Gaming PC for $600 with core i5

[mfarrukh]

My younger brother has a Core 2 Duo. 2 GB RAM and Radeon 4650.
I am planning to upgrade his system
He only do gaming and little browsing
I have only a budget of $600 since I am too building my new PC.
I was thinking of getting him:

Core i5:
$189
Intel® Desktop Board DP55WB:
$120
CORSAIR XMS3 DDR3 TRIKIT 3X3G-1333 (1GBX3):
$107
COOLER MASTER CHASSIS CM GLADITOR:
$65
SEAGATE 500GB 3.5" HDD 7200RPM 16MB Cache (ST-3500418AS):
$54
A4 TECH X7-G500 Keyboard:
$10
A4 TECH OP-620D mouse:
$5
LITEON DVDROM 18X SATA (iHDS118):
$17
COOLER MASTER 500 WATTS EXTREME POWER (RS-500-PCAR-A3):
$48


Now we are left with
Graphics card
and Monitor

I will try to convince him to use his old monitor so leave it aside
All parts above reach $615 easily.

Should i buy 5750 for him?
Should i wait for 5670?
Should i...
Do what?

Target resolution is 1680x1050
Any advice?

 

[o1die]

If you use windows xp, then I would use 1920x1080 resolution. The lower settings aren't nearly as sharp and sometimes look fuzzy. But if using windows vista or 7, then games will look fine at lower settings with directx 10. Haven't seen any reviews until recently for directx 11. Do a search and see what you come up with. Staples.com had an emachines 21.5 inch 1080p monitor for $99 a few days ago, to give you a benchmark price for your next monitor. But it was a closeout end of year deal. Use the 4650 for now. You're going to have to read some posts about particular games you're interested in running to narrow down the video card chipset. Get it right, especially if you're lending your brother some money for the video card.

 

[mfarrukh]

Thanks
but also he is using vista and for new one he wants win 7

 

[o1die]

Then the old monitor should work fine. For the motherboard, the only reason I don't use Intel boards is their website. It's harder to navigate. Asus is much better, and provides more bios updates for possible cpu upgrades later. And gigabyte, msi, and ecs websites are all even easier to use than asus.

 

[Wisecracker]

Radeon HD 5850 1GB: $300'ish

You don't say what C2D he has --- an e7500 is around $120 is he feels he needs an upgrade there.

That leaves enough money for a nice cooler and new PSU (which can be moved to a new rig 18 months from now with the video card).

 

[loneninja]

If your upgrading his computer for gaming, spending money on a video card will grant a much larger performance gain than buying another low end card and pairing it with a high end cpu. He shouldn't notice a difference between a C2D and I5 if all he does is browse and game when he's constricted to a low end video card.

 

[jerreece]

Going into a new system upgrade, one that's to be used for gaming, I wouldn't do anything less than the ATI 5770. My personal opinion. The ATI 5770 is basically 'about the same' as the 4870 and GTX 260, just with the newer DirectX11 support (you'll find that in Vista/Win7).

Doing anything below the 5770 isn't really a new gaming video card.

Also, that Coolermaster power supply is $48 for a reason. You might consider a better quality power supply (Antec, Corsair, etc). With a good quality power supply, and healthy Amps/Watt abilities, you can keep that PSU for quite a while and not have to worry about replacing it again anytime soon.

 

[logainofhades]

If your upgrading his computer for gaming, spending money on a video card will grant a much larger performance gain than buying another low end card and pairing it with a high end cpu. He shouldn't notice a difference between a C2D and I5 if all he does is browse and game when he's constricted to a low end video card.

I agree. I would just upgrade the ram on the current system, get a 5850, and a corsair 550w PSU. Your brother would benefit much more going that route for gaming.

 

[mfarrukh]

Guys i can't buy 5850 for him since i'm building my PC these days
For CPU he has Core 2 Duo E4500 @ 2.20 GHz

 

[glaex]

get aftermarker cooler ($30ish) and overclock that sucker! for video get minimum gts 250 or 4770 ($120ish)

edit: and random quote from the interwebs from someone with your processor:

Here are some settings to get you started at 3.2GHz:

Make sure to set PCI-E to 100 in bios, this will lock it and not let it increase with the FSB. If not, the higher you overclock, the more unstable the board will become.


The OCing features are in
MB Intelligent Tweaker(M.I.T.)


CPU Host Clock Control - enable
CPU Host Frequency (Mhz) - set to 290
PCI Express Frequency (Mhz) - Set to 100 (this is the deafult for the video card)
System Memory Multiplier (SPD) - change the multi until it says 667 (what ram is rated to)

Then move down to
System Voltage Control:

DDR2 OverVoltage Control - +0.4v (stock 1.8v, so add 0.4v for 2.2v)
FSB OverVoltage Control - +0.1v (you will need to increase this when you go above 333 FSB, it will ensure stability)
(G)MCH OverVoltage Control - +0.1 (you will need to increase this when you go above 333 FSB, it will ensure stability)
CPU Voltage Control - 1.35v (if it is stable, try lowering it until it becomes unstable, then bring it back up 2 notches.

To change memory timings to match manufacturer's specs, you hit the [Ctrl + F1] in the main bios menu. This will unlock the advanced memory timings options so you can set the timing to 3-3-3-12.

note: the mobo and ram are probably different so where you find the settings might vary and the memory timings may be different but the voltage and fsb settings to get to 3ghz+ would still apply)

 

[mfarrukh]

I think I should overclock that Core 2 Duo.
And buy him a good graphics card say 5750 hd or gts 250and 2 gb more RAM to satisfy him
What do you guys say?
It will save alot money for my own PC

 

[logainofhades]

I think that would be a great idea. I would go with the 5750. GTS 250 is just a rebadged 9800 gt/gtx. (i forget which one)

 

[yomamafor1]

I think I should overclock that Core 2 Duo.
And buy him a good graphics card say 5750 hd or gts 250and 2 gb more RAM to satisfy him
What do you guys say?
It will save alot money for my own PC

That's a great idea. I would go for 5770 / 5750 as well as the extra memory. Core 2 Duo is still very sufficient in powering a very decent graphics card in games.

 

[mfarrukh]

Thanks all
You helped me alot to save money for my own build
I will be needing advice on that one too.
Thanks again