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Mid Level Gaming Build

R

Robogamer

n00b
Joined
May 9, 2010
Messages
62
My brother wants a gaming rig so i am throwing one together for him. I am giving him my GTX 460 and my 22" 1680x1050 acer monitor.
I really need help getting a good deal on a mobo, PSU, and CPU
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc

PC Gaming. WOW, Diablo III, TF2, and new games coming out like BF3

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

$550 roughly including tax and shipping

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.

Fort Collins, CO I am willing to go to Microcenter if i save at least $20 over Newegg

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.

CPU, PSU, Case, RAM, MoBo, HDD, DVD drive

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

Acer AL2216W 1680x1050, I am giving him my GTX 460 as well

6) Will you be overclocking?

I want the option in the future but it won't be happening now or to any extreme levels.

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?

Acer AL2216W 1680x1050 22"

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

This week

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.

4 RAM slots, 2 PCI slots for SLI in the far future

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?

I am getting Win7 64bit

I was thinking about getting a i5 2400.

The case i want is: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...17075X740592X9f7cdf6e23c4a97ad1bc57068d66dd21

This RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231311

This HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185

Any help is greatly appreciated.
 
Robogamer said:
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.

Fort Collins, CO I am willing to go to Microcenter if i save at least $20 over Newegg
Click to expand...
Local taxes and the 3 hour total drive time + gas kinda kills whatever savings you get from going to Microcenter. Though MC does have the Core i5 2400 for about $150, $40 minus local taxes cheaper than Newegg.

Robogamer said:
I was thinking about getting a i5 2400.
Click to expand...
Do note that you really don't get any overclocking capability out of that CPU.
Robogamer said:
The case i want is: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...17075X740592X9f7cdf6e23c4a97ad1bc57068d66dd21
Click to expand...
Not a good choice considering this better case costs $16 cheaper:
$50 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K58W ATX Case

OK here's what I recommend:
$190 - Intel Core i5-2400 CPU
$113 - Gigabyte GA-Z68-D3H-B3 Intel Z68 ATX Motherboard
$47 - G.Skill Ripjaws Series F3-10666CL9D-8GBRL 2 x 4GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$60 - Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$20 - LG iHAS124-04 DVD Burner
$58 - Antec NEO ECO 520C 520W PSU
$50 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K58W ATX Case
---
Total: $538 shipped
 
Thanks for that build. I was thinking of picking up a 6950 for myself to replace the GTX 460 I am giving him but my storm scout is too small (need 3-4 monitor support for 2-3 monitors plus a TV). Would the Lancool fit one? Also my brother is 13 yrs old and wanted lights so he would most likely like my cm ss better than the Lian Li.

When you said OCing would be tough on a i5 2400 does that mean I couldn't even get to 3.6 or 4Ghz?
 
Also, is the i5 2400 much better than an i5 750? I clocked my 750 to 3.6 with no voltage change and it went very smoothly.
 
In terms of over clocking, no. You simply wont be able to over clock the 2400. Only the 2500k is capable of being over clocked. I'm not sure how well the 2400 will perform when against your over clocked 750, as I wasn't able to find a benchmark easily so I gave up.
 
Robogamer said:
Thanks for that build. I was thinking of picking up a 6950 for myself to replace the GTX 460 I am giving him but my storm scout is too small (need 3-4 monitor support for 2-3 monitors plus a TV). Would the Lancool fit one? Also my brother is 13 yrs old and wanted lights so he would most likely like my cm ss better than the Lian Li.
Click to expand...
The Lancool should be able to fit that HD 6950 2GB just fine.

Robogamer said:
When you said OCing would be tough on a i5 2400 does that mean I couldn't even get to 3.6 or 4Ghz?
Click to expand...
Basically yes. If you want overclocking capability on all four cores, then you'll need to get the Core i5 2500K.
Robogamer said:
Also, is the i5 2400 much better than an i5 750? I clocked my 750 to 3.6 with no voltage change and it went very smoothly.
Click to expand...
At stock speeds, the i5 2400 outperforms the i5 750 by about 20%. However, like Skillz, I'm not entirely sure what the performance difference is between an OC'd Core i5 750 and a stock Core i5 2400.
 
Danny Bui said:
The Lancool should be able to fit that HD 6950 2GB just fine.


Basically yes. If you want overclocking capability on all four cores, then you'll need to get the Core i5 2500K.

At stock speeds, the i5 2400 outperforms the i5 750 by about 20%. However, like Skillz, I'm not entirely sure what the performance difference is between an OC'd Core i5 750 and a stock Core i5 2400.
Click to expand...

Actually, Danny, the i5-2400 is limited-overclocking-capable, not non-overclocking-capable (as I tried to mention several times here at the [H]). The turbo multiplier on the i5-2400 can be adjusted upwards to 38x (3.8GHz) maximum with 1 core or 36x (3.6GHz) maximum with all four cores (provided, of course, the CPU is used with a P67 or Z68 mobo). An i5-2400 overclocked to the 3.6GHz maximum quad-threaded speed should be quite a bit faster than the i5-750 at the same clock speed.
 
E4g1e said:
Actually, Danny, the i5-2400 is limited-overclocking-capable, not non-overclocking-capable (as I tried to mention several times here at the [H]). The turbo multiplier on the i5-2400 can be adjusted upwards to 38x (3.8GHz) maximum with 1 core or 36x (3.6GHz) maximum with all four cores (provided, of course, the CPU is used with a P67 or Z68 mobo). An i5-2400 overclocked to the 3.6GHz maximum quad-threaded speed should be quite a bit faster than the i5-750 at the same clock speed.
Click to expand...

Well I did remember you saying that hence why I said "overclocking capability on all four cores". But I've must've remembered wrong as I thought the 3.6Ghz OC part was only for a few cores and not for all four cores.
 
Danny Bui said:
Well I did remember you saying that hence why I said "overclocking capability on all four cores". But I've must've remembered wrong as I thought the 3.6Ghz OC part was only for a few cores and not for all four cores.
Click to expand...

The overclock limit is set to four speed bins above the applicable Turbo frequencies. The stock Turbo frequency with all four cores on the i5-2400 is 32x (3.2GHz). On limited-unlocked CPUs, the user-adjustable Turbo multiplier is on a "per-core" basis - which means that the Turbo multiplier on the i5-2400 can be adjusted up to 38x (3.8GHz), which results in a corresponding clock speed for all four cores being 3.6GHz. (Remember, for limited unlocked CPUs, if a single-core multiplier gets raised for overclocking, the multipliers for multi-core operations also get raised by an equal number of speed bins.)
 
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