New build on a budget - Intel CPU

[elheriel]

I'm building a new system with a budget of about 750-800$. After reading a lot of reviews and benchmarks I was kind of impressed by the gaming performance of the Pentium G600s and G800s. They look awesome from a price/performance perspective.

That said, I'm going to use this new computer almost exclusively for gaming and was intending to spend most of my budget on a good card... something like a GTX 660 ti. Would these CPUs be able to handle gaming at 1080p without any problems ? I'm really not into CPU overclocking at all so I guess that would leave me with a few Core i3 and i5 to look at in case the Pentiums are not enough. I also tried to find information about potentiel bottlenecks but I didn't have any luck with that.

Also, I read these have no hyper threading (is that even what it's called ?). How do they fare when you're not gaming ? Is multi tasking as bad as I have read on some boards ?

 

[inzone]

With the 660Ti's going for around $300 that's almost half your budget and while it's a greqat card and certianly worth getting , you may not be able to get it with a $750-$800 budget. If there is a possability of increasing the budget then hopefully you can squeeze one in. You will most certianly need to get as low a priced cpu as possible that will work with the video card.

Intel Pentium G870 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80623G870
$99.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116521

This is the cpu that would be the minimum to get with the 660Ti and it doesn't have Hyperthreading , but it has a good stock speed of just under 3ghz and it's only $100.
The only drawback with not having hyperthreading is that you just have the two cores to work with and that's it so multitasking will suffer. If you were able to swing a better cpu then you would be better off naturaly.

Intel Core i3-2120 Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 2000 BX80623I32120
$124.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115077

This one is $25 more and has the Hyperthreading to give you the four threads

Intel Core i5-2310 Sandy Bridge 2.9GHz (3.2GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 2000 BX80623I52310
$179.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115089

This one is a true quad core and gives you a full four cores ( no hyperthreading) and the cores don't have to share resources as in hyperthreading since they have thier own core. But it's $80 more than the G870 and would be harder to incorporate into a build with your budget amount.

 

[elheriel]

I see. I guess it would be possible to increase the budget a bit by delaying the purchase for 1 or 2 weeks more, but I wouldn't be able to get it to more than 1000$.

The i3 and i5 look like great choices for their price as well. I'd really want to fit 660ti in there (originally intended to go with a 670 but the budget got tighter) and will probably have to make cuts somewhere else in the build. The modular PSU, the SSD and the 110$ case might have to take the axe.

 

[inzone]

Intel Core i5-2310 Sandy Bridge 2.9GHz (3.2GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 2000 BX80623I52310
$179.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115089

Fractal Design Core 3000 ATX Mid Tower Computer Case w/ 3 Fans
$49.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811352010

SAMSUNG 22X DVD Burner 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 24X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM SATA Model SH-222BB/BEBE - OEM
$14.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151244

G.SKILL Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-1600C9D-8GAB
$41.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231546

ASRock Z77 Extreme4 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
$114.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157293

Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
$109.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136533

CORSAIR Builder Series CX600 V2 600W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
$69.99 and a $20 rebate making the final price $49.99.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139028

MSI N660Ti PE 2GD5 GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
$299.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127697

The total for this build with the i5-2310 would be $861.92 and shows you what I was talking about with choosing the different cpus and what it would do to your budget amount. If you need an Operating System then you will have to add $100 to this total , so the choice becomes yours and your budget amount as to what you want to do. With showing you the prices for all the different parts you can get a sense of what you need to do to keep on budget or go over.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been moved from the section CPU & Components to section Systems by Mousemonkey

 

[elheriel]

No I won't be needing an OS so this this budget sounds fine by me. That being said I live in Canada, and some of the hardware I was intending to buy is more expensive than in the US.

I'm gonna look at some z77 motherboards reviews and see if I can pick a cheap one that has all the features I need. ?Thank a lot.

 

[elheriel]

Best answer selected by Elheriel.