# Building a gaming PC



## Dassaric (Mar 21, 2012)

Hi, I've been looking into build a Pc to fit my gaming needs and I have planed everything for it. The CPU, the GPU, motherboard, ect. But I wanted to know what I could do with this system what could it handle in turns of maybe modern day games like crysis 2, battlefield 3, guild wars 2, skyrim, ect.

SPECS:
GIGABYTE GA-M68MT-S2 DiabloTek Barebones Kit - GIGABYTE GA-M68MT-S2 Board, AMD Phenom II X6 1045T, Corsair 8GB (2x 4GB) DDR3 RAM Kit, Seagate 1.5TB HDD, 24x DVDRW, DiabloTek Mid Tower Case, 450W PSU
Nvidia gtx 550ti

If you think I should look in for an better piece please don't hesitate to tell me.

Thanks
-Dassaric


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## RockmasteR (Aug 10, 2007)

Hello and Welcome to TSF,

I have the Geforce GTX 550Ti
you could run demanding games on high settings (BF3) and other games on ultra (Skyrim)


the 450W PSU is not enough though!
the Nvidia 500 series are a power efficient cards
but you need at least a 500 or 550W High Quality Power Supply

if you want a better card, you can get the GTX 560Ti
but then you need a 650 - 700 W PSU


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

550=min 650w

560= min 750w


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## toothman (Jul 13, 2008)

You could save a little by purchasing a quad-core CPU over a hex-core. The two extra cores do not speed up gaming, so you don't lose anything there. I would recommend the 960T for $125.

Avoid DiabloTek power supplies. Very low quality units. For the best quality PSUs go with SeaSonic, XFX, or Corsair (not CX or GX models). More more reliable.

And yes, that kind of a system can play modern games just fine :smile:


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## A1tecice (Jun 1, 2010)

toothman said:


> You could save a little by purchasing a quad-core CPU over a hex-core. The two extra cores do not speed up gaming, so you don't lose anything there.
> 
> Avoid DiabloTek power supplies:


Good advise given there, I Still agree that you get as much gaming potential from the old Dual core pc's then you do from The 8 core I7's... in terms of CPU utilization.


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## toothman (Jul 13, 2008)

A1tecice said:


> Good advise given there, I Still agree that you get as much gaming potential from the old Dual core pc's then you do from The 8 core I7's... in terms of CPU utilization.


Windows still has to operate in the background, so having an extra thread or two helps.

But I have considered actually disabling the fourth core on my 960T and seeing how much more I can overclock it then :grin:


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## Dassaric (Mar 21, 2012)

*Is this processor good?*

Is this Processor good for gaming?
*AMD FX-4100 3.60 GHz Quad Core AM3+ Unlocked CPU*


I've looked around and I'm kinda confused, any help would be liked.


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## A1tecice (Jun 1, 2010)

*Re: Is this processor good?*

Hello Dassaric and welcome to *TSF!*

Yes any quad core will be idea for gaming, Very hard to bottleneck. Although depending if your upgrading or building a new PC, you will get a better performance boost upgrading your Graphics Card than your Processor.

Thanks,
Altie


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## Timer5 (Dec 13, 2009)

*Re: Is this processor good?*

Yes it is.


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## Dassaric (Mar 21, 2012)

*oppinion and pointers for this computer*

ASUS M5A78L-M LX AMD Quad Core Barebones Kit - ASUS M5A78L-M LX PLUS Board, AMD FX-4100 CPU, Corsair 4GB DDR3 RAM, WD 500GB HDD, 24x DVDRW, Thermaltake V2 Mid Tower, 450W Power Supply

Video Card: Nvidia gtx 560.

ASUS M5A78L-M LX AMD Quad Core Barebones Kit - ASUS M5A78L-M LX PLUS Board, AMD FX-4100 CPU, Corsair 4GB DDR3 RAM, WD 500GB HDD, 24x DVDRW, Thermaltake V2 Mid Tower, 450W Power Supply at TigerDirect.com

This is for gaming.
My budget is at most 500$ if you can find anything better for under that please tell me.


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

As with almost all kits, the PSU is very poor quality so you will need to add another $100 or so to that price. If you intend to game you will need a dedicated GPU.


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## Dassaric (Mar 21, 2012)

What if I get this but upgrade the processor later?


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

everything in that kit is ok apart from the psu. You should have a 750w that is a good make for that 560ti


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## Dassaric (Mar 21, 2012)

Sorry I misread. Does this card require a 750w psu?


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

550w (for any modern gaming system) + 30% (30% to allow for other compnents and degredation) = 715 and since you cant get 715w you go for 750w

And you should have a good make of power supply such as xfx,seasonic or corsair

The card itself requires 500w but that is on its own not with anything else like a motherboard, cpu, usb controllers etc etc


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## Dassaric (Mar 21, 2012)

Well what do you suppose I do since I do not have the money to get an 100$ power supply my budget is no more than 500$.


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

$104.99 with a 15% discount is $89 Newegg.com - CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX750 V2 750W ATX12V v2.31/ EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC High Performance Power Supply

The power supply is the most important component, its more important than everything else. There's no point in building a good system but using a crap or underpowered psu otherwise you risk damage to some or all components.


