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Hey guys! Two days ago, my gaming computer died out of nowhere, right in the middle of my study break and since all of my friends are either working or are on holidays, I'm bored to hell without any decent computer games.
This is why I'd like to put together a new system asap. Unfortunately, I don't have a clue about todays hardware components, which is why I turn to you in search for help.
Being a poor student, my budget is limited (Obama, I feel you man) to USD 650.00. This is what I've come up with. I'd be very grateful if someone could comment on this choice and tell me, whether this is going to work out:
CPU: Intel i5 2300
Mainboard: Gigabyte H67M-D2 B3
Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer 13
RAM: Corsair Value Select 4 GB
GPU: Gigabyte GTX 560 OC
Thank you very much in advance!
- d1v
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It will.
But any reason why you're getting that mobo in particular? You could get away with a cheaper one.
I don't know much about that particular cooler, but you should get the Xigmatek Gaia or Cooler Master Hyper 212+ instead since they're similarly priced and have GREAT reviews. You don't particularly *NEED* them as you can't OC a 2300 much, but it'd be nice to have.
Depending on what resolution you're playing at and what games, your 560 may either be too much, too little, or just right.
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On July 22 2011 05:54 jacosajh wrote:
It will.
But any reason why you're getting that mobo in particular? You could get away with a cheaper one.
I don't know much about that particular cooler, but you should get the Xigmatek Gaia or Cooler Master Hyper 212+ instead since they're similarly priced and have GREAT reviews. You don't particularly *NEED* them as you can't OC a 2300 much, but it'd be nice to have.
Depending on what resolution you're playing at and what games, your 560 may either be too much, too little, or just right.
The reason I chose these specific parts is, that being a Swiss resident, the only cheap possibility to get the parts is this website: Coolers. Here's the link for Mainboards: Mainboards. Maybe you could tell me what Cooler/Mainboard to get from that selection.
As for the purpose of this system: I'd like to play BF3/Brink and so on with maybe medium graphics and a reasonable resolution (i.e. 1280 x 1024). Do you think that this system can do it?
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I wouldn't consider 1280x1024 a reasonable resolution, it's a very low resolution. You do not need a GTX 560 to play games at max settings on this resolution. A Radeon HD5770 or similar can easily play current and upcoming games smoothly at max settings at 1280x1024. If you want medium settings, an even less powerful card would be capable.
You don't need an aftermarket hetasink since the provided Intel heatsink is adequate for the processor.
You're also missing a case and power supply.
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Don't get the overclocked GTX 560, just get a regular clocked one for cheaper. It'll save you money, and you can OC it yourself in like 2 minutes with a program you download online that'll do the same thing for you.
Although I've heard that if you're not getting hte Ti version there's better deals to be had, can't be sure. And I'm not sure 1280x1024 constitutes "reasonable resolution" anymore :p. But yes it could easily do it.
If you're not OCing you don't need to buy a separate cooler either, the i5 you bought should come with one.
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On July 22 2011 06:25 skyR wrote:
I wouldn't consider 1280x1024 a reasonable resolution, it's a very low resolution. You do not need a GTX 560 to play games at max settings on this resolution. A Radeon HD5770 or similar can easily play current and upcoming games smoothly at max settings at 1280x1024. If you want medium settings, an even less powerful card would be capable.
You don't need an aftermarket hetasink since the provided Intel heatsink is adequate for the processor.
You're also missing a case and power supply.
Oh, I wasn't aware of that. Thanks for pointing it out. However, I want this PC to be up to date for the next 2 or so years. Don't you think I should go for the most powerful card within my budget? I'm kind of unsure on this. Oh btw, I already own a case and a power supply (450 W).
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On July 22 2011 06:27 FabledIntegral wrote:
Don't get the overclocked GTX 560, just get a regular clocked one for cheaper. It'll save you money, and you can OC it yourself in like 2 minutes with a program you download online that'll do the same thing for you.
Although I've heard that if you're not getting hte Ti version there's better deals to be had, can't be sure. And I'm not sure 1280x1024 constitutes "reasonable resolution" anymore :p. But yes it could easily do it.
If you're not OCing you don't need to buy a separate cooler either, the i5 you bought should come with one.
Ok, I'll keep that in mind, in case I'll buy a GTX 560 at all. Do you happen know the name of the OC-program you mentioned?
