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PhantomKyro
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New Gaming Rig, Need Advice

Thu May 17, 2012 8:26 pm

Hello TR. This is my first time here, and heard this was a great place to get some advice with building a new rig.

I'm currently trying to build a new rig for gaming. Nothing serious, mainly for playing some Diablo III, probably not anything more demanding. Don't care much for graphics quality. As long as I'm getting 30~40 FPS on low or medium, I'm fine. I'm trying to keep this as cheap as possible, but for budget, let's keep it under $500-$600 if possible.

I've already picked out some parts on Newegg, and mainly just trying to find out if it will run Diablo III. I'm trying to keep this as cheap as possible, so none of these parts are going to be stellar. Any suggestions would be awesome.

Mobo:ASUS F1A55-M LX PLUS FM1 AMD A55
PSU:COOLER MASTER GX 450W RS450-ACAAD3-US
CPU:AMD A8-3850 Llano 2.9GHz Socket FM1 100W Quad-Core Desktop APU
RAM:G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600

Again, I'm just trying to build a machine that can decently run D3 as cheap as possible, and see if these parts will do the job. Any opinions on these parts would be fantastic. If you need to know any other details, I'll be happy to help out as much as possible.
 
Jambe
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Re: New Gaming Rig, Need Advice

Thu May 17, 2012 9:09 pm

The resolution you play at (i.e. the amount of pixels that need to be rendered) is the limiting factor in deciding on a GPU. The A8-3850 will definitely do D3 at 1280x1024 at middling settings and 1440x900 at minimum. 1680x1050 might be doable but I would certainly want a discrete GPU if I was gonna do 1920x. btw, you can get the OEM 3850 for $90 (as opposed to $110 for the boxed version).

There are 6850s and 7770s around $130-$150 that would be fine for your uses and are a worthwhile step up from AMD's integrated GPUs. Also Nvidia's 560 SE.
 
PhantomKyro
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Re: New Gaming Rig, Need Advice

Thu May 17, 2012 9:49 pm

Well with my current monitor, I usually run at 1280x1024 anyway, so I can live with that.
 
JustAnEngineer
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Re: New Gaming Rig, Need Advice

Thu May 17, 2012 9:53 pm

Welcome to the Tech Report!

The slightly-faster (3.0 vs. 2.9 GHz) and unlocked (for easy overclocking) A8-3870K black edition is only $8 more:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDeal ... mbo.892401
· R7-5800X, Liquid Freezer II 280, RoG Strix X570-E, 64GiB PC4-28800, Suprim Liquid RTX4090, 2TB SX8200Pro +4TB S860 +NAS, Define 7 Compact, Super Flower SF-1000F14TP, S3220DGF +32UD99, FC900R OE, DeathAdder2
 
DPete27
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Re: New Gaming Rig, Need Advice

Fri May 18, 2012 1:17 pm

I would like to offer an alternative:

The 6550D IGP in the A8-3870 is roughly equivalent to a discrete AMD 6670. So you could step up to a 6770 for $90 or a 7750 for $115 that offers roughly the same performance while using less power.

Intel Pentium G850 for $88. Here's why

You can get a basic Z77 mobo like an ASRock Z77 Pro4-m for $110 which will give you the newest Intel platform with room for upgrades in the future.

Throw in $45 for 8GB of ram, and another $50 for a halfway decent PSU after MIR or coupons and your total is....$383
I'm sure JAE can help you save some cash or get better components for the same price with his newegg-combo-deal-magic

Keep in mind that this option is a dual core CPU, so if you do heavily threaded things like folding or video encoding and such, it may not be suitable for you. It should however, offer good gaming performance and plenty of muscle for basic tasks like internet, MS Office, etc etc. See this link for more info
Last edited by DPete27 on Fri May 18, 2012 3:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Main: i5-3570K, ASRock Z77 Pro4-M, MSI RX480 8G, 500GB Crucial BX100, 2 TB Samsung EcoGreen F4, 16GB 1600MHz G.Skill @1.25V, EVGA 550-G2, Silverstone PS07B
HTPC: A8-5600K, MSI FM2-A75IA-E53, 4TB Seagate SSHD, 8GB 1866MHz G.Skill, Crosley D-25 Case Mod
 
JustAnEngineer
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Re: New Gaming Rig, Need Advice

Fri May 18, 2012 2:39 pm

DPete27 wrote:
Intel Pentium G850 for $88. You can get a basic Z77 mobo like an ASRock Z77 Pro4-m for $110 which will give you the newest Intel platform with room for upgrades in the future.
An H61 motherboard like the Gigabyte GA-H61MA-D3V would be $70½ cheaper ($135 for CPU + motherboard). It's less expandable than Z77, but it's good enough for gaming on a tight budget.

