Need help with a mid-low gaming build.

[caelinus]

It has been several years since i last even paid attention to hardware and its advancement, so I am kind of lost, but I need to build a computer for my girlfriend who's old laptop finally gave up. I found the build below on a website after some Google searches and research, and it seems to offer fair performance for ~550 + software. I was wondering what your opinons on it were, or if you have any better suggestions on how I could accomplish this. It needs to be fairly soon, as she needs a computer for school and work (and playing games of course), and she literally has nothing right now.

It does not need to always hit maximum settings in games, just good enough to run low to mid, and mostly to play online games (I.E. LOTRO, SWTOR (not max) and possibly GW2 ( but no system reqs for that yet))

Motherboard
ASUS M5A97 AMD 9 Series

CPU
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition

RAM
Crucial Ballistix 4GB DDR3 (1333 Mhz)

Video Card
EVGA GeForce GTX 550 Ti SuperClocked (1GB)

Hard Drive
Western Digital Caviar Blue 500 GB

Optical Drive
Sony Optiarc 24x DVDRW Drive

Case
Cooler Master RC-430-KWN1 Elite 430

Power Supply
Cooler Master Elite Series 460 Watts

 

[e56imfg]

NZXT Source 210
7750
Rosewill Green Series RG430-S12 430W
Mushkin Enhanced Essentials 8GB (2 x 4GB)
MSI H67MA-E35 (B3)
i3 2120
Corsair Force Series GT CSSD-F90GBGT-BK 2.5" 90GB

Total: $594.93 w/out savings or rebates

 

[caelinus]

NZXT Source 210
7750
Rosewill Green Series RG430-S12 430W
Mushkin Enhanced Essentials 8GB (2 x 4GB)
MSI H67MA-E35 (B3)
i3 2120
Corsair Force Series GT CSSD-F90GBGT-BK 2.5" 90GB

Total: $594.93 w/out savings or rebates

A few of questions:
First off she really does not need a SSD, as she will use most of her hard drive space for music and photos. Do you have any recommendations for drives on sale or just high quality ones? I am not to worried about this though, drives are not that complicated.

Second, how does the i3 2120 compare to the Phenom x4 that I mentioned?

Third: What advantage is there with the 7750 over the GTX 550. ?

 

[e56imfg]

A few of questions:
First off she really does not need a SSD, as she will use most of her hard drive space for music and photos. Do you have any recommendations for drives on sale or just high quality ones? I am not to worried about this though, drives are not that complicated.

Second, how does the i3 2120 compare to the Phenom x4 that I mentioned?

Third: What advantage is there with the 7750 over the GTX 550. ?

Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKX 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

The i3 2120 outperforms the X4 in almost everything. The 965 is old and now, inefficient compared to the Sandy line. The i3 2120 is a much smarter buy.

The 7750 consumes less power and it's cheaper. The performance is a little bit worse but not by any margin.

 

[caelinus]

Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKX 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

The i3 2120 outperforms the X4 in almost everything. The 965 is old and now, inefficient compared to the Sandy line. The i3 2120 is a much smarter buy.

The 7750 consumes less power and it's cheaper. The performance is a little bit worse but not by any margin.

Thanks for the help! I am so out of the game right now...

Basically your build owns that old one, so do you or anyone else have any further advice on:

NZXT Source 210
Radeon HD 7750
Green Series RG430-S12 430W
Mushkin Enhanced Essentials 8GB
MSI H67MA-E35 (B3) LGA 1155
Intel Core i3-2120 Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz

I am assuming that the power supply is going to be more then efficient for that, am I correct? I always worry about them.

And also, will I need to install any additional cooling or will stock be enough for this?

One further issue, I also need a wireless card, just remembered her house is 150 years old, and lacks any useful wiring.

 

[e56imfg]

Rosewill RNX-N250PCe (RNWD-11005) Wireless Adapter IEEE 802.11b/g/n PCI Express 150/300Mbps 2T2R 64-bit/128-bit WEP, TKIP, and AES WPA, WPA2 - plug this into the PCI-E x1 slot.

Stock cooling is ample for a 2120.

The PSU is fine for the 7750 because it doesn't require any extra external power connectors. Look at my sig if you want more options.

 

[caelinus]

Thanks for the help. If anyone else has any further ideas please chime in. As it is I am liking this current build, but I know there are always other possibilities.

@e56imfg You are very knowledgeable about this stuff lol.

 

[caelinus]

Sorry for the seond post, but lets say I wanted to upgrade the Graphics card a step or so, what would the next logical step up be? And what power supply would I need to get to accommodate that?

 

[e56imfg]

Sorry for the seond post, but lets say I wanted to upgrade the Graphics card a step or so, what would the next logical step up be? And what power supply would I need to get to accommodate that?

It would be to either a 6850, 6870, or a big step to the 560 Ti range.

You would need a 500w (or about 38 to 40 amps) minimum for all these GPUs.
Here's a list:

SeaSonic S12II 520 Bronze 520W
Rosewill Green Series RG530-S12 530W
SeaSonic M12II 620 Bronze 620W
Rosewill CAPSTONE Series CAPSTONE-650 650W
OCZ ZS Series 650W
CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 650W
SeaSonic X Series X650 Gold

 

[caelinus]

So if I replace the graphics card with the 6850 and use the 530w Rosewill Green, what kind of performance increase would I be looking at for something like Battlefield 3? (As it seems that the 6850 can run it on high without aa on normal resolutions, but could not find data on the other card.)

 

[caelinus]

A final question, could anyone review this build


NZXT Source 210
Radeon HD 6850
Rosewill Green Series RG530-S12 530W
Mushkin Enhanced Essentials 8GB
MSI H67MA-E35 (B3) LGA 1155
Intel Core i3-2120 Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz

In specific I want to make sure the mother board and case are able to support the larger card compared to the earlier build I talked about, if it is still ok to use the stock coolers, and whether it looks like it will just all work together well. I want to be fairly confident before I drop the money on it.

Also, how would the build above look if I replaced the 6850 with a GTX 460 1GB?

I also still want to know if you think it is worth it to even do the upgrade to the 6850, or if I should just stick with the smaller 7750.

 

[e56imfg]

So if I replace the graphics card with the 6850 and use the 530w Rosewill Green, what kind of performance increase would I be looking at for something like Battlefield 3? (As it seems that the 6850 can run it on high without aa on normal resolutions, but could not find data on the other card.)

For BF3, you would be getting 10 to 30 FPS higher depending on the resolution and settings you play on.

A final question, could anyone review this build


NZXT Source 210
Radeon HD 6850
Rosewill Green Series RG530-S12 530W
Mushkin Enhanced Essentials 8GB
MSI H67MA-E35 (B3) LGA 1155
Intel Core i3-2120 Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz

In specific I want to make sure the mother board and case are able to support the larger card compared to the earlier build I talked about, if it is still ok to use the stock coolers, and whether it looks like it will just all work together well. I want to be fairly confident before I drop the money on it.

Also, how would the build above look if I replaced the 6850 with a GTX 460 1GB?

I also still want to know if you think it is worth it to even do the upgrade to the 6850, or if I should just stick with the smaller 7750.

The mobo fits just fine and the GPU, too.

It's fine to use the stock cooler because of the efficiency of the i3.

 

[obsama1]

The 6850 is much much much better than the 7750. The 7750 is worse than the 6770. The 6850 is great for gaming, and if you look around you can get it for $120-$140.