Budget(ish) Gaming Build

[Mag10]

Why that over the 7790? All the benchmarks I looked up...The 7790 is better, and at least brand new, often cheaper. If I missed something, I'd like to know.

Check out these benchmark comparisons: Link1 Link2 Link3 Link4

Keep in mind the 7790 in Link4 is OC'ed with the 260x at stock. Im sure there are more reviews out there, but you can google them for yourself. The overall picture shows for about the $140 price range the 260x generally overcomes the 7790 at stock speeds. The 260x also comes with 2GB GDDR5 memory. I will let you be the judge however. The way I saw it was more performance for less or equal to $$.

As for the HDD, I honestly wasn't paying that much attention didn't notice it was SATA 2, either way there really isn't much difference in overall performance between SATA 2 and 3 on 7200RPM HDD, as ATMINSIDE stated. As far as HDD to SSD or combo. HDD would best to become a storage drive while the SSD become the drive your OS, Apps, and Games are used from. You will most likely see 10-20 second full reboot times, games will load quicker as well as apps. It has been known for some time that the HDD has been a large bottleneck in the computer, which the SSD is beginning to solve. It isnt quite there IMO, but is making a great stride!

 

[capn_tack]

Revised again to include the 260x from XFX, the Seagate 1TB, but I like my choice in mouse. Just me, lol. Also added in a 64GB SSD for OS and primary apps.

 

[MongGrel]

I put the old EVGA GTX 260x 216 I had in my HTPC recently, they are dated but pretty solid old buggers still for the price.

 

[capn_tack]

I put the old EVGA GTX 260x 216 I had in my HTPC recently, they are dated but pretty solid old buggers still for the price.

I don't doubt it...Just not quite as powerful as I want. Duly noted for future reference tho.

 

[capn_tack]

Someone had mentioned that Arctic Silver 5 was old hat. What would be a good thermal compound to get that wouldn't kill the bank?

 

[Jart]

Someone had mentioned that Arctic Silver 5 was old hat. What would be a good thermal compound to get that wouldn't kill the bank?

Use the paste that comes with your cooler.

and I really want to say something about win 8

 

[capn_tack]

Is it just not worth it to buy "better" compound?

 

[MongGrel]

The stuff the Corsair comes with is probably pretty good I'd imagine if you're going the AIO, but....

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=743158

 

[Jart]

The Dow-Corning grease that comes with the Enermax is very good. You will not see any temp difference in spending money on a brand compound. IMO spending money on themal grease other than what you get with a quality cooler is if you plan on changing cpus and coolers at a rapid pace or have very special requirements.