Is this budget gaming build well balanced?

[huntrail]

Is this build well balanced? I can't go up much more on the budget because I also need to pick out a case for it and would like some money left to get a good one.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Athlon II X4 640 3.0GHz Quad-Core Processor (£51.35 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-78LMT-S2P Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£35.82 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory (£35.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£38.40 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 550 Ti 1GB Video Card (£81.98 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£36.98 @ Novatech)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer (£11.40 @ Aria PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£65.99 @ Aria PC)
Total: £357.91
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-08 17:01 GMT+0000)

Also is everything compatible with each other out of the box?

 

[robthatguyx]

Looks good to me everything should be good to go out of the box.

 

[cball1311]

This is what I would go with. You can upgrade to an i5 later. The 7770 is a bit better than the 550 Ti. Case included.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Pentium G860 3.0GHz Dual-Core Processor (£46.99 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: MSI B75MA-E33 Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£42.98 @ Novatech)
Memory: GeIL Enhance CORSA 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£30.23 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£38.40 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Asus Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition 1GB Video Card (£89.99 @ Dabs)
Case: Silverstone SST-RL01B-USB 3.0 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£35.16 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£36.98 @ Novatech)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer (£11.40 @ Aria PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£65.99 @ Aria PC)
Total: £398.12
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-08 17:23 GMT+0000)

 

[huntrail]

This is what I would go with. You can upgrade to an i5 later. The 7770 is a bit better than the 550 Ti. Case included.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Pentium G860 3.0GHz Dual-Core Processor (£46.99 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: MSI B75MA-E33 Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£42.98 @ Novatech)
Memory: GeIL Enhance CORSA 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£30.23 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£38.40 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Asus Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition 1GB Video Card (£89.99 @ Dabs)
Case: Silverstone SST-RL01B-USB 3.0 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£35.16 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£36.98 @ Novatech)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer (£11.40 @ Aria PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£65.99 @ Aria PC)
Total: £398.12
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-08 17:23 GMT+0000)

How does the pentium compare to the athlon? because upgrading to an I5 is costly compared to an FX processor. I do agree the HD 7770 would be better so i'll add that

 

[cball1311]

Here you go. Some benchmark comparisons. Go to performance tab and compare 3dMark scores (graphics benchmark).

http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/88/AMD_Athlon_II_X4_640_vs_Intel_Pentium_Dual-Core_G860.html

 

[huntrail]

Here you go. Some benchmark comparisons. Go to performance tab and compare 3dMark scores (graphics benchmark).

http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/88/AMD_Athlon_II_X4_640_vs_Intel_Pentium_Dual-Core_G860.html

Thanks for the benchmarks I think i'll stick to Athlon due to it being a quad core and more software is starting to take advantage of that

 

[twelve25]

What I don't like about your original AMD build is that the motherboard is so old. I don't think there is much difference in processor performance overall, but who wants to buy a new computer that doesn't have any SATA 3 or USB 3 ports? It's going to be outdated before you build it.

I would definitely get the 7770 over the 550 Ti, though. GTX 650 Ti if you can afford it. Feel free to drop to 4GB of RAM if it helps get the next graphics card up. You won't use 8 for games.

p.s. you have a point about more stuff using lots of cores, but in this case you will have 4 slower cores vs 2 faster ones with the intel. The net result is that even in multithreaded apps, the intel is faster.

 

[huntrail]

What I don't like about your original AMD build is that the motherboard is so old. I don't think there is much difference in processor performance overall, but who wants to buy a new computer that doesn't have any SATA 3 or USB 3 ports? It's going to be outdated before you build it.

I would definitely get the 7770 over the 550 Ti, though. GTX 650 Ti if you can afford it. Feel free to drop to 4GB of RAM if it helps get the next graphics card up. You won't use 8 for games.

p.s. you have a point about more stuff using lots of cores, but in this case you will have 4 slower cores vs 2 faster ones with the intel. The net result is that even in multithreaded apps, the intel is faster.

I don't think I can stretch the budget to a 650ti. Do I need SATA 3 for a HDD and USB3 for flash drives and xbox controllers (maybe) if so could you recommend a mobo?

 

[cball1311]

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£51.78 @ Aria PC)

 

[huntrail]

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£51.78 @ Aria PC)

cool thanks