18, 2012
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I'm going to correct a small misconception--overclocking doesn't require that much more money.

Let's run through the extra costs. A better Z87 board (about $30 more than the cheaper B85 boards) comes with extras like USB 3.0 headers, more PCIe slots, and more SATA ports. You only need a 500W PSU, and the price difference between a quality 300W unit and a quality 400W unit is about $10. A competent HSF can be had for $20.

That's $60 extra. Assuming you'll be getting a midrange GPU ($200), a $200 CPU, a $100 SSD, some $50 RAM and a $60 HDD (it's not really worth keeping older HDDs because the failure chance is pretty significant past the warranty, and they are a bit slower), that's about a 10% increase in price. In return, you can overclock the CPU around 35%.

If you look at gaming benches for CPUs (I've managed to find two common FPS games, Crysis 3 and Battlefield 3), you'll see that an overclock from 3.5GHz to 4.5GHz yields a 10-20% increase in at least minimum framerates, if not average framerates.

Is that worth it? It's up to you. But your parts list, as noted by Cerb, already includes most of what you need to overclock, so the added cost is only about $30.

EDIT: Seems like 1150 and 1155 socket arrangement is essentially identical.
 
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mect

Platinum Member
Jan 5, 2004
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Great to know on the 1150 and 1155 socket arrangement. Thanks for that info. I really might just pick up that cooler, unless someone can recommend something better.

I agree, OCing can be done at a reasonable price, I maybe should have clarified it as I'm interested in a value OC, but not an enthusiast overclock. I just don't want to spend an extra couple hundred dollars just so I can squeeze out a couple hundred extra MHz.

I do disagree on keeping older hard drives. If you aren't backing up your data, then you're going to get screwed one day whether you're using new hard drives or old. Redundancy, not upgrading, I think is the key to data safety. I do agree on the performance benefits, which is why I'm considering an SSD. I just keep swinging back and forth between just picking one up now and waiting for BF. I guess something like the Mushkin Enhanced Chronos MKNSSDCR240GB 2.5" 240GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) for $165 seems like a decent deal.
 

monkeydelmagico

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2011
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I'll take the con side to Sleepingforests excellent suggestions and offer this:

i5 4570 with same Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB is $240- combo on newegg
Pick a B85/H87 mobo that you like or gets high ratings. There are several around $80-90
Use the MSI GPU you picked for $192
Total = $522

No need for upgraded PSU nor aftermarket CPU cooler. Leaves you enough for the SSD you like and under your $700.- budget cap.
 

Termie

Diamond Member
Aug 17, 2005
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www.techbuyersguru.com
^ This.

It seems the OP is interested in a system for the long-term. While overclocking does extend the life somewhat, it's not critical. Much more critical is getting an SSD in the system - that will provide a night and day difference over running everything off the Seagate 1TB drive.

One caveat about using the CX430 power supply. It's a great unit, but it only has a single PCIe cable. You'll need two for the HD7950, and you should make sure whatever model you choose includes the adapter allowing you to run a PCIe power cable off of molex connectors. Also, if the OP were really interested in OC'ing the CPU and the GPU, I would not use the CX430, as power draw could exceed 350W, well beyond the comfort range of the CX430, but I don't think this is in the OP's plans.
 

mect

Platinum Member
Jan 5, 2004
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Thanks for the additional views. I did double check the video card comes with an adapter cable for the second PCIe connector.