Trying to make the most inexpensive gaming PC possible (sub-$350).

[matchboxmatt]

I'm attempting to build a gaming PC for my little brother once he moves back here, and I'm trying to get the most value with the least amount of cost. This PC is going to be used almost entirely for gaming (no Crossfire or SLI), so as far as the mobo and CPU go, I'd like to get something inexpensive that can be heavily OC'd. I want to save as much money as possible since it's his money, so I'm trying to cut as many corners as possible.

That said, I already have 4x512MB DDR2-800 RAM and a Geforce 8600 GTS left over from upgrades to my own machine, so I'm just trying to throw the rest of the PC (keyboard, DVD burner, Wifi adapter, and good Wifi antenna included) together. I'd like this to be future proof as far as graphics card upgrades go (I was thinking that if budget allowed I could get him a ATI Radeon HD 4770 instead). I guess one of the reasons why I'm also cutting so low is that I know that the LGA 775 platform will soon be replaced by the LGA 1366, so I'm thinking about really pressing the value out of this thing.

Anyway, here we go:


APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: Within the next week or two. BUDGET RANGE: As far below $350 as possible. Shipping doesn't count, but the more free-shipping deals you can find, the better!

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming, watching videos, listening to music, the basics.

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: Monitor, HDD, and RAM. GPU also if you can't fit it in the budget.

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: www.newegg.com

PARTS PREFERENCES: Intel dual-core CPU preferred. Everything is free game as long as the brand is decent. If you can fit it into the budget, a card much stronger than an 8600 GTS.

OVERCLOCKING: CPU will be OC'd to match 1:1 ratio with DDR2-800 RAM. SLI OR CROSSFIRE: No.

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1680x1050

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: I'm not a big fan of ugly cases, so the slicker you can find, the better!




This is the build I've made so far:

CPU: Intel Pentium E5200 Wolfdale 2.5GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80571E5200 - Retail
Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-EP43-UD3L LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
PSU: Antec earthwatts EA430 430W Continuous Power ATX12V v2.0 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply - Retail
Case: Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
CPU Fan: XIGMATEK HDT-S963 92mm Rifle CPU Cooler - Retail

DVD Burner: LG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA Model GH22NS30 - OEM
Keyboard & Mouse: Logitech Internet 350 Black USB Standard Desktop - OEM
Wifi Adapter: EDIMAX EW-7128G PCI Wireless Card - Retail

Sub-Total: $334.88
Shipping: $21.92

Total: $356.80

 

[Gin Fushicho]

How can you say you want it future proof.... Especially with a budget like that.

You dont need the CPU fan either, he's a kid , he wont be overclocking.

 

[shortstuff_mt]

You dont need the CPU fan either, he's a kid , he wont be overclocking.

The OP clearly stated that he WOULD be overclocking:

"I'd like to get something inexpensive that can be heavily OC'd."
"CPU will be OC'd to match 1:1 ratio with DDR2-800 RAM."

Your proposed build looks pretty good. The E5200 has a pretty low FSB wall, though. You won't be able to overclock to a 400FSB to match your DDR2 800 RAM. That's not really a big deal, though.

 

[matchboxmatt]

I was planning to OC it for him, perhaps push it to 4Ghz and underclock the RAM to 667Mhz and tighten the timings so that the ratio matches.

 

[shortstuff_mt]

That would be a good plan. Using a 12x multiplier and 333 FSB would put you right where you want to be.

 

[radiowars]

What GPU do you have? Anything? If not, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143161
It'll add 60$ to the build, but there's no way in hell you can build an optimized gaming pc, that you expect to run 3D games on.
Try a MOBO that has built in graphics.
You don't have ANYTHING? To spare???

 

[rewindlabs]

I recommend getting a motherboard that supports the phenom II processors and just dumping him a 7750 or cheap similar X2 in...he can run anything out right now just fine minus crysis and gta iv...let him go through some old games as welll

After a few months you can than upgrade to a 720 phenom II....this is what i would do if i had your budget....

Really that E5200 will have just as much trouble in games....past 3ghz with a 4770 or 8600 what improvements are you going to see? it wont run GTA IV well or Crysis...so stick with the athlon until you can afford the new 720...alot of old and new singleplayer games out there he can enjoy whilst he waits

And this does leave you with a better platform than the dead lga775...

