Budget gaming rig

[HyD3]

A friend of mine wants me to build him a budget gaming rig. But he's looking to only spend $700. I, myself, know what parts are good on the Intel side. And from what I read, an AMD setup would be good for a budget gaming rig. My problem is this: What parts do you guys recommend as far as Mobo and CPU (brand name and model). As far as GPU....either a GTS 250 or HD5770.

What do you guys think? And remember $700 is the limit.


CPU:
Motherboard:
Memory:
Video card:
Hard Drive:
Optical Drive:
Chassis:
Power supply:

[Sensi Karate]

Tell us what website your going to buy off so we can get deals and discounts as-well as a correct price on the hardware.

[theonedub]

Willing to buy second hand parts?

[Goodman]

I really think for $700 as budget gaming pc you'll have no choice of going AMD , unlees you go cheap on Intel mobo , PSU & Graphic card...

[HyD3]

well.....I'm assuming my friend wants to buy all the parts new. And maybe going off websitesites such as zipzoom, directron, tigerdirect, and newegg. More importantly what I want to know is what AMD cpu's overclock well with what motherboards. Should he go quad or dual core?

[crazyeyesreaper]

newegg id suggest a 790X mobo Phenom II 955 or 945 4 gig DDR3 1333mhz 550watt corsair PSU and a 5770 should all come in well under $700 with Win 7 64bit

[Goodman]

Originally Posted by HyD3

well.....I'm assuming my friend wants to buy all the parts new. And maybe going off websitesites such as zipzoom, directron, tigerdirect, and newegg. More importantly what I want to know is what AMD cpu's overclock well with what motherboards. Should he go quad or dual core?

As for gaming an quadcore is not necessary a good dual will do the job just fine

AMD mobo nothing under 790 (SB750) chipset

[crazyeyesreaper]

im running through a quick build on newegg now other forum members can mix and match and find better at there leisure

seems newegg has taken the liberty to price gouge i certainly dont remember the x3 720 costing $160+ hmm seems ill have to dig around a bit more then i thought

[p_o_s_pc]

Originally Posted by HyD3

well.....I'm assuming my friend wants to buy all the parts new. And maybe going off websitesites such as zipzoom, directron, tigerdirect, and newegg. More importantly what I want to know is what AMD cpu's overclock well with what motherboards. Should he go quad or dual core?

if he is willing to buy used i have a Asrock 790GX that is a great clocker. Now if its just for gaming grab a X3 720 and a 790GX or 785

[HyD3]

So his choices are Phenom II 955 and 945 if he wants to go dual core. And for triple core, go with X3 720?
I'm think dual core is more idea since most games dont use more than 2 cores. How well do they overclock? I dont know their stock speeds. What's their highest overclocks using, lets say, a Hyper 212 plus fan.
I figure saving money on the cpu, and using it on the vid card. Are the HD5770 good? Is it faster than the GTS250?

[crazyeyesreaper]

yea he might want to do that cause getting a gts 250 and a athlon II x4 quadcore 4gigs ddr3 with an operating system and decent powersupply all jump the price above $730 newegg is seriously price gouging right now hardcore the same rig i built a buddy a few weeks back is not $50 more expensive its making it a nightmare to get this in the right price range

the Phenom II 955 and 945 are quadcores at at your price range they are NOT an option sadly im still working on it

[angelkiller]

I tried... Comes out at $760. But it's worth it.

I stuck to Intel, but for a reason. No I'm not some fanboy. Well, I am a fanboy, but only to whatever company offers the best price to performance ratio. Right now, that's Intel imo. The Core i3 is faster than anything else selling for $125 right now. And clock for clock, this thing is faster than any comparable AMD chip. PLUS, this overclocks farther than AMD chips. So the Core i3 does more work per clock and has a higher maximum overclock. What you end up with is an overall faster chip for the money. If you can't pay more than $700, I highly suggest you (or your friend) save up for it. It's worth it imo. If you simply can't, than get a Phenom II X2 and a 790GX or 790FX motherboard that can unlock the Phenom II X2 to a Phenom II X4.

I didn't pick out any RAM, because I'm not too knowledable about what's best. But to be honest, I think anything is pretty much fine. I allotted $100 for RAM, spending less drops the $760 figure I gave earlier.

Also, I got a 4890. You could also drop down to a 5770 to save some money, but this is a gaming system, and the graphics card is definitely the most important thing. If you're trying to save money, I'd switch CPU/mobo like I listed above before I changed the graphics card. The performance drop you see by changing CPUs isn't that great, but changing GPUs is very noticable.

• Antec 300
• Corsair VX550
• Gigabyte H55M-S2H
• Intel Core i3 530
• Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus (reviewed here)
• 4GB of DDR3
• XFX 4890
• Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB

Total: $760 before rebates, before shipping.

[p_o_s_pc]

CPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-688-_-Product
mobo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-162-_-Product
ram
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-166-_-Product
GPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-317-_-Product
PSU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817151092

thats ~515 shipped throw in a hdd,case and OS that should come to ~700

[HyD3]

thank you all for the input. I'm gunna do some more research. I'll take a look at the intel i3 while im at it too. I have a feeling he might want to save some money so he may be going the AMD route.

