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Budget Build Confirmation

P

papaotter

n00b
Joined
Aug 1, 2010
Messages
9
1. Gaming and Web browsing. Eve online, Wow, SC2.
2.$500-$700 The cheaper the better.
3. SC
4. Need CPU, MB, OS, RAM, HDD, PSU, GPU, DVDRW, Case, Monitor.
5. Nothing reused.
6. Only will overclock if its super easy on stock fans.
7. 24" monitor.
8. Order within 2 weeks.
9. No crossfire/SLI, plain jane, stable.
10. No OS, need Win7 64bit.

Looking to build a budget rig for gaming (Eve, WoW, SC2) on a 24' monitor. I have been reading over the forums and from the suggestions here put together what I think (hope) will work.

GIGABYTE GA-MA785GM-US2H + Win7 64bit $169.98
AMD Athlon II X3 445 $84.99
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 $99.99
CORSAIR CMPSU-400CX $49.99
XFX HD-485X-ZNFC Radeon HD 4850 $114.99
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ $54.99
COOLER MASTER Elite 341 $39.99
LITE-ON CD/DVD Burner $18.99

Grand Total before tax $633.91 minus monitor.

I am looking for suggestions to tweak this build to get out a little better performance and/or price. As well as ask for suggestions for a 24" monitor.

I may be able to go up slightly in price, but the lower the price the better the man I will be with the wife. Also the max includes price of monitor.
 
The only things Id tweak would be the hard drive first off. Not crazy about the Samsung drives. Id rather have Western Digital. Been using them for 10 years and always had great luck with them.

The 4850 can be had for $100 and while its a great card, if you could move up to a 5770 for $140, youd be better off. Uses less power and has better performance.

400 watts is cutting it close on the PSU. Itll be enough for your rig but wont leave you much headroom for upgrades. Id move up to a 500 watt.

Other than that, looks good.
 
Gym Rat said:
The only things Id tweak would be the hard drive first off. Not crazy about the Samsung drives. Id rather have Western Digital. Been using them for 10 years and always had great luck with them.

The 4850 can be had for $100 and while its a great card, if you could move up to a 5770 for $140, youd be better off. Uses less power and has better performance.

400 watts is cutting it close on the PSU. Itll be enough for your rig but wont leave you much headroom for upgrades. Id move up to a 500 watt.

Other than that, looks good.
Click to expand...

The Samsung F3 500GB is a great drive, but yes the Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB is just as good.

I agree about the 5770 though, as the 4850 will struggle on a 24".

As for the PSU the 400CX could easily run the 4850 or the 5770. Above the 5770 I would agree and say upgrade to a Neo Eco 520 or above.
 
Gym Rat said:
The only things Id tweak would be the hard drive first off. Not crazy about the Samsung drives. Id rather have Western Digital. Been using them for 10 years and always had great luck with them.

The 4850 can be had for $100 and while its a great card, if you could move up to a 5770 for $140, youd be better off. Uses less power and has better performance.

400 watts is cutting it close on the PSU. Itll be enough for your rig but wont leave you much headroom for upgrades. Id move up to a 500 watt.

Other than that, looks good.
Click to expand...

Keep the Samsung (I have had too many WD die on me in the last couple years to recommend them)

I agree on a 5770 & for a 40 dollar difference its probably worth it.. But if its gonna break budget then its not enough to stress over.

PSU is fine

I also dont like the x3 CPU for the cost. Its a 6 dollar difference to go to a AMD Athlon II X4 620 Propus 2.6GHz
 
Yes but in gaming, the extra speed will make a bigger difference than an extra core will. Plus with the higher multiplier, the X3 can be overclocked easier and probably further. For productivity, pictures and video the quad would come in more handy but for gaming, the 3.1 GHz triple core will be better.

Heres a comparison of the X3 440 against the X4 620.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/119?vs=106
 
Gym Rat said:
Yes but in gaming, the extra speed will make a bigger difference than an extra core will. Plus with the higher multiplier, the X3 can be overclocked easier and probably further. For productivity, pictures and video the quad would come in more handy but for gaming, the 3.1 GHz triple core will be better.

Heres a comparison of the X3 440 against the X4 620.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/119?vs=106
Click to expand...

Depends on the game & as time goes on more & more games will use the 4th core.. & Until then there will rarely be a difference that you can tell without there being a benchmark running.

Also its rumored that wow will be using 4 cores after the next major update later this year. & if it does happen SC2 probably wont be too far from it.
 
If OP is asking for a 24" included in the $700 budget with the O/S, there's no way this is happening. He needs to drop to a smaller screen in order to include a monitor in the budget.
 
HardwareGuru said:
If OP is asking for a 24" included in the $700 budget with the O/S, there's no way this is happening. He needs to drop to a smaller screen in order to include a monitor in the budget.
Click to expand...

I Dont think the Monitor is included within budget getting from the OP & the build included. Then again OS wasn't included in that build either.
 
He said: "Also the max includes price of monitor." $500-$700 range I'd think that $700 is the max budget.
 
Thanks for the replies and the review Gym Rat. Its a toss up to me on the hard drives.

After a changing the GPU to a 5770 I am creeping very close to $700 so will have to find another stash for the monitor I suppose.
 
Have you considered a 1680x1050 22" monitor? They're narrower than a 23 and 24 but they're taller than a 23, nearly as tall as a 24, cost around $175 and the lower resolution will give you faster framerates.
 
