$500 budget ideas

[guppie]

Gave my son my old gaming computer (MSI P67A-G45 + i5-2500K + 8GB RAM) last year when he got into PC gaming. Tossed in an MSI GTX 960 and a Kingston 500GB SSD and he's been gaming like a fiend (BF3, BF4, Hardline, GTA5, Rocket League, Bioshock, Fallout 4, CSGO, Borderlands). The latest game is Doom 3... Running into a situation where my daughter now wants a computer as well, but she's not a heavy gamer by any stretch. She's been using an ancient Dell Core2Duo (I can't even remember the hardware) to watch Youtube and play crappy steam games and Slither LOL.

If I'm going to spend some money on computer hardware, I figured I'd make the most of it... No sense in buying her something that's just marginally better then what she currently has, so I was going to give her my son's i5-2500K rig and replace the GPU and SSD with something decent for approx $120 (i.e. GTX 660 + 120GB SSD).

So I would need a CPU/MB/RAM/PSU/HSF for my son and would like to keep it under $500 if possible. Saw that an i5-4670 for approx $125. Would this be pointless or should I step up to an i7-4770 for approx $200?

Need some suggestions for the "?" below. Thanks

Son's computer ($500)
CPU: ?
MB: ? (prefer MSI but not a big deal)
RAM: ? 8GB
PSU: ? 500W
HSF: Hyper 212+

Daughter's computer ($120)
GPU: ? (nvidia or AMD)
SSD: ? 120GB

 

[trents]

For gaming, the i5-4670 would be as good as the i7-4770 since games generally can't take advantage of the HT technology found on i7 CPUs. I note that you are not mentioning the "k" series in either case so I assume you ae not interested in overclocking.

 

[TechWizard]

There are better cards that are cheaper than the 660 GTX. I just replaced mine and I bought it cheaper 2 years ago than it is now seeing as its MSRP is $249.99 everywhere these days.

I'd look at the 750 Ti if you want something in that realm - runs about $95, but I'm sure you could find it cheaper on sale with MIB. You'll have to shop around though, I can't find them right now for less than $110 other than the Zotac branded unit. I know this doesn't leave much headway for the SSD, but it is probably the best bang for your buck in the 660 GTX range.

-- Edit --

As for your son's computer... If you're going with the i5-4670 (Where do you see it for $125? I can only find them at $225)

Motherboards: $80 after MIB MSI Z97 PC Mate, $70 MSI B85M-G43, or $130 MSI Z97 Gaming

RAM: $38 2x4GB G.Skill Ripjaws X Series Seems to be a favorite around here and everywhere. You could get 16GB at this price and not break your budget.

PSU: $35 after MIB EVGA 500W 3 year warranty so not much to fear if it goes bad for the price.

--Total-- $506 - This is with the CPU priced at $225, with the MSI Gaming MB, 16GB of RAM and $40 for the CM 212 (for the rare chance you can't find it on sale).

So needless to say, you've got room to play. You can dump 8GB of RAM and put that money towards a better/more reliable SSD for your daughter or put it into a better PSU. I don't see much of a point though in getting an expensive PSU unless you're going to overclock or are worried your son might experience issues while gaming.

As for the SSD for your daughter, pretty much any brand 120GB SSD will run you between $40-$60, I even see Samsung EVO's at around $55. I'm not entirely sure on how reliable that company selling it is though.

 

[JrClocker]

Another WAY OUT WEST option for your daughter...an NVIDIA Shield TV box. The 16 GB version goes for $199.

I got one for my 11 year old step son.

He streams YouTube videos all day.

Plays the free Android games.

When he wants to PC game, I link the Shield TV box to one of my PCs and let him stream a PC game from there to his TV.

Works great.

When he goes hard core gamer, I'll upgrade him to a PC.

 

[guppie]

I don't think I can handle another "box". We already have Wii, Wii-U, Xbox 360, and PS4. Thanks for the suggestion.
No overclocking.

I was looking on eBay at the i5-3570 for $125 (sorry about that); however, the i5-4670 seems to be selling for $150. Both are 3.4GHz and I believe the performance difference is negligible so I'd rather apply that $25 toward 16GB RAM. Gonna pull the trigger on either CPU and the MSI Z97 PC Mate MB.

Mucho thanks!

 

[Tír na nÓg]

Check this one, from a well know member, it's a real good deal: 2500k+z77 extreme 4 + 16GB of ram for $200

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/...-Sandy-Bridge-setup-(2500k-extreme4-1600-ram)

 

[guppie]

That is a helluva deal. But I was trying to give my son a better CPU (i5-4670K) to give him some room for upgrading. If you strongly believe the 4670K won't make any difference over the 2500K, then I could give this a serious consideration and basically 2 similar systems (except for GPU).

 

[Tír na nÓg]

Sell, if you take th 250k to 4.8GHz, which this one seems able to do in a safe voltage range, you're good. I went through sandy,Ivy and Haswell, and honestly, you can't tell a difference.

[email protected]=[email protected]=[email protected].

There is no PCIe3, but unless you go high end multi GPU, there is no noticeable difference (2 to 5%).

 

[Jeff G]

Why not a new skylake build?
This one is under $420:
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/

 

[Tír na nÓg]

For the $220 differnce, OP can get a480 or a 1060 with 30 extra bucks...

 

[guppie]

While the i5-2500K was tempting, I didn't have any intention to overclock. I don't trust my OC skills to run it beyond the default settings indefinitely. I had no idea the pcpartpicker website even existed and this makes building so much easier! The following can be had for $421 after MIR. I still need to get a cheap case and budget GPU but I'm pretty sure I can get everything for both computers for under $550 and have a current generation CPU/MB/RAM for my son.

 

[Jeff G]

PCPartPicker is nice for pricing out a full build, lets you keep/remove things as you change your mind. I'd still shop around just a little, I often find slightly better deals than they list. It's a good baseline for pricing though, and what you have in your cart now looks like a solid build!

 

[guppie]

Thanks guys! Love the wealth of knowledge here.