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On July 22 2011 06:33 d1v wrote:Show nested quote +On July 22 2011 06:27 FabledIntegral wrote:
Don't get the overclocked GTX 560, just get a regular clocked one for cheaper. It'll save you money, and you can OC it yourself in like 2 minutes with a program you download online that'll do the same thing for you.
Although I've heard that if you're not getting hte Ti version there's better deals to be had, can't be sure. And I'm not sure 1280x1024 constitutes "reasonable resolution" anymore :p. But yes it could easily do it.
If you're not OCing you don't need to buy a separate cooler either, the i5 you bought should come with one. Ok, I'll keep that in mind, in case I'll buy a GTX 560 at all. Do you happen know the name of the OC-program you mentioned?
MSI Afterburner.
If you have an AMD card you can use Sapphire Trixx, which I prefer over Afterburner for my 6650M card on my laptop. I use Afterburner for my GTX 460.
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To add to everything else everyone said, make sure your PSU actually has the connectors you need for your GPU. You need a 6-pin PCIe in the very least for a decent GPU (i.e. 5770); two for more powerful ones (i.e. 560)
GPUs usually come with a 2-molex-to-6-pin-PCIe adapter if you have them available. Like all of my 5770's came with them. I'm not sure about the ones requiring two, but if you already have 1 6-pin PCIe and have two molex, you could use that.
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On July 22 2011 06:31 d1v wrote:Show nested quote +On July 22 2011 06:25 skyR wrote:
I wouldn't consider 1280x1024 a reasonable resolution, it's a very low resolution. You do not need a GTX 560 to play games at max settings on this resolution. A Radeon HD5770 or similar can easily play current and upcoming games smoothly at max settings at 1280x1024. If you want medium settings, an even less powerful card would be capable.
You don't need an aftermarket hetasink since the provided Intel heatsink is adequate for the processor.
You're also missing a case and power supply. Oh, I wasn't aware of that. Thanks for pointing it out. However, I want this PC to be up to date for the next 2 or so years. Don't you think I should go for the most powerful card within my budget? I'm kind of unsure on this. Oh btw, I already own a case and a power supply (450 W).
If you plan on buying a 1080p monitor sometime in the distant future than sure but if you don't have any intention to do so than it's an utter waste.
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Hey,
I'm not sure if you're going to need a seperate CPU cooler for this build. The i5-2300 doesn't have any overclocking, only the K-series intel CPU's have any meaningful overclocking (turboboost doesn't count). The h6 series motherboards are not capable of overclocking. As well, the 2nd-gen Intel i-series CPU's are extremely efficient and therefore do not generate as much heat and therefore do reasonably well on stock coolers. There are many people who overclocked their i5-2500k to around 4.5ghz stable with a stock cooler. Taking the cooler out of the build would save yourself $50 But if you get decide to purchase the cooler, it wouldn't be a bad decision either because personally myself I like it when things are nice and cool.
As someone else mentioned before, you can just get the gtx560 regular version and overclock it yourself with MSI's afterburner software. That would save you $20 or so. Hope this helps.
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On July 22 2011 06:31 d1v wrote:Show nested quote +On July 22 2011 06:25 skyR wrote:
I wouldn't consider 1280x1024 a reasonable resolution, it's a very low resolution. You do not need a GTX 560 to play games at max settings on this resolution. A Radeon HD5770 or similar can easily play current and upcoming games smoothly at max settings at 1280x1024. If you want medium settings, an even less powerful card would be capable.
You don't need an aftermarket hetasink since the provided Intel heatsink is adequate for the processor.
You're also missing a case and power supply. Oh, I wasn't aware of that. Thanks for pointing it out. However, I want this PC to be up to date for the next 2 or so years. Don't you think I should go for the most powerful card within my budget? I'm kind of unsure on this. Oh btw, I already own a case and a power supply (450 W).
No, you shouldn't buy the most powerful card, although it's not even remotely in your budget. If you buy the most powerful card you might as well get a better processor with it, and now your budget is skyrocketing.
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On July 22 2011 06:49 FabledIntegral wrote:Show nested quote +On July 22 2011 06:33 d1v wrote:On July 22 2011 06:27 FabledIntegral wrote:
Don't get the overclocked GTX 560, just get a regular clocked one for cheaper. It'll save you money, and you can OC it yourself in like 2 minutes with a program you download online that'll do the same thing for you.
