Hello lads. Long story short, I want to do something fun with another SFF build (haven't built anything in over a year and I'm bored stiff). Unfortunately, cash is a bit tight, so I'd like to accomplish this as cheaply as possible. Now for details. I just want to game, edit photos and watch movies on this. All I need specced is CPU+Motherboard+RAM+GPU capable of playing something like MW3 at 1680x1050. If it can handle that, I'm sure photo editing and movies will fall into place. If it can't be done at or under $400, then I guess I'll just build the case and lurk around for used hardware. The most important consideration is that the motherboard has to be mATX and has to have a uniform color scheme (predominantly blue, red, orange, pink - whatever color is on there should be consistent - no multicolored nonsense). The monitor, PSU and other stuff are outside the $400 budget. I will be starting another thread to whine about monitors if this part of the build gets off the ground. Thanks.
You'll want to keep as much cash as possible free for the GPU for gaming, but the CPU and RAM will help you in the media department. In this low-budget, you get into the space where you need to make those choices again. So, here we go: H61 isn't the end-all ofcourse, but it allows 8GB, a quadcore, and a GTX560 inside the budget, and this particualr board is almost all black, allowing you to run with almost any color you'd care to choose. Ofc, the GTX560 is also black, as is the memory
If you were a woman, I'd snog your brains out. Thank you, and have rep. EDIT: No snogs for you, that page was in GBP Will a HD6770 do all right in place of the 560?
Also the 2500 is only a tiny premium over the current chip and it would be well worth it. A 6770 should be fine but also have a look out for a cheap 460 GTX, 560GTX, 6850, 6870
Guys, $400 isn't a glass ceiling. It's the concrete ceiling of an underground bunker in Siberia that's designed to withstand a direct nuclear strike. I can't go over that even by a penny.
It is a tough one with that budget. Your best bet is probably going to be getting some good deals on used items. i5 750 = $120 460GTX = $120 P55 mobo = $80 4gb DDR3 = $30 Sorry, not too helpful but I scoured Newegg and nothing decent really comes in your price range! Maybe stick a thread in the US marketplace and see if you get any love?
If I go for an i5 2300 and drop to a 6770/5700 for the GPU, I come close to $400. I think I'll leave it at that and wait for next week's cheque. In the meantime, I must start working on transferring doodles to SketchUp. Thanks for the help everyone.
Dollars... CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! (insert meme pic here) I went The AMD route to save some cash, so as to retain the GTX560. You will need it for MW3 with some quality. In the CPU department, you get a dualcore black edition, with a little luck this dualcore will unlock to a proper overclockable quadcore, that should give you enough power to drive your video and image editing needs. 8GB RAM and a proper A-branded (MSI) motherboard round it out. Please note that if you go H67 or H61, you cannot ever overclock a 2500K, so there's really no point in streching to that. I'll see if i can figure out a proper Intel build too, but only if you promise not to snog me
Ok, Intel is a possibility. I'm letting two cores go, opting for the dualcore 2100T, and dropped the GPU down a bit to the MSI HD6850. That Cyclone is a great looking card though
You guys are some serious Ninjas. Many thanks. After a little work, I came up with this (Amazon works better for me because I don't have to pay taxes and have free 2 day shipping): Anyway, is my configuration at $450 worth the extra money over what you guys (murraynt & Xtrafresh) have suggested? I'm getting paid at the end of this month, so I could stretch to that and not lose too much sleep.
Not a penny more he says! HA! Looking at it closely almost all of the extra cash is going to the CPU. Those extra threads are really only worth it of you plan to properly use them, otherwise i'd stick with the dualcore and invest the money in better SSD/HDD, or more materials for modding a nice case The 2100 is a pretty snappy thing. Also, i just noticed, there's a total of $40 rebate possible on my last spec, if you are inclined to use such things.
I was just agonizing over components when my roommate walked by and reminded me that I was getting paid My fault, I'm sorry I know that LR3 and Photoshop like clockspeed more than threads/cores but won't most modern games prefer 4 cores over two? I mean if there's a negligible hit when it comes to gaming, I'd happily save the cash and skip two extra cores. The PSU, SSD and other knick-knacks are already budgeted for, and the case will be scratch-built.
Hummm.. a lot of games are starting to take advantage of multicore CPUS now including Crysis 2 and bfbc2 Mw3 will be fine on a dual core. A dual core cpu just won't have the longevity really but for now it should be ok with 80% of the games.
