Yet Another Cheap Gaming Rig

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kiwiNZL

14 posts

Geek

# 77251 13-Feb-2011 10:12

Hi All,

Apologies if this is not in the right place! I'm about to purchase the parts for a new cheap gaming rig, I'm looking for some advice. My budget is approximately $1000.

It looks like the following is the best bang for the buck, but I've never built a gaming rig:

Computer Lounge's Gen-X Lite looks like the right base:
http://www.computerlounge.co.nz/systems/systemdetail.asp?sysid=127&systypeid=4

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition 3.2GHz $239
ASUS M4A87TD/USB3 AMD870 AM3 DDR3 USB3 SATA3 PCI-E $159
CORSAIR CMX4GX3M2A1600C9 2X2GB DDR3-1600 CL9 $120 (9-9-9-24) (or do I go with a cheaper motherboard and 1333 ram? Also I'm not certain why they list the Kingston RAM here when this Corsair appears to have better latency and is cheaper?)

Video
Sapphire 6850 $320
Sapphire 5850 $420
Sapphire 6870 $409

Now for me the confusing part, I've read the Sapphire 5850 is the best option for this sort of build, but I can't seem to find any with a cheap price in NZ! Overseas prices place it in the same range as the 6850, however I believe here it's $100+ more. With this setup is the 6850 on par with 5850, should I shell out for 6870, or is there bottleneck issues?

PSU
Seasonic S12II Bronze 520W 80 Plus Power Supply: $120

Can anyone give me some advice on whether I'm headed down the right track? Will this last a while for a student on a budget?

Cheers!

Ragnor

8035 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

# 438844 13-Feb-2011 13:49

The X4 955 is good solid choice for a tight budget.

What is the size and native resolution of your existing monitor (eg: 23" 1920x1080)? The native resolution is what really determines how much you need on the graphics card imo for smooth frame rates.

The 5xxx series aren't being made anymore so it's natural for stock to dwindle and them not to be available.

Either the AMD/ATI Radeon 6850 1GB or the Nvidia GTX 460 are enough to offer good performance at 1920x1080 in current games.

If you can stretch your budget the Radeon 6950 and Nvidia GTX 560 TI offer excellent performance at 1920x1080 in current games.

Anandtech has a good comparison tool for a rough idea where you can compare various models
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/293?vs=330

Consider making a post on CL's build forum with your budget and requirements, they quite often are able to offer customer specials with a bit shaved off the prices on the website
http://www.computerlounge.co.nz/forum/Default.aspx?g=topics&f=36

b0untypure1

1415 posts

Uber Geek

# 438940 13-Feb-2011 19:15

you chose the correct processor. endless overclocking on that beast !

Kaos36

709 posts

Ultimate Geek

# 438956 13-Feb-2011 19:36

for low budget gaming rig I brought this for $679 and then a 24in monitor for $289. System can play any game i throw at it with highest settings.

Super Micro X7DAE High performance Motherboard

2 x Intel dual core Xeon 5130 at2.0 Ghz EACH.8.0GHZ Dual 771-pin LGA Sockets 2 physical CPUs, 4 physical cores.
* 4 gb High preformance ram memory 6 slots free)
* 3 x 80gb SATA Hdd
* 1 x 250 gb SATA Hdd
Raid compatible disks

nVidia Ge force 9800GT ddr3, 3D compatible
PHYSX compatible

* 6 x sata ports
* Built-in SATA-II Raid
* DVD-RW
* 2 x PCI-e slots
* Dual 1Gigabit NIC ports
* 6 x USB 2.0 ports
Dual 771-pin LGA Sockets

Sockets Supports Intel 64-bit Quad-Core Xeon Processor 5300 sequence

Windows Xp Pro SP3 installed, XPP COA.

*Warranty 30 Days

Upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate:

Monitor: 23.6in viewable View Sonic VX2439WM 23.6" FULL HD 2ms HDMI SPEAKER

Worst Response To A Crisis:
From a readers' Q and A column in TV GUIDE: "If we get involved in a nuclear war, would the electromagnetic pulses from exploding bombs damage my videotapes?"

aionwannabe

147 posts

Master Geek

# 438999 13-Feb-2011 21:42

i heard with some bios/firmware flashes one of the 6XXX (6850 - 6870 if i remember correctly) series are unlockable into the upper model but that'd be one of those sometimes things.

don't rule out the NVidia cards they are very heavy hitters, 460 or 560 TI as said before are comparative

jonofan

52 posts

Master Geek

# 439267 14-Feb-2011 14:11

Pretty nice specs. I take it you're building from course related costs? Nice!

I've got a GTX 460, and it's awesome, overclocks really well. For the mobo, you might also want to see if there is something of comparable price with Triple Channel DDR3 rather than Dual Channel.

