Low Budget Gaming rig

aperture_nuig

Hi all,
so last thread was fail, 'nuff said.


Item Price
Total build cost: €456.48 (inc delivery Free!)
ASRock S1155 Intel H61M DDR3 mATX €49.19
XIGMATEK Asgard Chassis €32.52
Intel Core i3-2100 3.10GHz LGA1155 3MB €105.45
XFX 550 Watt Core Edition Full Wired 80+ Bronze PSU €51.20
Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) HyperX Blu DDR3 1600MHz DIMM 240-pin CL9 €36.33
Asus GeForce GTX 560 Ti 822MHz 1GB GDDR5 PCI-Express HDMI €181.79


This is a copy/paste of the build Serephucus posted in it, and I'd like to start it from here if that's alright!link to post

Budget is as low as I can get it, but if there's a big difference that €20 can make in a component I can stretch. My resolution is 1080p.

I'm basically trying to this build as cheap as I can! can anyone suggest any improvements or am I good to go? :pac:

nesf

For an extra €40 you can get one of these: http://www.dabs.ie/products/gigabyte-ati-radeon-6950-870mhz-1gb-pci-e-hdmi-oc-windforce-3x-7QM5.html?refs=55570000-464800000&src=3

It's slightly better but not by a whole lot. Personally I'd hold onto the €40 and buy a game with it. But if you want more performance that's the area I'd upgrade.

There's a comparison here if you care: http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-6950-1gb-vs-geforce-gtx-560-ti-review/1

The benefits are there but really not worth it tbh.

Serephucus

What are your plans for the machine? What are you going to be using it for?

What sort of upgrades (if any) do you think you might do in the next year or so?

Depending on what you answer to those, we might tweak the power supply and/or motherboard, but otherwise I'd say you're good to go.

aperture_nuig

I would be hoping to upgrade the CPU and maybe graphics in a year or so, if I got a 6850(which doesn't seem to be that much worse than the 560ti considering the ~ €50 gap) and put it into a better mobo for crossfire etc? or maybe just a better PSU with the same mobo?

nesf

aperture_nuig wrote: »

I would be hoping to upgrade the CPU and maybe graphics in a year or so, if I got a 6850(which doesn't seem to be that much worse than the 560ti considering the ~ €50 gap) and put it into a better mobo for crossfire etc? or maybe just a better PSU with the same mobo?

If you're planning on upgrading in a year then a 6850 is fine really. I'd spend the money now preparing for that future upgrade. Better mobo/PSU/whatever.

aperture_nuig

nesf wrote: »

If you're planning on upgrading in a year then a 6850 is fine really. I'd spend the money now preparing for that future upgrade. Better mobo/PSU/whatever.

Would the above PSU be suitable for a Crossfire config? I can judge mobo's well enough for myself it's just power requirements and stuff. And thanks for the help lads ye've made this a lot easier. I could have spent ages googling the different modles of boards and GFX etc. but it's a lot handier to ask people that can give you an unbiased opinion on the tech.

nesf

aperture_nuig wrote: »

Would the above PSU be suitable for a Crossfire config? I can judge mobo's well enough for myself it's just power requirements and stuff. And thanks for the help lads ye've made this a lot easier. I could have spent ages googling the different modles of boards and GFX etc. but it's a lot handier to ask people that can give you an unbiased opinion on the tech.

Edit: Got my numbers wrong.

This would give you plenty of headroom with 2 x 6850s: http://www.dabs.ie/products/corsair-memory-700w-gaming-series-gs700-high-performance-psu-7JSR.html?refs=55430000-50113&src=3


This is what I'm using with 2 x 6970s: http://www.dabs.ie/products/corsair-850w-corsair-modular-psu-5KBN.html?refs=55440000&src=2

Serephucus

If you're going Crossfire/SLI, you'll need a different motherboard.

Also, if you're going multi-GPU, you'll need a better CPU. While you don't have to, I would seriously recommend overclocking, when the graphics cards go in, in which case you'll want a Z68 board, so swap the one listed for this.

Along with the PSU nesf's suggested.

aperture_nuig

Serephucus wrote: »

If you're going Crossfire/SLI, you'll need a different motherboard.

Also, if you're going multi-GPU, you'll need a better CPU. While you don't have to, I would seriously recommend overclocking, when the graphics cards go in, in which case you'll want a Z68 board, so swap the one listed for this.

Along with the PSU nesf's suggested.

yeah I realise the dual gpu would be massive overkill with an i3 in the system, if I was to buy a second GPU I'd likely pick up a different CPU at the same time.