UNDER $500 gaming computer box

Traak · 2011-10-11, 11:25 PM

I wanted to help our peeps be able to get a vision for some gameability on a low budget.

$499.91

Basic case
250GB drive
Nice AMD motherboard
Radeon 6850
SATA DVD reader
Rosewill 500W power supply
Decent 2X4GB of RAM
AMD Phenom II CPU, Quad-core
100mm CPU cooler/fan

Starting with our basic cheap black box to keep the components from having to sit on the floor
GIGABYTE GZ-KF03B Black SGCC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
$19.99

Nice, 250GB HDD
Seagate Barracuda ST3250312AS 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
$36.99

Motherboard with future upgradeability, RAID, Crossfire, overclockability (at least for the RAM)
MSI 870A-G54 AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
$94.99

Video card
HIS H685FN1GD Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity
$134.99 with mail-in $10 rebate
Inexpensive thing to load Windows
LITE-ON Black 18X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA DVD-ROM Drive Model iHDS118-04 - OEM

Crossfireable power supply
Rosewill RV2-500 500 W ATX12V v2.2 / EPS12V SLI Ready Power Supply

2X4GB of RAM, 1333MHz
Team Elite 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory Model TED38192M1333HC9DC

Phenom II AMD
AMD Phenom II X4 830 Deneb 2.8GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor HDX830WFK4DGM - OEM

CPU cooler
EVERCOOL HPFA-10025 100mm Ever Lubricate CPU Cooler (Buffalo for AMD)

I wonder what you could change to increase your FPS. Cheaper CPU and RAM, more VPU? PS is kind of unique in that it gobbles heaps of net code and thus uses the CPU a lot more to place all the people, vehicles, explosions, bullets, and whatever on the map relative to you.

Recommendations, while keeping it under $500?

Bags · 2011-10-12, 12:05 AM

I know you're trying to keep it under $500, but why not go $7 over and double the HD capacity?

Traak · 2011-10-12, 12:25 AM

Originally Posted by Bags

I know you're trying to keep it under $500, but why not go $7 over and double the HD capacity?

It's a price-point exercise. The idea, partially, is for people to add their comments, and improvements.

I agree. Only 7 bucks for twice the HDD capacity is a great idea!

Wait till you see the sub-$250 computer box!

Bags · 2011-10-12, 12:42 AM

My body may not be ready.

Goku · 2011-10-12, 11:04 AM

Everything here is good besides the CPU+mobo and maybe the PSU.

You are better off with the Core i3 2100 and H61/H67 for gaming. That little CPU out does even the 1100T in gaming performance most of the time. The 830 won't even touch it.

That PSU will likely suffice, but I would probably look for a higher quality unit. There is a good chance if a PSU goes on you it may take the whole computer with it. I had one friend's motherboard fried due to someone getting one a generic PSU. Thankfully the CPU and GPU were still working.

BorisBlade · 2011-10-13, 09:04 PM

As goku said, i would also go with a sandybridge, the i3 2100 is a great deal. The GPU is the bottleneck for most any system, and is far and away the best way to increase FPS. Once you get a decent base system, get the absolute most powerful GPU you can get that will fit in your budget.

And dont worry about SLI/xfire, its a budget build so just get the best single card you can afford and get the PSU and motherboard set up for a single card. In other words, if you went with Nvidia, no need to get a more expensive mobo just to get sli support. At a 500 dollar range every little bit saved can mean more GPU!

Traak · 2011-10-14, 06:32 AM

Originally Posted by BorisBlade

At a 500 dollar range every little bit saved can mean more GPU!

I see. I wanted to have the option of an affordable future upgrade available in the form of being able to just drop in another (by then much cheaper) copy of the same video card.