How good is this $500 Gaming Build?

[thymanbearpig]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/18fe

Budget $500
Resolution 1368x768

Would a $100 Z68 be best for me if I won't upgrade for ~2 years? I've heard Ivy won't be compatible with H61. How bad is this board? I won't be using/needing USB 3.0, nor SATA 6.0GB/s.

EDIT - Just looked at the DVD drive, can only be bought in combo. Same price, same purpose, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151233

 

[guavasauce]

that looks solid to me man and matches the res you want to play at.

 

[Outlander_04]

I'd go for the Z68 board if its in the budget

And the RAM just has to change . Get a 2 x2 gig kit so it runs in dual channel .
A single 4 gig stick will kill off 5-7 % of the system performance

1.5 volt for sandybridge . It should cost you $33 or so for a gSkill kit

 

[madchemist83]

or get 4gb and then get another later on u will never notice drop

 

[jdw_swb]

Might be worth saving for a quad-core.....games like Battlefield 3 will really benefit from the extra cores.

 

[008Rohit]

or get 4gb and then get another later on u will never notice drop

I second that.

@ OP

Get a decent H61 board atleast. An Asus, ASRock or Gigabyte board will do. I don't consider Biostar a quality motherboard manufacturer.

I'd get a GSkill Ripjaws DDR3 1333 4GB and add another one if needed.

 

[Outlander_04]

or get 4gb and then get another later on u will never notice drop

probably the exact opposite . Your would notice memory bandwidth being restricted to a single channel far more than you would notice the difference between 4 and 8 gig of RAM

The 2 x2 gig kit is the best option . No game now or in the foreseeable future will require 8 gig of RAM .
All games thrive on fast memory access

 

[zooted]

probably the exact opposite . Your would notice memory bandwidth being restricted to a single channel far more than you would notice the difference between 4 and 8 gig of RAM

The 2 x2 gig kit is the best option . No game now or in the foreseeable future will require 8 gig of RAM .
All games thrive on fast memory access

Agreed, for a gaming build 8 gigs is still unnecessary. I would rather have the higher bandwidth as well.

 

[madchemist83]

^ meh with resolution that low memory would not bottleneck
fine then get 1Gb of 2133 memory see how that's suits u
U don't need 8Gb for games but memory is getting cheaper every day and I don't see a reason on not spending extra 10$ for twice more memory

 

[zooted]

^ meh with resolution that low memory would not bottleneck
fine then get 1Gb of 2133 memory see how that's suits u
U don't need 8Gb for games but memory is getting cheaper every day and I don't see a reason on not spending extra 10$ for twice more memory

If that's the case, why not buy 8gb from the get go? 😉

 

[madchemist83]

never heard of that brand

 

[thymanbearpig]

never heard of that brand

I don't know what your talking about.....

Seeing as how this board only has 2 slots, highest amount of RAM being 8GB (2x4GB), I think I would go with the 1 stick of 4GB for now. Only other thing I want to know is if Ivy Bridge will be supported by H61 motherboards.

 

[zooted]

never heard of that brand

?

 

[madchemist83]

"get go" brand 😀
and no IB will not be supported

 

[zooted]

"get go" brand 😀
and no IB will not be supported

 

[madchemist83]

best acting

 

[thymanbearpig]

All of you started going off topic. Thanks guavasauce.
(This build got displayed on the homepage of PCPartPicker, they're chosen randomly though, I think.)

 

[thymanbearpig]

Best answer selected by thymanbearpig.