Go with this CPU + mobo + RAM instead:
$148 - AMD Athlon II X3 445 CPU + Asus M4A785TD-M EVO AM3 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
$90 - G.Skill F3-10666CL9D-4GBNQ 2 x 2GB DDR3 1333 RAM
---
Total: $238 shipped

$7 cheaper once you factor in the cost of the OS by itself but now you'll have a cheaper RAM upgrade path and a slightly better CPU upgrade path.

I also concur with the recommendation for a monitor with 1680x1050 resolution. Your low budget is simply not enough to play SC2, WOW or Eve Online at medium settings on a 24" monitor.
 
Here is what I suggest. It's over $700 but, includes a 22" monitor. I'd stick with this since it has a 1680x1050 res. Gaming would be better for the 5770 1GB on this resolution vs, 1920x1080 res on a 24"

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64 + MSI 740GM-P25 AM3 AMD 740G both for $139.98
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.437524.13-130-288

OCZ special Ops Edition 4GB DDR3 1600 + HIS Radeon HD 5770 1GB both for $204.98 ($20 MIR on RAM and $10 MIR on video card)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.443051

AMD Athlon II X3 440 3.0ghz for $76.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103843

Samsung Spinpoint F3 500gb for $54.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152181

Lite-On 24X Sata DVD Burner for $18.99
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1536484

Antec NEO ECO 520C for $59.99 <-------------------------------------------40A on the +12v to help give you headroom if you decide to o/c the cpu.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371030

COOLER MASTER Elite 341 for $39.99
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1536484

ASUS VW224T 22" for $154.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236078

Total: $750.90
Shipping: $22.63
Grand Total: $773.53
 
Last edited:
Danny I like your recommendation. Better performance AND less money. Thanks for the defined direction.

Guru, I will have to look over your build, some of the brands I am not that familiar with.

Thanks
 
Thanks for all the replies and help from everyone.

I believe I have this thing narrowed down to be THE most bang for the buck possible at the moment. (while keeping the parts decent)

LITE-ON CD/DVD Burner - Bulk Black SATA Model iHAS124-04 - OEM$18.99
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive$54.99
ASUS VH242H Black 23.6" 5ms HDMI Full 1080P Widescreen LCD Monitor$189.99
SAPPHIRE 100283L Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card$154.99
CORSAIR CMPSU-400CX 400W ATX12V V2.2 80 PLUS Certified Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply$49.99
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-4GBNQ$88.99
Combo:
ASUS M4A785TD-M EVO AM3 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
AMD Athlon II X3 440 Rana 3.0GHz Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Desktop Processor ADX440WFGIBOX$139.98
Combo:
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM
COOLER MASTER Elite 341 RC-341C-KKN1-GP Black Steel MicroATX Mid Tower Computer Case$129.98
Total:$836.69 including shipping
Minus $45 in mail in rebates
Grand Total:$791.69

This is $91.69 over budget and will be pushing the limits of the video card with such a large monitor but I think it will work well.

If anyone sees something I am missing please point it out as I hope to pull the trigger soon.
 
You can shave off $40 with this RAM + GPU combo set:
$205 - OCZ Special Ops Edition 4GB DDR3 1600 RAM + HIS HD 5770 1GB PCI-E Video Card
 
It can't be the MOST bang or the buck. It costs more than my build after rebates. The advantage you have though is the 23.6" display. However, I have a more powerful power supply though. If I swapped out the Asus 22" and included the Asus 23" in my build, swap out the 520c for the 400c power supply, I got $785.63 w/shipping. MIR is $60

$785.63 - $60(MIR) = $725.63
 
Gym Rat said:
The only things Id tweak would be the hard drive first off. Not crazy about the Samsung drives. Id rather have Western Digital. Been using them for 10 years and always had great luck with them.
Click to expand...

See my thread below for my findings about Western Digital drives:

You'll never know what you're going to get (with many models of WD hard drives).

This is because older, slower platter designs continue to be manufactured and sold alongside newer, faster designs - both under the exact same model number. The only way to tell is to look at the revision codes after the model number. And unfortunately, resellers never advertise those revision codes at all. Western Digital is currently the only company that's guilty of this; other brands use completely different model numbers for the different drive generations of the same capacity.
 
HardwareGuru, you are right, your build would cost less.

But I have never owned anything from OCZ, HIS, or MSI and do not have any confidence built up in any of those brands. I have been hearing not so great things about OCZ and nothing about HIS. So, that is the reason I kind of ignored your suggestions as I would rather pay the additional $66 for brands that I have used and trust. Even if it does go a little over budget.

Thanks again for the suggestions everyone.
 
OCZ Ram isn't the greatest, but for the price its decent. MSI is a leader in motherboard manufacturing so don't have any worries about them. HIS though.. not sure about them.. haha
 
OCZ has been around man. OCZ as well as Corsair are 2 popular memory manufactures back in the day. How can you not hear about MSI or Microstar International? MSI, ASUS and ABIT were the 3 most mobo popular brands back then. I bought and have MSI motherboards myself. This was back in the AMD Athlon 64, Athlon Thunderbird days.
 
I had my socket 754 MSI board last for about 6 years rock solid, never a problem the entire time I owned it, even for about the last year in which I had about a 400-500mhz overclock (a lot for those old pos chips). MSI makes good stuff. My current MSI board has been fine, although I haven't really attempted O/C'ing yet.
 
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