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Mini ATX Game Rig

T

TheSoldier

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 9, 2011
Messages
175
So I'm looking for a some good advice on a new gaming build, I sorely need to upgrade this Phenom II rig and just about everything needs to go.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming- Titanfall, BF4, maybe ESO. Also do the standard web browsing thing.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$850.00 USD. Preferably use Amazon because of Prime but I can adjust a little for shipping and tax.
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.

Watertown, NY
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, Mobo (mini), Case (mini), HDD, SSD (if possible), PSU, and more importantly I need a new GPU. I would love to get a new keyboard, mouse if it can be possible.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Monitor- 24" LG 24EC53V-P, RAM- Corsair VengeanceLP 16gb
6) Will you be overclocking?
Not extreme, maybe a 5-10% boost.
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
24" 1920x1080p
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Within the month.
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
I absolutely need USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
I'm running a dual boot with both licensed. 8.1 Pro and 7 Home Prem. both 64bit.
 
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Do you live withing a 30 to 35 minute drive distance of a Microcenter?
 
I do not. Microcenter is located in NYC which is 5 hours from me. Unfortunately. You can break that budget if you absolutely need to
 
Here's what I could do for just under $800 (not counting the keyboard/mouse combo):

$195 - Intel Core i5-4590 quad-core processor
$90 - MSI H97M-G43 micro ATX motherboard
$250 - SAPPHIRE 100363L Radeon R9 280X 3GB video card
$113 - Crucial MX100 256GB SSD
$54 - Seagate Barracuda 1TB HDD
$15 - Asus DRW-24F1ST DVD burner (includes $5 discount promo code EMCPAWH24, ends 9/18)
$45 - EVGA 500B 500 watt power supply
$33 - Rosewill LINE-M micro ATX case
====
$795 - System total (before taxes)
+$30 - CM Storm Devastator (Red LED) gaming keyboard and mouse set
====
$825 - Total before taxes

The key component is the R9 280X video card that's currently on sale. It outperforms the GTX 760, but it normally costs around $300. If you can grab that and the DVD burner, they're most of the price battle won.

The Rosewill LINE-M is a good micro ATX case for the money. It comes with two 120mm case fans (most cheap mATX cases only come with one), USB 3.0 front ports, and a mount on the bottom of the case for either a 2.5 inch SSD or a 3.5 inch HDD.

The EVGA 500B received a positive review from JonnyGURU, an online reviewer of power supplies.

I also grabbed a cheap "gaming" keyboard and mouse set to show how much more you'd have to spend.

The obvious omission with the above build is the ability to overclock. If you wish to overclock, and you're more than willing to ignore your budget, the following is what I recommend (the key changes are in bold):

$236 - Intel Core i5-4690K quad-core processor
$128 - Gigabyte GA-Z97MX-Gaming 5 micro ATX motherboard
$50 - Cooler Master Seidon 120V liquid CPU cooler
$250 - SAPPHIRE 100363L Radeon R9 280X 3GB video card
$113 - Crucial MX100 256GB SSD
$54 - Seagate Barracuda 1TB HDD
$15 - Asus DRW-24F1ST DVD burner (includes $5 discount promo code EMCPAWH24, ends 9/18)
$45 - EVGA 500B 500 watt power supply
$33 - Rosewill LINE-M micro ATX case
====
$924 - System total (before taxes)
+$50 - SteelSeries Apex RAW gaming keyboard
+$53 - SteelSeries Sensei RAW gaming mouse
====
$1027 - Total before taxes

You need a K series processor and a Z97 motherboard if you wish to overclock. I also added the Cooler Master Seidon 120V, which replaces your Hyper 212 EVO. It can cool an overclocked processor pretty well and it fits in the rear 120mm fan slot.

The good news is you can build an OC-friendly build for under $1000. The bad news is that a "good" gaming keyboard and mouse cost more than double of the CM Storm set. I chose a couple of SteelSeries devices as examples, but you can easily spend even more on better stuff.
 
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I appreciate the in-depth reasoning behind most of the parts. It makes it much easier to see why you chose A over B.

Looking at the price points for both systems really brings me to a important question. Is the OC ability really worth another $130.00. While I love to tinker with my gear a lot I'm not really sure that I would need to OC to get any more benefit. What is your opinion?

I've already decided and set aside cash for the PSU, Case, GPU, SSD and HDD, DVD burner, and CPU cooler, just really need to figure out which mobo and CPU appeals to me more.
 
IMO, you don't need to overclock the Haswell-based Intel processors. The i5-4590 beats out most AMD processors in most gaming benchmarks (using a discrete video card).

You don't really need a third-party CPU cooler, either, especially if you aren't overclocking or you don't live in a very hot environment.
 
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