Hi all. I plan on giving my boy a computer for christmas. This doesn't have to be a super high end computer, but I would like him to be able to play Portal 2 on it. My budget is $600. Any advice as to what the most bang for the buck is right now with components? I don't mind overclocking the processor a bit, but I'm still kind of wet behind the ears on that so processor that is easy to overclock would be nice...
In this $600, I need everything including a monitor and windows....
I know I may be asking too much for this budget....but hopefully some of you have some good ideas or know of some good deals going on right now.
plus that cpu I linked is still under your budged so I bet if I took more time and wasn't on my phone you could do some shopping around and get some upgrades or a gpu as well, I would say don't waste your money unless your going to get a 7770 or higher though (7850's are nice enough for casual gaming at 1080p)
Hm, with display and windows as well it's going to be a bit tight fit into that budget. I would get for a start a display and windows into the budget and then see whats left over. Say about a ~400$? If you go with an "Home" version and pick one of the cheapest 1920x1080 displays. So - about ~150 for the motherboard + i3 or even lowest tier i5 (if its on a good sale with a coupon), ~150 for the GFX card and for the rest you should be still able to grab some reasonable quality ~400..450W PSU + 4 or 8 GB of RAM.
As far as GFX card goes 7770 Should do fine although 7850 (or nVidia equivalents) should do wonders. I'm running 5400x1920 resolution with a 7870 and these are quite a beasts, but if the budget gets tight then even 6870 for example, will do just fine even with AA and stuff o turned on. Portal is not particularly demanding game. Even a 6770 crossfire was able to run it at ~30 fps at 5400x1920 with AA off (roughly equal in powwer to the single 6870).
If you don't wanna go with AMD the intel integrated graphics aren't as good but you could get this board
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986 or something similar and an i5 and save up for a 7850/nvidia equivilent down the road. the integrated will play portal decently well for now. If you want to grab a gpu right now like these guys are saying its gonna get tight.
Thanks everyone....this is what I have so far...what do you think?
This cpu would be for my boy to learn on, game on, etc....he is only 7 so I don't want to go too crazy....but I already catch him playing bf3 on my cpu and that is definitely not happening!
Thanks everyone....this is what I have so far...what do you think?
This cpu would be for my boy to learn on, game on, etc....he is only 7 so I don't want to go too crazy....but I already catch him playing bf3 on my cpu and that is definitely not happening!
Thoughts? http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=21345066
I see everyone putting dedicated GPUs with their APUs. That means you're just throwing money away in a sense because you're not using the discrete level on board GPU. You're probably better of with something like this:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103962 with that 7770.
Is the chip you linked to that much better than the one I had in my wish list Cheese? I know yours has more cores, but the one in the wish list ran faster....
any other differences? Is the one you linked to easy to overclock? I probably won't OC the chip for awhile but when I do, I would like for it to be somewhat painless! LOL.
Thanks everyone....this is what I have so far...what do you think?
This cpu would be for my boy to learn on, game on, etc....he is only 7 so I don't want to go too crazy....but I already catch him playing bf3 on my cpu and that is definitely not happening!
Thoughts? http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=21345066
It seems quite good, however, the CPU and motherboard sockets are not compatible. You have FM2 socket motherboards while CPU is AM3+, if you switch out the mobo for the AM3 or AM3+ socket version then it's all golden. For example, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157305 might do the trick - it's not the best thing since sliced bread and the chipset is somewhat ancient plus power circuitry is without the heatsinks, but I used similar (ASRock Socket AM3+ 970 Pro 3 for ~60 euros in Estonia with 20% VAT) in a recent build for a friend and it gets the job done. Note that this motherboard I suggested is with BIOS instead of UEFI so it cant use 3 TB HDD's, as long as you use up to 2 TB ones, however, it's functional. The motherboard selection in the newegg seems a bit thin. Almost no mobos with the latest 900 series chipset for a reasonable price.
Edit: Otherwise the config you linked should have no problems playing even BF3 as long as the young guy does not beeline straight to "everything ultra settings". Also, after taking a second look at the motherboards, perhaps it might be possible to get a http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138348 for a mobo, as far as I can see it's the only AM3+ mobo in the egg with the latest chipset. The PSU should be good enough for a single GFX card + CPU configuration.
Cyberpower bundle cost - $640 + $25 shipping = $665 shipped
Cost of my combination: $657.25 shipped
New parts: superior motherboard (VRM cooling and AMD chipset), superior RAM, superior case (cable management), probably superior PSU, superior video card, superior warranty for everything. $8 less.
I can beat this with new parts o_o AMD FX-8120 + Sony DVD drive - $172 shipped ($167 + $5 shipping) Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 - $60 shipped [NCIX] Kingston HyperX 2x4GB DDR3-1600 - $35 shipped [NCIX] Rosewill Challenger case - $38.25 shipped [Newegg] Antec Neo ECO 450C - $37 shipped [NCIX] Windows 7 64-bit SP1 - $80 shipped [NCIX] HIS Radeon 7850 1GB - $165 shipped [Newegg] Seagate 7200RPM 1TB HDD - $70 shipped [NCIX]
Cyberpower bundle cost - $640 + $25 shipping = $665 shipped
Cost of my combination: $657.25 shipped
New parts: superior motherboard (VRM cooling and AMD chipset), superior RAM, superior case (cable management), probably superior PSU, superior video card, superior warranty for everything. $8 less.
Prebuilts will always be ripoffs...
I can beat this with new parts o_o AMD FX-8120 + Sony DVD drive - $172 shipped ($167 + $5 shipping) Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 - $60 shipped [NCIX] Kingston HyperX 2x4GB DDR3-1600 - $35 shipped [NCIX] Rosewill Challenger case - $38.25 shipped [Newegg] Antec Neo ECO 450C - $37 shipped [NCIX] Windows 7 64-bit SP1 - $80 shipped [NCIX] HIS Radeon 7850 1GB - $165 shipped [Newegg] Seagate 7200RPM 1TB HDD - $70 shipped [NCIX]
Cyberpower bundle cost - $640 + $25 shipping = $665 shipped
Cost of my combination: $657.25 shipped
New parts: superior motherboard (VRM cooling and AMD chipset), superior RAM, superior case (cable management), probably superior PSU, superior video card, superior warranty for everything. $8 less.
Prebuilts will always be ripoffs...
Thats quite solid list, considering that the OP already had a case and .. umm HDD ? The mobo is with the old chipset, but at least it has the new(er) BIOS chips that should be able to handle 3+ TB HDD's fine and the feature list on it seems decent for the price. Although, considering that the OP needs display as well the budget would still end up in the ballpark of ~650.
D'oh! Wow, that was a noob moment eh???? HAHA. Thanks for catching that for me. The Biostar board looks like it should work. I'm glad the PSU will be enough, I was thinking I was borderline in regards to that. I don't plan on letting my boy play BF3. If the language was cleaned up a bit, it may not be as bad since there isn't a ton of blood and what not. But being only 7, the language can get to be a bit much. I would much rather him being playing Portal or Portal 2
I'm really surprised a $129 GPU can handle BF3. But I'm not complaining!
Now the question is, do I buy everything now or wait until Black Friday and/or Cyber Monday....
If you plan to overclock the AMD option is better in my opinion as Phenom is easy to overclock. you just have to grab an aftermarket cooler like COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO - $30.99 (Free 2 day Shipping)
Hope this helps
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