Sub $400 gaming machine

[Guest]

I'm looking to upgrade from my older Phenom II X6 1055T and Radeon HD 5850 Black Edition video card. So here is what I am working with.

**EDIT**
I have a Asus Sabertooth 990FX motherboard (original, not the R2.0 or Gen III)

Approximate Purchase Date: This weekend.

Budget Range: Up to $400, including tax.

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming (Skyrim, WoW, D3, SC2, GTA IV) Web Browsing

Are you buying a monitor: NO

Parts to Upgrade: Motherboard and CPU/APU and Video Card (Although I do have an extra GTX 560 SE I wouldn't mind using.)

Do you need to buy OS: NO

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Fry.com, CentralComputers.com

Location: Fremont, CA

Parts Preferences: For my budget, AMD might be the way to go. No preference though.

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: NO

Your Monitor Resolution: 720P TV.

I have a spare 500W PSU, but the case/psu I am using right now is an Antec 302 with a Corsair 650W PSU. I also have 4 GB of spare Kingston 1600 MHZ DDR3 and a Toshiba Sata III 1TB drive.

 

[casper1973]

Are you saying you are willing to use parts fro your current machine?

If so then you can pretty much get away with just buying CPU, Mobo and GPU.

AMD FX-6300
Asus M5A78L-M LX PLUS
PowerColor Radeon HD 7850 2GB Video Card

They come to just under $400 and will give you really good performance on a 720p monitor

 

[tenaciousk]

Ok so if you have a psu 4gigs of ram and a harddrive.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($94.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI 970A-G46 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($74.98 @ Outlet PC)
Memory: Kingston 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($24.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 650 Ti 1GB Video Card ($139.99 @ Microcenter)
Case: Zalman Z9 Plus ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($16.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $391.92
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-01 19:56 EST-0500)

If you had a little extra money pushing up to a a fx-6300 processor wouldn't hurt,

 

[Guest]

It occurs to me I should have mentioned, I have a Sabertooth 990FX motherboard. Sorry!

 

[tenaciousk]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD A10-5800K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor ($123.79 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($33.20 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A85X Extreme4-M Micro ATX FM2 Motherboard ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($49.98 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 6670 1GB Video Card ($56.97 @ Newegg)
Case: Zalman Z9 ATX Mid Tower Case ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($16.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $390.90
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-01 20:10 EST-0500)

 

[tenaciousk]

Yeah that should have occurred to you lol.

 

[tenaciousk]

jeeze what processor are you using in that now?

 

[Guest]

jeeze what processor are you using in that now?

Phenom II X6 1055T. It's soon to be out of warranty in April so I want to replace it before then, and since I just got a fat paycheck, now seems like the time.

I basically play on my TV which is a older 26" LCD HDTV (only 720P, the price for being a smaller TV I guess) and I think the old 5850 just isn't that great. Also the fact it only runs at x8 for some reason (the board supports x16, tested it with my spare 560 SE video card and worked like a charm.)

I was thinking APU might be the best way to go since my graphics requirements aren't great. I am happy playing WoW, SC2, D3, and especially GTA IV and Skyrim on medium settings. Still better than my XBOX 360.

Thanks for your help so far! I hope more information is better!

 

[stantheman123]

the phenom 1055t is still a decent cpu. Can you overclock it and maybie get a gtx 670? or 7970

 

[tenaciousk]

If you went with a Apu though you would have to buy a new motherboard because they are a different socket. you pretty much sound like you have a decent set up. Maybe you should just buy a bomb ass gpu

 

[Guest]

Wouldn't a 1055T bottleneck any higher end video card?

 

[Z1NONLY]

My overclocked 1045t (@3.4Ghz) didn't seem to bottleneck my 2X 560's in SLI. And from what I have seen, those two 560's are in the ballpark of a single 670. (the SLI setup has to be at least as much work as a single 670 for the CPU)

 

[stantheman123]

How high can you OC it dude? have you tried?

 

[Guest]

I don't really want to OC any more. As I understand it these chips are getting hard to find, at least new, and the Thubans weren't the best at it, normally hitting ~ 4 Ghz on air. At one time I did have my OC'd and was hitting 4 GHz on air, but the temps were pretty high at about 61 C per core, and I think the thermal limit is 62 C for that. If I could get 4 GHz out of the box, I would be happy but so far I am unimpressed with the FX series, although the APU's looked interesting to me. I guess I might just have to bite the bullet and run a 8320 and transfer my other computers video card into this machine. I hope the GTX 560 Ti 448 FTW isn't bottle necked by the newer CPU.

 

[stantheman123]

My 7970 ghz isnt bottlenecked by my 6300 you will be 100% fine. Haha

 

[Guest]

Best answer selected by nosupport4u.