Building a gaming computer. Need advice on motherboard, cpu, etc.?

whall7532

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Apr 7, 2018
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I am building a pc that I have been working on buying parts for. I have a 600w power supply, 12gb ddr3 2x4gb and 2x2gb. I have my case, 1tb HDD and 240gb ssd. I am planning on buying a gtx 1050 and with that I would only need a motherboard and cpu. I have about $100-150max I'd be willing to spend on a used motherboard and cpu. I don't play much video games, but I'm branching out into the world of gaming, and that's primarily what this is going to be used for. What would be some good choices?
 
Solution
I'd look at getting an i7-2600k if you're going the used route. You can typically find them used on ebay for $70-$90 and you'll get a benefit from the hyperthreading nowadays. This wasn't something you could say at the time, the 2600k and the 2500k were fairly close when they came out in gaming, but the 2600k has aged better as a result of games over the last few years largely taking advantage of the extra threads.

The difference between the Sandy Bridge and the latest i7s is far more a productivity than a gaming thing. Here's one video illustrating the differences; the Coffee Lake rightly trounced Sandy Bridge in rendering, but in fps in games, the differences were fairly small.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9R64UcOew0A

DSzymborski

Titan
Moderator
What's the 600W power supply? Things labeled as 600W power supplies can be excellent 600W power supplies, good 600W power supplies, mediocre 450W power supplies, or terrible 300W power supplies.

Also, mixing RAM can frequently not work; I'd be prepared to only have 8 GB working, in the worst-case.
 

whall7532

Commendable
Apr 7, 2018
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1,530
All the ram works in my current system. And as for power supply, it is an evga refurbished through newegg. It's 80 plus white, but it was $28, so can't really complain
 

DSzymborski

Titan
Moderator


Yeah, a middling power supply, but perfectly fine for a 1050 build. If you make significant upgrades to this rig at some point, I'd upgrade the power supply at that point. You had some bad luck with the timing; a $20 promo for the Corsair CX 550m just hit at Newegg, bringing it down to $35.
 

whall7532

Commendable
Apr 7, 2018
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1,530
Well, I might do that in the future, at the moment, I'm kinda looking to make a decision on the cpu and mobo. At the moment I've been thinking of z68 or z77 and i5 2500k. Not very experienced in overclocking, but would be willing to try.
 

DSzymborski

Titan
Moderator
I'd look at getting an i7-2600k if you're going the used route. You can typically find them used on ebay for $70-$90 and you'll get a benefit from the hyperthreading nowadays. This wasn't something you could say at the time, the 2600k and the 2500k were fairly close when they came out in gaming, but the 2600k has aged better as a result of games over the last few years largely taking advantage of the extra threads.

The difference between the Sandy Bridge and the latest i7s is far more a productivity than a gaming thing. Here's one video illustrating the differences; the Coffee Lake rightly trounced Sandy Bridge in rendering, but in fps in games, the differences were fairly small.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9R64UcOew0A
 
Solution

Karadjgne

Titan
Ambassador
Depends. If you shop for used parts on ebay you could pickup a i7-4770 for $100 or less and a B85 or H97 mobo for less than $60.

But it's pretty much a guarantee that anything lga1155 is going to be used/refurbished now, the chances of new in box meaning it sat on a shelf for the last 5 years. Just limit searches to North America, I'd not get anything refurbished from Hong Kong / China etc.