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Forums - PC - My Epic Budget PC Build

ssj12 on 12 May 2011
Snesboy said:
ssj12 said:
naznatips said:

So I set out to build a budget gaming PC that would absolutely trounce my PS360 in capabilities and play almost any game on max with a steady framerate over 40fps. The budget was $550, and all the parts have been ordered, and will arrive late this week or early next week. Here's what I'll be running:

Phenom II X4 3.2 GHz Quad Core
GeForce GTX 550 Ti 
8GB DDR3
Windows 7 64 Bit
1TB HDD (I had an extra lying around, but I'll probably tack on a second internal 1TB HDD later for extra storage)
650w Power Supply (overkill I know, but it should work well regardless)

Parts:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103921&cm_re=Phenom_II-_-19-103-921-_-Product $100 after coupon
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138283 $55
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226095&cm_re=8GB_DDR3-_-20-226-095-_-Product $62 after coupon
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130625 $142
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147023 $35 during sale
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986&cm_re=Windows_7_64_OEM-_-32-116-986-_-Product $90 after coupon
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817159082&cm_re=650_watt_power_supply-_-17-159-082-_-Product $48 after coupon

Total cost: $532. 
Total Hardware Cost (Cost without Windows): $442.

Edit: I also took a DVD burner out of an old computer.


good build. you will have to upgrade the GPU in a few years but really who cares, your going mid-grade GPUs so your fine.

Call me insane, but I'd suggest paying attention to NewEgg's sales and eventually getting a BR drive for cheap. Just two months ago an LG BR burner was $40. Since you, I think, told me you use an HDTV for your monitor it would benefit you greatly. You can make a cheap 7.1 speaker system from walmart for under $100 and PC always has the best sound cards so you would enjoy blu-ray on the system.

This is going to sound mean no matter how I say it...but what's the point in having a dedicated sound card? Onboard sound works fine for me...


I use onboard, my mobo supports 7.1 but even I want a dedicated card due to its limited abilities for audio channel quality. Plus dedicated sound cards pull one all audio processing off the CPU.



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naznatips on 12 May 2011
disolitude said:
naznatips said:
 


The consistency of SLI performance is, at best, sketchy. Some games it'll nearly double performance, but most will only get a minor (15%-20%) boost. Worse, many games actually freak out, and look worse with SLI, and washed colors, screen tearing, etc. show up. Considering how much more it costs that's pretty much a waste.

As for all that ram, running 64 bit windows I'll be able to take advantage of it in the future as games begin to allow the extra ram available to 64 bit systems to improve performance. As of right now, no, I won't see a huge difference over 32 bit outside of a few games, but it will be a more consistent benefit than SLI.

I've been using SLI since 2009 and have used GTX260 SLI, GTX470 SLI and GTX560 SLI... I have yet to find a game which doesn't get >50% performance boost with the GTX560 cards. It wasn't the case with the GTX260, but 470 and 560 scale like beasts.

Even old games like condemned scale amazingly, while a lot of games have CPU as bottleneck in SLI (FEAR games for example since they run on single core only).

That's interesting. Someone told me they had a number of problems with SLI in games, including weird glitches and freezing, even in some newer games, but not in all. 



disolitude on 12 May 2011
naznatips said:
disolitude said:
naznatips said:
 


The consistency of SLI performance is, at best, sketchy. Some games it'll nearly double performance, but most will only get a minor (15%-20%) boost. Worse, many games actually freak out, and look worse with SLI, and washed colors, screen tearing, etc. show up. Considering how much more it costs that's pretty much a waste.

As for all that ram, running 64 bit windows I'll be able to take advantage of it in the future as games begin to allow the extra ram available to 64 bit systems to improve performance. As of right now, no, I won't see a huge difference over 32 bit outside of a few games, but it will be a more consistent benefit than SLI.

I've been using SLI since 2009 and have used GTX260 SLI, GTX470 SLI and GTX560 SLI... I have yet to find a game which doesn't get >50% performance boost with the GTX560 cards. It wasn't the case with the GTX260, but 470 and 560 scale like beasts.

Even old games like condemned scale amazingly, while a lot of games have CPU as bottleneck in SLI (FEAR games for example since they run on single core only).

That's interesting. Someone told me they had a number of problems with SLI in games, including weird glitches and freezing, even in some newer games, but not in all. 

Games I've played with SLI 470 and 560 with no visible glitches Crysis Warehead, Metro 2033, Crysis 2, FEAR, FEAR 2, Amnesia, Condemned, Need for Speed Shift, Just Cause 2,Mafia 2, Gears of War...few others I can't think of. 

