Gaming build/upgrade budget 400

[silvers4640]

im just trying to help a friend build/upgrade a gaming pc or upgrade existing. his mobo went out on his older computer as of right now it has
amd phenom II x2 555 (i think)
8gb ddr3 ram 1600
450w psu
9600gso

i was think based purely on gaming performance of using

RAIDMAX Seiran ATX-902WW http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811156272 -59.99

GIGABYTE GA-B75M-D3H http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128555 -75.99

SAPPHIRE 100358L Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition 1GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx? Item=N82E16814202011 -114.99

APEVIA ATX-CW500WP4 500W ATX Power Supply http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817148027 -39.99

Intel Core i3-2120 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115077 -124.99

total--- 415-50rebates=365

only requirements he has is cant change case and mobo must have 4 ddr3 1600mhz slots thanks for any help in advance

 

[tiny voices]

Only get a PSU from Antec, XFX, Corsair, Seasonic.

Why can't he get a cheaper case?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-3220 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor ($109.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: MSI B75MA-P45 Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($66.24 @ Amazon)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7850 1GB Video Card ($154.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 430 ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 500W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $401.20
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-01-11 13:24 EST-0500)

 

[silvers4640]

he like the looks of that one and wants it to look nice i had a hard time talking him down from a $100 case so we settled on this one so we could put more money into components

 

[tiny voices]

You can always get a neat case later on too. This build will get him high settings at 1080p on modern games. It should serve him very well.

 

[silvers4640]

what about 7770 over 7850 just to save a few $

 

[silvers4640]

and one more q just we can stop arguing (me and him) i3-3220 is better than amd phenom x4 965 be (deneb)

 

[tiny voices]

A 7770 would get you mediumish settings in modern games and high settings in games a year old or older. A 7850 will get you higher settings in recent games and last you longer.

The i3 vs phenom debate is a big one.

Personally I choose an i3 because I mostly play minecraft which is single core intensive and the i3 blows the phenom away on a core vs. core basis.

In modern games its close, but the i3 is generally better for gaming. A overclocked 965be (4.0ghx +) can keep up just fine, but the i3 will be better generally speaking.

The i3 also gives a better upgrade path for the future. (i5/i7)

All in all, I prefer the i3 for gaming over the 965be. I actually upgraded from a 965 BE (4ghz OC) to the i3 I have now and I saw a decent improvement in minecraft and windows 7 speeds.

 

[silvers4640]

ok thanks for all the help

 

[tiny voices]

Anytime man!

 

[scannall]

Well, here is my build. $408.93 including RAM and hard drive.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/x3Ks

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD A10-5800K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor ($119.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A85X Extreme4-M Micro ATX FM2 Motherboard ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LP 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($33.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 6670 1GB Video Card ($49.99 @ Microcenter)
Case: Apex SK-393-C ATX Mid Tower Case ($24.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Cooler Master GX 450W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $408.93
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-01-11 14:39 EST-0500)

The A10 is faster than an i3, and very overlockable. The 6670 will crossfire with the video on the A10 for roughly 7850 performance.

 

[Derza10]

Well, here is my build. $408.93 including RAM and hard drive.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/x3Ks

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD A10-5800K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor ($119.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A85X Extreme4-M Micro ATX FM2 Motherboard ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LP 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($33.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 6670 1GB Video Card ($49.99 @ Microcenter)
Case: Apex SK-393-C ATX Mid Tower Case ($24.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Cooler Master GX 450W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $408.93
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-01-11 14:39 EST-0500)

Errrm could you explain your thoughts on that build? To me it looks (game wise) really poor vs the other options hes been given.

 

[scannall]

Errrm could you explain your thoughts on that build? To me it looks (game wise) really poor vs the other options hes been given.

The A10 is faster than an i3, and very overlockable. The 6670 will crossfire with the video on the A10 for roughly 7850 performance.

Leaving off the hard drive and ram it comes in at just barely over $300.

 

[Derza10]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6347/amd-a10-5800k-a8-5600k-review-trinity-on-the-desktop-part-2/6

http://techreport.com/review/23662/amd-a10-5800k-and-a8-5600k-trinity-apus-reviewed/8

Those links show otherwise... I didn't spend much time looking but didn't find anything showing the A10-5800k was faster.

 

[scannall]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6347/amd-a10-5800k-a8-5600k-review-trinity-on-the-desktop-part-2/6

http://techreport.com/review/23662/amd-a10-5800k-and-a8-5600k-trinity-apus-reviewed/8

Those links show otherwise... I didn't spend much time looking but didn't find anything showing the A10-5800k was faster.

At Passmark.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+A10-5800K+APU&id=1446

vs

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i3-3220+%40+3.30GHz&id=1472

Also, keep in mind the A10 can be overclocked quite a bit and the i3 can't.