 

[nerrawg]

Really a better GPU will increase your gaming performance considerably. It is never good to think that a specific GPU will future proof your computer, far from it, the GPU is the most rapidly advancing part of a gaming pc. Instead plan on having to upgrade your GPU the most often of all parts. For a detailed comparison and reason why check this:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/264181-31-best-bang-buck-spend-system

The 9600GT will give you a big performance increase over your old gpu - this 4830 will give an even better increase for only $77:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127420

You could spend $2000 on RAM, MOBO and CPU (Core i7 + the works) - if you still kept the same GPU you have (the 8600GTS) you would still have a gaming machine that performed worse than the you're current $340 build + the ATI 4830. That should illustrate just how important the GPU is for gaming.

 

[nerrawg]

I recommend getting a motherboard that supports the phenom II processors and just dumping him a 7750 or cheap similar X2 in...he can run anything out right now just fine minus crysis and gta iv...let him go through some old games as welll

After a few months you can than upgrade to a 720 phenom II....this is what i would do if i had your budget....

Really that E5200 will have just as much trouble in games....past 3ghz with a 4770 or 8600 what improvements are you going to see? it wont run GTA IV well or Crysis...so stick with the athlon until you can afford the new 720...alot of old and new singleplayer games out there he can enjoy whilst he waits

And this does leave you with a better platform than the dead lga775...

Really!? I would like to see some supporting evidence of this, I do not believe that the E5200 will significantly bottle neck the 4770, probably not even 2 x 4770's in CF - what evidence do you have of this. Just simply look at the old system builder marathon for counter evidence - the E5200 handled a 4870 1GB just fine - it performed similarly when overclocked to the performance of the same card running together with an Q9650 in most games. How then is it going to bottleneck the 4770?

 

[nerrawg]

Ok check this for evidence:

Both systems are using a 4870 512 MB GPU

Running crysis test (multi cpu core optimized game)

test system 1: QX9770 OC'd to 3.85 Ghz

OC 1600 x 1000: 33fps

OC 1920 x 1200: 29.5 fps

Reference: http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/8162-palit-radeon-hd4870-512mb-graphics-card-review-14.html

test system 2: E5200 stock and OC'ed to 4Ghz

1600 x 1000: 24fps
OC: 28.5fps

1920 x 1200: 22 fps
OC: 23.5 fps

Reference: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/overclock-e5200-radeon,2144-8.html

World in conflict:

QX9770 OC'ed

1600 x 1200: 44

Ref: http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/8162-palit-radeon-hd4870-512mb-graphics-card-review-19.html

E5200 OC'ed

1600 x 1000: 44

Ref: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/overclock-e5200-radeon,2144-9.html

!!!

In the multi-cpu core optimized game you can see small differences - but not enough to warrant the idea that the E5200 significantly bottlenecks the 4870. The tests in crysis were using max settings and enthusiast shaders - if you chose high settings instead - the E5200 and 4870 combo gets perfectly playable framerates at 1600 res in the most graphics demanding game currently for sale! If you use a 8600 GTS - the game is unplayable at these settings with both the E5200 and the QX9770 (even the 8800GT won't cut it - look at the test scores).

In world in conflict the scores are the same!!! we are talking a $1500 cpu vs. a $70 - forgive me, but I think that is amazing. The cpu is obviously much less important than the GPU once you pass 3 Ghz.

Moral of the story - E5200 is perfect for your budget - phenom II is money better used on the GPU if you game. Researched and Referenced

 

[rewindlabs]

Now damnit i never said it would bottleneck it...researched and referenced my ass..if you can't get my post don't go correcting me

Either way in newer titles that e5200 just like any dual core is going to struggle with games like gta iv weather or not its got a 4870 or 4770 that is and was my point....

Im not here to look into how much the e5200 will bottleneck a card and at what ghz...the 3ghz suggestion was to justify that there isn't much improvement past 3ghz or 3.5ghz due to that being the wall of the x2 and that buying the x2 and getting a 720 latter on wouldn't be a bad idea as the same with a e5200......the e5200 and any x2 will be similar that is what im getting at...nothing else other than that...

If he goes for a cheap x2 right now he can than save up for a nice 720...the same as if he saved up for one of the quad intel cpus after he got the dual core...

Gaming can only get farther away from dual cores...now what platform do you want to be stuck on...the older 775 or newer amd one...

Don't go thinking i don't do my research...i never said anything that you apparently think your researching and correcting me...

