Is this ok for a gaming desktop?

[pivotman88]

Hi i'm on a 650$ budget and was wondering if this could run l4d2 and minecraft with good fps
this is my first build ever.

-updated parts and yes scorpio is for desktop
updated again


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6100 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor ($124.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master DK9-7E52A-0L-GP CPU Cooler ($9.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus M5A97 EVO ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($90.98 @ NCIX US)
Memory: Kingston 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($17.98 @ NCIX US)
Hard Drive: Western Digital Scorpio Blue 250GB 2.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($51.74 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GT 520 2GB Video Card ($56.97 @ Newegg)
Case: Zalman Z9 Plus ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: OCZ 600W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($29.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Sony DDU1681S-0B DVD/CD Drive ($17.00 @ Amazon)
Monitor: Asus VE208T 20.0" Monitor ($121.53 @ Mac Connection)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (64-bit) ($90.65 @ Amazon)
Keyboard: Logitech MK120 Wired Slim Keyboard w/Optical Mouse ($15.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $667.79
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-07-21 05:21 EDT-0400)

 

[jonathand]

I don't get how you can get everything with such good deals. I'm also on my first build and all my stuff ended up inflating to $1500-1600 (but I'm paying for it with my paychecks, so...)

Anyway, about your build: I'm not exactly an expert myself, but from what I've read, I don't know if the Athlon will be able to handle it; most of the AMD builds I see/read are based on either the Phenom II or the new FX series (4100, 6100, 8120, 8150). Seeing as you're on a budget and got so many deals, maybe the Athlon is worth it.

On a side note, I notice that your hard drive is a WD Scorpio. I think that's a laptop hard drive. I didn't know you could put one of those in a desktop.

Back to your original question, I guess that the more high-end builds for stuff like BF3 would use the Phenom/FX, but I just looked up the game requirements for L4D2 and it seems like both your CPU and graphics card would technically work. Not sure how good the FPS would be but you should be able to run it. I'm not sure how intensive Minecraft is, but I'm assuming if you can run L4D2, you can run Minecraft. Just one potential issue I see is that your hard drive is a bit on the small side. You might want to spring for a larger one. If you want to stay with the laptop Scorpio series, Microcenter has a similar one to yours, but in 250GB for an extra $20.

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0315252

I hope this helped you a bit

 

[pivotman88]

Helped alot and would appreciate second opinions

 

[JetBlackAssassin]

Well, according to this benchmark http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-6450-caicos-blu-ray-3d,2920-6.html, you would probably get around 30FPS if you play at the native resolution of your monitor which is 1600x900 (close to 1680x1050 that was benchmarked) at the highest settings, with no Anti-Aliasing and 8x Anisotropic Filtering

You might want to spend more money on the graphics card, or at least allocate a larger percentage of the budget of your build for it, but for your purposes (Left 4 dead 2 and Minecraft), the Radeon HD 6450 should suffice.

On a related note, if you would want to play stuff like Crysis 2, Battlefield 3 and other relatively demanding games, I would really go for a more powerful GPU.

I guess it's really up to you though, because the benchmark I mentioned only shows the average FPS (no indication of minimum), so there might be occasional drops when you reach really graphically intensive areas of the game, with lots of stuff happening (not that I expect stuff like that from L4D or minecraft)

Additional note: they used a core i5-2500k overclocked to 4.0GHz in the benchmark above, so I would would expect lower FPS, because both Left for Dead 2* and minecraft seem like CPU intensive games.

*http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/game-performance-bottleneck,2738-4.html

More benchmarks:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/the-sandy-bridge-review-intel-core-i7-2600k-i5-2500k-core-i3-2100-tested/20
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/102?vs=288

I hope this helped you decide

 

[pivotman88]

Well, according to this benchmark http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-6450-caicos-blu-ray-3d,2920-6.html, you would probably get around 30FPS if you play at the native resolution of your monitor which is 1600x900 (close to 1680x1050 that was benchmarked) at the highest settings, with no Anti-Aliasing and 8x Anisotropic Filtering

You might want to spend more money on the graphics card, or at least allocate a larger percentage of the budget of your build for it, but for your purposes (Left 4 dead 2 and Minecraft), the Radeon HD 6450 should suffice.

On a related note, if you would want to play stuff like Crysis 2, Battlefield 3 and other relatively demanding games, I would really go for a more powerful GPU.

I guess it's really up to you though, because the benchmark I mentioned only shows the average FPS (no indication of minimum), so there might be occasional drops when you reach really graphically intensive areas of the game, with lots of stuff happening (not that I expect stuff like that from L4D or minecraft)

Additional note: they used a core i5-2500k overclocked to 4.0GHz in the benchmark above, so I would would expect lower FPS, because both Left for Dead 2* and minecraft seem like CPU intensive games.

*http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/game-performance-bottleneck,2738-4.html

More benchmarks:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/the-sandy-bridge-review-intel-core-i7-2600k-i5-2500k-core-i3-2100-tested/20
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/102?vs=288

I hope this helped you decide

will a fx 6100 work too?

 

[Guest]

better graphics card, a better PSU (quality wise), monitor (1080), faster hard drive and optical drive.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Pentium G860 3.0GHz Dual-Core Processor ($82.99 @ eCost)
Motherboard: MSI H67A-G43 (B3) ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($21.99 @ Newegg)
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($64.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: HIS Radeon HD 7770 1GB Video Card ($109.99 @ Microcenter)
Case: Apex SK-393-C ATX Mid Tower Case ($24.15 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Corsair 430W ATX12V Power Supply ($26.98 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Sony DDU1681S-0B DVD/CD Drive ($17.00 @ Amazon)
Monitor: Hannspree HL227DBB 21.5" Monitor ($134.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (64-bit) ($90.65 @ Amazon)
Keyboard: Logitech MK120 Wired Slim Keyboard w/Optical Mouse ($15.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $649.70
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-07-21 06:35 EDT-0400)

 

[JetBlackAssassin]

I would recommend following looniam's suggestion on the matter. That build is more balanced.