 

[Derza10]

LOL @passmark being your deciding factor! that benchmark is worse than worthless.
How about some actual gaming results?
Seems to me the i3 is about 20% faster in almost every game i can find where they are shown in the same charts.

 

[scannall]

LOL @passmark being your deciding factor! that benchmark is worse than worthless.
How about some actual gaming results?
Seems to me the i3 is about 20% faster in almost every game i can find where they are shown in the same charts.

Neither of your links uses the A10 in a crossfire. If I were building a $600 or higher rig it would be Intel. No other choice really. But for less than $400 the A10 and Crossfire are awfully good bang for the buck.

Neither build is 'awesome', but $400 doesn't buy awesome. ;-)

 

[Derza10]

The a10 only really performs well if you very have fast ram... like 2000+... So going with the a10 + 6670 would cost less... but going with the i3 and 7850 would perform much better with much less headache and still be in budget.

 

[scannall]

The a10 only really performs well if you very have fast ram... like 2000+... So going with the a10 + 6670 would cost less... but going with the i3 and 7850 would perform much better with much less headache and still be in budget.

I think they'd be pretty close. Personally, I'd go with the A10 just because I like to tinker and overclock. And it would have a small performance advantage. I don't think either is a 'bad' choice though.

 

[Derza10]

Hmm once again this says otherwise...

http://www.pureoverclock.com/Review-detail/amd-trinity-a10-5800k-review/14/

it only shows the i3 with no GPU but you can assume it will perform just as well or better than the a10-5800k that is using the 7770. And note how much better the a10-5800k with a 7770 is vs the a10-5800k in crossfire with a 6670

 

[Derza10]

So in no way will the a10-5800k + 6670 in crossfire perform even remotely as well as a i3 + 7850.

 

[scannall]

So in no way will the a10-5800k + 6670 in crossfire perform even remotely as well as a i3 + 7850.

*shrug* Add a 7850 to my build instead. Comes out to about the same money, and you can overclock it. Plus have a quadcore for those applications that can use it.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/x4jC

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD A10-5800K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor ($119.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A85X Extreme4-M Micro ATX FM2 Motherboard ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7850 1GB Video Card ($154.99 @ Newegg)
Case: MSI TC- (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($22.99 @ Microcenter)
Power Supply: Cooler Master GX 450W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $407.95
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-01-11 15:56 EST-0500)


At this point I think this poor old horse has been flogged to goo though. If you want to argue nothing but Intel for $600+ builds, I'll agree with you all day long. Just not at these low end builds is all.

 

[maui67]

So in no way will the a10-5800k + 6670 in crossfire perform even remotely as well as a i3 + 7850.

^+1 IMHO the i3 has a better upgrade path than the A10. Tiny voices build suggestion is the way to go.

 

[ikaz]

A bigger question is why mess with xfire on a low end system in the first place since not all game will scale with xfire/SLI while a solid i3/7850 will work on all games. If anything I expected to see more people debating just upgrading the CPU with the x4 and the card to 7850 on the "cheap".

 

[Derza10]

*shrug* Add a 7850 to my build instead. Comes out to about the same money, and you can overclock it. Plus have a quadcore for those applications that can use it.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/x4jC

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD A10-5800K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor ($119.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A85X Extreme4-M Micro ATX FM2 Motherboard ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7850 1GB Video Card ($154.99 @ Newegg)
Case: MSI TC- (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($22.99 @ Microcenter)
Power Supply: Cooler Master GX 450W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $407.95
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-01-11 15:56 EST-0500)


At this point I think this poor old horse has been flogged to goo though. If you want to argue nothing but Intel for $600+ builds, I'll agree with you all day long. Just not at these low end builds is all.

Still confused why you would recommend the a10-5800 in that build... when you won't be using the APU AND the i3 performs closer to 20% better in games for the same price... And still pretty much the same sometimes better as the a10-5800k in applications that use 4 cores.

 

[scannall]

Still confused why you would recommend the a10-5800 in that build... when you won't be using the APU AND the i3 performs closer to 20% better in games for the same price... And still pretty much the same sometimes better as the a10-5800k in applications that use 4 cores.

Several reasons. Like I mentioned before, I like to tinker. Also, I do more than play games.

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/2047/18/ is an interesting article about overclocking the A10. 5 Ghz ain't bad. More than makes up that %20 you were referring to earlier.

http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/3169/12/intel-core-i3-3225-and-3220-review-entry-level-ivy-bridge-benchmarks-cinebench-115

In the end, it is all about personal preference. And how you use your machine, whether you tinker around or not etc.

I suppose another reason is that AMD is making some interesting parts, and I want them to stay around. Intel prices are bad enough as it is. So if a build like this can meet the needs in this price range, why not?