The budget-busting issue is that you've got to add a discrete graphics card if you want to play games with the Sandy Bridge processor. Radeon HD6850 for $150 or GeForce GTX460 for $147½ or Radeon HD7770 for $135 would provide a noticeably better gaming experience than Llano's integrated Radeon HD6550D graphics processor, but the cost is higher, too.
· R7-5800X, Liquid Freezer II 280, RoG Strix X570-E, 64GiB PC4-28800, Suprim Liquid RTX4090, 2TB SX8200Pro +4TB S860 +NAS, Define 7 Compact, Super Flower SF-1000F14TP, S3220DGF +32UD99, FC900R OE, DeathAdder2
 
cynan
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Re: New Gaming Rig, Need Advice

Fri May 18, 2012 4:51 pm

If you can afford to spend in the $500-$600 range, and really want a decent gaming machine, just going off of Newegg.com, I'd recommend something like:

1) Rosewill 650W HIVE PSU and Challenger ATX Mid Case Combo: $104.98
2) Geil DDR3 1333 ram: $41.99
3) ASRock Pro4-M H77 Motherboard: $89.99
4) Intel Pentium G850 Dual Core CPU: $87.99
5) Sapphire HD 6950 2GB GPU: $199.99

Total: $524.94

If you don't have one, adding a cheap hard drive and optical drive if you need one should still squeeze you in at around $600

The HD 6950 2GB is a bit overkill for this system, but is a good deal at $200 and will let you game comfortably in fairly demanding games at 1080p should you upgrade your monitor. It will mean that you won't have to immediately upgrade your video card should you want to play more demanding games in future at around 1080p resolutions. Diablo III should run smooth as butter on it with the settings on high. Otherwise, you can go with something cheaper mentioned above like and HD 6850 or GTX 460 and save $50.

Edit: The Asrock Z77 is the better board if you are looking to upgrade the processor to something you might want to overclock (and run more than 1 video card) in future. But it sounds like you'll be keeping things simple, so the H77 saves you $20.
 
PhantomKyro
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Re: New Gaming Rig, Need Advice

Sat May 19, 2012 7:38 pm

Thanks a ton guys! I think i've finally narrowed down a good build, and would like just a little bit more advice.

Here the Mobo and CPU I've chosen:
CPU:Intel Pentium G850 Sandy Bridge 2.9GHz LGA 1155
MoBo:GIGABYTE GA-H61MA-D3V LGA 1155 Intel H61

I mainly just need help choosing from these two video cards.

The XFX HD-677X-ZNLC Radeon HD 6770 and the XFX HD-677X-ZNFC Radeon HD 6770.
I know they are practically identical, but I wanted to know if the minor differences mattered at all.
Last edited by PhantomKyro on Sat May 19, 2012 7:52 pm, edited 2 times in total.
 
JustAnEngineer
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Re: New Gaming Rig, Need Advice

Sat May 19, 2012 7:50 pm

Radeon HD6770 is very similar to Radeon HD5770. Neither one is close to matching the performance of the three graphics cards that I recommended above.
http://techreport.com/articles.x/22473/9

XFX Radeon HD7770 1GB Core Edition FX-777A-ZNF4 for $120 -10MIR is a much stronger performer than the $115 and 117½ Radeon HD5770 cards that you linked. If you absolutely had to choose between those two cards, the one with two DVI ports and DisplayPort is better than the one with only one DVI port and an analog VGA port. I strongly recommend spending $5 more to get the Radeon HD7770 instead.
· R7-5800X, Liquid Freezer II 280, RoG Strix X570-E, 64GiB PC4-28800, Suprim Liquid RTX4090, 2TB SX8200Pro +4TB S860 +NAS, Define 7 Compact, Super Flower SF-1000F14TP, S3220DGF +32UD99, FC900R OE, DeathAdder2
 
PhantomKyro
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Re: New Gaming Rig, Need Advice

Sat May 19, 2012 7:52 pm

Ooh, I didn't notice that, my bad. Thanks for pointing that out!

And just to make sure, would that card fit this case?
 
JustAnEngineer
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Re: New Gaming Rig, Need Advice

Sat May 19, 2012 8:03 pm

Yes, the Radeon HD7770 will definitely fit into that Rosewill case...however I am again going to recommend spending a small amount more to get a better component. $8 more would buy a better quality case like the Antec Three Hundred (or Three Hundred Illusion) for $58. The Rosewill case will work, but the Antec case is more solid, fits better, has better mounting attachments and is quieter.

