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  1. #1

    "Budgeted" Gaming Rig

    Long time reader, first-time poster.

    Looking to spend ~$700 on a gaming computer(including OS). WoW/D3/PoE/LoL are the most played games.

    Current specs(don't laugh):

    CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 255 3.1GHz
    GPU: nvidia GeForce 9200(re-hashed 8200?) a.k.a garbage
    RAM: 4gb

    1440x900 resolution is perfectly fine for me, nothing ultra fancy is required. WoW runs at ~25 fps in good locations at this resolution. D3 and PoE cannot be run in anything except 800x600, and I've played many hours at that resolution.

    I've thrown together quite a few different builds that fit this budget and was looking to get some more advice as to which would be better for a non-enthusiast/non-overclocking/just want to play the game not at 800x600 kind of guy.

    Here's a sample of what I put together:

    CPU: AMD FX-8320
    GPU: GTX 550 ti 2gb
    MoBo: ASRock 970 extreme4


    CPU: AMD FX-6200
    GPU: GTX 650 ti 2gb
    MoBo: Gigabyte 970A series

    CPU: i5-3550p
    GPU: GTX 650 2gb
    MoBo: MSi z77 series


    My question(s): AMD processors any good? Would a Radeon 7850 be a good investment over the geforce? a 430W PSU would be sufficient?

    You saw my current specs, so I know almost anything would be a decent upgrade for me, but I'm trying to get as close to $600+OS as possible to help future-proof a little bit. I do not mind skimping on the CPU/GPU in order to nab a 64gb SSD. As I said I'm not looking for ultra high massive quality gaming, just a few steps up from this old calculator I'm on right now.

    I have a 1TB HDD I plan on using so that will not be needed, everything else will though.

    Any advice and/or comparable builds would be much appreciated.



    Mash
    Last edited by Mashbuttons; 2013-01-02 at 11:55 PM.

  2. #2
    Quote Originally Posted by Mashbuttons View Post
    AMD processors any good?
    For WoW not really, but at low 1440x900 resolution it's fine. FX-4300 is best AMD processor for purely gaming use in value for price.

    Quote Originally Posted by Mashbuttons View Post
    Would a Radeon 7850 be a good investment over the geforce?
    650 and 550 cards are rather low end, 7850 is much better.

    Quote Originally Posted by Mashbuttons View Post
    a 430W PSU would be sufficient?
    430W is enough. Not by wide margin, but still.
    Never going to log into this garbage forum again as long as calling obvious troll obvious troll is the easiest way to get banned.
    Trolling should be.

  3. #3
    To be a little more clear, I have about $450 to spend on a CPU/GPU/MoBo trio, looking to get a decent amount of wear out of it.

    If I grab the FX-4300 as mentioned ($129.99) and a GA-970A series MoBo (79.99) it leaves me with about $230 left for the GPU. The 7850 2gb is about (199.99), leaving me with about $50 to minmax.

    What could I put that $50 into to notice the biggest upgrade in? Is the above mentioned build worth a hoot? Heatsink required?

    Thanks again,
    Mash

  4. #4
    This is slightly over budget but will give you the best performance by far.
    If you live near a Microcenter store you can get the CPU for $40 less.

    PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

    CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($204.99 @ Newegg)
    Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Pro3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($89.99 @ Amazon)
    Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 1GB Video Card ($169.98 @ Newegg)
    Total: $464.96
    (Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
    (Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-01-02 19:00 EST-0500)
    Intel i5-3570K @ 4.7GHz | MSI Z77 Mpower | Noctua NH-D14 | Corsair Vengeance LP White 1.35V 8GB 1600MHz
    Gigabyte GTX 670 OC Windforce 3X @ 1372/7604MHz | Corsair Force GT 120GB | Silverstone Fortress FT02 | Corsair VX450

  5. #5
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by vesseblah View Post
    For WoW not really, but at low 1440x900 resolution it's fine. FX-4300 is best AMD processor for purely gaming use in value for price.
    I have been thinking about this. And i think the 6300 is actually a better buy. Yes the extra two cores dont matter all that much for gaming. But it has a higher turbo boost (100 Mhz but still). And it is only 10 euros more expensive.

    So imo, if the price difference is 10-20 euros/dollars id get the 6300.

    For the OP, if the 6300 gets in the way of the 7850 get the 4300, otherwise the 6300 is good too.

