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I'm interested in building a computer for light gaming (mostly Dota2 at 1080p). Here's what I've come up with so far:

Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor
MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Kingston Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk
Zotac GeForce GTX 750 1GB Video Card
Silverstone PS08B (Black) MicroATX Mid Tower Case
FSP Group 300W 80+ Certified Micro ATX Power Supply

Obviously, I have prioritized price, size, and quietness (hence the Maxwell GPU). I have no particular budget (sorry, I know that's really vague), and I live in the United States (not near a Microcenter).

My questions:
Would I see a significant increase in performance if I upgraded to a 4-core CPU or to a 750Ti? The 750Ti might be more future-proof because it has 2GB of GDDR5. What about going from, say, 1.03 GHZ to 1.15 GHz? Any real difference?
I'm pretty sure the answer is no, but would I see a significant increase in performance if I upgraded the RAM (quantity or clockspeed)?
Is the FSP Group PSU reliable? I know nothing about that brand.

Finally, are there any additional comments or suggestions you would like to put forth?

Also, I will not need an HDD (plenty of those laying around here), a monitor, keyboard, mouse, or OS license, etc. (have all of those, too). I'm only buying items in the categories I've specified above.

Any help is appreciated. Thank you.

For your stated purpose most of that looks fine.

I personally would go with a EVGA Superclocked 750 Ti over the Zotac 750. The EVGA Ti is a bit faster and has twice the ram. Last year I would have said a gig of video ram was plenty but that is changing some with newer games. Plus the EVGA card gets you three years of warranty versus Zotac's two years. An EVGA warranty is dang good, I have never ever had a hassle out of them over a RMA. So, in my opinion, its worth the $40 more you would pay compared to the Zotac 750.

I have never heard of FSP Group power supplies. That alone would make me turn around and walk away. The PSU is the one thing you really need to go with a reliable name brand for. One bad PSU can fry everything else in the system. Give Seasonic, EVGA or Corsair, just to name a few, a look.

On the CPU front you should be OK with the i3. However if more games start to make use of multiple cores that might change. I personally would lean towards a i5. All depends on what you want to spend. Just over a year ago I built my system and I went with a i5-3570k. Now I wish I had went the i7-3770k for various reasons that have nothing to do with gaming.

Over all your choices are fine. As you can tell I like to do a bit a future proofing if I can. Might have something to do with me keeping a computer for around 8 years before I look to upgrade. My last system was a 3.0 GHz core duo with a 8800 GTS video card if that tells you anything. It ran fine for 8 years then the video card died on me and the cpu cooler started making noises and I decided not to mess around with it and just replaced the whole thing.

If you mostly play free-to-play games your hardware requirements will be far lower than if you want to play triple-A games like Crysis 3 or the new Tomb Raider. FTP games need as many players as possible to make a profit, so they are designed to at least run on very low spec computers.

Tom's Hardware did a performance review of DOTA 2, and the GTX 750 should get about 85 FPS at 1080p at max settings. (the 750 & 750 Ti weren't out at the time, so you have to extrapolate from the other cards' numbers.) A Core i3 will also be fine for running that game at 80+ FPS.

The 750 Ti looks to be 10% - 20% faster than the 750. That's noticeable, but only just. The extra memory might make a bigger difference in the long run.

If you want more futureproof, I'd say get a Core i5 and either GPU, understanding that demanding games will really make you want a new video card in a year or two. If you want cheaper now or you mainly want to play free-to-play games, the i3 & 750 are fine.

Antec makes good power supplies, even at the cheap end of the price range. The Antec VP-450 is about $35, reliable, and efficient, and it has a single 6-pin PCIe connector in case you want to drop a bigger video card in your rig in a year or two. Here's a review: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/ ... iew/1487/1

Looks like a good build in general.

1) Don't bother with a quad-core processor unless you're going to improve both the graphics card and the power supply
2) A 2GB graphics card would be my recommendation
3) 8GB of RAM should be plenty (same as next-gen consoles) and speed is irrelevant when you have a seperate graphics card.
4) FSP is a long-standing, reputable PSU manufacturer. They even make PSU's for other more popular brands occasionally.

Buy a bigger PSU now if there's a possibility you'll want a better processor or graphics card in the next 3 years. The Corsair CX430 is very reasonable and would let you get both a quad-core and something like a GTX760 or R9 270X if you later decided that you really wanted to do more gaming.

