Game Build Decision - Processor

[OldM3ta]

I am going to be building my girlfriend a gaming computer soon. Like most people, I want to spend as little as possible. She'll want to play with me all the recent co-operative and competitive multiplayer games. Most of the games we play will be first person shooters (Dead Island, Portal 2, Left 4 Dead 2). She loves action games. I might try to introduce her to some RPGs, so maybe we'll play NWN2. Other than that, she just wants the machine for responsive web surfing and document editing.

My question is, which platform / processor will provide her a decent experience at the best bang-for-the-buck price? I'm thinking the total cost of the system will be around $500, give or take. Not included in cost is the O/S or monitor. We have those.

Is there any reason why going dual core would be a better idea than going quad core? I imagine we won't be upgrading this system again for at least fifteen months.

Gaming won't be higher than 1080. Frame rate over quality of graphics is what I think she'd prefer, but I would like the games we play together over the next year to at least play on medium settings.

My plan is to have the platform/CPU picked out first before moving on to decide the rest of the build. I appreciate your feedback, ahead! Thanks!

 

[Mr34727]

Sounds like you should pick this up now if you planning a $500 build-
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139026&Tpk=cx430
$20 AR is the cheapest you will find a good psu

Case- found one for $35!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129098

There are always $20 DVDRWs on newegg, so that puts your shell cost at ~$75

8gb kits of ddr3 like this one for ~$40-
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820178333

I did the above parts so you would know what your 'fixed' costs would be, leaving you $385ish for the mobo/cpu/gpu/hd

I would recommend-

WD Black 1tb $50-
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136795

6770 XFX $90 AR-
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150540

Board + cpu $190 AR-
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.739118


This build leaves you about $50 leeway. Your other option is the i3 2100, which you can find for about the same price at the 955 combo I linked above. The i3 wont be able to overclock, but usually edges out the 955 in most things. If you will overclock, or encode stuff, buy the 955. Personally I would go with the 955.

This combo will leave you enough to possibly buy a 6870, which would be much stronger than the 6770, but the case, psu, and ram are all inferior to the build above-
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.752642

 

[OldM3ta]

Thanks for putting me together a build, Mr34727. Sounds like you listened well to what I wanted as far a budget. I appreciate the time you took to put that all together.

While $500 is the aim, the real concern was going with the right processor / platform chipset to build the rest of the system off of. I don't want to get something more powerful or expensive than I need for what the use of the machine will be. I am okay with overclocking as long as there isn't a major cooling upgrade needed other than maybe a 212 cooler (if it fits in the selected case).

Your suggestion, based off my requirements and current prices, is to jump on these deals to fit the budget, and then go with either:

An AMD Phenom II 955 Black ( 4 cores @ 3.2GHz 4x512KB L2 6MB L3 ) with an AM3 AMD 870 board
(or)
An Intel i3-2100 ( 2 cores @ 3.1GHzm 2x256KB L2 / 3MB L3 ) with some 1155 board

to then match it up with either a 6770 or 6870 gpu. OK. That's a great starting point. I'm sure either one of these two setups would work great for office tasks, but for FPS gaming on medium settings for modern games, would either be overkill, too much, or too little? Are there any other processors/chipset recommendations that someone might recommend?

Let's assume the budget for the CPU and Board can take us up to $250, if needed.

 

[Dangman]

My question is, which platform / processor will provide her a decent experience at the best bang-for-the-buck price? I'm thinking the total cost of the system will be around $500, give or take. Not included in cost is the O/S or monitor. We have those.

4) What other 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.

Additional questions:
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video? etc.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? 32bit or 64bit?

Come on, man, you've been on the forums long enough to know this.

Is there any reason why going dual core would be a better idea than going quad core? I imagine we won't be upgrading this system again for at least fifteen months.

With current games, the Core i3 2100 actually outperforms the Phenom II 955 even with multi-core aware games. However that may change when Skyrim and BF3 comes out as those games looks to be heavily multi-threaded.

Gaming won't be higher than 1080. Frame rate over quality of graphics is what I think she'd prefer, but I would like the games we play together over the next year to at least play on medium settings.

Probably not for $500 depending on the parts needed for the build. At 1080P, you basically need a $168 to $180 card like the HD 6870 1GB minimum to play medium settings at 1080P.

to then match it up with either a 6770 or 6870 gpu. OK. That's a great starting point. I'm sure either one of these two setups would work great for office tasks, but for FPS gaming on medium settings for modern games, would either be overkill, too much, or too little?

As noted earlier, the HD 6870 is the bare minimum I'd recommend for medium. If you're fine with low, then go with the HD 6770.

Are there any other processors/chipset recommendations that someone might recommend?

Unfortunately, due to your budget, your best bet are the Phenom II 955 and Core i3 2100. Chipset wise, as long you stick with the H67, P67, or Z68 chipsets for Intel or any of the 8xx and 9xx series chipsets for AMD, you'll be fine.

EDIT: I also recommend reading this thread as the OP of that thread had similar requirements to you:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1644468

 

[tiraides]

You should be looking at the Intel Core i3-2100 and a Socket 1155 board. The i3-2100 can beat the X4 955 (at stock speeds) in many gaming benchmarks. Plus, Sandy Bridge is modern technology for Intel, which gives you more upgrading options down the road. The Phenom II X4 955 has been around for years and without an AM3+ board, your upgrading options may be limited.