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Zeara View Post
    I have been thinking about this. And i think the 6300 is actually a better buy. Yes the extra two cores dont matter all that much for gaming. But it has a higher turbo boost (100 Mhz but still). And it is only 10 euros more expensive.

    So imo, if the price difference is 10-20 euros/dollars id get the 6300.

    For the OP, if the 6300 gets in the way of the 7850 get the 4300, otherwise the 6300 is good too.
    This is exactly the build I just did, 6300, Gigabyte 970A and the 7850. I'd definitely go with the 6300 over the 4300, mainly because it's only $10 more. The Vishera chips overclock easy and run pretty cool with an aftermarket heatsink, so 4.2GHz+ isn't an issue. It's your best CPU option until you get up to the 3570k's $200+ price range, but for what you want there's no need to spend the extra money for it.

    And absolutely go for the 7850, it blows the 550 and 650 out of the water.
    Quote Originally Posted by Karragon View Post
    I'd like WoW to be a single player game

  7. #7
    As of right now the combo deal on the 6300 and a 970a mobo is 209.99. the 1gb 7850 is 169.99. leaving me with $90 to throw on somewhere.

    What about a 7870 2gb? would that be a noticeable difference from the 7850 1gb? based on my current specs would the 7850 blow my mind? the 6300, 970a, 7850 combo leaves me with $90 as I said, that's good, but if I can obtain a lot more performance overall with it, I'd be happy too. Maybe a small SSD? If so, does my MoBo need UEFI BIOS?

    Can't link, but here's a summary of the final build and costs:

    CPU: AMD FX-6300 (209.99 combo)
    GPU: Radeon 7850 1gb (169.99)
    MoBo: gigabyte 970a (209.99 combo)
    PSU: Corsair 430w (49.99)
    RAM: Ripjaws X 2x4gb (44.99)
    Case: Gigabyte newegg midtower special (24.99)
    OS: Windows 7 home (99.99)

    Total (599.94)

    Leaving me with $100. I can grab a 60gb corsair GT SSD for 79.99, but see aforementioned MoBo inquiry. Heatsink required?


    mash
    Last edited by Mashbuttons; 2013-01-03 at 12:50 AM.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Mashbuttons View Post
    Leaving me with $100. I can grab a 60gb corsair GT SSD for 79.99, but see aforementioned MoBo inquiry. Heatsink required?
    No, not required, but it's always a good investment, especially if you have any intention of overclocking. You can usually get a Cooler Master 212+ for about $20.

    Actually if there was one thing I'd tell you to spend more money on, it's your case. It's not tool-free, it doesn't have cable management, it doesn't have front USB3.0 ports. These are mostly quality of life things, but the cable management does help with airflow.
    Last edited by blargh312; 2013-01-03 at 01:12 AM.
    Quote Originally Posted by Karragon View Post
    I'd like WoW to be a single player game

  9. #9
    I'm not sure where you are located at but microcenter.com has some of the best prices on processors but they are only available via in store pick up. Could save yourself some money and get a better CPU if you look into this^

  10. #10
    you will notice a difference with the 7870 on most high end games although the 7850 is more than enough to play them with high settings and even maxed out in some cases. I'm not sure what PoE is like but it looks like all the games you play will not require the 7870, however, If I was determined to blow the extra $90, It would probably still either go towards a better GPU or CPU especially if I can see myself possibly playing a high end game in the future. I have done a lot of research on graphic cards and both the 7850 and 7870 are very good price-per-performance wise (based on newegg), especially the 7850 due to its recent price drop again. Radeon is in a very good spot right now. As for Geforce, most of their products are overpriced until you reach the 670, then it becomes a different story.

    SSD's are cool for turning on your PC in like 10-25 seconds, but quite honestly, if you are just getting a 60GB, it may end up being more annoying than useful with such little space. I have a 60Gb atm, I love and hate it at the same time. Do some research on how to set up a SSD before you buy one as they may take a little more effort than usual.

    Best gaming processors are Intel i5 but most AMD aren't too bad at all. As long as you don't have one of the cheapest CPU's on the market or an extremely old one, the graphics card is significantly more important. When it comes to i3 vs. FX-6000's, it depends on the game. A lot of games currently only utilize 2 cores so the i3 would win out on those since the i3's individual cores are more powerful than the FX-6000's. When it comes to very heavy multitasking or games that can utilize most of the processor, the FX-6000's would likely win out on that. I could use a memory refreshing, but I am under the impression that games that are coming out are more likely to utilize more than 2 cores.
    Last edited by Asurakai; 2013-01-03 at 02:48 AM.

