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Cheap as chips gaming rig :)

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Hey guys :)

About to do a rig for a friend and I have unfortunately slackened off since the release of i7 hardware wise so I have absolutely no clue of where to go :(

Specs I need are:
6GB of ram (I was thinking corsair)
An i7 cpu
A ASUS or Gigabyte board as iI believe this is best bang for buck
PSU
Mid range graphics card (his current one is a 9400GT)
1 TB SATA hard drive (SAta 3 if possible)

Whats the minumum I can realistically spend?

Sorry to dump this on you guys but i cant afford o spend any more than required and im a little out of touch :(

Thanks in advance :toast:
 

Fourstaff

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Cheap as chips? Well, depending on what your friend wants to do, I say about USD800 will give you a really nice rig.
 
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Sorry forgot to mention, He will need a good enough rig to play portal 2 and record games in fraps :)
 
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Memory 8GB G.Skill RipjawX DDR3 @ 1600mhz || 4GB Kingston Value DDR2 800Mhz
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Settles on a 1tb seagate for $59 all that is left is the main bits. Can anyone suggest what kind of power i woul need for such a rig?
 

JrRacinFan

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i7 for gaming? Won't need it. TBH, you are too close to bulldozer release, wait a few weeks maybe for possible price drops on AMD stuff?
 
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Personally, this is what I would get-

CPU- I5 2500k
Mobo- GIGABYTE GA-P67A-UD4-B3 (I know the Z68 chipset is out, but I didn't see anything about the z68 boards available supporting crossfire, only SLI)
RAM- 4-8gigs DDR3 1600(your choice on manufacturer)
GFX Card- AMD HD6950(again, your choice on manufacturer)
PSU- 650 watts, Corsair, PC Power and Cooling, or Seasonic would be my preferences
SSD- 60gig OCZ Vertex 2
HD- you already have this picked out
 

JrRacinFan

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Personally, this is what I would get-

CPU- I5 2500k
Mobo- GIGABYTE GA-P67A-UD4-B3
RAM- 4-8gigs DDR3 1600(your choice on manufacturer)
GFX Card- AMD HD6950(again, your choice on manufacturer)
PSU- 650 watts, Corsair, PC Power and Cooling, or Seasonic would be my preferences
SSD- 60gig OCZ Vertex 2
HD- you already have this picked out

That is a splendid build but I am trying to wrap my head around "cheap as chips" here. What exactly is the budget onafets? I'm assuming my cheap isn't the same as his I guess... :eek:
 
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About under 600 :( i think ill make it if i drop the SSD
 
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(I know the Z68 chipset is out, but I didn't see anything about the z68 boards available supporting crossfire, only SLI)

They support CrossFire. It's even more obvious with the board you picked. Replace "P67A" with "Z68X" and you have the newer motherboard from Gigabyte. :laugh: Same layout, same outputs, the only difference is the name and chipset. Oh and the price.
 
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had to settle for a 6850 will this be enough power?
 
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the 6850 is about the same as a 5850 performance wise, but the 6850 scales better in crossfire
 
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Crossfire is impractical at this point :(

1TB SEAGATE - 59 www.msy.com.au
i5 2500k - 220 www.msy.com.au
GIGABYTE GA-P67A-UD4-B3 - 240 www.ksonline.com.au
Powercooler 6850 - 166 www.msy.com.au
G.SKILL 6GB (2GB x 3) PC-12800 DDR3-1600 NQ 9-9-9-24 - 77 www.skycomp.com.au
Coolermaster Extreme Power Plus 650W - 82 www.msy.com.au
Total = 844

Anychance we could go cheaper on any parts? (definately will not be doing crossfire in the future so does that give us room for a cheaper board?)
 
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Powercolor 6850 - $166www.msy.com.au
Corsair HX650 - $138 www.msy.com.au
Corsair 8GB kit (2x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz - $108 www.skycomp.com.au
TOTAL - $852


NO-OC:
1TB SEAGATE - $59 www.msy.com.au
Asus P8H61-M-LE-USB3 - $91 www.msy.com.au
i5 2400 - $187 www.msy.com.au
Corsair 4GB kit (2x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz - $56 www.skycomp.com.au
Seasonic S12-II 80+ 520W - $96 www.msy.com.au
Powercolor 6850 - $166www.msy.com.au
TOTAL - $655
 
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that RAM WILL NOT work properly in that set-up. That is a triple channel kit and socket 1155/p67 chipset is dual channel. Find a 4 or 8 gig set (2*2gig/2*4gig/ 4*2gig).