Although I've heard that if you're not getting hte Ti version there's better deals to be had, can't be sure. And I'm not sure 1280x1024 constitutes "reasonable resolution" anymore :p. But yes it could easily do it.
If you're not OCing you don't need to buy a separate cooler either, the i5 you bought should come with one. Ok, I'll keep that in mind, in case I'll buy a GTX 560 at all. Do you happen know the name of the OC-program you mentioned? MSI Afterburner. If you have an AMD card you can use Sapphire Trixx, which I prefer over Afterburner for my 6650M card on my laptop. I use Afterburner for my GTX 460.
Thank you, I'll make sure to check it out.
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On July 22 2011 06:54 jacosajh wrote:
To add to everything else everyone said, make sure your PSU actually has the connectors you need for your GPU. You need a 6-pin PCIe in the very least for a decent GPU (i.e. 5770); two for more powerful ones (i.e. 560)
GPUs usually come with a 2-molex-to-6-pin-PCIe adapter if you have them available. Like all of my 5770's came with them. I'm not sure about the ones requiring two, but if you already have 1 6-pin PCIe and have two molex, you could use that.
Ok, I'll check my PSU for said connectors then. Do you think that 450 W are enough to power the system adequately?
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Hmm, it seems the system I thought up is an overkill. If I were to ask you to put together a system that runs BF3/similar games smoothly on medium-high settings with a 1280 x 1024 resolution, what would you choose?
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A quality 450w unit is more than enough to power such a configuration. You got a power supply that was included with your case I pressume? This would be iffy...
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On July 22 2011 07:16 skyR wrote:
A quality 450w unit is more than enough to power such a configuration. You got a power supply that was included with your case I pressume? This would be iffy...
No, I bought one extra. The brand is called "Raptoxx", rather unknown I think.
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On July 22 2011 07:14 d1v wrote:
Hmm, it seems the system I thought up is an overkill. If I were to ask you to put together a system that runs BF3/similar games smoothly on medium-high settings with a 1280 x 1024 resolution, what would you choose?
Why make a build that only runs medium settings if you can get one that'll play high/ultra with that budget^^. Unless you're trying to cut costs. Then you could get something like a GTS 450 and i3 2100, which would cost you about $70 (after rebate) and $90 respectively (i3 2100 is on sale at Frys for $90, it's usually a little bit more, like $100).
What make is your PSU? While whatever you say will mean nothing to me I'm sure someone else will be able to tell you if it's adequate^^.
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On July 22 2011 07:25 FabledIntegral wrote:Show nested quote +On July 22 2011 07:14 d1v wrote:
Hmm, it seems the system I thought up is an overkill. If I were to ask you to put together a system that runs BF3/similar games smoothly on medium-high settings with a 1280 x 1024 resolution, what would you choose? Why make a build that only runs medium settings if you can get one that'll play high/ultra with that budget^^. Unless you're trying to cut costs. Then you could get something like a GTS 450 and i3 2100, which would cost you about $70 (after rebate) and $90 respectively (i3 2100 is on sale at Frys for $90, it's usually a little bit more, like $100). What make is your PSU? While whatever you say will mean nothing to me I'm sure someone else will be able to tell you if it's adequate^^.
That's what I did first, but then I was told that the system proposed by me was in fact way over the top. I can actually afford the system I posted first, it's just that I was told it's unneccessary.
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On July 22 2011 07:29 d1v wrote:Show nested quote +On July 22 2011 07:25 FabledIntegral wrote:On July 22 2011 07:14 d1v wrote:
Hmm, it seems the system I thought up is an overkill. If I were to ask you to put together a system that runs BF3/similar games smoothly on medium-high settings with a 1280 x 1024 resolution, what would you choose? Why make a build that only runs medium settings if you can get one that'll play high/ultra with that budget^^. Unless you're trying to cut costs. Then you could get something like a GTS 450 and i3 2100, which would cost you about $70 (after rebate) and $90 respectively (i3 2100 is on sale at Frys for $90, it's usually a little bit more, like $100). What make is your PSU? While whatever you say will mean nothing to me I'm sure someone else will be able to tell you if it's adequate^^. That's what I did first, but then I was told that the system proposed by me was in fact way over the top. I can actually afford the system I posted first, it's just that I was told it's unneccessary.
Unnecessary... at that resolution.
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EPT