I've also got an Asus mobo, which is about 6 years old, and still gets BIOS updates, meaning 6 years on I can still throw the latest AMD processors in it - so I thoroughly recommend.

powerforce

162 posts

Master Geek

# 439272 14-Feb-2011 14:19

jonofan: For the mobo, you might also want to see if there is something of comparable price with Triple Channel DDR3 rather than Dual Channel.

Im pretty sure, that at the moment its only the intel X58 aka LGA 1366 mother board platform for intel i7 9xx series that have triple channel memory.
This will be much more expensive then the AMD option.

Even the new sandy bridge mobo's dont support triple channel RAM.

EDIT: great looking build though. Very well thought out for the money.

b0untypure1

1415 posts

Uber Geek

# 439516 14-Feb-2011 22:01

A triple channel ram system can get expensive with an intel 9xx series

Mprezd

107 posts

Master Geek

# 439592 15-Feb-2011 08:08

kiwiNZL: Hi All,

Apologies if this is not in the right place! I'm about to purchase the parts for a new cheap gaming rig, I'm looking for some advice. My budget is approximately $1000.

It looks like the following is the best bang for the buck, but I've never built a gaming rig:

Computer Lounge's Gen-X Lite looks like the right base:
http://www.computerlounge.co.nz/systems/systemdetail.asp?sysid=127&systypeid=4

AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition 3.2GHz $239
ASUS M4A87TD/USB3 AMD870 AM3 DDR3 USB3 SATA3 PCI-E $159
CORSAIR CMX4GX3M2A1600C9 2X2GB DDR3-1600 CL9 $120 (9-9-9-24) (or do I go with a cheaper motherboard and 1333 ram? Also I'm not certain why they list the Kingston RAM here when this Corsair appears to have better latency and is cheaper?)

Video
Sapphire 6850 $320
Sapphire 5850 $420
Sapphire 6870 $409

Now for me the confusing part, I've read the Sapphire 5850 is the best option for this sort of build, but I can't seem to find any with a cheap price in NZ! Overseas prices place it in the same range as the 6850, however I believe here it's $100+ more. With this setup is the 6850 on par with 5850, should I shell out for 6870, or is there bottleneck issues?

PSU
Seasonic S12II Bronze 520W 80 Plus Power Supply: $120

Can anyone give me some advice on whether I'm headed down the right track? Will this last a while for a student on a budget?

Cheers!

Do not go for a cheaper motherboard. You listed one with a 760g chipset on the CL site and that is outdated. No SATA3/USB3 and generally lower performance.

Unless you plan to really overclock that memory is fine. You will get some headroom out of it, and the 955 has an unlocked multiplier so you can just bump that up anyway. Also, that corsair memory is more expensive than the kingston. The only memory that is cheaper is this: http://www.computerlounge.co.nz/components/componentview.asp?partid=12830 but spending the extra to get matched pairs and heat spreaders is worthwhile.

The HD6850 is not a replacement for the HD5850. It sits between the HD5830 and HD5850 to compete with the GTX460. The HD68 series does have better tessellation and direct x 11 support, along with support for 3d. However, on those prices I would buy the HD6870 as it performs around the same as the hd5850 with better tessellation, dx11 and 3d support.

@aionwannabe, you are thinking of the hd6950 unlocking to an hd6970

kiwiNZL

14 posts

Geek

# 439596 15-Feb-2011 08:34

Thanks everyone,

Your advice on the forum was well received, I think I'm going with the newer motherboard, so all up it looks like this:

ASUS M4A87TD/USB3 AMD870 AM3 DDR3 USB3 SATA3 PCI-E
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition 3.2GHz Socket AM3
Kingston HyperX 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3-1600 Kit CL9
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD6950 1GB GDDR5 PCI-E
Seasonic S12II Bronze 520W 80Plus Power Supply
Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 32MB Cache SATA3

For around ~1215, I'm not planning on overclocking anything so I'm wondering if this is basically the best rig I can get for close to my budget!

Cheers!

b0untypure1

1415 posts

Uber Geek

# 439602 15-Feb-2011 08:40

If u wanted to go cheaper, get a samsung f3 1tb hdd, same performance , if not, faster than wd blue.
That isnt bad for the price all up. Hope you have monitor screen mouse speakers etc.
When u get the phenom, up the multiplier to 17x and u instantly have the performance of a 965 quad. The stock cooler will be fine up to around 4ghz

kiwiNZL

14 posts

Geek

# 439603 15-Feb-2011 08:42

Awesome, sorry yup I have a 23" LCD 1080p, with a keyboard and mouse etc...

Just waiting to hear back from them, if they can throw in a USB MCE IR cable then I'll go with them (with an additional harmony remote for my other HTPC)

Mprezd

107 posts

Master Geek

# 439627 15-Feb-2011 09:33

kiwiNZL: Awesome, sorry yup I have a 23" LCD 1080p, with a keyboard and mouse etc...

Just waiting to hear back from them, if they can throw in a USB MCE IR cable then I'll go with them (with an additional harmony remote for my other HTPC)

I think Revo may be away at the moment, so it may take a couple of days for them to get back to you.