  11. #11

  12. #12
    Stood in the Fire Rafax's Avatar
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    Get tge combo suggested by clintok but go with the core i3 3220 !

  13. #13
    no microcenter, all newegg
    Just checked these out.

    the i3-2120 (124.99) and mobo (54.99) and 2gb 7850 (194.99) that clintok linked come to $375, leaving that nasty ~$90 remainder of the ~$450 trio budget.

    and with the i3-3220 suggested, it's $5 more.

    The difference in price of a 2gb 7850 and a 1gb 7850 is about $30. If I drop down to a 1gb 7850 for $164.99 and put the remaining budget of ~$290 into a CPU/MoBo combo(i5-3350p$179.99+MoBo$89.99), would that be better performance than a 2gb 7850 and the i3-3220?


    thanks for your time

    mash

  14. #14
    Dunno why you'd get the 2120 over the FX-6300. The 6300 is slightly better single thread and totally stomps the 2120 in multithreaded benchmarks. The 3220 is marginally better single thread, but again the 6300 is much better multithread. And they're the same price. If you want to future-proof, go for the one that handles multithreading better.

    If you really want to go with Intel for whatever reason, get the 3570k and wait to get an SSD. That being said, for gaming, your GPU is going to have a bigger impact on performance than your CPU, so if it's 3570k+1GB 7850 vs. 6300+2GB 7870, I'd go with the latter.
    Last edited by blargh312; 2013-01-03 at 05:24 AM.
    Quote Originally Posted by Karragon View Post
    I'd like WoW to be a single player game

  15. #15
    I'm definitely going with the 6300+mobo combo for 209.99, can't beat it.

    I'm looking at the XFX Double D 7870 GHz Edition 2gb card right now(239.99). It says it requires minimum 500W PSU, so my 430w will need to be upgraded to something higher? and it also states the card is rather large, so a decent case is in order.

    Any suggestions as to a case and PSU to this:

    CPU: AMD FX-6300
    MoBo: Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3
    GPU: XFX Double D 7870 GHz Edition 2gb

    An adequate PSU and case that will run me ~$110 is what I'm looking for now.


    -edit- I think I may just grab the 7850 2gb for 194.99 to leave a bit more space for the PSU and case.
    I am now looking for a good airflow/cable management case and adequate PSU for $130
    Last edited by Mashbuttons; 2013-01-03 at 06:15 AM.

  16. #16

  17. #17
    The Lightbringer inux94's Avatar
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    The 430w is plentyful for that rig.

    i7-6700k 4.2GHz | Gigabyte GTX 980 | 16GB Kingston HyperX | Intel 750 Series SSD 400GB | Corsair H100i | Noctua IndustialPPC
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  18. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by inux94 View Post
    The 430w is plentyful for that rig.

    The 6300 can use over 150w under load, and even more when OCed. Power consumption and heat are better with the Piledriver chips but they're still not very good. Also those CX series PSUs are rated a lot higher than they should be, you're really only going to get about 380w max out of the CX430.
    Quote Originally Posted by Karragon View Post
    I'd like WoW to be a single player game

  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by Zeara View Post
    I have been thinking about this. And i think the 6300 is actually a better buy. Yes the extra two cores dont matter all that much for gaming. But it has a higher turbo boost (100 Mhz but still). And it is only 10 euros more expensive.
    Games use only 1-2 threads making the 4300 better because higher clock speeds. At full load 4300 runs 300MHz higher, not 100Mhz. 4300 also overclocks better on average. There are no ifs and buts around it.
    Last edited by vesseblah; 2013-01-03 at 09:02 AM.
    Never going to log into this garbage forum again as long as calling obvious troll obvious troll is the easiest way to get banned.
    Trolling should be.

  20. #20
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by vesseblah View Post
    Games use only 1-2 threads making the 4300 better because higher clock speeds. At full load 4300 runs 300MHz higher, not 100Mhz. 4300 also overclocks better on average. There are no ifs and buts around it.
    Yet, the 6300 performs better than the 4300. Also, from every site i see the turbo for the 4300 is 4 GHz and the 6300 is set at 4.1 GHz.

    http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum...review-12.html

    As you can see, the 6300 outperforms the 4300 in just about every game. Sometimes the difference is bigger than others.

    You are right about the overclocking, but from what I've read. The 4300 might hit 5 GHz whereas the 6300 hits 4.8-4.9. Even with that, I would pick the 6300.

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