First gaming PC - using left over parts

[Lone Fox]

Hello, I haven't played any video games for a few years (life happens), but I want to start playing Skyrim. I was a big Elder Scrolls fan (Morrowind in particular). I've always owned console games in the past, but for reasons I have decided to get into PC gaming - basically a noob at PC gaming. Everything else on the computer is just general home use.

Here are the parts I plan on re-using:

• Motherboard: ASUS M4A785TD-M EVO AM3
• Monitor: Hanns·G HZ201HPB 20" LCD 1600x900
• PS: PC Power and Cooling Silencer MK III 400 watt 80PLUS Bronze
• CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 260 Regor 3.2GHz dual core
• RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (4 x 1GB) 240DDR3 SDRAM 1333, Model F3-10600CL8D-2GBHK
• OS: Xubuntu and Retail copy of Windows 7 Professional - scored for $130 on eBay (unopened!)
• Case: LIAN LI PC-A04B MicroATX
• PCIe wi-fi card (Encore)
• DVD-RW drive (Sony)

Hard drives I own:

• 640GB WD Caviar Blue (WD6400AAKS) 7200rpm
• 1.5TB WD Caviar Green (WD15EARS)
• 500GB WD Caviar Green (WD5000AADS-11M2B1)
• 200GB Toshiba (HDD2A30) 4200rpm
• 320GB WD Caviar Blue (WD3200AAJS) 7200rpm

I will keep the 640GB (OS/Programe files), 500GB (media), and 200GB (external backup) hard drives - sell the other two on eBay.

Nothing fancy, and I may get hate mail.. I know.

I have read about overclocking this particular Athlon processor, and others are reporting that they can get 3.8GHz easily, so I do plan on overclocking it. Any tips are welcome, especially since I'm new to this.

I have all 4 slots filled on my motherboard with 1GB ram sticks, no known issues that I know of. I originally bought 2GB, and that was a mistake so I purchased another dual stick set :\

I like the computer case a lot; wire management isn't as good as others (plus I'm a noob), and I'm not sure how to make the airflow will work with a "standing" CPU cooler - (2) 120mm fans on front, (1) 120mm fan at top, and I'm not using a rear fan.

Shopping List:
I'm shopping RIGHT NOW!!
Discrete graphics card: ASUS HD7750-1GD5-V2 Radeon HD 7750 1GB - $110 + $7 shipping
PC gamepad: Logitech F510 - $31 + free shipping
Fan/Heatsink: Cooler Master Hyper TX3 RR-910-HTX3-G1 - $20 + free shipping

I'm expecting to play Skyrim maybe on medium settings, or high. GTA IV with modes... am I asking for too much?

Budgeting around $200
$400+ with DAC and quality headphones - Its possible that I may consider holding those two items off till a later date. I also want to upgrade my speakers latter on.

 

[krnmastersgt]

You saved $10 on the OS? Because this Windows 7 Pro 64 Bit at Newegg is only $140 and there have been some deals on it before.

Anyways do you have a budget for the upgrade that's finite and not a maybe?

 

[Lone Fox]

Its actually $275

My budget is around $200; however, (see first post) I could hold off on the DAC/Headphones if a more expensive graphics card will give me much greater results. I'm just not sure how much of a difference I will see in higher end cards.

 

[Lone Fox]

Oops, Windows was $150 (not $130). for those that don't believe me :biggrin:

It took me a LOT of patience; I must have auctioned on six Windows 7 products until I won this one. The others auctioned too high and I chickened out

 

[krnmastersgt]

No difference between Retail and OEM keys for the most part, unless you need to move it to another system for whatever reason but alright. Not to mention you could just pick up Home Premium for $100 OEM and have the same overall system experience unless there was something about Pro you specifically needed (like support for more than 16 GB of RAM).

I don't believe you'll be able to play GTA IV, I have no personal experience with the game but I am commonly told that the coding was botched and if you don't have a quad-core it's going to stutter like crazy even if your dual core is pretty powerful.

The video card you chose is decent for the price, and since I can't seem to find any more GTX 460's in stock at NE I guess it's one of the better choices.

I would advise that you change the CPU cooler that you grab to this CM Hyper 212+ since AR it's the same price of $20 but will be quieter and more effective having more mass and a larger fan.

 

[Lone Fox]

No difference between Retail and OEM keys for the most part, unless you need to move it to another system for whatever reason but alright. Not to mention you could just pick up Home Premium for $100 OEM and have the same overall system experience unless there was something about Pro you specifically needed (like support for more than 16 GB of RAM).

....

I simply stated how much I paid for it. Retail is $300, not the $140 you linked. I may plan on rebuilding a computer next year.

