Budget Battle Brick - Light to Moderate Gaming mini-ITX Build for my PAtna in Crime!

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silversurfernhs

silversurfernhs

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I'm planning on replacing my girlfriend's HDX Dragon with a decent ITX build and would like some advice/ suggestions:

SilverStone Sugo Series SG05BB-450 - 130

Zotac H87AE - 98

i3 4330 - 140

GSkill Value 1333 C9 - 75

Subtotal: 443
Total: 492

For budgets sake i swiped the Zotac in instead of the Gigabyte one, which looked amazing, but was quite a premium... I also left out an EVGA 650, but plan on adding such a card later when and if its needed for more intense games like Tomb Raider... She'll also be running on a 7200rpm 500GB laptop drive until, once again, budget permits the upgrade to a desktop drive or even an SSD.

So its gonna be powered on every other day or maybe less and used for watching streaming services when i'm cleaning my computer. Just kidding. She'll use it as well for the usual internet shenanigans but also as a steambox for games like The Sims 3, Minecraft, Rayman Legends, some emulators (N64, PS1, GBA, DS...) and Maybe games like Borderlands 2, Skyrim and Tomb Raider...
 
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Rammy
The case (even with PSU included) is among the more expensive ITX cases.
It's definitely worth going for 1600Mhz memory, it shouldn't be any more expensive.
You are also comparing the wrong Gigabyte board. The Gigabyte GA-H87N-WIFI is the direct comparison, and they aren't much more expensive than the Zotac.
I'd also slightly question the merits of an i3 in any gaming build going forward, given how a quad core is becoming highly desirable in a lot of games.

With a few tweaks (say a CM Elite 130, basic PSU, 1600Mhz memory, whichever of the H87 boards you like and a baseline i5) you could still be under budget and have a better resolution.

For more info, have a look here-
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Rammy

Rammy

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The case (even with PSU included) is among the more expensive ITX cases.
It's definitely worth going for 1600Mhz memory, it shouldn't be any more expensive.
You are also comparing the wrong Gigabyte board. The Gigabyte GA-H87N-WIFI is the direct comparison, and they aren't much more expensive than the Zotac.
I'd also slightly question the merits of an i3 in any gaming build going forward, given how a quad core is becoming highly desirable in a lot of games.

With a few tweaks (say a CM Elite 130, basic PSU, 1600Mhz memory, whichever of the H87 boards you like and a baseline i5) you could still be under budget and have a better resolution.

For more info, have a look here-
 
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Transmaniacon

Transmaniacon

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PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Athlon II X4 750K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($80.98 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI FM2-A75IA-E53 Mini ITX FM2 Motherboard ($80.57 @ Amazon)
Memory: GeIL EVO Veloce Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($68.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 660 2GB Video Card ($179.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 120 Advanced (Black) Mini ITX Tower Case ($43.99 @ Mwave)
Power Supply: Antec Neo Eco 520W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $494.50
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-12-17 12:49 EST-0500)
 
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silversurfernhs

silversurfernhs

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Thanks for replying guys, i was searching for and found that the case it self is not that expensive, its the 450 watt power supply that i couldnt find to add to the inexpensive case... But it was bundled and i like the style of the case, as it matches more or less my 550D, so im okay with that in the budget. There is faster clocked ram from gskill, but at the sacrifice of cycles... I'm not sure if thats worth sacrificing. What do you think? My experience going from C9 ram to C11 ram was excruciating at work... and that was with an i7...

That list is kinda silly if you take a min to look at it (ATX PS and out of stock items...). I'm thinking she won't need much more than the 4600 intel for games, from what i've seen it can do. She's used to running everything on low-medium to get 45-60 frames on that HDX Dragon... Anyways yeah, that PS is important, because i'm surely going to throw a GPU in their regardless, it just depends on how soon and her satisfaction with the integrated performance.

I kind of like the cooler master case that looks similar and seems to look like the build quality is better, but i gotta find a decent enough PS somewhere...
 
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silversurfernhs

silversurfernhs

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Thanks for second guessing the case, i actually found the FSP 450w at Amazon. So i'll get them individually and hope they pair up well.
 
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Transmaniacon

Transmaniacon

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I doubt you will be able to tell the difference in RAM speeds, get something that fits your budget and it will work fine. That CoolerMaster case supports full sized PSUs...thats why I selected it.

And sure she is used to Intel Integrated graphics, but why not go with a discrete GPU and open up a lot more options.
 
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Rammy

Rammy

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All of the decent memory deals have expired as of...today, apparently. So it might be worth holding out for a good one. You can definitely pick up a 1600Mhz CAS9 kit for around $70 now, but in recent days/weeks that has been as low as $50.

This is more what I had in mind for your build though -
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4430 3.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($184.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H87N-WIFI Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($100.29 @ Amazon)
Memory: Team Vulcan 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($67.47 @ Amazon)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 130 Mini ITX Tower Case ($49.99 @ Mwave)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $432.72
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-12-17 14:45 EST-0500)

$60 cheaper, faster ram and an i5. Obviously you can add any basic graphics card up to GTX660/R9 270 level to maximise gaming performance as you wish, such as the GTX650 you had in mind.
 
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silversurfernhs

silversurfernhs

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Oh, i see. Thats pretty slick, but aesthetically its not so hot.
 
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