System Builder Marathon, June 2012: $500 Gaming PC

[pauldh]

After stripping $150 from his already frugal budget, Paul is forced to make a tough gamble in order to hit his build goals. Will the decision to spend big on graphics bite him in the rear when he has to cut back on everything else, or is the choice sound?

System Builder Marathon, June 2012: $500 Gaming PC : Read more

 

[cloakster]

It is just incredible how well the G530 performs in gaming.

 

[slomo4sho]

Would have liked to see Diablo 3 and SC 2 benchmarks for this build.

 

[mayankleoboy1]

why are you not increasing the voltages on the GPU to get more clocks ?
any enthusiast with limited budget would want to maximize his core clocks with higher voltages.. the card can keep cool by increasing the fan speed.
More noise for a gaming session is acceptable.

 

[mayankleoboy1]

Dumping the bulk of our funding into graphics is sure to spell disaster throughout the media encoding and productivity benchmarks. But it's time to face the music.

pun intended ?

 

[s3anister]

Celeron G530 is what I'm rocking in my gaming rig. It is definitely a capable processor, surprising given the legacy behind anything labeled Celeron.

 

[s3anister]

[citation][nom]Slomo4shO[/nom]Would have liked to see Diablo 3 and SC 2 benchmarks for this build.[/citation]
I can't give you exact fps rates, but my machine is very similar to this one (only difference is the GPU: 6950+Z68) and I get similar frame rates in all the tested games. So I'll infer to you what this rig would probably get close to.

Diablo 3 maxes out at 60fps with occasional dips down to ~30fps when getting mobbed on hell. As for SC2, frame rates for me tended to be around 35fps on average with everything maxed out at 1920x1080 for both games.

 

[pauldh]

[citation][nom]s3anister[/nom]Celeron G530 is what I'm rocking in my gaming rig. It is definitely a capable processor, surprising given the legacy behind anything labeled Celeron.[/citation]
Ah, but think way back.... slot 1, 440BX, and the Celeron 300A? I had a 266@412MHz, a 300A@464MHz, a 300A@450MHz, and a 333(that topped out down at an 83 MHz FSB).

While not the first chips I had overclocked, those slot 1 Celeron's gave me the incurable OC bug! *dreams of G530K*

 

[jestersage]

Amazing! I never thought an SBM machine would ever come this close to my own rig. And confirm for me that my drooling over $200+ graphics cards is not an impractical fantasy for my current rig. I've been dreaming of retiring my old GT240 for a newer card and had the HD7850 (or comparable Nvidia counterpart when it comes out) in mind, or even an HD7770. I now feel justified and my wife will go nuts over the pc part purchase, again.

I did notice one thing when I compared this build with my system - mine idles at 48-52 watts, too, and I use a 500W S12II. I think right-sizing the PSU will add to the efficiency. A 350w PSU is my bet for bringing the idle power draw closer to the 20% mark of the PSU rating where efficiency starts to pick up (as per 80plus requirements). I say 350w because whoever gets this will likely want to upgrade the CPU to something beefier sooner or later. Nah, sooner!

Thanks, Paul! for tackling love and system-building with reckless abandon.

 

[bustapr]

i got a question. if I were to use a phenom 2x4 965 BE(3.4ghz) for a gaming rig on a similar budget to this, would it bottleneck me in gaming and other applications?

 

[pauldh]

[citation][nom]mayankleoboy1[/nom]why are you not increasing the voltages on the GPU to get more clocks ?any enthusiast with limited budget would want to maximize his core clocks with higher voltages.. the card can keep cool by increasing the fan speed.More noise for a gaming session is acceptable.[/citation]
As mentioned, it was maiinly a matter of consistency with the past few builds. Dealing with fixed CPU clocks and memory frequency, I just haven't been too aggresive with previous efforts with Radeons, and thus didn't want to boost voltage here with the GTX. Trying to play it fair, that's all. Maybe once we revisit overclockable platforms, and are already dealing with increaded noise, I'll get itchy to max-out the GPU.