I still have my XP disc for my computer in the shop.

And yes, I know its possible to re-use OEM, but only up to three or two times.

I don't know much about Windows 8, but it's NOT to be optimized for desktops and laptopts unless you have a touch screen interface. When it comes out, there will be pressure for retailers to discontinue Windows 7. Who knows what Windows 9 will be like, I'm not taking the chance.

 

[mfenn]

Discrete graphics card: ASUS HD7750-1GD5-V2 Radeon HD 7750 1GB - $110 + $7 shipping

Good for the price.

PC gamepad: Logitech F510 - $31 + free shipping

I would get the Xbox 360 wired controller over that Logitech. The 360 controller gets you a proven design (Logitech looks a little cheap) and nearly all PC games with gamepad support optimize for it.

Fan/Heatsink: Cooler Master Hyper TX3 RR-910-HTX3-G1 - $20 + free shipping

The Hyper TX3, in a word, sucks. The Hyper 212+ costs the same after rebate and performs much better. The A04B mounts a 120mm fan in the front with a decent gap to each side, so you shouldn't have any clearance issues.

Speaking of the case, your RAM doesn't use silly heatspreaders, so it should be possible to mount the 212+ such that the airflow goes down to up. Put the 212's fan on the bottom blowing into the cooler and have the top 120mm as exhaust out of the case. That'll give you a decent wind tunnel effect even with the A04B's somewhat wonky design.

Finally, the CPU. I realize that you have the dual-core on hand, so you might as well try it. However, I think that you're going to be disappointed with both GTA4 and Skyrim performance. That's because the Athlon II is pretty slow clock-for-clock because it has no L3 cache, and you've only got two cores to play with.

 

[lehtv]

HD 7770 $105 AR is faster and cheaper after rebate and shiping than that HD 7750 (compare)

Unfortunately Hyper 212+ won't fit in Lian Li PC-A04, the clearance is only 140mm. I'd recommend a low profile Zalman such as CNPS8000B. Hyper TX3 isn't bad either, but it's 139mm tall so it will cut very close with the clearance

 

[Blitzvogel]

If you seriously want to play GTA4, drop the Athlon II x2 and get an Athlon II x4 or Phenom II x4. Either one will run the game just fine, as well as any other game that makes decent use of quads. I've had systems with both CPUs. Newegg has the Athlon II x4 645 3.1 GHz OEM (so no heatsink) for $80 US. Boxed with heatsink is still $100.

 

[lehtv]

Used Athlon/Phenom X4's also sell for $50-60 on eBay

 

[mfenn]

HD 7770 $105 AR is faster and cheaper after rebate and shiping than that HD 7750 (compare)

Unfortunately Hyper 212+ won't fit in Lian Li PC-A04, the clearance is only 140mm. I'd recommend a low profile Zalman such as CNPS8000B. Hyper TX3 isn't bad either, but it's 139mm tall so it will cut very close with the clearance

Lian-Li's number does say that, but it seems kind of weird to me. Looking at pictures, there seems to be a pretty healthy amount width inside the case. If your ordering online, it probably does make sense to play it safe with a top-down style cooler though (92mm and smaller towers suck).

 

[lehtv]

Isn't that an 80mm rear fan slot? You'd expect a 120mm fan slot in a case compatible with 160mm tall coolers, and an 80mm fan slot in a case compatible with 140mm tall coolers. I agree that apart from that it does look like there's plenty of space

EDIT: take a look at this: http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.p...sk=view&id=731&Itemid=61&limit=1&limitstart=5

"Unless you go with a downsized cooler and a 92mm fan, forget about having the airflow go from front to back."
"I also tried a Cooler Master Hyper 212 RR-CCH-LB12-GP, which saved me about 2mm, and allowed me to get the side panel on with a bit of scraping."

 

[mfenn]

Isn't that an 80mm rear fan slot? You'd expect a 120mm fan slot in a case compatible with 160mm tall coolers, and an 80mm fan slot in a case compatible with 140mm tall coolers. I agree that apart from that it does look like there's plenty of space

EDIT: take a look at this: http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.p...sk=view&id=731&Itemid=61&limit=1&limitstart=5

"Unless you go with a downsized cooler and a 92mm fan, forget about having the airflow go from front to back."
"I also tried a Cooler Master Hyper 212 RR-CCH-LB12-GP, which saved me about 2mm, and allowed me to get the side panel on with a bit of scraping."