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## Dassaric (Mar 21, 2012)

Well thank you. I guess I'll get a gpu that is is a little less costing but still sufficient for gaming.


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

you still need to factor in a psu for a graphics card depending on what card you get.


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## Dassaric (Mar 21, 2012)

I'm sorry I should of explained a little more. I'm going to get this psu and a cheaper gpu so that when I get this pc I can upgrade to the 560 non ti because I'll have a good enough psu. How does that sound?


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

sounds good


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## toothman (Jul 13, 2008)

You could just pick a Radeon video card. A 650w will be sufficient for an HD 6850, 6870, or 6950.


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## Dassaric (Mar 21, 2012)

That might be a good Idea I just have to do some research on them


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

Dassaric said:


> I'm sorry I should of explained a little more. I'm going to get this psu and a cheaper gpu so that when I get this pc I can upgrade to the 560 non ti because I'll have a good enough psu. How does that sound?


Same as Team Mate greenbrucelee. Sounds like a plan.


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## Dassaric (Mar 21, 2012)

So I had a couple of friends tell me that i could build my one pc for cheaper than what i was getting with the barebone kit. But I feel as if im forgetting something



SAMSUNG 22X DVD Burner SATA Model SH-222BB/BEBE - OEM 

APEX SK-393-C Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 

Recertified:  SAMSUNG HA250JC 250GB 5400 RPM IDE Ultra ATA100 / ATA-6 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive 

Rosewill RCW-608 USB2.0 Adapter For IDE/SATA Device (Include Protection case) 

GIGABYTE GA-78LMT-S2P AM3+ AMD 760G Micro ATX AMD Motherboard 

EVGA 01G-P3-1464-KR GeForce GTX 560 SE (Fermi) 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card 

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio PCI Interface Sound Card 

APEVIA ATX-CB700W 700W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Power Supply - OEM 

AMD Entertainment Edition 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory Model AE34G1339U2 

AMD FX-4100 Zambezi 3.6GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor FD4100WMGUSBX 

COUGAR CF-V12HP Vortex Hydro-Dynamic-Bearing (Fluid) 300,000 Hours 12CM Silent Cooling Fan with Pulse Width Modulation 

And I already have an OS
This all comes out to $493.91. So is it good am i forgetting anything?


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## toothman (Jul 13, 2008)

The sweetness of saving money is quickly forgotten once you get a taste of the bitterness poor quality.


That PSU is a poor choice. Two 12v rails, only 23 & 26 amps on each, and not even 80+ rated. It's better than what you'd find in a Walmart prebuilt, but I wouldn't let any expensive hardware of mine depend on it.

The PSU is the last part of the build you want to go cheap on. Every component in your system will depend on it for stable and accurate voltage. When a low-quality PSU fails, it can and often does permanently damage other components along with itself. This is why we only recommend top-quality PSUs - SeaSonic, XFX, and Corsair (TX, AX, and HX models) - and strongly urge against the use of lower-quality units.

Corsair's TX650 is $15 off until the 19th:
Newegg.com - CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 650W ATX12V v2.31/ EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC High Performance Power Supply


That hard drive will probably frustrate you. It's very slow and outdated. 7200 is standard, and 5400 RPM drives are noticeably slower. This will directly affect performance in Skyrim, as well as any other game that streams textures directly from your HDD while you run around. I have a 5400 RPM drive for video file storage and it stalls noticeably more frequently than either of my 7200 drives, and that's just for watching videos.

Unfortunately the price in hard drives has gone up recently and still haven't quite gone back down. If you can't find a local deal, it's best to just bite the extra cost and purchase a decent HDD that won't frustrate you. Here's one example:
Newegg.com - Refurbished: Western Digital Caviar Blue RFHWD3200AAJS 320GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive


The sound card is unnecessary if you just purchase a decent motherboard. If you just get this excellent board, for example:
Newegg.com - ASUS M5A97 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
it will actually be cheaper and better than getting that board + the sound card.


Lastly, for case fans, just order a couple of these and put one in front and one in the rear:
Newegg.com - Thermaltake AF0032 120mm Blue LED Case Fan
^I use two of these myself, highly recommended


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

you need to choose a good make of power supply. Apevia are not a good make of power supply.

Good makes:-xfx, seasonic,corsair (TH,TX and AX only), Thermaltake toughpower, High end Enermax and High end CWT.


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## Tyree (May 10, 2009)

Dassaric said:


> So I had a couple of friends tell me that i could build my one pc for cheaper than what i was getting with the barebone kit. But I feel as if im forgetting something
> 
> This all comes out to $493.91. So is it good am i forgetting anything?


There are numerous reason that build is under $500.
Most notable, low to poor quality components and some unneeded to make the list longer and increase profit.
Your best option to insure top quality parts, that will give you a longer and pleasant PC experience, would be to use out suggested build list as a guide: http://www.techsupportforum.com/for...evised-2012-and-updated-regularly-448272.html


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## Dassaric (Mar 21, 2012)

K thanks for the advice.


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