Tight budget (~300 euro) gaming setup.

Friend of mine asked me to assemble for him a approx 300 euro gaming rig. He is not particularly into FPS but more stuff like WoW, League of legends, starcraft 2, company of heroes, etc. I'm thinking about going with Intel for this one, but as I'm not particularly familiar with Intel then it makes sense to post what I'm thinking of in here in case there is something not making sense at all.

Hes atm on DELL Inspiron 1500 laptop with nVidia 8400M gfx card so even such budget rig should be considerable upgrade.

Thats what I came up with (based on local prices in Estonia).

CPU - I3 530 LGA1156 (~65 eur)
Mobo - ECS Socket 1156 H55H-M (~45 eur)
HDD - Hitachi Travelstar 5K750 500GB (~55 eur)
SSD - none (could get 60 Gb for 65 eur, but would push budget too high)
Video - AMD 5750 512Mb (~75 eur)
RAM - 2x Corsair DDR3 PC-10600 1333MHz 4GB CL9 (9-9-9-24) (~45 eur)
PSU (500W) - TECNOWARE FAL501FS12 500W (~ 20 eur)

Thats altogehter 299 eur with local prices. I will add an suggestion to up the budget to 350 and go with AMD HD6850 1GB gfx card instead (~120 eur). I'm pretty confident that it's possible to stretch it that far considering the difference between these GFX cards, if not then I'll prolly skimp on RAM and make it fit by supplying 2x 2Gb I have in my secondary system (it has 4x 2 Gb and is used just for web browsing). The alternatives on the same price point are AMD 7770, nVidia 550 Ti and AMD 6790. The resolution hes using will be for a start 1920x1080 and he will consider saving up for a 27'' catleap (2560x1440).

There is no case in there, was planning to salvage one from the closet where I have couple of nonfunctional old P2 systems. PSU is also something I'm having second thoughts about but you can squeeze only so much into such budget. The "500W" cheap one I'm hoping will have enough headroom so it will not blow up if you hit it with approx 200 - 250W this system might be drawing in reality after overclocking. No SSD should be ok as well as I'm compensating with a bit of extra RAM (for SuperFetch to do its magic on most frequently used stuff).

I can still overclock non "K" Intel CPU just would have to use blck for that right ? The aim is to push that i3 to ~4 GHz, if needed then I can supply Thermatake Frio cooler (or in few weeks Sythe BIG Shuriken when my current system goes under water) for that build which should take care of the heat if stock cooler cant take that i3 at ~4 GHz.

Comments and suggestions are welcome.

Sure - http://www.hinnavaatlus.ee/ - its in estonian but google translator should be able to do its magic.

I saw couple of reviews claim to be able to hit 4 GHz with stock cooler at approx 80 C temp under load with minor increase in volts. The more powerful alternatives are 20+ euros higher.

Hm.

I'll look around for better quality 300 - 400 W one, I guess upping that component to somewhere around 30 euros should get something more decent. If the stock cooling cant keep up I'll throw in there a good aftermarket one I'm not using atm.

However, I'm sceptical about going with 6670 instead of 5750 as its even weaker card regardless of being able to afford 1 Gb model (assuming its GDDR5 ofc, GDDR3 would be a lot worse). http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=654&card2=616

As far as I can see the 7750 is higher in that list than 6670. The 6670 GDDR3 version is in that list as recommended entry level card at 75$ price point (good performance at 1680x1050 in "most games"), however 7750 is the best card at ~110$ price point (which they claim should do ok up to 1920x1200 gaming with some lowered detail) while the possible upgrade of 6850 is the best value at ~140$ price point in that list (which they claim should do ok up to 1920x1200 gaming with good detail).

Edit: Sorry about confusion, I mixed up 7750 and 5750 in my reply which are not equal ofc. However I'm still find it very hard to believe, that 5750 with GDDR5 memory of 512 Mb would function worse than 6670 with 1 Gb of GDDR3 memory.
Edited by Carniflex - 6/8/12 at 4:44am

Thanx for the suggestions, these are quite useful.

I have ordered previously from Germany (Aquatuning.de, watercooling stuff) although depending on on what shipping options the site offers at best with shipping costs included I'm kind of breaking even usually unless going with stuff on sale. I'll look at that particular site as well, if they offer DHL standard and happen to have something in the ballpark I'm looking for on sale it might end up being worth it. It's a bit hassle with RMA's but at least with aquatuning stuff has worked out so far.

The i3 2100 is approx 105 euros around here, The next step up from i3 530 at 65 locally is AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black (i.e., unlocked multi) at 85 euros. I assume it would be worth it, considering I'm willing to OC ? I mean true quadcore against 2 cores + hyperthreading keeping in mind that SC2 is CPU intensive. Entry level passable quality mobos for AM3 can be had for approx 40 euros around here (so 5 euros lover). So step up to AMD quadcore would be ~ 15 euros altogether over the i3 - 530. AMD one is ofc not as power efficient as its a larger process, but I'm more familiar with that one and confident, that if I would be throwing in my currently unused aftermarket cooler (TT Frio) I could make the AMD reliably hit ~4 GHz even on such budget mobo with careful tweaking of parameters. I have not OC'd latletly intel other than i5-2500k (to ~4.2 GHz which is rather moderate for it) a little while ago for another build for a friend, but "K" series are kinda noob friendly as far as OC goes. Sort of the same as "Black" edition AMD chips which I have not OC'd previously but should be simpler than my 1055T.

I'll keep an eye on 560 from nVidia, perhaps its possible to spot it somewhere on a reasonable sale which would make it fit into the budget.