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Hi everybody, it`s me again
The other day me and a couple friends made a bet that it is impossible to build a Potent gaming PC That is capable of running modern games on medium-high settings at a resolution of 1680x1050 for 420$
I said that it is possible, because the current generation of consoles is holding back the true graphics potential of PC`s. Anyway, the winner of the bet get`s to keep the PC that I put together.
I was just wondering if you guys have any tips for components, and maxing the performance of the PC.
Any reply`s are welcome

Marty_man_X wrote:

Hi everybody, it`s me again
The other day me and a couple friends made a bet that it is impossible to build a Potent gaming PC That is capable of running modern games on medium-high settings at a resolution of 1680x1050 for 420$

What is this, "The Price is Right"? You don't say which components are included in the cost. Do you need to pay for a case, power supply, monitor and input devices? If you include the monitor in that price, no way.

It only needs to be the PC, no monitor, no extras, no peripherals, however it has to have all the basics to work.

May be possible if this is pre-tax and without Windows (add $100 there with the OS).

Can the latest IGP from AMD do 1680x1050 at medium high? That will be the key.

Let me guess what you and your friend were doing when you set the budget at $420...

Athlon X3 445 - $75
Some AM3 mobo (probably a 760G) - $60
8GB DDR3 - $58
320GB drive - $50
DVD drive - $20
Case w/ PSU that isn't a no-name brand (cheapest is Cooler Master) - $55
Windows 7 Home Premium - $95

That all comes to $413, with NO graphics card, which is sort of necessary to this endeavor. We need to free up $100, so we have to cut corners.

Cheapest Athlon X2 with a heatsink is $60. 4GB DDR3 is $32. No-name case and PSU is $40. DVD drive is axed. With the same hard drive and Windows, that gets us down to $337, leaving about $80 for a graphics card. That will buy a Geforce GT 440 or a Radeon HD 6570. Either should suffice for most games that aren't Crysis at 1680x1050.

Shipping will put you over budget.

Flying Fox wrote:

May be possible if this is pre-tax and without Windows (add $100 there with the OS).

Can the latest IGP from AMD do 1680x1050 at medium high? That will be the key.

I hadn't thought about that. Let me try that:

A6-3650 - $119
cheap FM1 board - $70
4GB DDR3 - $32
320GB drive - $50
No-name case w/PSU - $40
Windows 7 Home Premium - $95
Total: $406 less shipping

Is Llano enough for 1680x1050 gaming? For games like WoW and Starcraft, sure, but for shooters?

Need to pick a game as the benchmark else any specs are meaningless.

yogibbear wrote:

Need to pick a game as the benchmark else any specs are meaningless.

Correct.

If the bet was about "any game", then you're in trouble, because some games are very poorly coded and will run slow even on supposedly-fast hardware.

FuturePastNow wrote:

Let me guess what you and your friend were doing when you set the budget at $420...

Athlon X3 445 - $75
Some AM3 mobo (probably a 760G) - $60
8GB DDR3 - $58
320GB drive - $50
DVD drive - $20
Case w/ PSU that isn't a no-name brand (cheapest is Cooler Master) - $55
Windows 7 Home Premium - $95

That all comes to $413, with NO graphics card, which is sort of necessary to this endeavor. We need to free up $100, so we have to cut corners.

Cheapest Athlon X2 with a heatsink is $60. 4GB DDR3 is $32. No-name case and PSU is $40. DVD drive is axed. With the same hard drive and Windows, that gets us down to $337, leaving about $80 for a graphics card. That will buy a Geforce GT 440 or a Radeon HD 6570. Either should suffice for most games that aren't Crysis at 1680x1050.

Shipping will put you over budget.

The bet is about gaming PC, so OS can be skipped altogether, just replace the OS with HD4850 or GTX 9800+ and you have a Gaming PC that can hold its own against lot of modern games at 1650X1050 resolution.

Jigar wrote:

The bet is talking about just a gaming PC, so OS can be skipped altogether, just replace the OS with HD4850 or GTX 9800+ and you have a Gaming PC that can hold its own against lot of modern games at 1650X1050 resolution.

I disagree. They are comparing with consoles. If there is no OS how can you play this out of the box? Simply put this requirement is not stated we can't assume anything. Depending on whether we have that $100 room we will see how potent the rig will be.

This has no OS, but it will play just about any game spectacularly.

EDIT: The pic got cut off. The final price is $406.94, 424.89 shipped. Did the bet include shipping costs?

Ok, that is more replys than i expected
to clarify things, there does not have to be an OS, and DX11 is not an absolute must-have, we did not clarify what game, all we said is that it has To be post 2008.
going with llano might be a good idea, just worried that it will have a hard time with any game on this resolution.

