New build on the cheap

L

Luca1

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 14, 2008
Messages
349
Hi,

I am upgrading my PC and have some spare parts left over which I will use to build my friend a cheap gaming PC so we can all get on Steam and shoot things (mainly COD, Left 4 Dead).

I have these left over to give to him:
RAM - Corsair Dominator 4GB
OS - Windows 7 64bit Home Premium
HDD - Velociraptor
PSU - HX 620
Chasis - Coolermaster CM690 (ATX)
Fans - Nexus
Graphics Card - Gigabyte GTX275

What I am looking for is a cheap ass CPU and Mobo that will do the job for our gaming sessions.

I am thinking the i3 4130 cpu and a ASUS H81m-c Mobo.

Will this budget cpu and mobo keep up for gaming? I am trying to keep it cheap as possible as I am giving it for free and don't have a lot of cash left over after upgrades.

He literally will not use it for anything else other than online gaming sessions.

Any advice or alternatives would be appreciated.

Thanks!!

_Luca
 
For that old GTX275, I think you will be fine with a core i3 2 core (4 with HT).

You could also pick up a used i3-2xxx generation or better, or even a used core 2 quad. Gaming for the last few years has been much more limited by the gpu then the cpu.
 
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Mmm good point actually I'll start scouring eBay..

Edit: The q6600 quad cores go for around $70 second hand. Just need to find a mobo for it

Edit edit: There a q8200 for same price. As I have a cooler master v8 cooler spare also I may get that and OC the cpu for a bit of extra oomph.

Unless any other suggestion?
 
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I game on a Haswell i3-4330 and it does quite well. ~$120 3.5ghz HT 4mb cache. Board shouldn't matter much. When he's ready to upgrade the GPU, 750 Ti is hard to beat for the price.
 
You can get a q6600 for $45 from very reputable sellers on ebay. The harder part honestly is finding a good price on a lga 775 motherboard. My abit ones keep going bad from bad caps, but theres often less then 5 non-oem lga 775 motherboards under $80 on ebay at any one time. If your extra ram is ddr3, your gonna need different ram though if you go this route.
 
Yeah the monitor, mouse and keys are up to him :D

And yep the RAM is DDR3. Hadn't thought of that.. Good point.
 
You could also get a core i5 2500k on the For Sale/For trade section of the forums for about the same price as a new i3 4130. A decent P67 mobo can be found for around $50. I'm not suggesting you get him that. But you could find cheaper used alternatives to the haswell i3 that would still serve him just as well.
 
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I checked the board here but because I am in Australia, not a lot of the auctions post here without increasing cost.

I have decided on the following:

AM3+ x6 fx-6300 $133
Asus M5A78L-M-USB3 MOBO - $73

I went the AM3+ x6 fx-6300 because aside from its price, the CPU is unlocked (whereas the i3 isn't) and I have a coolermaster V8 cooler which I am confident I can use to get the cpu to around 3.8 easily on air.

Also the motherboard is cheap, is 5 minutes from my house, supports DDR3 ram, will be under warranty and is apparently a great partner with that cpu and OC'n.

I've always used intel but in this case it seems AMD will win the day..
 
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