SPCR

I will use this build mostly for office work, so I wanted it quite. But I also want to try out sequels to games I remember fondly from my childhood (Diablo, Starcraft, Duke Nukem, HoMM, ...). Really just want to try them out, so no need for max. resolution and effects.

CPU Intel Core i5-2400 ~210$
CPU Cooler Scythe MUGEN-2 SCMG-2000 120mm ~50$
MoBo ASUS P8H67-M PRO ~120$
(H67, don't want to overclock anything)
RAM G.SKILL Ripjaws 4GB DDR3 ~35$
Hard Drive 2 x SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 1TB ~2 x 65$
(two HDDs for a RAID0, the cheap alternative to SSD)
Video Card ASUS EAH6850 DirectCU ~190$
Case Fractal Design Define R3 Silver Arrow ~100$
Power Supply Antec TruePower New TP-550 ~90$
(as good as seasonic x-650, but cheaper)


Any suggestions? I really would like to lower the price a bit.

ermin wrote: CPU Intel Core i5-2400 ~210$
CPU Cooler Scythe MUGEN-2 SCMG-2000 120mm ~50$
MoBo ASUS P8H67-M PRO ~120$
(H67, don't want to overclock anything)
RAM G.SKILL Ripjaws 4GB DDR3 ~35$
Hard Drive 2 x SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 1TB ~2 x 65$
(two HDDs for a RAID0, the cheap alternative to SSD)
Video Card ASUS EAH6850 DirectCU ~190$
Case Fractal Design Define R3 Silver Arrow ~100$
Power Supply Antec TruePower New TP-550 ~90$
(as good as seasonic x-650, but cheaper)

Your total is about $930. You do not need all of that to run older games. You can scale back your system to save money, heat, power and noise.

CPU Intel Core i5-2500 ~210$
CPU Cooler XIGMATEK Gaia SD1283 ~30$
MoBo ASRock H61M/U3S3 ~76$ (H61, so SATA 6Gb/s is a Marvell controller)
RAM G.SKILL Value 8GB DDR3 ~65$ (More RAM to help with lack of SSD)
Hard Drive
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 2TB ~85$ (RAID0 is no alternative to an SSD)
Video Card SAPPHIRE 100287VGAL Radeon HD 5670 (Redwood) 512MB 128-bit DDR5 ~70$
Case & Power Supply Antec Sonata III 500 ~130$

The reduced machine only costs $665 and should give you faster desktop performance, due to a faster CPU (3.3Ghz vs 3.1Ghz) and more RAM (8Gb vs 4Gb).

This graphics card is much slower, but older games do not need newer cards. The lower power graphics card will lead to less power supply cooling noise and less GPU cooling noise (and ~120$ in your pocket).

PS:
You could move from the Core-i5 series to the Pentium Dual-Core G840, ~85$. Saving another $125, bringing the total down to ~545$. Older games will still work well, but the system will be ~ 25% slower at all tasks.

Dr. Jim Pomatter wrote: PS:
You could move from the Core-i5 series to the Pentium Dual-Core G840, ~85$. Saving another $125, bringing the total down to ~545$. Older games will still work well, but the system will be ~ 25% slower at all tasks.

The performance degradation might not be that severe. Especially for desktop and other tasks that just use 2 cores. X-Bit Labs just reviewed the Pentiums and they held up quite well to a i3-2100 in everything excepts apps that made use of Quick Sync.