Khali wrote:

I have never heard of FSP Group power supplies. That alone would make me turn around and walk away. The PSU is the one thing you really need to go with a reliable name brand for. One bad PSU can fry everything else in the system. Give Seasonic, EVGA or Corsair, just to name a few, a look.

Never heard of Fortron?

Melvar wrote:

Antec makes good power supplies, even at the cheap end of the price range. The Antec VP-450 is about $35, reliable, and efficient, and it has a single 6-pin PCIe connector in case you want to drop a bigger video card in your rig in a year or two. Here's a review: hardwaresecrets.com/article/Antec-VP450-Power-Supply-Review/1487/1

Comments like these are dangerous. Antec doesn't make (and has never made) any power supplies. Antec just put their own label on PSU that has been manufactured by FSP, Delta, Seasonic, Enhance, CWT etc.

As for the build, it's hard to recommend any dual core part for gaming. At least four cores, and if rig is not pure gaming machine, at least six cores.

Your component choices are okay. Have you compared them to the recommendations in the latest System Guide?
http://techreport.com/review/26082/tr-f ... stem-guide

I would probably select a quad-core CPU like the $200 Core i5-4570. This should last you for a long time. If you get into more demanding games and decide to upgrade your graphics card in a year or two, your CPU will still be sufficient.

FSP power supplies are acceptable. I would echo Chrispy_'s suggestion of getting a PSU like the $45 -20MIR Corsair CX430 or $53 -10MIR Corsair CX430M with a 6-pin PCIe connector and enough capacity to power a low-to-mid range graphics card. I usually look for 80+ Bronze or better efficiency, an open ventilation path and a large fan. Here are a few units with enough capacity and the pair of PCIe connectors needed to power even better graphics cards:
$58 -20MIR Corsair CX600
$60 Corsair CX500
$66¼ SeaSonic S12II 520
$70 -20MIR Corsair CX500M (modular)
$71 SeaSonic SSP-450RT (80+ gold)

Check out EVGA's 2GB GTX 750ti superclocked ACX card, it comes with a 6 pin power connector "that you can hook up if you want...but is not needed" to allow for extra wattage for I would imagine a hefty overclock. Also EVGA makes the best Nvidia cards along with having that best customer support on the market.

As for the CPU the i3-4130 is a quick CPU and should work fine for what you want from it right at this moment. BUT what about the FUTURE when you need 4 real cores? Do you plan on upgrading the CPU for $189 to a Intel Core i5-4430 Haswell 3.0GHz CPU down the road. then you end up owning a $126 i3 dual core that is not doing a darn thing.
I Highly Suggest you spend the extra $64 and get your quad core CPU now and future proof your system since in 2 years I think you will be kicking yourself for not getting a quad core CPU.
Also $64 now is a lot better then 180+$ a year or 2 from now.

Also Do you live near a MICROCENTER store?? If you do get your MB and CPU there you will save 25-35% easy.
Jesus I am looking at the bundles now you can get a MSI Z87-G41 PC Mate Motherboard and a i7-4770k for a scant $305 dollars. Drop down to a Core i5 4670K and the same motherboard and your at only $220 Microcenters Intel Core i5-4570 3.2GHz is only $160 only $30 more then the i3-4130 you listed. MC also has the 3.6ghz i3-4340 for $139
That is so freaking cheap it makes me sick and want to build computers all day long.

vargis14 wrote:

As for the CPU the i3-4130 is a quick CPU and should work fine for what you want from it right at this moment. BUT what about the FUTURE when you need 4 real cores? Do you plan on upgrading the CPU for $189 to a Intel Core i5-4430 Haswell 3.0GHz CPU down the road. then you end up owning a $126 i3 dual core that is not doing a darn thing.
I Highly Suggest you spend the extra $64 and get your quad core CPU now and future proof your system since in 2 years I think you will be kicking yourself for not getting a quad core CPU.
Also $64 now is a lot better then 180+$ a year or 2 from now.

Current pricing says i5-4670K is best choice. There is no reason to buy any cheaper quad core because of small price difference, overclockability and selling price.

Thanks for the responses. They have been very informative. I've decided to go with an i5-4430 and the EVGA 750Ti. Also, I'm going for the Seasonic S12II PSU.

