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Budget Intel Gaming Build

C

CKtalon

n00b
Joined
Nov 10, 2010
Messages
5
Hi, I'm intending to build my own LANBOX and it's been a while since I was in the hardware scene. Please advice! My tentative build is

SilverStone Sugo SG02B-F ABS/SECC Steel MicroATX (Black)----$74.99
Seasonic 520W 80Plus Power Supply M12II 520 BRONZE----------$79.99
ASUS mATX Motherboard P7H55-M Pro------------------------------$94.99
Intel Core i5-760 2.8GHz 8 MB LGA1156 Processor--------------$205.00
Noctua NT-H1 Thermal Paste------------------------------------------------------$9.95
Kingston HyperX 4GB(2X2GB) DDR3 1600MHz ------------------$76.07
OCZ 60 GB Vertex 2 2.5-Inch SSD OCZSSD22VTXE60G----------$144.99
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB 5400 RPM SATA-----$64.94
Gigabyte GeForce GTX460 1GB GDDR5 256B GV-N460OC-1GI---$189.99

TOTAL: $940.91 (excluding ~$20 worth of rebates)

I have already purchased the bold items over the past 2 days.

1) What will you be doing with this PC?

I'll be using it for gaming and hope it will last me for the next 3 years (I can live with playing a future game at low-medium settings in the future). I'll be running multiple apps that are relatively straining on the CPU, hence I chose a quad core.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?

$900 after tax and shipping, the cheaper the better (hopefully $900 before rebates)

3) Where do you live?

CA, so Newegg, Buy.com's taxes are a pain..hence I'm mostly buying from Amazon prime

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget?

Mobo, Ram, Case, CPU, HSF, PSU, GFX card, HDD, SSD

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.

NA

6) Will you be overclocking?

Yes, not hardcore though. Would like to get it as high as possible on stock cooling.

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?

Would be buying from now to Black Friday/Cyber Monday, hoping for good deals during this period. I can however wait till the end of the year (I will however be wasting my ram and HDD that I have bought)

9) What features do you need in a motherboard?

No specific requirements. Stable and reasonably good for OC-ing.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?

Legit Win 7 Pro 64 bit

Notes: I will probably upgrade the stock HSF a while later if the cooling isn't sufficient enough for the overclock. Also will the hardware (like the gfx card) fit into the SFF case with ease (the stickies do not provide info on the newer cards)? Any other recommendations on mobo, gfx card, etc. I'm not sure how much wattage is needed for my build. I would preferably like a 80PLUS, modular PSU..but not more than $80. I am open to the idea of using OEMs like Topower, Seasonic, etc. I do not intend to go SLI. Thanks!
 
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Hm this probably should go in the General Hardware forum and I know the guys will say that you should answer the sticky in said forum.

Anyways, aside from the F4 (can't believe I missed out :/), I would say to change the PSU. OCZ doesn't seem to make good PSUs and I'm willing to bet others will say the same.

What is this build going to be used for? Gaming? Web browsing? It'll be easier to narrow down the options once we know what you're going to use it for.
 
Oops, sorry I'm new here..:(
I edited my post to conform to the requirements for General Hardware. If I posted in the wrong subforum, could the mods move it for me? Thanks!

With regards to the PSU, what about Topower SilentEZ 500W, although I'm not sure how much wattage is needed for my build. I would preferably like a 80PLUS, modular PSU..but not more than $80, and I do not intend to go SLI, or hard core overclocking (kinda hard for a SFF?)
 
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I recommend this thermal paste instead for a few $ more:
$10 - Noctua NT-H1 Thermal Compound

Unlike the AS5, there is no curing time whatsoever with the above thermal paste. In addition, it cools slightly better too.

That Topower PSU is even worse than the OCZ PSU you listed. PSU wise, I recommend this Seasonic 520W PSU:
http://www.amazon.com/Seasonic-80Pl...2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1289375901&sr=8-2

It's of significantly better quality while having the same amount of power on the +12V rail than the OCZ PSU you chose. So yes, it's a definite better buy than the OCZ.

This thread should be fine here in the SFF subforum. Besides I'm one of the General hardware denizens any way so no need to move the thread over to GenHard.
 
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Hm with your setup, 500W is more than enough. You might even be alright with 400W. I've never actually heard of that brand for the PSU. Hopefully Danny Bui can answer your questions more thoroughly. He's more in tune with the prices and hardware and can come up with a suitable build for your purposes. I wouldn't necessarily say hard core overclocking is hard for a SFF. It can be done as mATX and mITX builds are becoming more prevalent. A great example of this (it's also a gaming rig!) is miahallen's MAX11L with the second part a page over.
 
Thanks Dannu Bui for the recommendations! I was indeed looking at the Seasonic previously too. I'm glad that 500W is more than enough :D

Now the problem is, it's slightly above budget...Is there anything I can cut? BTW, I'm using a SSD (Intel 80 GB X25M) on a laptop now (and keeping it there)..so to get rid of the SSD from my lanbox will probably feel like a downgrade in experience..
 
Well for a cost effective and worthwhile Intel build, that's pretty much as low as you can go.

Only way to cut costs is to switch to an AMD platform. That'll shave off at least $15 to $25
 
I recommend this motherboard:
$100 - Gigabyte GA-880GMA-UD2H AMD 880G HDMI mATX Motherboard

Since you apparently multi-task a lot, I highly recommend a hex-core CPU for you:
$180 - AMD Phenom II X6 1055T CPU

But if you need to save money any way possible, the 955 offers comparable gaming performance:
$153 - AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition CPU
 
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