PC building challenge for someone on a very tight budget

[Penny30]

Hello guys and girls,

my current gaming "rig" is an old laptop from 2008-09 with a Core2Duo P7450 @ 2.13 ghz and a 4650 ATI Mobility 1 gig dedicated gddr3. It still plays most of the games that I want to play just fine but then again, I have really low standards when it comes to gaming.

The thing is, I'm a "delayed" gamer. My current games are things like Civ 5 and Modern Warfare 3 and even with my current set up, I am still in awe at how good graphics have gotten since I've first started playing in the 80's.

I want to build myself a desktop again. Last time I did that, it was with an Athlon XP mobile chip which I absolutely loved to overclock. So you see, it's been a while.

My plan is to find components from around 2010-2011 which I can find on ebay or some other website (I live in Germany) and build myself a PC which lets me play games on my HD monitor on medium to high settings. Ofcourse, I will get the PSU new since I am going to be overclocking. And this is where I need help. I don't know squat when it comes current hardware.

For the processor, I've been eyeing the Athlon II X4 650 and although it has no L3 cache, I think it could handle most games nicely. The GPU I'm flirting with is the ATI 5870. Both could be had for under 80€. When it comes to the mainboard, what should I take into consideration knowing that I want to overclock? I think I will base the RAM on what mainboard I will get.

Obviously, I am very grateful to any suggestions, thoughts or alternatives you guys have.

Thanks a lot!

Penny

 

[sobe]

How about starting off with an overall budget for us to work with?

Would this budget include monitors? OS(Windows)? Peripherals(mouse, keyboard, etc.)?

 

[Mjolnir]

Ya we'll need a budget for all this. I'm sure you could also get away with slightly newer items than you're currently looking at too.

 

[Penny30]

Silly me! Ofcourse I would need to set up a budget. I do not need a monitor, nor a mouse or any peripherals. I still have a Win 7 license and I'm sure I can scrounge up an old PC case from somewhere, as well as a DVD drive. I'm really talking about the innards. I would like to spend around 250€ in total for just the main bits.

-CPU
-GPU
-RAM
-Mainboard
-HDD
-PSU

 

[Mjolnir]

I'd be looking at a AMD APU system for this build.. (Decent onboard graphics on the CPU, easily better than your current).

This is using brand new parts... A little over budget. From this site http://www.hardwareversand.de/home.jsp

AMD A10 5800K

Scratch that; the 5800k for a few euros extra is worth it. It still beats out the old gen, and is barely slower than the 6800K.

 

[mas5acre]

Really good buid, hope the OP agrees.

 

[Penny30]

I had to wrap my head around the concept of an integrated gpusolution and read up on the topic. I must say I'm impressed with that build since i can always upgrade with a new graphic card at some other point. Is it true though that higher speed with memory will get me better gpu performance in this build?

 

[EarthDog]

Is it true though that higher speed with memory will get me better gpu performance in this build?

Yes.

 

[Theocnoob]

And get 8 gigs. Not 4.

 

[pcgamer4life]

And get 8 gigs. Not 4.

If there's room in the budget, sure.. but it's certainly not necessary.

 

[Mjolnir]

I'd be going for 8 if it was within budget. But we're over it already. Hence why I left it at four.

I'd be going for cl9 1866mhz 8gb if you can OP.. I think that's the sweet spot here IMO.

 

[Penny30]

After having read a ton of tests, benchmarks and so on, I decided that I want to spend a bit more on the setup, even if i will be only able to buy the new rig in another month. Thanks Mjolnir for pointing out the setup you proposed!

This is the current setup with everything new except for the GPU, which I will buy off EBay:



What do you think? Im open for any suggestions

Also, I will be overclocking the CPU

 

[EarthDog]