Super budget gaming build

[gordon_81]

hi im from South Africa and im building for a friend we are buying from 1 shop only and we are on a tight budget this is what we have, i just want your opinions

AMD® Athlon™II X3-445 - 3.10GHz Triple Core, Socket AM3, 1.5MB, HyperTransport Bus, 45nm, AMD64 Support, 3 Year Warranty

MSI® AMD® 740G+SB710 Chipset - Socket AM3@ FSB2600MHz - Live Update online, Live Update3,Cool'n' Quiet
1xPCI-Ex16,2xPCI-Ex1,1 xPCI,2xDDR3-1600(Max 8GB), 6 x SATA2, 1x IDE, RAID 0/1/0+1/JBOD, 8 x USB 2.0(4/4 R/F), TPMx1, 6 in 1 Audio Jack
VIA® VT1708S 7.1ch Sound, Atheros® AR8131M PCI-E GbLAN controller, PS/2 KB and Mouse, 1 x Serial Port
APS (Active Phase Switching ), Unlock CPU Core, M-FLASH, Easy OC Switch (SUCCESSFUL OC), All Solid Capacitors on PWM(MAX LIFESPAIN), Hybrid CrossFire



GIGABYTE® ODIN 370W 24-Pin Power Supply, 2 Molex & 3 SATA Power Connectors, Intel LGA775 Ready & Approved, Includes Power Cable


Leadtek® nVidia® GeForce GT430 - 1GB GDDR3, 128-Bit Memory Bus, PCI Express 2.0, 1x D-SUB, 1x DVI, 1x Mini HDMI, HDCP Compliant
Core: 700MHz / Shader: 1400MHz / Memory: 1066MHz, DirectX 10.0, OpenGL, nVidia® CUDA & PhysX, Win Vista / 7 Certified


Transcend® JetRam™ High-Performance 4GB DDR3-1333 240-Pin Module : CL9, 6-Layer PC Board, Life-Time Warranty


I have two questions will the power supply be good enough? and is the gt430 better than the hd 4650 because they are the same price, thanks

 

[MadAdmiral]

Don't touch that Gigabyte PSU. It's a POS. Instead, pick up something cheap, but good quality, like Antec's Earthwatts 380W unit.

When comparing GPUs, I prefer to use Tom's monthly hierarchy. According to that, if it's the HD 4650 DDR2 version, the GT 430 is better. If it's the DDR3 version, the 4650 is better. Though, I will say if you can spare an extra $10 or so, the HD 5670 is even better than both.

I'm not sure how much you're paying for that RAM, but some faster 1600 mhz sticks are only $40 on Newegg. Right now, that's the same price as 1333 mhz sticks.

I'm also not sure which exact board you're looking at (is it this MSI 760GM-PP3?), but I'm willing to bet you can do better. That's an older chipset, which means you won't be able to get USB/SATA III support. It also only has two RAM slots, which greatly limits the upgradibility of the board. I'd look at this Asus M4A77TD that's around the same price. It also doesn't have USB 3/SATA III support, but it does have 4 RAM slots. It's also from a brand that's better known for quality.

I should add that if you're buying from a local brick-and-mortar store, you're likley paying a lot more than you should and drastically limiting your options. Can you buy from Newegg?