[crazyeyesreaper]

Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129070

PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371015

Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16813131397R

CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103688

RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820211409


CPU fan + heatsink : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835103065

HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822152181

Dvd drive : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827136177

GPU + OS combo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.297959


$678 after rebates $668

[p_o_s_pc]

Originally Posted by HyD3

thank you all for the input. I'm gunna do some more research. I'll take a look at the intel i3 while im at it too. I have a feeling he might want to save some money so he may be going the AMD route.

if he gets the 240 it should do ~3.6ghz for 24/7 easy

[crazyeyesreaper]

i agree if he wants to save money go that route and i look at the other builds and im the only one to take into account the cost of an Operating system

$680 for an athlon II x2 240 that will easily hit 3.6 i added in a coolermaster hyper 212 asus M4A77TD motherboard 4gigs DDR3 500gig hdd ati 57501gig with a 650watt PSU etc etc

to make this easier heres a pic of my newegg cart as outlined in the post above



ati 5750 = Nvidia GTS 250 so eitherway same user exprience in the end open box mobo means he gets a higher end board saves a few $$

theres alos enough room here to add a different case instead or add a larger HDD or perhaps a slighly more power ati 5770 but all things considered i came in under budget with a decent specs can i get a high five ?

with shipping the total cost comes to $ 696

[angelkiller]

Originally Posted by HyD3

thank you all for the input. I'm gunna do some more research. I'll take a look at the intel i3 while im at it too. I have a feeling he might want to save some money so he may be going the AMD route.

Ah, tight budget. No problem. Both pos pc and crazyeyesreaper had builds that use the Athlon II 240 and a 790GX mobo and both people's builds are fine to use. I still would like to stress the importance of a fast graphics card. Good luck with everything!

Originally Posted by crazyeyesreaper

Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129070

Absolutely no offense to you, but I think that case looks pretty ugly.... Usually I'm not too picky and usually Antec makes great stuff....

Cooler Master has a bunch of decent looking cases for $40.

[TIGR]

CPU: Phenom II X4 945 $166
Motherboard: Asus M4A77D $73
Memory: Any 2x 2GB $100
Video card: HIS H577FM1GD $163
Hard Drive: WD3200AAJS $48
Optical Drive: LG GH22NS50 $25
Chassis: Antec Sonata III $125
Power supply: Earthwatts 500 (comes with Sonata)

All on Newegg. Use the CPU/motherboard discount to bring it down to $680 total. A simple system with quality brands/components, some room to expand and great all-around performance for the buck. Plenty overclockable. Toss in a Xigmatek S1283 to get higher clocks with lower temps out of the Phenom.

I only figured in the cost of components you asked for. I assume if you have OS figured out.

[1Kurgan1]

Looks like win to me, why get a 5770 when you can get a 5850 for under $700 OC up the 720 and crush games with that setup!

[crazyeyesreaper]

well i already said the case was fugly but i went function over form

and again he made no mention of an Operating system but i included it anyway i want to see you guys make something far faster at equal price with an OS included

because it wasnt but yesterday some poor chap new to TPU though operating systems came pre installed on EVERY hardrive so yea

[1Kurgan1]

Originally Posted by crazyeyesreaper

well i already said the case was fugly but i went function over form

and again he made no mention of an Operating system but i included it anyway i want to see you guys make something far faster at equal price with an OS included

because it wasnt but yesterday some poor chap new to TPU though operating systems came pre installed on EVERY hardrive so yea

He didn't ask for an OS, so why build him a list he doesn't ask for? And I updated my case to a CM case since a 5850 is such a long card, I really got to say that build I put together is going to be hard to beat by just staying on newegg. DDR3, Tri-core, 5850, CM case. Plus the 5750 just iisnt enough card, but I bet I could still fit a 5770 and an OS into my build instead of a 5850, but theres not a point in that since he didnt ask for that.

[crazyeyesreaper]

well if u say so just stating in less then 24 hrs ago someone on tpu asking about a rig didnt know HDDs did NOT come with an OS preinstalled so i tend to take the safer more logical route and include everthing thats needed to make it WORK. but i agree the 5850 tri core rig wins in terms of power hands down

[1Kurgan1]

Originally Posted by crazyeyesreaper

well if u say so just stating in less then 24 hrs ago someone on tpu asking about a rig didnt know HDDs did NOT come with an OS preinstalled so i tend to take the safer more logical route and include everthing thats needed to make it WORK. but i agree the 5850 tri core rig wins in terms of power hands down

Who was asking about that, I didn't see this guy. I been working on an OS setup now since I mentioned it, I could cut some fat here somewhere, but really this would be worth the extra $30 to get the tricore and a 5770 over the dual and 5750.

[TIGR]

Well if you do need an OS, look above. Otherwise, here you go. $668 with shipping, $648 total after rebates. Gives you some money to play around with.