Is this a viable gaming rig? How much power does it need?

July_Anna

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Oct 27, 2013
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Hello,

It’s my fist time building a PC so I’m not really sure I’m doing it right ^_^'

My “masterpiece”:
Mobo: Asus B75M-A
CPU: i3 3240 3.4 GHz
COOLER: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus
GPU: HD 7770 DDR5 1GB
RAM: G.SKILL Ares 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1600
HDD: Western Digital Blue 1TB 7200 RPM (plan to add an SSD boot drive later)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 430 Black

Running Window7 64 bit if it’s of any consequence.

Do you see any bottlenecks or inconsistencies?

How much power will be needed and could you please recommend a proper PSU?

I was aiming for a budget build therefore I realize this one won’t give stellar perforce.
But I stay away from FPS so I should be fine. Or not?

Please tell me what you think.

Thank you!
 

zichus

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Aug 29, 2013
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I like the build - made myselfe even more budget gaming rig with Pentium G2030 (3ghz, 2 core) and AMD 7770 - maybe you can consider downgrading coz i dont think threading does much good in gaming.

And PSU requirements are minimal here - some 500W PSU will do. If a quality PSU i guess you can go even less.
 

woodysan

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Don't see many i3's these days mixed in with Gaming rigs, so I'm not sure about that - could always upgrade to an i5 and that should be pretty sweet. PSU wise, you're looking at atleast 500watt, decent branded (maybe Corsair)
 

zichus

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I think that if you build budget PCs then i5 is very expensive - better to invest in GPU that money. Only now games start to use 4 cores and also not all of them. Depends which games your will be playing.

I play SC2 HOTs and it uses only 2 cores. So i can play basically on ultra (tried only high settings for now and runs smoothly).

For newer games (BF4) i think you will be able to run them but on medium settings.
 

rishiswaz

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+1 to The Adventuring Bacon. FX 6300 is a much better price/performance and raw performance for gaming. Or you might look at an AMD A10-6800K. What resolution and detail settings do you want to play at?
 

July_Anna

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Could you please explain why the FX 6300 is better suited for gaming?

I understand it has 6 cores vs.2, but i3 has hyperthreading, which should bring it closer to a 4 cores CPU.
Besides, doesn't Intel have better performance per core?
Please correct me if I'm wrong on the above.

I don't play any "benchmark" games like Battlefield, Metro or Crysis series (no FPS at all) and multitasking outside gaming is limited.

So are the extra cores worth it considering I'll have to pay 23 USD more to get them in my region?

Currently playing at 1024p, but intend to go to 1080p with a new monitor.

I don't plan to overclock any hardware btw.


Do you know why?
Is it because they aren't considered powerful enough or do they have some other drawbacks?
 

rishiswaz

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The FX 6300's main appeal is that it will last longer, with applications becoming more and more threaded, and games utilizing CPU cores more effectively 4 cores will be the minimum. Just looking at the next generation consoles also, to me, indicates that cross platform games are going to be coded to play nice with AMD's architecture. Also AM3+ socket should have at least 3 years left
 

July_Anna

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Thank you for the details rishiswaz.

Could you pleas recommend a decent low-priced mobo for this CPU?

 

rishiswaz

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I recommend any MSI or Gigabyte motherboard. In my FX 6300 gaming build I used a MSI 970A-G46 board and it works just fine. If you plan to crossfire/sli you will get x8 and x8 speeds on both cards and it only goes up to 2 way crossfire but I don't think that more than 2 cards is actually practical for most gaming. Only problem with that board is that there is no front panel USB 3 header, if that matters to you then you can look at some gigabyte offerings as well
 

July_Anna

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I plan to make do with a single card, so how much of a step back/down would be a MB with a 760G bridge (like tiny voices suggested)?
My wallet definitely likes them more :p

However, some of the 760G ones do not support 1600 Mhz DDR3...
Will settling for 1333 Mhz DDR3 be an issue?

Thank you for your patience in answering all my (undoubtedly silly) questions :)
 

rishiswaz

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The reason why you should go with a 970 chipset motherboard or above is the same reason why I recommend the FX6300, something that you don't have to put any major upgrades into for at least 3 years. The absolute lowest I would go is 880G but that will need an upgrade earlier than a 970. Spending some more money now will save you from spending even more money later. Also the difference between 1600 and 1333 is noticeable but beyond 1600 the performance difference is negligible.
 

zichus

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Really? I have heard that you wont feel the difference. You have tried yourself both speeds or you know some bench?

I have 1333 RAM and Im satisfied, but I havent tested the 1600 Mhz speed so cant say much about the difference.
 

rishiswaz

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I have for the sake of knowing how it performs taken Corsair Vengeance Pro 8GB sticks in dual channel and used them without XMP so they were running at 1333, XMP on so they were at 1866, and then manually setting it to 1600. As I said 1333 was a bit sluggish and it wasn't jarring but it was definitely noticeable in games. 1866 felt the exact same as 1600 to me, however I would assume it also has to do with the platform and the latency of your RAM. I personally would suggest getting 1600 with lower latency rather than 1866 with higher latency, or 1333 with even lower latency. To be noted as well, in a htpc I set up with an APU using the same RAM it did make a difference but that is because the system and graphics memory is shared so faster RAM means faster VRAM.
 

July_Anna

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Oct 27, 2013
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Hello and sorry for replying this late.

I guess I'll go with the FX 6300 after all (and start searching for a different MB X_X)

Thanks for the advice and the explanations :)
It helped a lot!

 

rishiswaz

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No problem, good luck with the build.