New low-budget build

[Raduque]

Giving myself a $200/part budget, tell me what you think:

cpu:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115074

MB:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128463

Ram: G.Skill Ripjaws 8gb DDR3-1600 $109.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231314

GPU: Sapphire Radeon HD5770 1gb $129.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102873

Fixed the links to what mnewsham recommended.

I also have a good PSU (Seasonic II 500w) and everything else I need.

Total is about $650 shipped.

Thanks!

Edit: I'll be using this system for general use, video transcoding and gaming at 1680x1050 resolution. I figure it should be more than adequate for all that.

Edit: I put in the wrong CPU - I thought the i5-650 was a quad.

Edit: Wow I fail. Cpu and motherboard completely incompatible (dammit intel, enough with the 50 million different sockets!)

 

[mnewsham]

cpu:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115074

MB:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128463

RAM:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231276

 

[Raduque]

What's so special about that Sandy Bridge thing? I've been way out of the loop for a while (since the E6300 was top of the line, actually).

Why wouldn't I be able to use the ram I selected with the cpu/mobo you picked, mnewsham?

 

[mnewsham]

What's so special about that Sandy Bridge thing? I've been way out of the loop for a while (since the E6300 was top of the line, actually).

Why wouldn't I be able to use the ram I selected with the cpu/mobo you picked, mnewsham?

Sandy Bridge just released (literally an hour ago) and it has in benchmarks proven to OC to 4.4Ghz (i5-2500k and i7-2600k) also it beats out EVERY 1366 CPU for gaming (VM's and certain things still favor x58/1366) and the RAM that you had you can use, but unless you have a real need for 8gb of RAM 4gb will do.

 

[zi0n.]

That CPU wont even fit on that MB so... yah and SB just came out.

 

[Raduque]

Hah, Intel has too many sockets out. OK, so the CPU/Mobo mnewsham reccommends with the ram and GPU I picked sound like a good combo for gaming at 1680x1050 most everything maxed, medium video encoding, and just general usage stuff(internet, IRC, watching movies)?

 

[mnewsham]

yep should be fine for that, you wont be maxing out crisis in case you were wondering tho.

 

[endlessmike133]

i wouldnt buy sandy bridge now atleast wait until ivy bridge next year; lots of people are jumping the gun with this sandy bridges thing

 

[mnewsham]

i wouldnt buy sandy bridge now atleast wait until ivy bridge next year; lots of people are jumping the gun with this sandy bridges thing

For someone coming from an AMD AM2 chipset or a Core2 series CPU sandy bridge is the logical upgrade path, anyone on 1156/1366 would be crazy to jump to sandy bridge unless they had lots of money to spare.

 

[Raduque]

I dont even play Crysis, so that's not a problem.

And yeah, I'm coming from an overclocked Core2Duo.

 

[mnewsham]

I dont even play Crysis, so that's not a problem.

And yeah, I'm coming from an overclocked Core2Duo.

If you could fit a 460 1gb in your build sweet, but that build should be fine, and you will be sufficiently gpu bottlenecked to warrant a much better one in the future

 

[BoomerD]

The Sandy Bridge processors are definitely the way to go IMO.

If you're looking at the i5-2400 at $195, why not the i5-2500K at $225?

Nice increase in OC ability, great boost in gaming power.

 

[mnewsham]

The Sandy Bridge processors are definitely the way to go IMO.

If you're looking at the i5-2400 at $195, why not the i5-2500K at $225?

Nice increase in OC ability, great boost in gaming power.

It is a better part I honestly just ruled it out cause It was over the 200 max he wanted per part.

 

[BoomerD]

It just seems like a waste to get the 2400 when $30 more gets a far better/faster processor.

 

[mfenn]

I wouldn't arbitrarily limit yourself to $200 per part. Just set an overall budget ($800) and let the chips fall where they may.

Here's a build:
i5 2500K + MSI P67A-C45 combo $350 - much better value than the UD4 unless there is a particular feature than you need
Mushkin DDR3 1333 8GB $80 - DDR3 1600 is so incredibly pointless with Sandy Bridge
GTX 460 1GB $155 AR
Total: $585

With the leftover budget, I would say to get an SSD like this Corsair Force 60GB for $130. IMHO, given your budget, you'd be silly not to get an SSD. It's literally the biggest single upgrade to your computer that you can make right now (and yes, that includes Sandy Bridge).

 

[Raduque]

mfenn, others, I'm limiting myself to $200/part because I'm buying one part a month - with all my bills and other expenses, $200 is about all I have left to spend.