One last question: the RAM I've selected operates at 1.65V, which is above the recommended maximum (for Haswell) of 1.575V. Could this cause any problems? Considering how much RAM Kingston sells, it seems really unlikely that they would ship a product that wouldn't work properly with the latest CPUs, but it can't hurt to ask.

veritassauce wrote:

The $90 Kingston KHX16C9B1BK2/8X RAM I've selected operates at 1.65V, which is above the recommended maximum (for Haswell) of 1.575V. Could this cause any problems? Considering how much RAM Kingston sells, it seems really unlikely that they would ship a product that wouldn't work properly with the latest CPUs, but it can't hurt to ask.

How does this look, instead?
$70 2x4 GiB PC3-12800 G.Skill F3-1600C9D-8GAO (DDR3-1600, CAS 9, 1.5 V)
$95 or $91 2x4 GiB PC3-12800 Crucial BLS2K4G3D1609ES2LX0 (DDR3-1600, CAS 9, 1.35 V, low profile)

Wow, thanks. Went with the G.Skill (because it's slightly less expensive).

veritassauce wrote:

Thanks for the responses. They have been very informative. I've decided to go with an i5-4430 and the EVGA 750Ti. Also, I'm going for the Seasonic S12II PSU.

i5-4430 is way overpriced over i5-4670K. You will regret that choice.

Dual core in 2014... not the best decision.

Wicked Mystic wrote:

i5-4430 is way overpriced over i5-4670K. You will regret that choice

You utterly fail at basic math:

i5-4430 = $59.38 per GHz
i5 4670K = $63.16 per GHz

Not only is the 4430 cheaper (and this is clearly not an overclocking build), it's also better value for money.
Why on earch would he regret saving money and getting a better deal, exactly?

$195 -15 code "31MARMAD07" Intel Core i5-4440 quad-core 3.1 GHz
That's the best deal on a quad-core Haswell at Newegg today.

Chrispy_ wrote:

This is clearly not an overclocking build.

The bottom-of-the-barrel H81 motherboard makes that painfully clear.

Chrispy_ wrote:

Wicked Mystic wrote:

i5-4430 is way overpriced over i5-4670K. You will regret that choice

You utterly fail at basic math:

i5-4430 = $59.38 per GHz
i5 4670K = $63.16 per GHz

Not only is the 4430 cheaper (and this is clearly not an overclocking build), it's also better value for money.
Why on earch would he regret saving money and getting a better deal, exactly?

You did take turbo frequency into account also?

Again, nobody buys used i5-4430 for good price because of overclocking. i5-4670K totally different thing.

JustAnEngineer wrote:

The bottom-of-the-barrel H81 motherboard makes that painfully clear.

And again, getting good price for i5-4430 if selling later is much harder than getting good price for i5-4670K.

i5-2500K still sells pretty good prices. That's 3 years old processor!

I'm probably going to use this CPU for more than 3 years; in fact, I'll probably use it for long enough that resale value is not a consideration.

veritassauce wrote:

I'm probably going to use this CPU for more than 3 years; in fact, I'll probably use it for long enough that resale value is not a consideration.

In that case you probably will overclock it when it becomes too slow?

In any case, remember to buy better cooling. Intel stock cooler is totally crap.

Wicked Mystic wrote:

In any case, remember to buy better cooling. Intel stock cooler is totally crap.

Intel stock HSFs are actually pretty decent these days as long as you're not overclocking. I would suggest trying the stock HSF before you go buying aftermarket.

Please, just stop. You're either trolling or genuinely mistaken about a lot of things:

Wicked Mystic wrote:

You did take turbo frequency into account also?

You must know the cost if you're making claims like this:

Wicked Mystic wrote:

i5-4430 is way overpriced over i5-4670K

I gave you cost-per-GHz so all you had to do was divide cost by that number. But to save you the effort of even basic math, yes; I did take turbo frequency into account. Sowing doubt with damning comments like this after the OP has already purchased wouldn't be constructive even if you were right:

Wicked Mystic wrote:

You will regret that choice

When giving advice that is starkly different to what everyone else in the thread is saying, it's common etiquette to explain why you think your suggestion is better, ideally backed up with links and preferably before it's too late to be of use to the person asking the question.

Wicked Mystic wrote:

Again, nobody buys used i5-4430 for good price because of overclocking. i5-4670K totally different thing.

