Building a Budget AMD Gaming Rig

[crunchbite]

I'm writing a quick parts guide for a few sites that I visit and I want some feedback. In specific I need input on the motherboard. The NB is a 770, but I was wondering if it is worth it to find a board with an 800 series NB? Input?

Building a gaming rig doesn't have to cost you an arm and a leg. In this article I'm going to give you a list of current parts for under $600 before tax.

I've chosen a Phenom X4 CPU for the build, so you won't have to waste money on a new CPU during a future upgrade. The motherboard is a midrange
board with built in 8 channel audio and plenty of peripheral jacks. In this build, I've included 4Gb of DDR3 memory which is sufficient to run any program
or game without any problem. Of course, there is room to add another 4Gb later on if you require the upgrade. The ATI 5770 that is included is powerful
enough to run any new release at a resonably high graphics setting. I've included a 1Tb Samgsung SATA hard drive, which is currently one of the fastest
on the market. The case and power supply were both chosen for their upgradability. The case has plenty of room for just about any upgrade and the
power supply has enough headroom for a Crossfire system.

Processor - AMD Phenom X4 3.0GHz 945 Quad Core - $130
Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-MA770T AM3 ATX - $80
RAM - 4Gb G.Skill Ripjaw DDR3 1333 - $45
Graphics Card - HIS Radeon 5770 1Gb - $135
Hard Drive - 1Tb Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ - $60
Case - NZXT M59 Black Mid Tower - $50
Power Supply - Rosewill RV2-700w ATX12v v2.3 - $65
Optical Drive - LG GH24NS50 24x DVD RW Drive - $20

Subtotal = $585
Total (After tax 13%)= $661

These prices were taken from multiple online stores and averaged. The prices for these components were their normal retail price, not a sale price.
So it is possible that you could build this machine for much cheaper then the listed price here.

 

[_dangtx_]

if its a gaming rig and the resolutions used will be important, cut some corners and do better in the gpu department.

minimum would be a 6850.

its difficult though, as for lower resolutions that phenom's l3 cache will have better fps than an athlon's nonexistent said cache

 

[crunchbite]

I could get a cheaper CPU like an X3 3.2Ghz which was something like $80. So I could get that 5770 replaced with a 6850.

 

[_dangtx_]

you can still cut a bit more, like get a cm 371 or such.
ps04b for cool looks around 35 bucks too.
doesnt seem much, but 10 here 20 there and you get a better gpu before you know it

i would change the psu too you know. try to look for a earthwatts 500 or such, the above wont pull more than

300 watts on the 12v so even a 430 earthwatts will do. or ocrsair 400 watter.

 

[crunchbite]

So this is the revised price list.

Building a gaming rig doesn't have to cost you an arm and a leg. In this article I'm going to give you a list of current parts for under $600 before tax...

Processor - AMD Athlon II X3 3.2GHz Tri Core - $80
Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-MA770T AM3 ATX - $80
RAM - 4Gb G.Skill Ripjaw DDR3 1333 - $45
Graphics Card - HIS Radeon 6870 1Gb - $220
Hard Drive - 1Tb Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ - $60
Case - XCLIO Godspeed - $40
Power Supply - Thermaltake TR2-500w ATX12v v2.3 - $55
Optical Drive - LG GH24NS50 24x DVD RW Drive - $20

Subtotal = $600 ($550 with a 6850)
Total (After tax 13%)= $678

These prices were taken from multiple online stores and averaged. The prices for these components were their normal retail price, not a sale price.
So it is possible that you could build this machine for much cheaper then the listed price here.

 

[_dangtx_]

hmmm....

or drop the tri and get a duallie?

6950 for gpu?

case.....


Buy Silverstone Technology [PS04B] Silverstone Precision PS04B ATX Black Mid Tower Case 4X5.25 1X3.5 5X3.5INT No PS

psu Buy CORSAIR [CMPSU-400CX] Corsair CMPSU-400CX 400CX 400W ATX 12V 30A Power Supply Active PFC 120MM Fan



power consumption wise


the system minus video card will pull maybe 100-125 watts..

and

Palit GeForce GTX 560 Ti Sonic 1 GB Review - Page 26/32 | techPowerUp

Corsair CX400W Power Supply Review | Hardware Secrets





in that price range you could get 880/890 chipsetted board.



Corsair CX400W Power Supply Review | Hardware Secrets

 

[crunchbite]

Don't you think the 6950/560 and a dual chip will create a bottleneck? CPU heavy games will also suffer from the lose of that extra core. The price difference isn't really worth the down grade as well.

Also, I feel safer with a 500w for upgrading headroom.

I agree with finding a decent 880 board though.

 

[_dangtx_]

probably, but those games are still few and at 1920x1080 the gpu still is king,again,for most things



im looking at it this way, either a strong enough mobo(50-60$) to keep a quad at bay at stock or so speeds, or....

a better oc mobo but a duallie cpu, but you oc so since you have most proggies on dual threads anyway, the faster clock

speed would actually make more difference.

 

[draemn]

I'm of the mindset of not going dual core. A lot of people argue that many programs are only single and dual threaded, but if you plan to keep that CPU for more than a year, this argument will probably be wrong. It's becoming very common to program for multi-threaded everything (although DX9 is limited to 2 cores) and I would rather spend an extra 50% now for the possibility of everything coming in multi-threaded flavour in the next year.

Just really becomes a matter of preference as to if you expect to be using the extra cores or not (which I do tend to have many multi-threaded programs).

 

[SneakySnake]

I'd stick with at least a triple core. Tom's ran an article a while back and the gain from going up from a dual core to a tri is quite large, while the gain from going from a tri to a quad was pretty minimal.

Get that triple core, a decent 880 board, and don't skimp out on the PSU like dangtx said. I recommend Corsair strongly, but Antec makes some good stuff too.

Since your not going crossfire, I'd look into getting a 5850 from somewhere for around $200, It's around the same level of performance as a 6870.

EDIT: and get a Gigabyte or Asus (or Asrock) board.