Super Budget Build - Pro's, come help!
 

Alright so I have some "friends" who said they were "pc builders"... once was supposed to have m a list of parts before Cyber Monday (in hopes to get them on sale), well he's not coming through so I turn to you folks and I hope you can help. I'm not looking for the biggest and the best... below are my needs and wants... all while staying around $4-500 - the cheaper the better, I'm trying to buy a house!



Needs

- Every part except RAM, I have 16gigs of DDR3 - only catch is I need 4 RAM slots...

- Run GTA:IV and GTA:V along with other FPS Games, none needing to be ran at 110%

- Windows 7 CD-Key... I have a system builder disk, not sure if I can make it work cause I have it on my MacBook (DON'T CRINGE PLEASE!)



Wants

- Tiny in size, a small compact - shuttle pc size would be awesome!

- high quality parts, low price! - Good luck right?

- Monitor would be nice...nothing crazy big.





Thanks in advance, any questions please feel free to ask!

Do you absolutely need all 16GB of RAM? If not, you could build an ITX setup that would be tiny--but the catch is, ITX boards only have two RAM slots. Otherwise, you'd have to go uATX--which is still small, just not tiny.

Only reason I would NEED 4 slots is to run all 16gigs that I have, I don't know how much that will impact my gaming and such?

I've seen some of these mini iTX cases... I'd love to have something that small.

I think you'd be fine with 8GB. I have 8GB in my systems and I've never run out--usually during games with a bunch of stuff running in the background, usage is ~3-5GB.
Here's what I've thrown together:
http://img.techpowerup.org/121125/rig.png

You'll still need an LCD, but that's an area where I'm not too qualified. A SSD would be nice, but unfortunately wouldn't fit in the budget :(

If you are willing to go mATX I would suggest building around this AMD APU combo (A8-5600K w/Asrock A75 mobo- $155):

Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, L...

I'm a penny pincher, is that case required? Did you select if for any particular reason, I mean - if it doesn't come with a PSU then why not go with something like this APEX Mini ITX?

I'm more comfortable with a AMD platform, my old midtower had AMD and that's what I like... I'm not opposed to any options, but if we can go AMD that's great.

That Apex case only has a single slot for a GPU and a PSU that I would be very worried about using. There are other alternatives--but the Elite 120 I posted was what jumped to mind.

Norton's APU suggestion is solid. You'd have to go with a mATX case, unfortunately, but if you get a small one (such as the Fractal Design Core 1000) it wouldn't be much bigger.

That case is garbage. The powersupply inside of that case also garbage. I had one it got tossed in the bin.

He linked you to an AMD setup. The APU linked is a piledriver CPU+VLIW5 based GPU. Let me log into the lappy top i'll update with a good build for everyone.

What's the difference between an Micro-ITX case and a mATX case?

I was more or less thinking using the case, dumping the PSU but if it only has one GPU slot that sucks. I know he linked me a AMD that's why I had made that statement. I look forward to your post.

About $390 w/A8-5600k APU, small mATX case, psu, and Windows 7:

http://img.techpowerup.org/121125/combo1125.jpg

*note- the board I linked to above and in here has 4 memory slots sorry this board only has 2 slots... 4 slot mATX boards are available for a few more $$$

Would I have a decent amount of video FPS in GTA:IV & GTA:V? I also would be interested in getting Assassins Creed, and a few other first person shooters.

I also noticed Norton... No video card?

Fractal Design Core 1000
PC Power and Cooling Silencer MK III 500W
A10-5800K+GIGABYTE GA-F2A75M-D3H
SAMSUNG DVD Burner
Seagate Barracuda ST2000DM001 2TB HDD
SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6670 1GB
XIGMATEK Gaia SD1283

There you go motherboard supports 4 dimm slots, included the video card for hybrid crossfire and a good cooler for overclocking. $459.93 before MIR's, but the parts listed have another $35 worth of MIR available. If you played with a budget some you could stuff an SSD in there for the OS/Games drive.

Norton configured a system with an AMD APU, which consists of a CPU and a GPU fused together. It's actually very powerful compared to most other integrated graphics setups :)

Sorry about that, I'm not used to being able to have an integrated graphics system that is powerful enough to support gaming... That must have changed recently? I was brought up on the computer era where onboard is bad bad bad news. Is this upgradable in the future, to put a standalone video card in there?

Indeed. cdawall's setup is using a combination of the onboard GPU and a discrete video card in "hybrid crossfire" for better performance>

It's also possible to put a high-end dGPU not in Crossfire in later on.

Its roughly as fast as a 6670 and supports crossfire with a 6670 which is why I included those in my build.

So I should be okay to get decent graphics with the integrated setup?

Decent I would buy the $50 6670 while I was ordering the whole thing tho.

I could pinch a few pennies by going to a 500g or so hd, i wont be putting my on it besides games.

Its one of the cheapestdrives on the egg right now $70 for 2tb is unbeatable. If you don't mind a smaller drive with the harddrive and get a 256GB ssd.

I actually said that before looking...good find.

Change the video card for this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102950

The one I suggest you use GDDR5 instead of DDR3 witch is a most with dual graphics.

How's this compared to the Sapphire? EVGA 01G-P3-N988-TR GeForce 9800 GT HDMI 1GB 256-b...

Wrong brand for the dual graphics to work it has to be a 6670/6650.

Maybe its best to wait until its actually cyber monday... since that's when the price deals will actually be in effect.

the apu build seems solid though... forget the 9800gt. I have an 8800gt and while its a nice card for its time (btw the 9800gt is pretty much the same) it is showing its age. with the apu build you'd have a little more gpu power at less wattage. that 6670 would crossfire with the apu's gpu so you'd still get pretty decent gaming performance and DX11