Help with a $600 build.

vict0r

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jul 11, 2005
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Hello guys,
it is tough for me to decide what to pick and what not. i dont know which route to go.
however, i'd like to stick with Intel. i3,i5, or i7.
its the case only, no monitor included in the $600.
thanks!

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Needs to handle modern games like bf3, upcoming mw3 , cs go etc etc, and basic daily stuff, web browsing, youtube, watch movies, stream movies,

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$600 shipped to 33186 from amazon.com ...

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
i live in the caribbean, however i order from amazon, they get shipped to an address in miami and get here by seafreight.

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.
Mobo,Cpu,Memory, Graphics Card, PSU, DVD RW , HDD, CASE

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
none, everything new

6) Will you be overclocking?
if possible yes, why not? it'll be a bonus

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
i think ill get a 23" 1920x1080 locally

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
as soon as i gather enough info

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support?
none, needs to be simple..1 dvdrw, 1 hdd, 1 videocard, 1 powersupply, 2 memory sticks in a case.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
I will be using home premium 64bit
 
so I'm in a similar boat, system a little older than your current one, and looking at upgrading.

Here's the deal, it's a tight budget.

If you throw money towards the chip, you're looking at about $100 vs. $200 vs. $330 for i3 i5 i7.

To me, it's worth the coin to go for the i5 2500k, see what you can hit with the stock cooler, should be a 1ghz OC minimum.

As far a video card, if you're planning on doing gaming, you'll get the most bang for your buck here. From all I've been reading, I'd try to grab a 6950 that you can unlock the shaders on, if not full flash to 6970. $230ish, maybe more

I'd go with 8gb of decent ram, even 16gb. Anymore it can be had for cheap. I'll say $60

A mobo can be had for $100, but for a great one you're talking $150 to $200

So already you can see you've got a problem, a quality PSU (you'll need it) and case is going to set you back another $150 (I think).

You can get a 1tb or 2tb drive for $50-$100, figure $30 for a DVDRW

I think you can see we're going to have a problem with the budget.

Either way, the Z68 ASUS boards look solid, especially for OC'ing

Recycling parts is going to save you $$$ if you can...
 
You can get a 1tb or 2tb drive for $50-$100,
Your pricing here is a bit off: The floods in Thailand has lead to a hard drive shortage and therefore increasingly high prices for hard drives. It's now ~$150 for a 1TB drive and $220 to $300 for a 2TB drive.

Anyway, vict0r, here's a build:
$125 - Intel Core i3-2100
$60 - MSI H61M-P21 Intel H61 Motherboard
$44 - Kingston Hyper KHX1333C9D3B1K2/8G 2 x 4GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$150 - Sapphire Radeon Radeon HD 6770 1GB PCI-E Video Card
$100 - Western Digital WD5000AAKX 500GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$22 - LG iHAS124-04 DVD Burner
$58 - Corsair CX500 500W PSU
$50 - NZXT Source 210 Elite Black ATX Case
----
Total: $609 shipped.

It's over budget but worth the extra cash for it IMO. I highly recommend NOT picking up a 1920x1080 monitor as the above build is not suitable for 1920x1080 gaming unless you don't mind low-settings across the board. Stick with a monitor with a resolution under 1920x1080 and you should be fine with the above setup.
 
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What about a 6850 or a 6870 video card? They are around the same price point of the 6770 you have in the above build (6870 ~$170)..
 
hey thanks Danny!

the Samsung F3 went from $70 to $150 meng !

wow
 
What about a 6850 or a 6870 video card? They are around the same price point of the 6770 you have in the above build (6870 ~$170)..

i think he linked a 6850 but wrote 6770 ... if you click itll bring you to a saphire 6850
 
hate to thread jack but would that be suitable for gaming at 16x12 rez? and would settings be ok at high? im in a similar boat as the OP budget wise.
 
Is there anyway you could reuse your PSU, case and Hard drive?
 
no,it has to be a complete new build

would it be ok with danny's build, instead a 20inch widescreen?
 
What about a 6850 or a 6870 video card? They are around the same price point of the 6770 you have in the above build (6870 ~$170)..
As vict0r pointed out, I listed the wrong GPU but linked the correct GPU.
hate to thread jack but would that be suitable for gaming at 16x12 rez? and would settings be ok at high? im in a similar boat as the OP budget wise.
would it be ok with danny's build, instead a 20inch widescreen?

I can't vouch for the settings to be high but it'll provide at least mid settings. With that limited budget, you really can't expect high settings.
 
2500k - 220
p67mobo - 150. newegg combo discount will save you $20 on top of that.
8gb ddr3 ram - 50
aftermarket cooler - 20-100


not enough for a new graphics card though. :(
 
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