$600-650 SFF Gaming Build Help

friend'scatdied

[H]ard|Gawd
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Feb 20, 2005
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My suitemate took a liking to the Shuttle setup I bought and wants something similarly small and reasonably powerful.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming. Dragon Age, GTA4, Crysis, MW2, everything.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$600-650 including tax and shipping, but NOT including MIR or cashback (he can only afford $650 max up-front).
3) Where do you live?
NYC for school, Connecticut for home.
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
He *needs* either a Shuttle or mini-ITX form factor, and is looking for a small size followed by quite a bit of power. Based on that, he wants one of the following cases/barebones to be the basis of the build:
Lian Li PC-Q07
Silverstone SG05
Silverstone SG06
Shuttle H7 or G2 chassis
Or a case of equal or small volume than the above. mATX is out, I asked him.
He needs the CPU, RAM, HDD, GPU, MOBO, PSU, CASE, and a DVD/CD COMBO DRIVE.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
He has an EMU-0404 USB external sound cad and a pair of Sennheiser HD 600s already, as well as the mouse, keyboard, and monitor.
6) Will you be overclocking?
Not initially, only as games get more demanding.
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
He has a 23" 1920x1080 Samsung panel.
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
ASAP, early December.
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
Nothing in particular. Integrated WiFi is a bonus.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?
Yes, he has Windows 7 64-bit from student promotions.


Thanks in advance. I was going to suggest him a build similar to mine but many of the parts are OOS and/or no longer available at good prices, and you guys could probably do one better anyway.
 
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Let's go with this man.

Corsair CMPSU-450VX 450W + Gigabyte GA-MA785GMT-UD2H AM3 both for $144.98 ($20 MIR)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.294949

AMD Phenom II X2 550 3.1ghz for $99.99 w/free sipping
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103680

A-DATA 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 for $69.99 w/free shipping
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211409

XFX Radeon HD 4870 1GB for $154.99 w/free shipping
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150436

Seagate Barracuda 500GB Sata HDD for $54.99 w/free shipping
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148395

LG Sata 22X DVD Burner for $24.99 w/free shipping
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136167

SILVERSTONE SUGO SG02-BF fpr $69.99 ($10 MIR)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163112

Total: $619.92
Shipping: $23.59
Grand Total: $643.51 w/shipping
 
That looks sweet! Any smaller alternatives? It's mATX and the case is actually a little big for him. Size is seriously limited for his applications, and he's willing to sacrifice price:performance for a smaller size.
 
That looks sweet! Any smaller alternatives? It's mATX and the case is actually a little big for him. Size is seriously limited for his applications, and he's willing to sacrifice price:performance for a smaller size.

Ehh there are smaller alternatives but they're really not worth the worth sheer loss in performance and best bang for the buck value IMO. Here's why:

1) There is the ol' Silverstong SG05 + Zotac GF9300 mini-ITX setup. However that motherboard is going OOS at many online retailers.

Second, it is based on the EOL'd socket 775 socket which means that no new socket 775 CPUs worth buying would be released for the foreseeable future.

Third, Intel socket 775 CPUs are not cost effective as many AMD Phenom II based CPUs perform on par with many Intel socket 775 CPUs while being significantly cheaper. For example, the $61 AMD Athlon II X2 240 performs on par with the $120 E7500.

Fourth, the price of DDR2 RAM have gone up astronomically within the past few months. In fact, you can get DDR3 RAM for significantly less than many DDR2 RAM right now.

2) You could go for this mATX case whose dimensions isn't that much larger than the SG05:
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1455817

Only problem is that the case will cost around $170 IIRC and won't come out till mid or late December

3) There is a Shuttle option actually:
$200 - Shuttle Glamor XPX SN78SH7 Barebone
$81 - Wintec AMPX 2x2GB DDR2 800 RAM
$145 - XFX HD-575X-ZNFC Radeon HD 5750 1GB
Same CPU, DVD, HDD, that HG chose
----
Total: $606 plus shipping.

The HD 5750 is a big step below the HD 4870 but it's the highest end video card I'd fit in with that Shuttle 300W PSU.
 
Thanks! I think he's going to go with the Shuttle build for size reasons. The HD 5750 performs around the levels of the HD 4770/4850/GTS 250, correct? I think that's enough horsepower for his needs at the moment, though he might scrounge up more cash later for better GPUs once their prices come down.

Would it be a bad idea to go for an HD 4850 or HD 4770 instead (say, this 4850 if it ever comes back in stock or, failing that, this HD 4770; or perhaps this GTS 250) and move to a slightly higher-end CPU or more RAM from the savings on the GPU, since these seem to perform about on-par with the HD 5750?

EDIT: I see now that the X2 550 appears to be the highest-end dual-core AM2+-compatible CPU available. Out of curiosity, what does the X2 550 perform on-par with from the Intel camp?
 
Better GPUs with a shuttle? Like I said earlier, the HD 5750 is the highest end video card I'd feel comfortable fitting in with that Shuttle 300W PSU. Hmm, maybe the HD 5770.

That particular HD 4850 is a good choice for the money. That HD 4770 would not be a good choice at all due the resolution your friend is playing at. 512MB VRAM is not enough. Not a fan of the GTS 250 series myself.

If you can free up $20, I think the X3 720 should fine with that Shuttle.

The X2 550 performs about the same as the $168 E8400.
 
He's gonna wait for the 4850 and X3 720. Here's to hoping the 300W Shuttle can handle it.. I think my GTS 250 and E8300 combined have a higher TDP than that combo on the 12V and I'm running great, though this reference point may not translate perfectly.

Thanks for your help Hardware Guru and Danny Bui!
 
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