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Budget GPU help...

D

Doodlehed

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 1, 2012
Messages
149
Building a new budget gaming system. 2nd build ever and my last one was about 8 years ago with an athlon 64 3400 + 6800 GT(still going strong until a few months ago).

I started with my new build not knowing what I was in for. I knew that AGP was old tech so I had to get a new mobo to support a PCI-E GPU and of course a cpu...and then ram...and then hdd...and then opticals...Annnnnd that just lead me to building a whole new system since virtually nothing was reuseable. Even my old psu is 420W with less than optimal amps on 12v rails.

So far I have:

FX 4100 - $109
MSI 870A-G54 (FX) AM3+ AMD 870 W/ IDE $89
G.SKILL NS 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) $23
OCZ ModXStream Pro 500W $54 W/ promo code (modular also)
cheapest hdd i could find that was sata =160gig 3gb/s $70

My GPU budget is exactly $160 after all that and I don't really want to modify that because I already transferred exactly what I did need into paypal and I dont want to wait another 3-5 days...by then some of my promos will have expired and ill end up spending more money.

So I'm hitting up pcpartpicker every day looking at prices and I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to go with a 6850 or 6870. Newegg has a powercolor 6870 for 159 that I have my eye on. I could go with a gtx 460 possibly but i'm not sure if id run into hickups with my amd board and cpu? I havent read much about it just hearsay that people spew saying that they hinder each others performance.

Also, I read that getting 1866 memory with these cpu's or even 1600 is a waste so I went with 1333. Is this okay?

Pretty much the main question is WWJD...and by jesus i mean an experienced budget builder. I'm probably going to go with the 6870, it has decent enough reviews and the price is right.

I thought about buying newegg giftcards maybe and googled it..brought me here..but I can't post in the for sale forum without 50 posts :|

Sorry if there's another place this is better suited. Move it if need be.
 
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What resolution are you going to game at? The 6870 is a good card for 1080P and a great card at 1680x1050. At 1080P you might be limited using higher levels of AA in certain games.
 
The 6870 is a great choice, usually faster than the GTX 460.

You might be able to find a used one in the FS forum, you don't need to post there, just send the seller a PM.
 
Im probably going to be gaming at lower resolutions. My monitor is an old 19" lcd for the time being.
 
If you're willing to save up a little more cash, pick up a used 6950 2GB, maybe even one that'll unlock in to effectively a 6970, for around $200. There are tons of people dumping them to get 7970s now. $40 more give or take (I've seen some as low as $190 shipped) gets you a hell of a lot more GPU power.

I am not a fan of OCZ PSUs, I'd strongly recommend you look elsewhere. Silverstone, Seasonic, Corsair, Antec's higher end series... but generally speaking stay away from OCZ (and now, sadly, PC Power and Cooling since OCZ bought them).

$70 for a 160GB HDD is also batshit insane. I know there's a shortage right now, but really, you can do better. So much better.

Yes, DDR3-1333 is fine. Should've been able to get 2x as much for that price, though, maybe $5-10 more. Where are you located?
 
Definitely 6870 at that price point, no need to even look at at anything else IMO.
 
Right now I'm using a 250 gig ide. The mobo I'm getting has ide so I can use the 160 gig for windows install +socket games and use the ide for storage for now til prices drop.

That powercolor 6870 got absolutely horrible reviews so I think ill go back down to the sex 6850. That should play everything out reasonably right? Mostly bf3 and wow.

I just can't pull $200 right now else I'd surely be looking for a 6970. Even if I was able to PayPal takes forever and I need some gaming in my life stat. I'm having withdrawals over here.

I'm in central Illinois so I don't have any fry's or decent parts stores. I checked out some stuff at bestbuy and as usual, they're a joke. Like at least 50% markup.
 
I'm having withdrawals over here.
Click to expand...

Haha, sounds like you are in a hurry. But if you weren't you could find some good deals in the FS forum.
Are you set on AMD? At that price point you'd probably be better off with a 960T..

You should also be able to find 8GB of memory in the $30-$40 range on Newegg.

If you're getting that motherboard to specifically be able to use your PATA hard drive, then I'd hold off on getting a SATA drive now.
 
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For example with the same $500-ish budget a gaming build:

Intel Core i3-2100 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz $124.99

ASUS P8H67-V (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel H67 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS $104.99

Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory Model CT2KIT51264BD1339 $34.99

Antec EarthWatts EA-500D Green 500W ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply $60.99 or $45 after MIR and $5 off code

XFX HD-685X-ZCFC Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card $159.99 or $139.99 after rebate plus you also get a free copy of Dirt3 game. XFX also has a lifetime warranty.

Total: $490.95
or $449.95 after rebates etc
$10-ish for shipping depending where you are.
 
K1tty said:
Haha, sounds like you are in a hurry. But if you weren't you could find some good deals in the FS forum.
Are you set on AMD? At that price point you'd probably be better off with a 960T..

You should also be able to find 8GB of memory in the $30-$40 range on Newegg.

If you're getting that motherboard to specifically be able to use your PATA hard drive, then I'd hold off on getting a SATA drive now.
Click to expand...

Kinda set on the CPU. Even if the fx chips aren't fantastic ill upgrade it in a few months when amd rolls out their piledriver chips.

Ill probably get more ram later. On a pretty strict budget right now.
 
