New PC build for $550 range

[digitalbuda]

Will be used for gaming and college computer graphics assignments
I will be keeping some parts of my old computer such as

DVD burner
Power supply 550watt
ATX case
Monitor 1680x1050
Windows 7/64bit
mouse/keyboard

Looking to upgrade to:

$145 ASUS M5A99X EVO AM3+ or whats a good MB if I decide not to upgrade the processor to bulldozer later on
$199.99 EVGA SuperClocked GeForce GTX 560 1gig
$46.99 G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
$129.99 AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE
$49.99 WD 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s (I have a much bigger ext HD for college assignments)

All free shipping from newegg $572 total. I'm trying to hit the $550 mark max. I'm open to suggestions on the MB, graphics card and memory. Will be doing some OCing when I get a better CPU cooler later on.

What do you guys think about this setup?

 

[Rainey]

It looks pretty good to me...I hear nothing but good things about the 965, yet it doesnt perform as well as any of the new Sandy Bridge CPUs and you can get a Samsung F3 1tb for 50.00 on newegg until the 6th I think.... Which performs better than the WD 500gb.

 

[lehtv]

Would rather not upgrade to AMD. You can get a decent LGA1155 Z68 board for $100 and pair it with an i3-2100 ($130, $100 from microcenter) hyperthreaded dual-core which performs just as well as AMD X4 but consumes much less power. The Z68 LGA1155 platform comes with advanced features like UEFI bios and SSD caching.

You could also use the $50 you save on the mobo toward a quad-core sandy bridge CPU or a 6950 2GB.

+1 on Samsung f3 1tb

For $200 you can also get a Galaxy 560 Ti, faster than that Evga 560.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

Will be used for gaming and college computer graphics assignments
I will be keeping some parts of my old computer such as

DVD burner
Power supply 550watt
ATX case
Monitor 1680x1050
Windows 7/64bit
mouse/keyboard

Looking to upgrade to:

$145 ASUS M5A99X EVO AM3+ or whats a good MB if I decide not to upgrade the processor to bulldozer later on
$199.99 EVGA SuperClocked GeForce GTX 560 1gig
$46.99 G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
$129.99 AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE
$49.99 WD 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s (I have a much bigger ext HD for college assignments)

All free shipping from newegg $572 total. I'm trying to hit the $550 mark max. I'm open to suggestions on the MB, graphics card and memory. Will be doing some OCing when I get a better CPU cooler later on.

What do you guys think about this setup?

Are you planning on CrossFire/SLI in the future? If so, stick to motherboards with 2x PCIe 2.0 X8/X8. If not, you can get much cheaper motherboards.

Going AMD at that budget doesn't make sense, especially since you can get a Core i5-2400 that can be OCed to 3.8GHz on the stock cooler on stock voltage while consuming a lot less power and performing comparable to the Phenom II X6 1090T in everything multi-threaded, and much better in anything that's not.

I'd say this is much better for the price:

Core i5-2400: $190
MSI P67A-G43 LGA1155 Motherboard: $125
Sapphire Radeon HD 6870: $180; $160 AR
Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB: $50 with promo code EMCKAGK22
G.Skill 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1333MHz: $42
Total w/shipping: $587; $567 AR

It's a tiny bit more expensive, but then again, you'll be getting a CPU that is 35% faster than the Phenom II X4 965 if you take into account OCing both. With the i5 you don't need a third party heatsink for a 3.8GHz stock voltage OC, though, so there you save $25 and make up for the difference.

The Radeon HD 6870 is just as fast as the GTX 560 and costs less, and it also consumes less power. It has less OCing headroom than the 560, but unless you're shooting for 1GHz on either, it won't make a significant difference.

The motherboard is pretty popular for cheap builds because it's inexpensive, has 8x/8x CF/SLI, and is reliable. It also has comparable features to the ASUS board you linked.

For the setup there's no need to go anything higher than DDR3-1333 since it won't bring additional performance, so it's best to just get the cheapest you can that is reliable.

The Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB is as reliable as the WD Caviar Blue 500GB, but it's much faster, quieter, and has twice the capacity. No reason to go with anything else for the price.

This is as good as you can do on this budget.

 

[Skott]

Jump on that F3 hdd special now and lock in your storage needs. The other components you can take your time and shop for. That build that Axel showed is a much more powerful system for not much more money. A better deal for sure. If you live near a MicroCenter store you can get the i5 2400 for $150 right now too. That would save you an extra $40.

 

[digitalbuda]

Alright thanks guys, very informative.

I'm leaning towards Axel's build. That seems like a very nice build, consumes less power for about the same performance. It's not gonna be a dual video card build, just single card. So maybe like you said I can go for a less expensive mobo and go for a bit better graphics card.

I'm gonna have to wait til Friday for the paycheck. The $10 promo for the Samsung HD will be gone but I'm sure there will be weekend sales going on.

 

[lehtv]

Or you can get Asrock Z68 Pro3 for $105. It's still SLI/crossfire capable just in case ;P

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

Alright thanks guys, very informative.

I'm leaning towards Axel's build. That seems like a very nice build, consumes less power for about the same performance. It's not gonna be a dual video card build, just single card. So maybe like you said I can go for a less expensive mobo and go for a bit better graphics card.

I'm gonna have to wait til Friday for the paycheck. The $10 promo for the Samsung HD will be gone but I'm sure there will be weekend sales going on.

Well, comparing a Core i5-2400 to a Phenom II X4 965, with the 2400 at 3.8GHz and the 965 at 4GHz, the i5-2400 would be 35% faster on average on most workloads, except gaming (since there the GPU makes the difference around 10-15%). It would be quite a big jump in CPU performance. It also consumes less power stock, and overclocked there's just no comparison since all the 2400s can do 3.8GHz on stock voltage.

If it's a single graphics card, I recommend you get the AsRock Z68 PRO3 the above poster mentioned. It's an amazing bang-for-buck at $105 and would bring the cost down to $567 or $547 AR. Add $10 if you can't get the F3 for the same price when you have the money, but still $10 saved.

If you're playing at 1680x1050 and are okay with that res and aren't considering upgrading, a Radeon HD 6870 at stock will handle everything at max settings except in Metro 2033 and Crysis. For those two you can just disable one or two settings and it'd still be at near-max. The next significant step-up for that res is the Radeon HD 6950 1GB, but that's $240 and by then you're starting to look at diminishing points of return. Stock it's ~15% faster than a Radeon HD 6870, so it's not a huge upgrade either. Because of that, I'd recommend sticking with the 6870.

Or you can get Asrock Z68 Pro3 for $105. It's still SLI/crossfire capable just in case ;P

Isn't capable of CF/SLI, but still a very impressive board for the price.

 

[lehtv]

^ You're right. Confused with the Extreme3 Gen3 which is Sli/XF capable for $125

 

[mfenn]

Good advice from Lehtv and Axel as usual. If you're looking at something of 6870-class in the first place, then you probably won't ever use multiple GPUs, so I say go with the Pro3.