I told a friend of mine that I could attempt a $600 budget gaming build for him (micro atx), but that it would be a challenge since he needs all IO + a monitor. He'd like a cheap headset and cheap speakers, which in the end will only be $30, but it is a lot for the $600 budget.
Anyway I started out rather ambitious, thinking I could keep a monitor with 1080 capabilities, and maybe even an AMD-FX cpu.
I've done some downgrading on multiple areas, but I'm at $730 post shipping, before we shrink the monitor and processor.
This is a tough build at this price, but not impossible. I'm just not quite sure where I should make the sacrifices for a gaming rig. Can I chop the processor down by $60? Is that a good idea? Is the GPU selection way overkill for this budget?
I'm trying to keep the pipedream HD monitor going but...yeah
Also I'm pretty sleepy so I didn't pay much attention to RAM selection.
I figure going to cheapest keyboard / mouse will lose ~$20. Dropping speakers or headset another $10-15. Maybe another $40-50 off on the monitor downgrade. Cheaper ram and power supply should take another ~$20-30 off. If we shed $100 before downgrading processor and GPU, then we're in good shape. In fact, a small GPU downgrade may not be a bad trade off if we can keep the potential of an HD monitor alive.
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I am a firm believer that the minimum one wants to go is 550W. I prefer my PSU to be 600-800 (I have a 750W in this machine). 450W seems like you are asking alot. If you were using onboard graphics, I'd say OK.
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I am a firm believer that the minimum one wants to go is 550W. I prefer my PSU to be 600-800 (I have a 750W in this machine). 450W seems like you are asking alot. If you were using onboard graphics, I'd say OK.
I would argue that's no longer the case. Even for momentary draw, unless you are running a graphics card that needs dual 6-pin power connectors or more, you won't have any issues with something in the 400w range.
I built a friends systems out of this case. With it's built-in 380w PSU, it happily runs an i5-2500, 8GB of RAM, a hdd and an SSD, and an HD6850 graphics card. Under full load (prime95 multithreaded + furmark) the system draws less than 180w of power at the wall. That leaves over 50% of the max wattage as headroom for instantaneous load.
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I would argue that's no longer the case. Even for momentary draw, unless you are running a graphics card that needs dual 6-pin power connectors or more, you won't have any issues with something in the 400w range.
I built a friends systems out of this case. With it's built-in 380w PSU, it happily runs an i5-2500, 8GB of RAM, a hdd and an SSD, and an HD6850 graphics card. Under full load (prime95 multithreaded + furmark) the system draws less than 180w of power at the wall. That leaves over 50% of the max wattage as headroom for instantaneous load.
Wow :O
Times have changed a lot. I was just surprised I managed an intel / nvidia build for under $600, even without the monitor. If I can get away with that PSU too..
I am a firm believer that the minimum one wants to go is 550W. I prefer my PSU to be 600-800 (I have a 750W in this machine). 450W seems like you are asking alot. If you were using onboard graphics, I'd say OK.
Not with any of the AMD based video cards that do not need a connector.
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Ok so with no need for OS or Speakers now, as he has both, some options have opened up. Additionally, I was referred to a combo case / psu by a friend. He vouches his has run fine for nearly a year. A lot of people are pretty stingy about "good" power supplies, but I've only ever bought one name brand power supply in 5 computer builds. The only one to ever fail was a POS raidmax. Even then it lasted 2+ years. So I don't normally feel the need to break bank on the PSU like a lot do. Either way there may be room in the end here to take a "safer" route.
Do we think this is a silly build? Roughly $17 for upgrades here. If this build is looking okay, then the options for that 17 are a nicer mouse, keyboard, or headset. Additionally the monitor could be bumped to a 23" (HDMI only, no DVI). Or we can bump the CPU up one notch.
Maybe different ram, or like I said initially, shoot for a different case / psu.
The Orion PSU in the deal is a POS imo. I would not risk it
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I managed a PCIE 3.0 build with some faster ram. The GPU scores a little higher on a lot of benchmarks, but not a remarkably significant amount. Might indeed use that money to do a different case and PSU.
also I'm reading something about ddr3 1600 ram only working with intel 22nm cpus ? Is that accurate / recent?
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CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 V2 (CMPSU-430CXV2) 430W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
NZXT GAMMA Classic Series GAMA-001BK Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
I am not sure of the quality of the PSU in the APEVIA X-QPACK-BK/420 Black Aluminum 1.0 w/ ABS plastic front panel MicroATX Desktop Computer Case ATX 420W power supply item....
My two items are roughly the same price as the MicroATX Desktop Computer Case with PSU.
www.myeducational plan.com-come see my plan to fix the USA educational system. I hope this is sig legal. Major Site Design Update on July 18, 2006. On June 18, 2009 passed the 10,000 post mark. December 24, 2009: Major Theme change and more....
CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 V2 (CMPSU-430CXV2) 430W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
NZXT GAMMA Classic Series GAMA-001BK Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
I am not sure of the quality of the PSU in the APEVIA X-QPACK-BK/420 Black Aluminum 1.0 w/ ABS plastic front panel MicroATX Desktop Computer Case ATX 420W power supply item....
My two items are roughly the same price as the MicroATX Desktop Computer Case with PSU.
I've found that the PSU and case combo to be not worth it.
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Power draw has changed enormously over the last five years. Between Ivy Bridge and Tahiti/Kepler, power draw over the last gen has been reduced by 25%. The TDP of an enthusiast Ivy Bridge processor is only 77W and a very high end graphics card such as the 680GTX is only 225W, but usually runs at 160W on full load. A 2770K, 680GTX, 16GB RAM, 2xHDD + 1SDD, several fans, and a decent motherboard would only need a 400-450W power supply. If you OC, bump that up to 550W. That is a huge difference from the 480GTX days where a 600W+ PSU was mandatory stock.
As for a case, I just built a computer for a client that uses the new Antec One case and it was fantastic for the price. It has cable management holes, a great HDD/SDD storage racking system, and plenty of cooling. It was a steal for only 50-60 bucks.
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Originally Posted by kujoe2002
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