Having said all of that, you can get a much better deal on the X4 955 than the i3-2100.

AMD
$203 - AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition and MSI 870A-G54 combo (not including $15 off promo code on processor)
$47 - Patriot Signature PSD38G1600KH 2x4GB DDR3 1600 set (not including $10 mail-in rebate)

Intel
$205 - Intel Core i3-2100 and Gigabyte GA-Z68P-DS3 combo (not including $10 off promo code on processor)
$42 - G.Skill Value Series F3-10600CL9D-8GBNT 2x4GB DDR3 1333 set

Excluding the discounts (but not the combo deals that made each setup come to $250 or less), the AMD board has a better set of features, but there's no guarantee that the board can accept newer processors (read: Bulldozer) in the future. Intel's board is somewhat "crippled" in comparison (only one true PCIe x16 slot and two SATA 6Gb/s ports), but it can overclock the K-series Sandy Bridge processors and it will support Intel's upcoming Ivy Bridge processors.

 

[OldM3ta]

Thanks Danny_Bui and tiraides for your additions to this thread! Danny_Bui, I didn't use the standard questions template because at this point, I wanted only to talk about the processor/motherboard combo to go with. But I guess I gave a price and that started the cascade thinking (aka forward thinking, aka smart thinking). You guys are great at what you do, and there isn't a greater service on the Internet than the countless suggestions everyone on this forum gives out on builds.

My bad for not saying I'm from the US. I live in TX now where the closest thing I have is Frys and Best Buy. I was thinking about using the hard drive from one of my external drives, but saw on that post you suggested you speak about actually using as much of a modern drive as possible since it's the slowest part of the PC. That rings true. I'm still going to think on it.

I don't plan on buying until about a week or so from now. At first, I wanted to look at the processor suggestions and see how much info I could find out on the most recommended.

The big running appears to still be the 955 vs the i3-2100. tiraides, thank you so much for pricing me out that set of each with 8GB of RAM. Right there in my $250 ball park.

As far as the motherboard, it'd be great if it had somewhat of a decent sound so she can just plug her headset in and play enjoyably. Other than that, I'll use a USB 802.11n adapter I have. We have a mouse and keyboard to use, too, and an extra O/S license for Win7 x64.

It's a shame 6770s are such low grade. Only speedy enough to play modern games on low. The 6870 is definitely a better route. Is there anything that sits between the two that is recommendable?

Again, thanks to all who post. Your time, links, and energy are sincerely appreciated.

 

[OldM3ta]

With some homework, looks like other video card choices are the 6850, 550 ti, 6790, and 560 non ti. If the 6870 is the lowest I want to go with to keep medium settings in current games, then that's what I'll go with.

 

[Dangman]

It's a shame 6770s are such low grade. Only speedy enough to play modern games on low.

It can play games on medium and high depending on the resolution of the monitor. If you had a resolution of 1680x1050 or even 1440x900, the HD 6770 would have been enough for medium and high respectively but not for 1920x1080.

The 6870 is definitely a better route. Is there anything that sits between the two that is recommendable?

In terms of performance, there are. You have the HD 6790 1GB and the HD 6850 1GB. However the price of those video cards make them really poor values for the money. I.e the HD 6790 being too close in price to the HD 6850 as well as the HD 6850 being a bit close in price to the HD 6870 1GB. The GTX 550 TI is slower than the HD 6770 in some games. The regular GTX 560 performs pretty well compared to the HD 6870 but is price a tad higher.

As far as the motherboard, it'd be great if it had somewhat of a decent sound so she can just plug her headset in and play enjoyably. Other than that, I'll use a USB 802.11n adapter I have. We have a mouse and keyboard to use, too, and an extra O/S license for Win7 x64.

Motherboard audio wise, they're basically all the same. I'm guessing you need a PSU, case, and HDD as well?

Right now this is one of the better deals for a PSU:
$50 - Antec NEO ECO 520C 520W PSU

With some homework, looks like other video card choices are the 6850, 550 ti, 6790, and 560 non ti. If the 6870 is the lowest I want to go with to keep medium settings in current games, then that's what I'll go with.

If you do go with the HD 6870 1GB, that only leaves you about $70 for the case, PSU, and HDD after covering the CPU, mobo and RAM. Are you upping your budget?

 

[OldM3ta]

Yeah, I think the 6770 is too underpowered for what she wants. If I can get the 6850 1GB for around $150, that should do. If not, I'll aim for the 6870 around $180.

I looked up motherboards and the z68 vs the h67 price difference is around $10-15 dollars. Sounds worth going up to the z68.

I appreciate the recommendation on the Antec NEO ECO. I'll use that to power the rig. I'll probably just give her my extra 64GB Crucial C300 as an O/S hard drive, and crack open an external drive I have here to get her the 1TB inside and save myself the $50 or so on the HDD. I also have a spare DVDRW to give her. Hopefully that'll keep me close to the budget.

For now, I'm going to wait until next week to jump the gun. Have some items on eBay to sell. Thanks all. Here will be my specs:

i3-2100, Z68 motherboard, 8GB (2x4GB DDR3), [64GB SSD + 1TB HDD + DVDRW provided], AMD 6850 1GB, [Win7 Provided], Antec NEO ECO 520W PSU

I'll tag this thread again when I go to buy. Happy Thursday, guys!

 

[Dangman]

Specs sounds about right. I recommend this Z68 mobo:
$120 - Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 Intel Z68 ATX Motherboard