K1tty said:
For example with the same $500-ish budget a gaming build:

Intel Core i3-2100 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz $124.99

ASUS P8H67-V (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel H67 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS $104.99

Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory Model CT2KIT51264BD1339 $34.99

Antec EarthWatts EA-500D Green 500W ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply $60.99 or $45 after MIR and $5 off code

XFX HD-685X-ZCFC Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card $159.99 or $139.99 after rebate plus you also get a free copy of Dirt3 game. XFX also has a lifetime warranty.

Total: $490.95
or $449.95 after rebates etc
$10-ish for shipping depending where you are.
Click to expand...


I have to get a hd too though.

On that mobo I picked I'm gonna have to put an optical on the pata/ide and hdd on the sata.

I'd kinda like to stick with an amd board specifically to be able to upgrade.
 
Doodlehed said:
I have to get a hd too though.

On that mobo I picked I'm gonna have to put an optical on the pata/ide and hdd on the sata.

I'd kinda like to stick with an amd board specifically to be able to upgrade.
Click to expand...

With a Intel P67, h67, and Z68 you could upgrade to Ivy Bridge. I am willing to bet that it would be faster than pile driver. Also recently tomshardware(I know boo hiss) did a sub $200 processor comparison for gaming. Even overclocked to 4.5 GHz the FX4100
could not beat the i3 2100. Its more expensive relatives did not do much better.

Also I feel for you trying to save money by using your old DVD drive however by using an older chip set you are short changing yourself in the long run. If you are dead set on AMD why not buy one of the sub $100 AMD quads currently available. Then spend the extra 10 to 15 dollars on a base 990FX or 970. You will get sli certification, better pci express width, and better power control. Because if your going the AMD route and plan to overclock power management sounds very helpful.

And now I see you moved this to gen hardware :p
 
Andy735 said:
With a Intel P67, h67, and Z68 you could upgrade to Ivy Bridge. I am willing to bet that it would be faster than pile driver. Also recently tomshardware(I know boo hiss) did a sub $200 processor comparison for gaming. Even overclocked to 4.5 GHz the FX4100
could not beat the i3 2100. Its more expensive relatives did not do much better.

Also I feel for you trying to save money by using your old DVD drive however by using an older chip set you are short changing yourself in the long run. If you are dead set on AMD why not buy one of the sub $100 AMD quads currently available. Then spend the extra 10 to 15 dollars on a base 990FX or 970. You will get sli certification, better pci express width, and better power control. Because if your going the AMD route and plan to overclock power management sounds very helpful.

And now I see you moved this to gen hardware :p
Click to expand...

Lol yeah I put one there. It kind of evolved from what GPU do I want with this system to a whole new system spec. You seem to know what youre talking about. I'm a noob when it comes to things like chipsets. I have Zero knowledge of those. I may just go to an i3 or something. I am an AMD fanboy all day but I don't really want to go with the older technology even if it's on par or a little better. Call me stubborn. I've been back and forth with i3 and fx builds. I should just do the right thing and go with an i3 but the board is going to cost me more to get one with an ide.

No one has told me yet if you can use a hard drive and optical on one ide without any problems?
 
Yeah, I am not an expert on AMD chip sets but what I said is what AMD tried to sell the boards as on launch. I do know the 870 chip set tends to be a favorite amongst the bargain hunters.

I was in a similar predicament as you about three years ago with an AMD dragon platform build (Phenom II 940x4, 780 G Chipset, and 4870). I spent extra money for a board with ide for a dvd drive. However when I went with my current 2500k setup no more ide :p I just feel it is best to spend the 15 dollars now to get a sata dvd drive. And if you really want to go AMD try the 960T. It could unlock to a six core and it will easily reach close to 4.0 GHz seeing how others have done that.
 
Doodlehed said:
Lol yeah I put one there. It kind of evolved from what GPU do I want with this system to a whole new system spec. You seem to know what youre talking about. I'm a noob when it comes to things like chipsets. I have Zero knowledge of those. I may just go to an i3 or something. I am an AMD fanboy all day but I don't really want to go with the older technology even if it's on par or a little better. Call me stubborn. I've been back and forth with i3 and fx builds. I should just do the right thing and go with an i3 but the board is going to cost me more to get one with an ide.

No one has told me yet if you can use a hard drive and optical on one ide without any problems?
Click to expand...

Here is my thing, and this is coming from a longtime Intel enthusiast. But I do like getting what I feel is the best performance for my money, especially when it offers a lot of overhead for overclocking. You should stick to which ever brand you like most for all your budget and everyday systems. If you just want a decent all around system or gaming system, you really can't go wrong either way. Honestly the Intel is going to be faster and allow you to do more in some areas, but the AMD is going to be cheaper and most games will play just as well. Until you get into the really high settings for games, and high end graphics cards, I doubt you are going to notice all that much difference in gameplay on average settings.

So if you like AMD, stick with AMD. They could use your money. The chip you have selected is a decent enough chip. I am not all too sure about the MB, AMD MBs and CPUs are not really my expertise. If you want to upgrade to a more extreme system in the future, then move up maybe to an Intel 2500k system, but for now the AMD will work just fine.

But doing a little research, that MSI board is pretty decent deal, you could also look into an ASUS product like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131767

You can always get an IDE to SATA converter. I have a few of them myself. There is one like this:

http://www.provantage.com/startech-pata2sata2~BSTR9106.htm

Or the ones that I use are:

http://www.provantage.com/addonics-adsaide~7ADDO16Y.htm
 
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