That is a nice little system you put together there wingless, if i could truly build that for this much $$$ i win
Also shipping costs are not included in the price (luckily)

Flying Fox wrote:

I disagree. They are comparing with consoles. If there is no OS how can you play this out of the box? Simply put this requirement is not stated we can't assume anything. Depending on whether we have that $100 room we will see how potent the rig will be.

Another potential opportunity for wiggle room is who is building it. If the bet is "you can build a gaming PC for $420" and the "you" is a particular end-user (subject to retail pricing and sales taxes) that's one thing; but if the "you" is the generic one that can include, say, OEMs -- who get volume prices on components and pay nothing close to $100 for Windows -- it's something else again. After all, no end users can assemble their own consoles. (And of course OEMs then charge a premium for a "gaming" PC but that is irrelevant to their costs, just as the at-a-loss price of consoles might be). Now, from the description of the payoff -- somebody gets to keep the resulting PC -- it's pretty clear we're talking about end-users. But -- for me at least -- that's not as interesting as the question of how cheaply you can build a machine that is adequate for playing the most widely-popular games. Much of the potential success of Llano, afterall, turns on whether it's adequate for playing games like WoW at typical (especially laptop) resolutions.

Marty_man_X wrote:

Ok, that is more replys than i expected
to clarify things, there does not have to be an OS, and DX11 is not an absolute must-have, we did not clarify what game, all we said is that it has To be post 2008.
going with llano might be a good idea, just worried that it will have a hard time with any game on this resolution.

I nominate Farcry 2 then AT all settings to high except shadows on medium. (Release date was ~late 2008).

Yes, it's not the greatest game. But from a good representation of PC gaming requirements to run and overall general stability it works for your purposes. Plus you can easily tell if it's playable or not due to some requirement for twitch. (No auto-aim, no slow-mo, etc.)

I was able to put this together for 320$
CPU: AMD phenom II X4 955 BE
PSU: chieftec 550w
RAM: Kingmax 2gb ddr3 1333mhz
Motherboard: Asus M5A87
I need a cheap HDD, and some no-name case I might end up going for a Llano, or jumping to some older card like HD 5770 (seems to handle games pretty good)

$309 +tax New (Open Box) Dell Inspiron 570

Dell wrote:

Processor: AMD Athlon II X2 245 (2.9GHz, 2MB)
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium
Inspiron Desktop 570 MiniTower
500 GB SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
4 GiB DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz (4 DIMMs)
16X DVD +/- RW Optical Drive
Piano Black
Dell USB Entry Keyboard
Dell 2-Button Mouse
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit Operating System DVD

$89 +7 shipping New (Open Box) Asus EAH5770 Radeon HD5770 1GB

$92 AMD Phenom II X2 560 Black Edition dual core 3.3 GHz 6 MB L3 cache socket-AM3 processor w/ HSF
or $60 AMD Athlon II X2 250 dual core 3.0 GHz no L3 cache socket-AM3 processor w/ HSF
$65 -12 combo +5 shipping BioStar A870U3 ATX 870+SB850 socket-AM3 motherboard w/ USB3
or $50 -10 combo +5 shipping BioStar A770E3 ATX 770+SB710 socket-AM3 motherboard
$44 -10 code "EMCKCJE24" 2x2 GiB PC3-12800 G.Skill F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ (DDR3-1600, CAS 9, 1.5V)
$89 +7 shipping (Open Box) Asus Radeon HD5770 1GB
$40 500 GB Western Digital WD5000AAKX Caviar Blue 7200 rpm 16 MB cache SATA II hard-drive
$18 Samsung SH-222AB DVD burner
$90 -10 code "EMCKCJH33" -25MIR Antec Three Hundred case + Basiq BP430 power supply
$95 -15 code "EMCKCJE83" Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OEM
That's $464 (or $419) -25 MIR.

I would usually suggest stretching the budget to get a Radeon HD6850 graphics card for better gaming performance.

$17.99 Samsung dvd burner
$24.99 APEX Micro Atx case
$36.99 Seagate Barracuda 250gb
$49.99 Gigabyte Micro Atx GA-M68MT-S2P
$99.99 before MIR Zotac GTS 450 1gb with mail in rebate of $30 to $69.99
$34.95 Xigmatek 400w 80plus psu
$31.99 G SKill ddr3-1333 4gb (2x2gb) memory
$44.99 AMD Athlon II x2 245 2.9ghz (Cpu-only)
$11.99 Cooler Master Heatsink
$94.99 Win 7 Prem sp1
the total before the MIR on the gts 450 was $448.86, after MIR it becomes $418.86
not counting taxes and shipping...

wingless wrote:

This has no OS, but it will play just about any game spectacularly.

EDIT: The pic got cut off. The final price is $406.94, 424.89 shipped. Did the bet include shipping costs?

