A Smaller Budget System

[Skarnold]

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Mostly video games (TF2, CS, BFBC2, BF3)
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
i would ideally like to keep it at or under $500
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
New York City
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
Case, PSU, RAM, MOBO, CPU, Video Card, HDD,
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Operating System
6) Will you be overclocking?
Maybe very lightly
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
22" widescreen not sure of max res.
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
ASAP
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
I would like something easy to overclock and i would like an ITX or MATX system
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
windows 7 home premium 64 bit.

 

[tiraides]

We need to know the monitor's resolution and how far you're willing to push the overclocking. With your $500 budget, those answers will help us determine what (price/performance) corners we can cut with our build recommendations.

 

[Skarnold]

Resolution is 1680x1050
And overclocking nothing really serious no voltage increases or anything like that maybe bumping up about .2-.6 ghz

 

[tiraides]

Here's one micro ATX build to consider:

$45 - Cooler Master Elite 341
$60 - Antec NEO ECO 520C 520W PSU
$188 - Intel Core i3-2120, Biostar H61MGC and Patriot Gamer 2 2x4GB DDR3 1333 combo deal
$18 - Sony Optiarc AD-7280S-0B SATA DVD burner
$80 - Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB HDD
$110 - VisionTek 900503 Radeon HD 7750
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$501 - Subtotal (not including shipping, taxes, or rebates)

To keep things around $500 (though adding the shipping costs will go beyond that), I decided to focus on a micro ATX build. Consequentially, one of the corners that I cut was on the overclocking capability; you can't overclock using the processor or motherboard I chose for you. That said, the Intel Core i3-2120 is no slouch. With its 3.3GHz base clock speed (no Turbo Boost) and Hyper Threading support, the i3-2120 can handle everything that you need.

I also went with the Samsung 1TB hard drive so you would have a good (if not great) performance HDD with plenty of storage capacity for under $100. I consider it to be a minor splurge as there are some 500GB hard drives that cost around $70-$80 on their own (and other 1TB 7200RPM drives start at around $100 each).

I read a few reviews before choosing the Radeon HD 7750, and the general consensus is that you'll be able to play BF3 at your 1680x1050 resolution at an average of 40-50 frames per second on medium settings.

If you prefer mini ITX over micro ATX, you'll have to pay a bit of a price premium:

$115 - Silverstone SG05 with 450W SFX PSU
$192 - Intel Core i3-2120 and Biostar TH61 ITX combo deal
$40 - G.Skill Value Series F3-10666CL9D-8GBNT 2x4GB DDR3 1333
$24 - Samsung SN-208BB Slim DVD burner
$7 - Syba mini SATA cable/adapter
$80 - Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB HDD
$110 - VisionTek 900503 Radeon HD 7750
=====
$568 - Subtotal (not including shipping, taxes, or rebates)

The overall price increase came from the more expensive mini ITX case/PSU bundle, the lack of a comparatively good combo deal for the processor and (mini ITX) motherboard, and the slim DVD burner, which requires an additional adapter/cable. With mini ITX, people tend to choose between "go cheap" and "go quality." I personally prefer quality, but if you want to go cheap, you'll have to:

- Replace the Intel Core i3-2120 with the Intel Pentium G630. Alternatively, you can look for a cheaper AMD-based processor/motherboard combo like the AMD A4-3400 and ASRock A75M-ITX.

- Grab one 4GB stick of RAM instead of an 8GB dual-channel kit.

- Get a lower capacity hard drive for less. But with the general prices of HDDs still pretty high -- NewEgg has a 160GB HDD for $60 shipped, a 250GB HDD for $70 shipped, and a 500GB HDD for around $75 shipped -- you may not find much savings there.

- Omit the optical drive -- but only if you don't need it.

 

[Skarnold]

I would like to kind of stay away from biostatistics my last mono wasn't that great from them but I don't know if there more reliable now.

 

[tiraides]

Biostar's fine for stock operation, but that's ignoring personal preferences.

Do you prefer micro ATX or mini ITX? Are you willing to go over $500 (to, say, $650 or $700) for this build?

 

[Skarnold]

I don't really have enough $ to go that high

 

[tiraides]

OK... well, you need the video card as the onboard graphics isn't good enough for BF3. I recommend keeping the HDD as it's one of the best bang-per-buck drives available (for performance or capacity) for under $100.

To save yourself some money, I recommend that you stick with the micro ATX build but go for the following processor, motherboard, and memory (stick) instead:

$68 - Intel Pentium G630
$70 - Intel BOXDH61CRB3
$21 - G.Skill Value Series F3-10666CL9S-4GBNT 4GB DDR3 1333 DIMM

If you feel that you'll stick with a low-end card like the HD 7750 for a long time, you can buy a cheaper, lower powered PSU in place of the Antec NEO ECO 520C:

$45 - Corsair CX430 V2 430W PSU

Those changes drop the total of the micro ATX build down to around $457 before shipping and taxes.