I used 3D vision on top of SLI and still nothing went wrong :)

Crysis 2 id have a slight water visual glitch which made water flicker from transparent to not...but I can't verify if that was an SLI glitch.



naznatips on 12 May 2011
disolitude said:

Games I've played with SLI 470 and 560 with no visible glitches Crysis Warehead, Metro 2033, Crysis 2, FEAR, FEAR 2, Amnesia, Condemned, Need for Speed Shift, Just Cause 2,Mafia 2, Gears of War...few others I can't think of. 

I used 3D vision on top of SLI and still nothing went wrong :)

Crysis 2 id have a slight water visual glitch which made water flicker from transparent to not...but I can't verify if that was an SLI glitch.


I see. Perhaps it's an issue of the cards he was using.



drkohler on 12 May 2011
ssj12 said:
Snesboy said:

This is going to sound mean no matter how I say it...but what's the point in having a dedicated sound card? Onboard sound works fine for me...


I use onboard, my mobo supports 7.1 but even I want a dedicated card due to its limited abilities for audio channel quality. Plus dedicated sound cards pull one all audio processing off the CPU.

I've never understood why people buy extra sound cards. I have an SPDif cable connected to my receiver (once an expensive Denon, now a cheaper Sony) and that takes care of all the quality problems I don't have with sound..



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ssj12 on 12 May 2011
drkohler said:
ssj12 said:
Snesboy said:

This is going to sound mean no matter how I say it...but what's the point in having a dedicated sound card? Onboard sound works fine for me...


I use onboard, my mobo supports 7.1 but even I want a dedicated card due to its limited abilities for audio channel quality. Plus dedicated sound cards pull one all audio processing off the CPU.

I've never understood why people buy extra sound cards. I have an SPDif cable connected to my receiver (once an expensive Denon, now a cheaper Sony) and that takes care of all the quality problems I don't have with sound..


because I dont have a receiver and using cheap speakers (2.0 Antec and a 5.1 Logitech from walmart.) to create my 7.1 system. It would probably benefit me to have a receiver honestly as while the system works great for games and movies with 7.1 audio, any movies with less I have to adjust settings to fewer speakers. Kind of irritating.



PC gaming is better than console gaming. Always.     We are Anonymous, We are Legion    Kick-ass interview   Great Flash Series Here    Anime Ratings     Make and Play Please
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daroamer on 12 May 2011
Vetteman94 said:

Wont you need an Optical Drive to install Windows?   I didnt see one in your build


You don't.  I installed Windows off a USB stick recently since I didn't have SATA optical drive and my new MB didn't have an IDE port.



Vashyo on 12 May 2011
naznatips said:
Vashyo said:

I'd pick Sapphire Radeon HD5850 Xtreme over that 550Ti. It costs about the same and has more processing power making it way better option. If you're thinking about crossfire then you can get two of em and it should completely annihilate the 550ti SLI.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102932&cm_re=5850_xtreme-_-14-102-932-_-Product

Out of stock from Newegg atm though.

Review with benchmarks: http://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/zardon/sapphire-hd5830-hd5850-xtreme-edition-review-crossfirex/

It's also slightly better card than the 6850


Price isn't really that close. $140 card versus $185 card, unless Sapphire's model is much cheaper, which would be odd, but moot, since it's listed as deactivated on Newegg and thus won't likely be stocked again for at least a month. You can always find something better if you keep adding money to your budget, but that's not really the point of a budget PC build. Same with the 6850, which is $30 more. 

What prices are you looking at, the older 5850s? O_o

http://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-Radeon-PCI-Express-Graphics-100282XTREME/dp/B004W75ATI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1305255894&sr=8-1 - 159$ at amazon and I bet you could find it even cheaper if you would bother looking. :)

That 20$ = More than worth the extra, you could just cut your Ram to 4gb or 6gb to save some more, 8gb is overkill no matter how you look at it, unless you do some serious multitasking (or video editing?).

The card is re-release of the last years enthusiast-range card with improved cooling/power consumption/more compact size. It's selling like hotcakes at that price. Last years enthusiast cards are all pretty much better than the current budget ones (6850&550ti)

I built a budget gaming PC last week myself and researched it for weeks for the best performance/price-ratio, I had a bit higher budget than you though and I ended up spending 550€. Everything runs at max settings and I'm happy. :)

 

about the PSU btw, getting an rated 80 certified PSU would save money in the electricity bills in the long run, that coolmax isn't rated at all and I can't find any professional reviews for it so it could be real power hog and unpredictable.