I don't know where you get these crazy ideas from, but non-K Sandy and Ivy processors held their used value just fine.


More importantly than that, I still don't get why you think overclocking an expensive K-series chip and an expensive motherboard with a Z-series chipset even belong in this thread where the OP and all replies (apart from yours) have been about low-cost and within the constraints of low-Wattage PSUs.

DPete27 wrote:

Wicked Mystic wrote:

In any case, remember to buy better cooling. Intel stock cooler is totally crap.

Intel stock HSFs are actually pretty decent these days as long as you're not overclocking. I would suggest trying the stock HSF before you go buying aftermarket.

In fact Haswell CPU's may throttle with stock cooler, without overclocking. Intel put crap paste between IHS and processor, so CPU core gets very hot. So stock cooler is not even adequate and cannot be recommended.

Chrispy_ wrote:

Please, just stop. You're either trolling or genuinely mistaken about a lot of things:

I don't think so.

Chrispy_ wrote:

You must know the cost if you're making claims like this:

Wicked Mystic wrote:

i5-4430 is way overpriced over i5-4670K

I gave you cost-per-GHz so all you had to do was divide cost by that number. But to save you the effort of even basic math, yes; I did take turbo frequency into account.

You probably have noticed that on high end you pay much more for extra. Compare Pentium CPU's that way, MHz vs price. Then move to high end CPU's.

Chrispy_ wrote:

Sowing doubt with damning comments like this after the OP has already purchased wouldn't be constructive even if you were right:

Wicked Mystic wrote:

You will regret that choice

When giving advice that is starkly different to what everyone else in the thread is saying, it's common etiquette to explain why you think your suggestion is better, ideally backed up with links and preferably before it's too late to be of use to the person asking the question.

Everryone else may be those who just look for benchmarks. I know these guys. Buy Core 2 Duo, not Core 2 Quad because Core 2 Duo is better in benchmarks. And we all know what happened. Core 2 Quad is still usable, Core 2 Duo is not.

Repeating:

- Overclocking i5-4670K is much easier. When processor feels slow, it's much cheaper to overclock current processor than buy new processor, memory and motherboard.

- Sale price for i5-4670K will most likely be much higher.

- Price difference between i5-4430 and i5-4670K is small.

I cannot see any reason to buy i5-4430.

Chrispy_ wrote:

Wicked Mystic wrote:

Again, nobody buys used i5-4430 for good price because of overclocking. i5-4670K totally different thing.

I don't know where you get these crazy ideas from, but non-K Sandy and Ivy processors held their used value just fine.

New parts or used parts? New parts, yes. Used parts, no.

Those who buy used parts are usually people that know something. So if there is available i5-4430, i5-4670 and i5-4670K, that K model is likely to be most popular.

Chrispy_ wrote:

More importantly than that, I still don't get why you think overclocking an expensive K-series chip and an expensive motherboard with a Z-series chipset even belong in this thread where the OP and all replies (apart from yours) have been about low-cost and within the constraints of low-Wattage PSUs.

Because many people don't bother about overclocking when buying parts. Then couple of years later computer feels slow. New rig 600. Overclocking? Oh no, I saved 50 dollars when buying non overclockable parts. It usually happens that way.

Your build will do what you want but for some good future-proofing I would suggest a quad core i5. Games are unlikely to need it anytime soon, but AV, OS bloat, and other utilities will clog the gears so having lots of throughput is useful. The i5 4570 probably offers the best performance vs price if Microcenter is not an option. Likewise a 750 will work, but a 750ti offers a substantial performance increase (20% more shader cores, twice as much memory, faster clock) for a modest price increase.

SSD is fine but at some point you're going to need a mechanical drive to hold more stuff. You don't need it now, just something to plan for in the future i.e. be looking for a good deal on a highly-rated 1TB mechanical for media and inactive game storage.

300W might not be enough cowbell, as PSU output is known to degrade over time. I suggest something in the 400-450W range--Newegg regularly runs excellent deals on Corsair PSUs.

You should go into this expecting to use this machine for 5+ years, because hardware performance and hardware requirements don't increase like they used to. Five years ago I would have recommended going with the bare minimum because whatever you get will be obsolete as soon as you drive it off the lot, but that strategy is as dead as Julius Caesar.