Super Budget Gaming Build ($225)

get this apu which has a better cpu and a gpu together
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1681...
it wil give better perfomance
and the mobo are better
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1681...
overall it is cheaper and better

I would say the important question is.. as a spare rig what do you want to run on it, what are you expecting to get out of the rig?

Do you have any spare parts that you can use to assist with building the cheap spare rig?

Thanks for the reply. I'm actually mainly playing older games such as COD4 & Halo, which I'm sure the 9600 GSO is capable of to a certain extent.

And as for spare parts, I actually already have the WD 80GB HDD, 9600 GSO, as well as the Case&Fans/PSU.
So really, I'm just missing the CPU, MOBO and RAM.

I've heard great things about the G530 for it's price.. so I thought it was the way to go.
I know the spare parts I have are cheap, so I'm looking for something to match the levels of those components.
Is there anything you recommend at a low price point, with comparable performance?

I can understand why you suggested this. I also thought about this APU route before BUT, I already have the GPU so I was planning to use it in this build.

ALSO, for the APUs I read that in order to get the performance (graphics/processing), RAM selection is very important. I would probably have to go for the faster 1866Mhz DDR3 ram, which is more expensive.

ALSO, looking at benchmark scores.. I don't THINK the Radeon HD 6410D is better than the Nvidia 9600 GSO... or am I mistaken?

I hear you on that, price is important. I looked at newegg, this is what I figured for your price point. You didn't list that you have a CD/DVD rom but I will assume that you do.

ASRock H61M-GE LGA 1155 Intel H61 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard ~ $63
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
Intel Core i3-2100 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 2000 BX80623I32100 ~$125
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
Mushkin Enhanced Essentials 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model 996586 ~ $22
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

..this was just looking at stuff and not doing a price comparison for the best available for the product. I won't ding the G530 but take a look at the i3, its a good entry level cpu for what you want to do.

Just curious, what is the case and power supply you have?

Thanks for the reply again.

In terms of parts that I have, it's exactly what I listed in the first post. I do not have a DVD drive, but I think I can get by without one, or I can just find one somewhere.. so no need to worry about that.

GPU: XFX PV-T96O-YHFC GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card ($20)
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1681...

HDD: Western Digital Caviar WD800BB 80GB 7200 RPM 2MB Cache IDE Ultra ATA100 / ATA-6 3.5" Hard Drive -Bare Drive ($30)
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1682...

CASE/PSU: APEVIA X-TROOPER Junior Series X-TRPJR-BK Black Steel Micro ATX Mid Tower Computer Case W/450W Power Supply ($50)
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1681...

I looked @ the i3-2100/2120, and I KNOW they are great processors, however, I felt that the caliber of my existing parts (and price point) wouldn't fit the i3. The i3 would go to waste since I'm sure it would be bottle-necked by the low-end components.

Question: is the i3-2100 just a G530, but clocked faster w/ Hyper-Threading? or is there some other architectural difference I am unaware of?

Question: Looking at cheap LGA1155 motherboards, is there a specific one that stands out for most people? Or should I just choose the cheapest H61, from a reliable brand. Which brands are best in this case?

Question: I noticed you chose a dual channel kit (2x2GB) of RAM, should I expect noticeable difference from the initial Kingston HyperX (1x4GB) DIMM I selected?

Thanks in advance

the i3-2100 is faster that the G530 in threaded and single thread processing. For that alone I would pick the i3.

For cheap 1155 board get the H61 simply from a price stand point. Those boards won't blow you out of the water and they will don't nothing for you with overclocking, but at the price point it hard to buy into the overclocking category. Being honest, I wouldn't buy anything that isn't at least up to the P67.

With the memory, there is not significant difference between the memory at the price point and what they will be used for in this case. In very high end systems there is a difference and though it may be small in some cases it shows on benchmarks.

Also wanted to touch on your graphics card, it will do fine for those games.

The biggest bottleneck you will have will be your harddrive. Don't skimp on the processor because of components in the rig. Upgrading the harddrive later is always and option. With a better video card the i3 can still run modern games.


--just read what i wrote and dear god what a few beers will do to your typing

Thanks again,

I understand what you're trying to say. Again, the reason I think the i3 is out of my league for this build is that, even if you think about upgradability.. it's not even worth it.

1. Like you said, my HDD is way old... gonna have to go.
2. My GPU is also way old, and I will need to buy something new in the future if I hope to play modern games..
3. My PSU is WEAK.. says 450W, but I don't dare pull more than 250W from it.. I'm sure it's hazardous.
4. My Chassis is old with poor (aka. none) cable management, not to mention placement for the PSU is at the top... ghetto.
5. I don't even have a proper ODD at the moment... gonna have to get a good one.
6. Like you said, an H61 is not outstanding at all... will have to buy p67/z68 or something newer.
7. RAM ... maybe I can keep, but it's not even 1600Mhz =="

In the end, the entire system would have to be replaced if I hope to make this machine anything decent.

Does it still make sense to spend $130 on the i3 and hope to upgrade.... or just spend $50 on the G530 until GG?

Best answer selected by rex000.