 

[Gin Fushicho]

Now damnit i never said it would bottleneck it...researched and referenced my ass..if you can't get my post don't go correcting me

Either way in newer titles that e5200 just like any dual core is going to struggle with games like gta iv weather or not its got a 4870 or 4770 that is and was my point....

Im not here to look into how much the e5200 will bottleneck a card....the e5200 and any x2 will be similar that is what i mentioned...nothing else other than that...

If he goes for a cheaper x2 right now he can than save up for a nice 720...the same as if he saved up for one of the quad intel cpus after he got the dual core...

Gaming can only get farther away from dual cores and is crysis or warhead even titles that use 4 cores to there advantage?....now what platform do you want to be stuck on...the older 775 or newer amd one...

I will have to say Crysis does use more then 2 cores , it seems to not care about any more then 3 though, but maybe thats because it needs a better video card after. x3

 

[matchboxmatt]

If any of you can build an AMD system that's as cheap as the E5200 and offers as much or better performance, then I'm totally for it. The only reason I'm going with Intel is because of the OC capability, and I have very little experience with AMD.

The more value that can be pulled out, the better. Also, most of the games that will be played will probably be from Valve, so if it can Left 4 Dead well, then I think that's excellent by all means.

 

[nerrawg]

Now damnit i never said it would bottleneck it...researched and referenced my ass..if you can't get my post don't go correcting me

Either way in newer titles that e5200 just like any dual core is going to struggle with games like gta iv weather or not its got a 4870 or 4770 that is and was my point....

Im not here to look into how much the e5200 will bottleneck a card and at what ghz...the 3ghz suggestion was to justify that there isn't much improvement past 3ghz or 3.5ghz due to that being the wall of the x2 and that buying the x2 and getting a 720 latter on wouldn't be a bad idea as the same with a e5200......the e5200 and any x2 will be similar that is what im getting at...nothing else other than that...

If he goes for a cheap x2 right now he can than save up for a nice 720...the same as if he saved up for one of the quad intel cpus after he got the dual core...

Gaming can only get farther away from dual cores...now what platform do you want to be stuck on...the older 775 or newer amd one...

I don't think you understand my point - or you are ignoring it. I don't mean to offend at all, just wanted to make clear that at a $350 budget or whatever extra this guy has the cpu is not as important as the GPU. The upgrade idea is good if it doesn't cost more money than the E5200 - the point being that it doesn't matter if you have an E5200, P43 base system or a $2000 core i7 system - if the gpu is a 8600GTS the CPU performance doesn't matter because the GPU is holding the system back massively. I know for a fact that an OC'ed dual core E7400 system can run GTA 4 and Crysis at 1920 x 1200 res on max settings with the right GPU solution. And that my friend was my only real point - that any additional money at such a low budget should really go to the GPU if this guy wants to game. Sorry if it seemed like something else.

 

[rewindlabs]

I don't think you understand my point - or you are ignoring it. I don't mean to offend at all, just wanted to make clear that at a $350 budget or whatever extra this guy has the cpu is not as important as the GPU. The upgrade idea is good if it doesn't cost more money than the E5200 - the point being that it doesn't matter if you have an E5200, P43 base system or a $2000 core i7 system - if the gpu is a 8600GTS the CPU performance doesn't matter because the GPU is holding the system back massively. I know for a fact that an OC'ed dual core E7400 system can run GTA 4 and Crysis at 1920 x 1200 res on max settings with the right GPU solution. And that my friend was my only real point - that any additional money at such a low budget should really go to the GPU if this guy wants to game. Sorry if it seemed like something else.

Yeah you are right and im glad we are on the same "road" or idea here since you can get an amd build for i believe the same price or less and thuss where not spending anymore on the cpu....the reason i suggested amd is if he is comfortable with amd or would prefer amd in general or would like to go the phenom route later on...its not that bad of a trade off for the little performance difference between the 7750's max overclocks and the e5200...

of course the most money should be spent on gpu i never said its worth it if amds stuff cost more...and i believe amds offerings are similar price...

My amd 4400+ @ 2.2ghz eats L4D up so the 7750 will have no problem with it...and if all your going into is source games they run on anything cpu wise...

sorry about getting so jumpy nerrawg

either way is going to be enough for source titles atm...its just what do you want to upgrade too down the road...

if someone wants to recommend an amd be my guest...im horrible at choosing parts..