[RESOLVED] Building cheap desktop

[ybriK]

Hello all

I've been using laptops ever since I bought one when I was young and the only desktop I had was back in 1999 if I remember correctly. It was an Intel P2 or P3 w/ nvidia GPU and that's pretty much all I remember. I guess it was a "beast" system back then I remember playing quake, unreal tournament, cs and other shooter games. But now I feel like going back to the desktop world and started to build an affordable PC with all right specs. I'm not much of a hardcore gamer now as to back then but I still play from time to time. Would this build be any good for let's say your average computer guy? I know I don't have the mboard listed and that's where I need some help choosing, since I have the CPU 1155 it would be nice if some of you could show me a good mboard for this build.

[Milk]

For a budget desktop with occasional gaming the AMD A8-3870K black edition chips are worth a look IMHO.
You could include a decent SSD and 8GB ram and it will still probably be cheaper than the set up you show above.

[ybriK]

For a budget desktop with occasional gaming the AMD A8-3870K black edition chips are worth a look IMHO.
You could include a decent SSD and 8GB ram and it will still probably be cheaper than the set up you show above.

Thanks for the reply I was looking at an unboxing from YouTube by LinusTechTips and also some reviews from other websites, they were pretty much all positive but I never had an AMD processor at all so this will be my first time. I saved a couple of bucks switching to the AMD processor. And also do you have any recommendation for a good mboard?

[ahmedkhairy]

this pc is above average it's great for gaming and it will be fast when playing any hardcore game if you shift it to 8 gb ram and better vga then it might be a super pc..

[Lord Orwell]

if you do occasional gaming you might want to add a video card on there. It doesn't take much to get acceptable performance in games. Even the cheapest card is ten times better than onboard video for gaming. I'm using a system with radeon hd4200 graphics built onto the motherboard, and even batman arkham asylum was unplayable. I bought a cheap $50 hd6500 and i'm playing skyrim at high settings (although only at 1024x768). A more expensive card allows higher resolutions. And my system isn't anything like top of the line. I have a dual core phenom ii and 4gb ram.

[Milk]

Sorry for late reply. The AMD chip has a HD 6550D GPU on the same die as the CPU. Not a brilliant GPU but not bad and similar to the GT 630 you have specced. I'm happy with the one I have. The newest games I have are Portal 2 and the latest Deus Ex which are both perfectly playable at 1680x1050 on medium to high settings. Gigabyte and Asus both have some nice compatible boards. It is good value for money rather than a powerful gaming chip. It is not a chip to use with a discrete card and a set up with a discrete card has much more potential.

[dilettante]

But you can also do some shopping and find some really nice pre-built machines for far less money and far less grief than building from scratch. Put together a set of your requirements and start shopping for deals.

Often you can get a great deal (and get going quicker) this way. Nothing says you can't add a better video card, a second HD, or larger RAM either immediately or later on. Often these come with the RAM slots all filled, so keep an eye on the RAM market and as the prices drops on the speed-and-type you need a wholesale replacement with larger "stciks" can be done rather cheaply.

I just built a system from scratch and immediately regretted it. Trying to round up working drivers and get it all to play well together was quite frustrating... and this was an Intel board & CPU combo shipping as a unit! In this case it was cheaper than buying pre-built, but not by nearly enough to make the headaches and lost time worthwhile.

Just another thing you might consider.

[Lord Orwell]

But you can also do some shopping and find some really nice pre-built machines for far less money and far less grief than building from scratch. Put together a set of your requirements and start shopping for deals.

Often you can get a great deal (and get going quicker) this way. Nothing says you can't add a better video card, a second HD, or larger RAM either immediately or later on. Often these come with the RAM slots all filled, so keep an eye on the RAM market and as the prices drops on the speed-and-type you need a wholesale replacement with larger "stciks" can be done rather cheaply.

I just built a system from scratch and immediately regretted it. Trying to round up working drivers and get it all to play well together was quite frustrating... and this was an Intel board & CPU combo shipping as a unit! In this case it was cheaper than buying pre-built, but not by nearly enough to make the headaches and lost time worthwhile.

Just another thing you might consider.

bundled systems being cheaper isn't really the case any more, and if you are doing a system upgrade on an older system (you have a monitor, keyboard, case already) you can upgrade much cheaper than buying a new one. I wish i had a faster system because i occasionally do dvd ripping and video editing, but it's fast enough.

[ybriK]

Well I did more research and changed my build in a way so that it is cheaper but can still play older games at max settings. What are your thoughts about this guys?

[Lord Orwell]

i suggest getting a core unlocking board and buying a "dual-core" phenom-2 chip. They don't actually make dual cores. It's really a 4-core with two cores disabled and the board can unlock them again. If you are wanting to play games, that system you have listed will play new games on max as well. You would be surprised. If you are wanting to play borderlands 2 for example, i am playing it on max settings at 1024x768 (i use a projector) with 16xaa turned on, and i also use a hd6500 radeon card. Although it is one of those games that if you have an nvidia card it's pretty obvious physx is enabled. My system is weaker than your design in every category and my win7 experience index scores are 5.9 hard drive, 6.2 processor, 6.7 video and gaming, and 7.4 ram. Again, system ram is never the bottleneck. I could probably upgrade this system but i'm running this rig with a 240 watt power supply.

[ahmedkhairy]

Sorry for late reply. The AMD chip has a HD 6550D GPU on the same die as the CPU. Not a brilliant GPU but not bad and similar to the GT 630 you have specced. I'm happy with the one I have. The newest games I have are Portal 2 and the latest Deus Ex which are both perfectly playable at 1680x1050 on medium to high settings. Gigabyte and Asus both have some nice compatible boards. It is good value for money rather than a powerful gaming chip. It is not a chip to use with a discrete card and a set up with a discrete card has much more potential.

I don't prefer AMD VGA card nvidia is way better than AMD..

[Lord Orwell]

I don't prefer AMD VGA card nvidia is way better than AMD..

you are really going to have to explain that answer and be ready to defend it. I'll start.
amd = quieter, less power usage, slightly cheaper at same performance, and supports open al, able to stretch games over multiple monitors, supports up to six displays on one card, etc etc etc.
nvidia = physx support, and ... that's about it.

[ahmedkhairy]

he mentioned games so nvidia is the best gaming VGA card. and I'm pretty sure that the nvidia cards are the best video cards for games

[Lord Orwell]

i dont want to change thread topic, but i've owned both and the only thing nvidia does better is physx and you pretty much have to have a top of the line one to have it work properly. My last nvidia card i had to leave physx off because it bogged down games when it was on. And i dont see the reason a video card would have to suck as much wattage as some nvidia cards do. My ati 6550 can play at 1080p new games (if not all of them at max settings). Anything more powerful than that and you pretty much need a 4k display to take advantage of it, or multiple monitors. However nvidia cards can't use multiple displays for gaming (yet).
Don't get me wrong. I'm not knocking Nvidia. I like their products as well, but they aren't superior. As good, yes. better in some areas, yes. I suggest you check out some benchark charts such as this one: http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html where ati is #1 and the mix down the chart is pretty much even. Yes in the past Nvidia has had the lead. Other times ATI has had it. Currently they are pretty much dead even on performance.

[ahmedkhairy]

maybe your right cause I'm saying this according to my experience with both video cards and I found out the games works faster with nvidia at which both of them were nearly of the same category the ati raedon x64 wasn't that good but maybe the ati cards are better in gaming.

-ak

[altonwilliard]

It doesn't take much to get appropriate performance in activities. Even the most affordable card is ten times better than on board movie for game playing.

[ahmedkhairy]

so true.. games need much better video cards to run perfectly