Hmm, yeah so I guess the whole thing is just wide enough to fit if you don't mind bending the side panel a little. Probably best to go with a top down cooler like you suggested though. :thumbsup:

 

[Lone Fox]

forget it

 

[Lone Fox]

Well its final, I went e-shopping and purchased:

Samsung 830 series 128GB SSD drive (its $105 + free shipping at Amazon )
Phenom II X4 955 OEM (one of those "Black Series" whatever that means)
Crucial Ballistix 8GB (2x4GB) on sale at Newegg for $35+ free shipping (1 day sale)
Heatsink/cooler and thermal paste

No graphics card just yet.. 400watt power supply leaves a big question mark. Is newegg's PS calculator pretty accurate? I'm not sure if the Phenom Black editions are a bit more power hunger over the "regular" Phenom's; otherwise, 400 watts may be ok if I go with a 7000 series graphics card (they don't seem to be as power hungry).

 

[lehtv]

The 400W unit has one PCIe connector, so it is perfect for any graphics card that requires only one. That includes 7770 and 7850.

Heatsink/cooler and thermal paste

Which one?

 

[Lone Fox]

Which one?

I purchased a Logisys MC3002GX; its 140mm tall. Hopefully the width doesn't cause any issues.

It looks like I could change the fan on it; the heatsink/cooler I currently have on my desk has a dead fan, but the design is non-standard so I can't replace it. I ended up re-using my Sempron factory AMD heatsink on my Athlon II.

I upgraded from a Sempron to Athlon, now making my way to a Phenom.

 

[mfenn]

No graphics card just yet.. 400watt power supply leaves a big question mark. Is newegg's PS calculator pretty accurate? I'm not sure if the Phenom Black editions are a bit more power hunger over the "regular" Phenom's; otherwise, 400 watts may be ok if I go with a 7000 series graphics card (they don't seem to be as power hungry).

Not at all. I plugged in Anandtech's test setup for the 7850, and it gives a value of 470W whereas the actual measured power draw was only 289W. That's a 62% difference.

 

[Lone Fox]

Well, Beach Camera cancelled my Amazon marketplace order (SSD).. figured it was too good to be true :\

 

[mfenn]

Lame, gotta watch out for those Amazon marketplace sellers. Sometimes its hard to figure out who is actually selling you the item.

 

[lehtv]

Not at all. I plugged in Anandtech's test setup for the 7850, and it gives a value of 470W whereas the actual measured power draw was only 289W. That's a 62% difference.

Newegg's PS calculator doesn't calculate power consumption, it calculates PSU power rating. A PSU that only outputs around 60% at full load is pretty optimal for longevity, efficiency and upgradeability, so I'd say newegg's calculator is okay.

 

[mfenn]

Newegg's PS calculator doesn't calculate power consumption, it calculates PSU power rating. A PSU that only outputs around 60% at full load is pretty optimal for longevity, efficiency and upgradeability, so I'd say newegg's calculator is okay.

Don't forget that Anandtech's GPU tests are with an overclocked SNB-E which probably uses twice the power of an IVB. I didn't bother going into the gory details because the number was already so grossly wrong, but the true difference is going to be (much) greater than 62%.

 

[lehtv]

289W off the wall = 61.5% of 470W
289W at 85% efficiency = 246W DC = 52.3% of 470W

The latter number is still quite optimal making 470W a good estimate for a recommended PSU power rating. Also, if I'm not mistaken, Anandtech tests GPU power consumption in Metro 2033 which means that the CPU is not stressed anywhere near its max power consumption. So it's only a full GPU load, not maximum system load. With the CPU and GPU both fully loaded, the real (DC) power consumption will be around 60% of the PSU's capacity.

 

[mfenn]

289W off the wall = 61.5% of 470W
289W at 85% efficiency = 246W DC = 52.3% of 470W

The latter number is still quite optimal making 470W a good estimate for a recommended PSU power rating. Also, if I'm not mistaken, Anandtech tests GPU power consumption in Metro 2033 which means that the CPU is not stressed anywhere near its max power consumption. So it's only a full GPU load, not maximum system load. With the CPU and GPU both fully loaded, the real (DC) power consumption will be around 60% of the PSU's capacity.

You forgot to take into account that the AT numbers are generated with an overclocked SNB-E, so you can shave 75W DC right off for IVB. That puts you at ~36% load.

A heavy game like Metro 2033 is probably the most intensive task that a typical gaming PC will perform. Obviously, you shouldn't spec the PC such that you're at 90% load under such a test, but 36% is a little ridiculous.

 

[lehtv]

You forgot to take into account that the AT numbers are generated with an overclocked SNB-E, so you can shave 75W DC right off for IVB. That puts you at ~36% load.

No, I was figuring out whether newegg's PS calculator is any good. You put the Anandtech test system into the calculator yourself to come up with the 470W figure