Gaming Rig (on a budget) Critique Request

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finitelement

Junior Member
Mar 2, 2012
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Just to answer the req'd questions:

PLEASE when you POST threads asking for input on system builds tell us...

1. PC will be used for gaming and everyday use.
2. My budget is no more than $800
3. Parts will be bought from USA, mainly from newegg.com and amazon.com
4. No brand preference, I accept all.
5. I'll be reusing an old optical drive.
6. No
7. Good question, not really sure, most likely won't.
8. I own a Samsung T260HD
9. Planning to build in the next month or so.

Here is what I've compiled so far, hoping you all can dissect and let me know of compatibility issues or if I'm missing anything. Btw, I've got a $50 gift card to BBuy so I can use that for something on BB's website.

My planned configuration:

Thanks for the critique, again, I'm on a budget and hoping to get the best bang for the buck!
 
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Ken g6

Ken g6

Programming Moderator, Elite Member
Moderator
Dec 11, 1999
16,252
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AMD (for a CPU) is not going to give you good bang for the buck. I notice you don't have an SSD in your plan. If you don't want one, go with your HDD, and keep your existing optical drive, merging that with [thread=2192841]the latest build in this thread[/thread] puts you at roughly $825.

If you really don't want to overclock I'm sure I could find enough savings with an i5-2400 and H67 board. But let's wait a bit; hopefully some reasonably-priced Radeon 7850s or 7870s will turn up this month.
 
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finitelement

Junior Member
Mar 2, 2012
8
0
0
Ken g6 said:
AMD (for a CPU) is not going to give you good bang for the buck. I notice you don't have an SSD in your plan. If you don't want one, go with your HDD, and keep your existing optical drive, merging that with [thread=2192841]the latest build in this thread[/thread] puts you at roughly $825.

If you really don't want to overclock I'm sure I could find enough savings with an i5-2400 and H67 board. But let's wait a bit; hopefully some reasonably-priced Radeon 7850s or 7870s will turn up this month.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the response, could you educate me a little bit, I haven't built a system since 2005, so that kind of dates me in regards to rigs...

How would I benefit from an SSD? Why are you against the AMD chip?
 
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finitelement

Junior Member
Mar 2, 2012
8
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GoStumpy said:
Motherboard - ASRock H61M-VS ($54.99)
Processor - Intel i5-2400 ($189.99)
Memory - G.Skill Ripjaws X 8GB DDR3-1333 ($39.99)


Same price as your CPU/Mobo and far superior :)
Case is personal preference, I would recommend an Antec/Seasonic PSU if you can squeeze it in.. 650w is overkill, 500-550w is PLENTY for a system like this :)
Click to expand...

Thank you my friend, it's been eons since I've built a rig...I noticed PSU's have changed a bit, now they have ATX12V for video card requirements and so forth. But I'm starting to see more and more ppl prefer Intel chips to AMD.

Could you recommend a case that has USB 3.0 connectors on the front?

Thanks!
 
mkmitch

mkmitch

Member
Nov 25, 2011
146
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For the same price you can get a cooler master 690 II advanced, two sata 2 and one sata three front ports. Case now has grommets in the cabling holes. I just finished a build with it and highly recommend it. The three fans that come with it is all you need.
 
DominionSeraph

DominionSeraph

Diamond Member
Jul 22, 2009
8,391
31
91
Do you have any interest in Batman Arkham City? Because if that's the case, could you go over budget to get the superior GTX 560 Ti 448 Cores which comes with a free copy?

This is what I'd suggest:

90105420.png


26690779.png


$17 in shipping from Newegg, so $920 before rebates (using $50 GC) and $890 after. But it comes with two games and it does have the SSD

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119233
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822152181
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127615
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817151094
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820220569
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157279
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.835111
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Crucial+...20m4&cp=1&lp=1

Alternately you can delete the SSD and go with a Caviar Blue from BB for $92 (-$50), saving you $43 over the above build.

Edit:
You can also change out that Seasonic PSU for this Seasonic-built XFX which is $1 cheaper and has a $15 MIR:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817207013
 
Last edited:
Ken g6

Ken g6

Programming Moderator, Elite Member
Moderator
Dec 11, 1999
16,252
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There have been a lot of questions flying by here...

finitelement said:
How would I benefit from an SSD?
Click to expand...

Here's why. SSDs are really fast. Adding one could help your games load faster; it would definitely help other applications load faster.

finitelement said:
Why are you against the AMD chip?
Click to expand...

Read it and weep. :'( In general, AMD's latest chips aren't good at single-threaded performance, and most games still can't use much more than two cores. I don't know of any that benefit from more than four.

finitelement said:
Could you recommend a case that has USB 3.0 connectors on the front?
Click to expand...
We could, but that H61 mobo doesn't do USB 3.0 at all. Here's one that does, but not for the front ports. The only one I could find, in your price range, that does USB 3.0 front ports is a mini-ITX board. Which would probably work, but isn't ideal. Edit: The next best such board is $105. :\
 
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finitelement

Junior Member
Mar 2, 2012
8
0
0
Wow, great feedback from all of you. I sincerely appreciate it all, I'll put it to good use. Good to know about the single core performance of AMD chips. I now see the benefit of SSD's and honestly, I'm willing to invest in a decent MOBO, ifor me, it's all about future proofing (even though that is somewhat impossible with computer hardware).

Again, thank you folks for the input, it has clarified a lot of my questions.

:D
 
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finitelement

Junior Member
Mar 2, 2012
8
0
0
not bad my friend, I like that a lot, thanks for taking the time to put that together for me, not sure I'll invest in the SSD right away (from a cost perspective), but everything else looks great, thank you!
 
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finitelement

Junior Member
Mar 2, 2012
8
0
0
DominionSeraph said:
Do you have any interest in Batman Arkham City?
Edit:
You can also change out that Seasonic PSU for this Seasonic-built XFX which is $1 cheaper and has a $15 MIR:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817207013
Click to expand...


not bad my friend, I like that a lot, thanks for taking the time to put that together for me, not sure I'll invest in the SSD right away (from a cost perspective), but everything else looks great, thank you!
 
DominionSeraph

DominionSeraph

Diamond Member
Jul 22, 2009
8,391
31
91
Do you really need USB 3.0 on the front panel? Newegg isn't set up for searching for cases that way, so to go through them manually...
I found a Lian Li at $74, but that's $20 more than the HAF 912 and I've already busted the budget by so much...
 
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finitelement

Junior Member
Mar 2, 2012
8
0
0
DominionSeraph said:
Do you really need USB 3.0 on the front panel? Newegg isn't set up for searching for cases that way, so to go through them manually...
I found a Lian Li at $74, but that's $20 more than the HAF 912 and I've already busted the budget by so much...
Click to expand...

You are right, I was just looking from a convenience standpoint, but how lazy can I be right?

I agree, forget about USB 3 on the front panel, thanks bud!
 
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