No, it won't play any game at all without an OS. It won't do anything without an OS
Just to clarify, what do you think we're referring to when we say OS?

-Rhys

If you're getting Windows on a five-finger discount, then I go back to my original plan:

FuturePastNow wrote:

Athlon X3 445 - $75
Some AM3 mobo (probably a 760G) - $60
8GB DDR3 - $58
320GB drive - $50
DVD drive - $20
Case w/ PSU that isn't a no-name brand (cheapest is Cooler Master) - $55

Leaving $100 for a graphics card, at which price your best bet is a GTS 450 or finding a Radeon 6750/6770 on sale.

But I noticed this odd old bird on sale: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125391 Obsolete? Yes. More powerful than anything else at that price? Definitely.

Blazex wrote:

$50 +5 shipping Gigabyte Micro Atx GA-M68MT-S2P

That's $15 less than the AMD 870+SB850 +USB3 (BioStar A870U3) motherboard that I suggested and $58 less than the AMD 970+SB950 +USB3 (ASRock 970 Extreme4) motherboard that Wingless suggested, but really, an NVidia chipset? For the same $55, I'd probably lean toward the AMD 770+SB710 (BioStar A770E3) option, if I couldn't scrounge the $15 to get SATA III and USB 3.

JustAnEngineer wrote:

Blazex wrote:

$50 +5 shipping Gigabyte Micro Atx GA-M68MT-S2P

That's $15 less than the AMD 870+SB850 +USB3 (BioStar A870U3) motherboard that I suggested and $58 less than the AMD 970+SB950 +USB3 (ASRock 970 Extreme4) motherboard that Wingless suggested, but really, an NVidia chipset? For the same $55, I'd probably lean toward the AMD 770+SB710 (BioStar A770E3) option, if I couldn't scrounge the $15 to get SATA III and USB 3.

granted it's not an entirely current board, it works, i'm running the am2+/ddr2 version in my case, it fits within the $420 budget after rebate, that was mostly it... the oc options arent really all that existent, and they are hidden in bios, requiring a button combo to pop up.
but yea a newer amd north bridge is obviously a better choice

Do the parts all have to be new?
also how do you feel about matx boards?

mATX is fine (actually I prefer it to some extent) the components do not all have to be new, I will install windows 7 ultimate 64bit and this ads no extra cost. DDR3 1333mhz is the lowest i can go for RAM, DX11 is not a must-have feature, Far cry 2 will be the game we run just like one of the previous posters wrote,
PS: the CPU has to be AM3

I'm curious to know if you're close to a decision. I like the fact that you have an OS to put on it .

This might be a good combo to build upon:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBund ... mbo.679863
Asus 880G mobo
Radeon 6570
Phenom X3 720
4GB G-skill 1333 RAM
Seagate 1TB drive
Thermaltake A4022 cooler
$295 - $10 MIR = $285

Still need case/psu. Install win7 from usb and use steam for games? (no optical drive).

Might be some other finds in the combos as well.

Edit: another combo for $215; needs video card and optical drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Shopping/Shopping ... mbo.679894

You could also buy a used Core 2 Duo desktop for ~$200 and shove in the biggest graphics card its PSU can run. That'll play most any game. Violates the spirit of the contest, though.

Today I will see what I can throw together
But first I need to go to training so I can only find out in a couple hours, hopefully it`ll be something good

since you stated you have a win 7 on hand and thats eliminated from price, some variations from my previous post

$19.99 + free shipping Sony DVD burner
$35.99 + $5.99 shipping NZXT Gamma mid tower case
$39.99 + $1.99 shipping WD Caviar Blue 500gb sata 6gb/s
$59.99 + $7.56 shipping Biostar am3 870 w/ Sata 6gb/s atx board
$99.99 + $6.98 shipping + $30 MIR ZOTAC Nvidia GTS 450 [ $69.99 after rebate ]
$44.99 + $2.99 shipping + $10 MIR Corsair CX430 430w 80plus psu [ $34.99 after rebate ]
$29.99 + free shipping G Skill 4gb(2x2gb) ddr3-1333
$79.99 + free shipping AMD Athlon II X4 630 2.8ghz Quad Core cpu only, no hsf
$11.99 + $1.99 shipping Cooler Master CPU cooler am3 compatible
Total $422.91 + $27.5 shipping = $450.41 - $30 rebate on gpu - $10 rebate on psu = 410.41

replacing the X4 630 for an Athlon II X3 450 3.1ghz which is a retail box cpu
means you can drop the $11.99+1.99(combined $13.98) shipping on the heatsink, as it wouldn't necessarily be needed with a retail box hsf
would drop the total+shipping price of 450.41 to $436.43 - $40 rebates = $396.43