Be certain to take advantage of the combination discount for the motherboard and CPU. You have to put the combination in your cart. You won't automatically get the $13 discount if you put the two items in your cart separately.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDeal ... mbo.915623

Are you buying a new power supply or re-using an existing unit? If you're buying a new one, an Antec EarthWatts Green EA-430 or EA-380D would be a reasonable choice for your build.

If you're shopping for really cheap cases and power supplies, you have to be careful. Many cheap PSUs cannot provide the power that they advertize, especially on the important +12V rail. Here's a flimsy case with an included power supply that at least claims to provide up to 30 amperes (360 watts) on the +12 volt rail for a very cheap $43 +8 shipping.
· R7-5800X, Liquid Freezer II 280, RoG Strix X570-E, 64GiB PC4-28800, Suprim Liquid RTX4090, 2TB SX8200Pro +4TB S860 +NAS, Define 7 Compact, Super Flower SF-1000F14TP, S3220DGF +32UD99, FC900R OE, DeathAdder2
 
MadManOriginal
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Re: New Gaming Rig, Need Advice

Sat May 19, 2012 9:17 pm

If you're going to go for a separate PSU and case, here's a good quality PSU for $45-$20 MIR: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817139026

There are also a ton of motherboard combo deals for the i3 2120 CPU (3.3GHz/HD2000 Sandy Bridge), some around $180 for H61 boards, and starting around $210 for Z68 boards. I am just hesitant recommending a 2C/2T processor if it's meant to last for a while. http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductCo ... 100&Page=1
 
vargis14
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Re: New Gaming Rig, Need Advice

Sun May 20, 2012 6:05 am

I agree with JAE and Dpete, for 600 build yourself a upgradable sandy setup,the liano is a dead end bigtime.
I currently am using a gateway sx2855-U11P slim tower that came with a g530 2.4ghz dual core sandy based celeron,4gb of ram and a 500gb 7200rpm hd and a 220 watt PSU for 229$ then added originally a hd6450 for 44$ that i returned and grabbed a $66 low profile asus hd6570 with 1gb ddr3 that i overclocked from its stock 650core and 900 mem (1192) 3dmark 11 score up to 900 core and 1050 core bringing 3dmark11 to 1624,basically making my 6570 into a 6670 since they use the same turks GPU but not the gddr5 of the 6670 so i know my Vcard memory bandwidth is holding back my 6570 since the 6670 hits 1800 3dmark11.But before i overclocked i could run D3 at 1920x1080 smooth as silk with everything on high but shadows,I have not frapped it yet but i am guessing now with the overclock @1920x1080 i am getting well over 30fps.I am upgrading my cpu to the I3 2120 3.3ghz dual core with HT and 3mbytes of l3 cache over the celerons g530 and pentiums g540 2 mb l3 with no HT.The cpu upgrade will be free thanks to my work.
Follow Just A engineers advise and get a decent video card so you are open to more then D3.For $5-600 you can build a great budget gaming rig with some horsepower and future upgrade capability ,where the liano quad core cpu gets smoked buy the i3 2120.Like i said liano is a dead socket.Plus i am sure you have a 1080p tv in your house D3 is fun on my 55" panasonic plasma.I even installed the DDD 3d driver and played on my 55 panny at 1280x768 at 60 hrts and it greatly increased the fun factor,I also used the 2d-3d conversion capability on my tv at 1080p,it added depth but not like the 3d driver.
I can't stress it enough get a 1155 sandy/ivy motherboard and at least a pentium cpu and a decent video card that fits in your budget faster then a 6770,spend the extra 35$ and get the 6850.Its much much better then the 6670.
2600k@4848mhz @1.4v CM Nepton40XL 16gb Ram 2x EVGA GTX770 4gb Classified cards in SLI@1280mhz Stock boost on a GAP67-UD4-B3, SBlaster Z powered by TX-850 PSU pushing a 34" LG 21/9 3440-1440 IPS panel. Pieced together 2.1 sound system
 
cynan
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Re: New Gaming Rig, Need Advice

Sun May 20, 2012 4:45 pm

I only recommended the Rosewill case because of the combo deal with the 650W PSU. If you're not going with a more powerful GPU (such as an HD6950) then you don't need 650W.

I second Madman's recommendation for the Corsair 430W PSU at $26 after MIR. Add that to either the Rosewill case (still decent for the money) or the Antec 300 for $8 more.

I realize that you are trying to go as cheap as possible, but getting an H77 or Z77 motherboard will allow you to upgrade to Ivy Bridge CPUs in future. I don't think you'll be able to do so with the H61 motherboard.

Also, I'd avoid skimping no the video card and support the HD 7770 recommendation as a minimum.

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