Thanks for the feedback though. I'm actually surprised given the balance of the system, that people would desire to see aggressive GPU overclocking.

 

[hardcore_gamer]

If the rumored specs of xbox 720 and PS4 are correct, a $500 gaming PC like this will beat both consoles in graphics.

PC gaming FTW!!

 

[amdfangirl]

[citation][nom]bustapr[/nom]i got a question. if I were to use a phenom 2x4 965 BE(3.4ghz) for a gaming rig on a similar budget to this, would it bottleneck me in gaming and other applications?[/citation]

If you read the gaming CPUs hieracy chart, PhIIX4 965 roughly equals Core i3 2100t (power saving) http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-5.html and is better than a Celeron. Simply put, Core i3 2100 (not power saving) is better. PhII 965 can only match it with a ~almost 4GHz OC.

It's nice to know that my Ph II X3 isn't going to need to b replaced anytime soon . Just a new graphics card.

 

[bartholomew]

Impressive budget rig!

 

[Darkerson]

Not bad at all, considering the compromises.

 

[PCgamer81]

Wow.

To think, for $500, one can experience most of what PC gaming has to offer.

In this day and age, an Xbox 360/PS3 is absolutely inexcusable.

 

[assafbt]

Ok, my apologies for saying this, but this build had no point. The 500$ and 1000$ price limits in June's builds were unreasonable, as for so little more you could have delivered much more. The limits need reason. The highest end build, may have been reasonable at the 1750$-ish where you not to choose the GTX680. Once you have chosen it, the limit should have gone up by a couple of hundreds.
So we're left with 3 systems. One just short of high-end, one just short of enthusiast, and one just short of budget gamer.

Once you've seen the market, you should have put more reason into the price limits.

 

[ojas]

Somehow, i think a Pentium G850 ($88) + a EVGA/MSI GTX 560 ($190) would be a better choice. You'd cross the budget by about $8, but you could have seen much better performance overall, especially after an OC, seeing that those cards can hit 900 MHz+ easy enough.

 

[truegenius]

pentium g530 can't handle a 560Ti, its too weak.
it is almost equal to or less than phenom 2 x3

 

[Crashman]

[citation][nom]assafbt[/nom]Ok, my apologies for saying this, but this build had no point. The 500$ and 1000$ price limits in June's builds were unreasonable, as for so little more you could have delivered much more. The limits need reason. The highest end build, may have been reasonable at the 1750$-ish where you not to choose the GTX680. Once you have chosen it, the limit should have gone up by a couple of hundreds.So we're left with 3 systems. One just short of high-end, one just short of enthusiast, and one just short of budget gamer.Once you've seen the market, you should have put more reason into the price limits.[/citation]The sub-$2000 build was high-end and will remain high-end until you can prove otherwise. And don't even bother picking on its case, because we could go back and forth on that one forever.

 

[mayankleoboy1]

as a budget rig, this build is admirable.

 

[acerace]

Unless the HDD price didn't spike up, this build is great.

 

[assafbt]

[citation][nom]Crashman[/nom]The sub-$2000 build was high-end and will remain high-end until you can prove otherwise. And don't even bother picking on its case, because we could go back and forth on that one forever.[/citation]
THAT is all you read in my comment? See my comment in the high end gaming article if you want, and focus on the major point of my comment if you take the trouble to quote it in full. And lastly - don't take things so personally, it's a technical debate.

 

[DjEaZy]

... celeron? REALLY?

 

[Crashman]

[citation][nom]assafbt[/nom]THAT is all you read in my comment? See my comment in the high end gaming article if you want, and focus on the major point of my comment if you take the trouble to quote it in full. And lastly - don't take things so personally, it's a technical debate.[/citation]That's why I asked for a technical definition. It's 8GB, it's 3770K, it's GTX 680, it's SSD, it's 80 PLUS Gold...