BF3 New build $300-$500

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ifyoubuildit

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Oct 5, 2011
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Approximate Purchase Date: 11-1-2011

Budget Range: 300-500 Before / After Rebates and preowned parts

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Battlefield 3 (non console, that’s it!!!)

Parts Not Required: (Antec 550 PS, Hard Drive, Lian LI ATX Case, Plextor DVD burner, 52” 1080p monitor, keyboard, mouse, creative sound card.)

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: any

Country of Origin: US

Parts Preferences: Something that will render BF3 on a 52” HDTV optimally at a reasonable price.

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe

Monitor Resolution: Native Resolution of my 52” monitor: 1920x1080



This is the best I could come up with so far:

GPU: Radeon HD 6950 (~$240)
CPU: AMD Phenom II x4 (~$113)
MB: GA-970A-UD3 (~$85)
RAM: 8 GB (~48)

Total Price = $486

Can I do much better? Do you see any flaws in this build? TIA…
 
Solution
O
The OP said
"This is the best I could come up with so far:

GPU: Radeon HD 6950 (~$240)
CPU: AMD Phenom II x4 (~$113)
MB: GA-970A-UD3 (~$85)
RAM: 8 GB (~48)

Total Price = $486 "

Dont be tempted to buy a dual core processor , and the gpu is massively more important than the cpu .
This is about as good as its going to get .

You can scale the RAM back to 2 x2 gig without hurting performance in games .

You could also get a 1 gig version of the 6950 which will have minimal effect on performance, but save you $40

Make those changes and you can afford a cpu cooler that will let you OC without going deaf
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008Rohit

008Rohit

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Aug 1, 2011
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i3 2100 - $125
ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 - $125
Gskill Value Series 4GB DDR3 1333 - $20
PowerColor AX6950 2GBD5-2DH Radeon HD 6950 2GB - $250

Total : $520 before rebates

2GB of vRAM for 1080p. (and multiple monitor setup in future)
Z68 board with PCIe 3.0 slots and Ivy Bridge upgradibility.
4GB of RAM is enough, so is the i3 2100 for running BF3.
 
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morgoth780

morgoth780

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Aug 13, 2011
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you don't need 2gb of vram for 1080p. he would for a multi-monitor setup, but he should only get that if he wants to do that. otherewise, OP should go 560 ti or 1gb 6950
 
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I

ifyoubuildit

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Oct 5, 2011
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I like this answer because so far the 2gb 6950's have been superior in BF3 beta performance. As a noob builder though, I have to wonder if this config is better than eventually running different GPU configs down the road that are not capable on the ASRock Z68.
 
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Zero_

Zero_

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Jun 8, 2011
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the X4 955 will do fine. get a cheaper 770 board for ~60 and go for a HD6950 2GB. Also, get 4GB of RAM and a CPU cooler to OC the CPU. That will give you a higher performance boost than 4GB of RAM that the game dosent need.
 
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ifyoubuildit

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My mistake. Thanks for the comments and suggestions everyone BTW. Leaning strongly towards 008's suggestions.

Still debating and I really wonder if waiting for BD on a pretty cheap rag tag rig like this will be worth it.
 
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cutebeans

cutebeans

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The BD you are waiting for is supposed to be $150-$190 price tag.
 
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Outlander_04

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The OP said
"This is the best I could come up with so far:

GPU: Radeon HD 6950 (~$240)
CPU: AMD Phenom II x4 (~$113)
MB: GA-970A-UD3 (~$85)
RAM: 8 GB (~48)

Total Price = $486 "

Dont be tempted to buy a dual core processor , and the gpu is massively more important than the cpu .
This is about as good as its going to get .

You can scale the RAM back to 2 x2 gig without hurting performance in games .

You could also get a 1 gig version of the 6950 which will have minimal effect on performance, but save you $40

Make those changes and you can afford a cpu cooler that will let you OC without going deaf
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
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