So my dad and I are going to build a gaming computer soon. We're looking at parts and I'm wondering if this is a good build(we're not done yet)

Case: Raidmax ATX-802BP ($30)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811156074

Power Supply: OCZ StealthXstream II OCZ700SXS2 700W ($40)
http://www.ocztechnology.com/ocz-ste...er-supply.html

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817341040
http://www.ocztechnology.com/res/manuals/SXS2_info.pdf

Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 960T ($110)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103995

Motherboard: ECS IC780M-A2 (V1.0A) AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD
Motherboard ($30)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813135250

Memory: Patriot Gamer 2 Series (2 x 4GB) 8GB ($35)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820220558

Video Card – Radeon HD 6750 (with fan) for $100
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161379

Trying to convince my dad for us to upgrade to a Radeon HD 6850 for $50 more, would it be worth it?  

The processor is deactivated. You can't buy it. Also make sure you motherboard can handle all of that powered stuff. Oh and make sure the case can fix everything.  

Posted by Seeker99

The processor is deactivated. You can't buy it. Also make sure you motherboard can handle all of that powered stuff. Oh and make sure the case can fix everything.

Yeah my dad asked the guy who built our last 2 computers and he said the parts are ok.

regardless we both agreed on a 3.0 ghz quad core processor.  

I kind of regret not building my PC, it cost $700 and I'm still upgrading stuff in it. It came with Blu-Ray and an HDMI port, 5.1 channel sound and all that nice stuff, but was pretty expensive. I saved a lot though for how expensive PCs are where I live.  

/subscribe  

Why don't you get a sound card?  

Get a Geforce GTS 450 if you're getting a medium sized monitor. Its cheap now, (I got it for $60) although people say its not that incredible of a graphics card; yet I can run Crysis 2 in ultra settings (With directX 11 and high textures) and still get 40-60 FPS easily. So I don't know what they are talking about.

 

Posted by Pimpsy G.

Nice Graphics  

I can't play Minecraft with low settings without having an fps of about 2 or 3.  

Posted by Pimpsy G.

Get a Geforce GTS 450 if you're getting a medium sized monitor. Its cheap now, (I got it for $60) although people say its not that incredible of a graphics card; yet I can run Crysis 2 in ultra settings (With directX 11 and high textures) and still get 40-60 FPS easily. So I don't know what they are talking about.

you're running at as low resolution, I'm hoping to run at 1920x1080 and maybe sometime 2560x1600 when its a standard  

Posted by Skill

you're running at as low resolution, I'm hoping to run at 1920x1080 and maybe sometime 2560x1600 when its a standard

1440X900 isnt that low (The picture itself is resized), it could probably handle 1920x1080.  

Use PCPartPicker to pick your parts.

I would recommend a build like this: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/bvPE

That Raidmax case isn't worth it when you can get a Source 210, that has much nicer features for building.

OCZ PSU is sold out, I'd recommend Antec's budget modular PSU instead of it or go with a OCZ 500W ModXStream PSU.

The Phenom is similar to the i3 2120 but both will perform similarly in gaming, if you want quad-core with Intel then go with the i5-2400 or i5-2500. If you're willing to spend a grand (i5 3570K, CM 212+ Cooler, Z77 Motherboard) then my suggestion will change quite a bit.

If you can get the 6870 it's one of the best $/performance cards out there right now.

Posted by Talon

Why don't you get a sound card?

Onboard sound is fine for the majority of users, if they need a subwoofer and rear out they can get a more expensive motherboard with those outputs.  

Posted by fp4

Use PCPartPicker to pick your parts.

I would recommend a build like this: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/bvPE

That Raidmax case isn't worth it when you can get a Source 210, that has much nicer features for building.

OCZ PSU is sold out, I'd recommend Antec's budget modular PSU instead of it or go with a OCZ 500W ModXStream PSU.

The Phenom is similar to the i3 2120 but both will perform similarly in gaming, if you want quad-core with Intel then go with the i5-2400 or i5-2500. If you're willing to spend a grand (i5 3570K, CM 212+ Cooler, Z77 Motherboard) then my suggestion will change quite a bit.

If you can get the 6870 it's one of the best $/performance cards out there right now.



Onboard sound is fine for the majority of users, if they need a subwoofer and rear out they can get a more expensive motherboard with those outputs.

Would a dual core core processor do well with gaming? Not only do a lot of games take advantage of multi core rendering, but I've seen a lot of cpu intensive games lately(unreal engine games, source engine games). also when recording/broadcasting gameplay and keeping other things running in the background, wouldn't it be good to have more than 2 cores?  

Posted by Skill

Would a dual core core processor do well with gaming? Not only do a lot of games take advantage of multi core rendering, but I've seen a lot of cpu intensive games lately(unreal engine games, source engine games). also when recording/broadcasting gameplay and keeping other things running in the background, wouldn't it be good to have more than 2 cores?

More cores (both that Phenom X4 and i3 2120 will have the same amount of threads though, so the i3 2120 is "fake" quad-core) would definitely help in that scenario but as far as gaming is concerned they both perform similarly. Intel makes a better quad than AMD though.

i5 2400 vs Phenom II 965 BE:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/102?vs=363

AMD FX-4100 (Quad) vs i3 2100 (Dual):
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...rk,3136-9.html

Depends how much you want to spend though, if you live near a Microcenter they have an awesome deal on that particular AMD CPU $100 and it comes with a free motherboard.  

Forgot to mention that we're getting the items that were "sold out" from someone else