Budget Gaming components

ACook · Post by **ACook** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 6:28 pm

â‚¬ 88,45	AMD Phenom II X2 550		
â‚¬ 41,02	Corsair CX400W	
â‚¬ 89,00	Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4	
â‚¬ 89,37	Gigabyte GV-R477D5-512H-B	
â‚¬ 47,37	Kingston HyperX KHX8500AD2K2/4G	
â‚¬ 54,90	Samsung Spinpoint F1 DT HD642JJ, 640GB
  ----- +
â‚¬432,87	incl p&p at one of my stores

I'm looking to build a gaming machine for a friend's son. He's coming off a C2.6GHz with 512MB ram and an Asus V9550 128MB card. He's playing mainly Age of Empires and wanted The Sims 3, though he does play FPS games on his consoles. He's got a small 1024x768 tft, but also a HD(ready?) flat tv nearby.

I'm no gamer, so I've had to do some research on the gfx and cpu combo, they seem to be well regarded.

I've chosen the GA-MA790X-UD4 because 1) it's a GB, 2) it's got 2 PCI-E slots, so in a years time or so he can save enough to add an extra HD4770, which I've read combined kills much more expensive cards dead.

I've got several old cases standing around, so I'll try some of them.

Given he's in his basement with the tv on all the time, I don't think we'll need silent, stock heatsink on the CPU should be good enough, though I would like some feedback on the gfx card noise, as I'm only familiar with passive cards lately.

am I overlooking something here?

Would vista be the better choice for games?

thanks

danimal · Post by **danimal** » Tue Jun 30, 2009 8:29 pm

i'm under the impression that we are waiting for the other shoe to drop on those 4770's? the partner manufacturers haven't yet released their versions of the card, so the pricing is still higher than it was supposed to be.

i got tired of waiting, so a few weeks ago i got the gtx260 core 216 overclocked for $150 after rebate... for some bizzare reason, the price has gone up on it since then, the video card market seems to be in a turmoil right now.

but there are still some smoking hot deals on video cards out there, if you watch places like fatwallet.

lodestar · Post by **lodestar** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 1:00 am

The system proposed should be quite a nice budget gaming system, with all the components well-matched against each other. It has to be said though that ATI recommend a minimum of a 450w PSU for the 4770. I am sure a 400w from a brand name like Corsair would be fine, but it might be worth looking at a 450w or even a 500w if decent quality ones are available at your pricepoint.

Sims 3, so it is said on the net, is not particularly demanding on gaming hardware and the proposed system should play it well at relatively low resolutions such as 1024x768. I suspect there are few, if any games that the system would not play provided that the levels of details are reduced to a minimum, and anti-aliasing etc are turned off. The games will not look at good visually as they might, but this is unlikely to bother someone more used to console games which have a similar graphics quality.

I note that you say "...but also a HD(ready?) flat tv nearby...". If this tv is a significantly bigger screen size than the monitor you can expect the system to be plugged into that more or less immediately. It won't be a problem if the TV is 720p but if it is 1080p (1900x1080) then a budget gaming system could struggle at that res.

On a practical note you need to add a PC gaming controller to your list, and budget. The current favourite seems to be the XBox 360 wireless with PC adapter.

Ch0z3n · Post by **Ch0z3n** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 3:57 am

A 400W PSU is more than enough. With the components you have listed, you will probably not break 150W; 200W at the max.

lodestar · Post by **lodestar** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 9:36 am

It's not just about wattage calculations. I wouldn't put a CX 400 into a gaming system and to me its only virtue is that it is the cheapest Corsair CPU. It would make a good buy for people with non-gaming systems to replace 'no-name' 350-400w PSUs.

For gaming a PSU with the build quality to survive hours of gaming is in my view a better investment. So for this system I would go for the Corsair VX450. It will cost a bit more, but it is not that much more.

ACook · Post by **ACook** » Wed Jul 01, 2009 12:45 pm

it's true that many of the 4770 cards that are listed on the dutch price comparison site turn out to be 'on order' at the retailers. the gigabyte is available at a couple, so just picked that one.

the power consumption was measured at a few sites and shouldn't cross 250 at boot. and that's conservative.

ya, the tv is much bigger, he wouldn't plug it it, not savvy enough, but I would

we'll see how it performs.

coming from a 2004 budget card, he'll be well pleased anyway.

he can shop around for his own gaming controllers, that's not my area. he's got a wii, and i think a 360.