I'm probably not going to be overclocking a new system. The only reason I'm overclocking my current system is, well, simply because it worked. I threw the chip in, set the FSB to 200 and away I went. If it hadn't been stable (prime/orthos 48hr straight no errors), I wouldn't have messed with it.

I also considered SSDs, but they are so far out of my price range, it's not even funny anymore. A 60gb drive is ridiculously small in this day of 15gb OS installs, and 8gb game installs. I'd never consider an SSD that's smaller than my current system drive (320gb w/about 50gb free), and those SSDs are more than the entire system would cost.

 

[mnewsham]

mfenn, others, I'm limiting myself to $200/part because I'm buying one part a month - with all my bills and other expenses, $200 is about all I have left to spend.

I'm probably not going to be overclocking a new system. The only reason I'm overclocking my current system is, well, simply because it worked. I threw the chip in, set the FSB to 200 and away I went. If it hadn't been stable (prime/orthos 48hr straight no errors), I wouldn't have messed with it.

I also considered SSDs, but they are so far out of my price range, it's not even funny anymore. A 60gb drive is ridiculously small in this day of 15gb OS installs, and 8gb game installs. I'd never consider an SSD that's smaller than my current system drive (320gb w/about 50gb free), and those SSDs are more than the entire system would cost.

Op if you are on a strict budget stick with it.

 

[fffblackmage]

mfenn, others, I'm limiting myself to $200/part because I'm buying one part a month - with all my bills and other expenses, $200 is about all I have left to spend.

Don't buy a part every month... just save up until you're ready to buy. No point in letting a part sit around for months only to find out it's been DOA when you finally get to building.

I also considered SSDs, but they are so far out of my price range, it's not even funny anymore. A 60gb drive is ridiculously small in this day of 15gb OS installs, and 8gb game installs. I'd never consider an SSD that's smaller than my current system drive (320gb w/about 50gb free), and those SSDs are more than the entire system would cost.

Even using the SSD strictly as an OS/application drive has it's benefits. Either keep only one or two games on the SSD at a time or install games into a secondary HDD. Then again, you seem severely limited on funds...

 

[DominionSeraph]

The only reason I'm overclocking my current system is, well, simply because it worked. I threw the chip in, set the FSB to 200 and away I went.

Errr... isn't that the regular FSB of an 800MHz C2D and underclocking of a 1066MHz?

 

[Raduque]

Errr... isn't that the regular FSB of an 800MHz C2D and underclocking of a 1066MHz?

Isn't the FSB "quad pumped" like the Pentium 4's or whatever? Im going off the base rate, the FSB as set in the BIOS. 200x14=2.8ghz. Maybe it's 400x7... that's how long it's been since I set it.

 

[DominionSeraph]

Isn't the FSB "quad pumped" like the Pentium 4's or whatever? Im going off the base rate, the FSB as set in the BIOS. 200x14=2.8ghz. Maybe it's 400x7... that's how long it's been since I set it.

Ah, 2.8GHz then (which is really what I wanted to know)

You might want to just get a video card to start. The C2D is still a potent CPU.
With a 6850 and a clean install of Windows you might find that you can hold off on the rest until Ivy/Bulldozer come to town.

 

[dpodblood]

Don't bother buying a part every month. Just save up your $800 and buy everything at once. If you must buy something first, make it the video card. I would suggest the GTX 470, or wait for the GTX 560 to be released.

 

[mfenn]

Don't buy a part every month... just save up until you're ready to buy. No point in letting a part sit around for months only to find out it's been DOA when you finally get to building.

Even using the SSD strictly as an OS/application drive has it's benefits. Either keep only one or two games on the SSD at a time or install games into a secondary HDD. Then again, you seem severely limited on funds...

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[Raduque]

Don't bother buying a part every month. Just save up your $800 and buy everything at once. If you must buy something first, make it the video card. I would suggest the GTX 470, or wait for the GTX 560 to be released.

I was going to get my GPU first actually. I don't think I will get any nVidia cards, the GTX470 is far too expensive, and the 460 (which I think you may have meant) requires two 6-pin PCIE power connectors - the 5770s only require one - and I don't know how my PSU will deal with such a power-hungry card along with 6 SATA HDDs.

 

[dpodblood]

I was going to get my GPU first actually. I don't think I will get any nVidia cards, the GTX470 is far too expensive, and the 460 (which I think you may have meant) requires two 6-pin PCIE power connectors - the 5770s only require one - and I don't know how my PSU will deal with such a power-hungry card along with 6 SATA HDDs.

Nope I did mean the GTX 470 (which we expect the GTX 560 will be compatible to performance wise). Since you are building this machine for gaming you are better off spending ~$250 on a GPU an cutting elsewhere.