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Please help me trim my (budget) Mini-ITX Gaming Build

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Greetings and thanks for reading,

So I'll be done with school in a few weeks, and would really like to catch up on my gaming addiction.

I have the following tower I'm trying to sell to help me buy parts for a budget mini-itx rig:

Intel core 2 duo E8600 Wolfdale 3.33 GHz
Gigabyte EP45t-DS3R
Nvidia Geforce GTX 260 896 mb
Corsair DDR3 1333mhz cm3x2g1333c9dhx 2 X 2gb
Western Digital 640gb HD Sata II 7200 RPM wd6400aaks
Maxtor 200gb HD 6y200m0
SAMSUNG 22X DVD Burner/Player SATA Model sh-s223q


Think I could get more money by selling individual parts or the tower as a whole?


Approximate Purchase Date: No later than early July (2012).

Budget Range: As close to $650 as possible

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming (would love to play GW2, SC2, and Last of Us, and CoD: Black Ops II at max settings), Netflix, Microsoft Word, Web Surfing,

Parts Not Required: DVD burner (but only because I'm not planing to buy one in order to save money, and instead use thumb drives to install the OS), keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, OS, external HDs

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: amazon.con, newegg.com; whoever has the best price really

Country: USA

Parts Preferences: Intel, Mini-ITX case

Overclocking: Maybe (in a year or two, but most likely not)

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe; it'd be nice, but can do without it.

Monitor Resolution: My 19inch LCD only supports 1440x900, but I hope to get a 24inch one around X-mas

Additional Comments: Would really appreciate a small and quiet PC, so it's easy to take with me to my parents (at most twice a month)



This is what I have come up with so far:

Intel BOXDH77DF LGA 1155 H77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Motherboard - $130
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Intel Core i5-2400 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz - $190
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

EVGA GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) FPB 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 - $134
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

SILVERSTONE Sugo Series SG05BB with SFX 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Single +12V rail Power Supply - $120
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Plextor M3 Series 128GB SATA III (SSD) - $130 (will be getting a HD later, since 128gb won't last very long)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) - $55
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...


in wishlist form:
https://secure.newegg.com/WishList/MySavedWishDetail.as...

It's $760, but I could only afford it if I can sell my current tower...(and I get the devastating feeling that I'd be better of just upgrading my current rig, but damn it I've wanted a compact PC for the longest time...).

More about : trim budget mini itx gaming build

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It is usually best to sell parts separately.
To get a realistic idea of worth, search on e-bay for your parts. Select used, and completed listings only.
In green, you will then see actual selling prices.
I think the cpu and GTX260 will be all that is worth selling.

You could build this in stages, keeping your GTX260, psu, hard drive, dvd burner, and possibly the ram and OS.

I happen to be a fan of smaller cases.
I have a lian li Q08R now in use as a backup, just waiting for a small form factor gaming upgrade.
It is a neat case, check it out:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

If you want better gaming, realize that the GTX550ti is comparable in performance to the GTX260.
You will be disappointed by the small increase that the cpu upgrade will give you.

The i5-2400 is a fine upgrade to the E8600.
But on a budget, it might be better to spend less on the cpu, like a i3-2120, and more on the graphics card where it counts.
Read this on <$200 gamiing cpu's:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-gaming-cpu-cor...

geofelt said:
It is usually best to sell parts separately.
To get a realistic idea of worth, search on e-bay for your parts. Select used, and completed listings only.
In green, you will then see actual selling prices.
I think the cpu and GTX260 will be all that is worth selling.

You could build this in stages, keeping your GTX260, psu, hard drive, dvd burner, and possibly the ram and OS.

I happen to be a fan of smaller cases.
I have a lian li Q08R now in use as a backup, just waiting for a small form factor gaming upgrade.
It is a neat case, check it out:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

If you want better gaming, realize that the GTX550ti is comparable in performance to the GTX260.
You will be disappointed by the small increase that the cpu upgrade will give you.

The i5-2400 is a fine upgrade to the E8600.
But on a budget, it might be better to spend less on the cpu, like a i3-2120, and more on the graphics card where it counts.
Read this on <$200 gamiing cpu's:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-gaming-cpu-cor...


Thank you for your wise advice sir.

I looked up the prices for every component in my tower, and if I sold every single one separately on ebay by undercutting everyone else by 10%, I'd make $400-450. That is crazy. Screw it, I'll have free time in the summer, maybe I'll go hunting in my parent's garage and make more dough while I'm at it. :) 

I think I'm gonna try that, and keep my RAM and GPU for the mini-ITX until I can replace them. I'm gonna build this thing slowly, but with quality components...here's to hoping.
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