If you know your friend will NEVER opt for crossfire as a future upgrade, you could possibly go with the UD3 Gigabyte board. That should save alittle money, same as dropping the RAM down to 4gigs. You could also look at the prices of say a HD5850 or GTX460 gfx card
 
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Sandy Bridge uses dual channel memory so you either get 2x2GB or 2x4GB. Where's the case, the optical drive and the OS? Would also recommend ASRock p67 Extreme4 should be cheaper than the Giga and very good. If you don't plan crossfire a 500 - 550W is enough for the 6850. If you don't OC you can go with the non K version of the 2500 or even with the i5-2400.
 
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Thank you soo much for your help guys :) My friend will have amazing news in the morning! I'm going to go for entropy13's suggested rig. The case and the rest he already has as the OS was used in his previous build will be carried over.
Cheers
Ona :)
 

JrRacinFan

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If you need to cut down on cost even more might I suggest possibly looking into some Asrock and Biostar boards. Need a case?
 

newtekie1

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Corsair 4GB kit (2x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz - $56 www.skycomp.com.au
Seasonic S12-II 80 520W - $96 www.msy.com.au
Powercolor 6850 - $166www.msy.com.au
TOTAL - $655

I'd go with this build, but I'd go with an AsRock P67-Pro from MSY for $124. Yes, it will up the cost slightly, being $35 more, but it will still give him the option to overclock, which is worth it IMO. It should be good to take that 2400 up to 3.9GHz(if my math is correct).
 
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Can i OC on stock air?
 
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Can i OC on stock air?
afcors, but obviously your overclock will be limited and temperatures higher,, if he wants to overclock get a decent p67/z68 board,good air cooler and 4gb ram to save a bit,,,it is so worth it in the long run + lots of fun overclocking
 
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No matter what you decide to do in terms of HSF\OCing, I reccomend you get a tube of Arctic Silver 5, since it's significantly better than any pre-applied Thermal Paste and is relatively cheap (like $5 for a tube).

On a side-note, I saw it mentioned but it was kind of shrugged off\forgotten; you should probably wait to at least see how Bulldozer does, and if it affects the prices of CPU's across the board, you could save even more money.
 
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No matter what you decide to do in terms of HSF\OCing, I reccomend you get a tube of Arctic Silver 5, since it's significantly better than any pre-applied Thermal Paste and is relatively cheap (like $5 for a tube).

On a side-note, I saw it mentioned but it was kind of shrugged off\forgotten; you should probably wait to at least see how Bulldozer does, and if it affects the prices of CPU's across the board, you could save even more money.

Buying AS-5 and putting it on a stock heatsink is like buying nice rims and putting it on a rusting 200k mile pickup truck.
 

newtekie1

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No matter what you decide to do in terms of HSF\OCing, I reccomend you get a tube of Arctic Silver 5, since it's significantly better than any pre-applied Thermal Paste and is relatively cheap (like $5 for a tube).

The pre-applied paste on Intel's heatsinks is Shin-Etsu, AFAIK, which is pretty damn good. Even if it was something worse, the difference would only be about 5°C between the absolute worst and the absolute best(Shin-Etsu G751).

And if you're going to buy thermal paste don't waste money on AS5, get some Artic Alumina. It is within 1°C of AS5 and Shin-Etsu G751, but for the same price you get like 4 times as much.
 
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The cure time on AS5 sucks too, AS5 may have been defacto, but its been eclipsed, imo.
 
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Buying AS-5 and putting it on a stock heatsink is like buying nice rims and putting it on a rusting 200k mile pickup truck.

I beg to differ. The stock HSF is fine if you're not OCing, and having slightly better thermal paste allows for the fan to continually run at lower fan speeds which decreases noise generation and allows for a more comfortable PC Setup. If he's going to OC, I'd reccomend the Mugen II and some after market Thermal Paste of his choosing since apparently Arctic kicked everyone' puppy.

The pre-applied paste on Intel's heatsinks is Shin-Etsu, AFAIK, which is pretty damn good. Even if it was something worse, the difference would only be about 5°C between the absolute worst and the absolute best(Shin-Etsu G751).

And if you're going to buy thermal paste don't waste money on AS5, get some Artic Alumina. It is within 1°C of AS5 and Shin-Etsu G751, but for the same price you get like 4 times as much.

AS5 is $6.50 and despite the dodgy writing you still admitted it was the best performance. Why would you need 4x as much as something that's less effective? Do you bathe your whole CPU in the stuff? I didn't think so. It's not as though having more would increase the effectiveness of it.

A tube of AS5 should last plenty long for most people, even if you reseat your HSF quite frequently. Also, your first and second paragraph have a disparity of about 3°C.
 
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