Hi folks,

I'm building a gamer PC for my little brother. His price range is 650 - 700 € which isn't much, but should be barely enough for an Intel build. At least if he accepts me exceeding by 12€.

The build so far:


+ 5,99€ shipping
Total price: 712,47€

Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 Advanced, USB 3.0 (My brother loves the looks of this case and it has front USB 3.0 for a decent price so I think I'll keep it either way)
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 660 SC, 3072MB DDR5 (Aimed for 3GB to keep it future proof. Or is it not worth it?)
HDD: WD Caviar Blue 1TB 6Gb/s (Just something cheap and solid.)
SSD: sadly none, and I don't think I can fit one in at that price point.
PSU: be quiet! SYSTEM POWER 7 500W (I realize that brand isn't well known in the US but it's got a good reputation here.)
CPU Fan: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO (I have no idea if that's any good or even fits in the case...)

CPU: Intel Core i5 2500K, Boxed (Tray is even more expensive ?)
Mobo: MSI Z77A-G41 (Cheapest I could find with satisfying amount of USB 3.0 and SATA 3 ports and OC support.)
RAM: TeamGroup 2x4GB PC3-10667U DDR3-1333 CL9 Value (When you have lifetime warranty quality brands don't matter, right? Also CL9.)

To be honest I'm quite happy with it and would with good conscience order it right away, but I guess it can't hurt to double check with you guys. Never regretted taking advice from here before.

I'd say you shouldn't be too concerned with actual deals from shops in Germany but more about alternatives for certain components, or complete alternative builds (should I go for AMD? If yes, why?).
As always, I appreciate justifications because I like learning things, so fire away, SEN!

Get some decent RAM. I know 90% of the time most of the differences in RAM don't matter, but I just can't feel confident in value binned no heatspreader RAM. It'll maybe cost you another 5$ and you'll be able to have confidence in another one of your components.

The 3GB isn't really that big of a deal. How much are 7950s going for by you? They're 3GB and I love mine. Nothing wrong with the card you've chosen though.

I'd recommend going for a Caviar Black over the Blue for the OS drive.

Not familiar with that PSU manufacturer. Don't you have any Corsair/SeaSonic/Antec available?

Hyper 212 is good, CPU is fine, I will say I've had 2 MSI purchases and they were both DOA or nearly DOA but things happen.

Thanks for the reply.

7950's are about 50€ more expensive. Not possible without CPU downgrade.
The WD Black would run for another 15€ extra. I'll propose that change to him, but I need good reasons. Btw. currently the plan is to get a SSD in a few months up until a year so the HDD wouldn't be the system drive anymore.
Or I could get a GTX 660 with 2 GB RAM, save ~20€ and put that into the HDD. Worth it?

Changed the RAM to Crucial 2x4GB PC3-10667 DDR3-1333 CL9 for added 1,50€

Don't worry about the PSU. It's fine. And of course we have those brands (I own an Antec myself), but given I'm already over the price limit (which I already pushed up from 600€) I need to save every buck I can.

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Apr 28 2013, 1:18 am by NudeRaider.

Yeah but the PSU is not the place to skimp. Like if I said tone down the GPU to the 2GB, I'd be telling you to put that 20$ into the PSU. Look Nude, I have a friend who has blown three PSUs from off-brands in about six years and hes lucky one of them only took a video card with it and not the whole system. If there is any single component in the entire build that should be 100% quality its the PSU. No foolin. I also think in that particular GPU's case, 2GB and 3GB aren't going to make a load of difference unless hes playing at a resolution over 1080p. Which he shouldn't be anyway with the price of the build.

If he's getting an SSD in the future than the Caviar Blue is no big deal, there are certainly slower drives.

Have you looked into the price if you did this as an AMD build instead? What prices did you come out to?

Jesus, Ex, the be-quiet's are fine (except for 1 bad line). Maybe it was my fault by putting the emphasis on saving bucks, but have you even checked the specs before shooting it down? The electronics are produced by Fortron Source (FSC) (probably not telling you anything) but it's not some piece of shit no-name brand. Their marketing is just not as global as other manufacturer's, which is why you don't know them. They're fairly standard in Germany though.

It's a high quality PSU with low noise and ripple factors that keeps within 4% of the nominal specs under any condition. It's also protecting against over-currents, over- and under-voltages, short circuits, overheating and overloads. On top of that it features silver efficiency and is really quiet. What else would you need?

If you still think I'd be safer with a corsair I could get this Corsair Builder Serie CX500 V3 which is even 1.50€ cheaper. Initially I stayed away from it because I couldn't find reviews for the V3's.

---

About the video RAM, why is it linked to the GPU? There's already games that demand 2GB @ 1920x1080 and full details and I'd expect that to increase over the years. Or are you saying the GPU wouldn't be able to support the advances leading to even higher RAM demands anyway?

Graphics cards are probably the easiest component to upgrade (and sell your original one second-hand) in the future, so I wouldn't obsess about getting something super future-proof right now.

The actual GPU chip on the card is only so powerful. Have you ever seen a lower end chip slapped with 3GB of GDDR5? Probably not, because they aren't powerful enough to effectively use that much memory. The GPU is too weak to push games at the resolutions that would use that amount of VRAM. I'm not saying thats the case here, but I think given the power the 660 has 2GB would be a good balance whereas 3GB would offer only minimal improvement. Does that make more sense?

Nude, please don't take my suggestions as shooting you down. You did a great job to start with, the things I'm nit picking are just personal preferences and bad personal experiences that I try and help others avoid. I know be quiet isn't as bad as say diablotek or something, but after having to replace so many PSUs both at my job and for friends I am very very very nit picky about them. That's just me.

Anyway yeah it is a nice build and he should be very happy with it.

Also if I remember correctly you're in Germany Nude? I did a PCPP alternate build going the AMD route. The only thing I couldn't find was the HAF 912.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-4300 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor (€103.90 @ Caseking)
CPU Cooler: Arctic Cooling ACFZA30 74.0 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler (€32.90 @ Caseking)
Motherboard: ASRock 970 Extreme3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard (€69.11 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (€59.70 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (€57.79 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon HD 7870 XT 2GB Video Card (€209.90 @ Caseking)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 520W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (€74.90 @ Caseking)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer (€15.40 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Total: €623.60
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-04-28 15:38 CEST+0200)

Similar build, cuts price a bit, and uses some good parts. The 7870 XT is about on par with the 660Ti so it should be a better pick than the base 660, even with only 2GB.

Yeah, I figured something along those lines. @GPU

Nono, I didn't think you were shooting me down. Just the be-quiets which I personally believe to be just as reliable as Corsairs.

Thanks, I learned from the best.

Yup, Germany. Meh, AMD. lol
I must admit I've become somewhat of an Intel fanboy (after having been an AMD fanboy for like 10 years). Now I prefer efficiency over performance/price ratio.
Though I have to recognize your AMD build is probably a tad better than the Intel build because in most games the slightly better GPU will still bottlneck even the 80€ cheaper CPU and that 80€ go into better quality.


EDIT:
$@!&§)#% prices went up at hardwareversand.de so while I found the 7870 for 9€ cheaper than the 660 I had in my shopping basket the total price went up by 12€ because other parts went up and the fan even went unavailable.
Nvm, just had to refresh the rebate.
But now that I have a quasi final build I'll just observe prices and try to get it when it's cheap.

Current build:

]
+ 5,99 € shipping
Total price: 708,95 €

Post has been edited 9 time(s), last time on Apr 28 2013, 4:08 pm by NudeRaider.

don't waste money on extra vram
while that particular PSU isn't reviewed reliably by a review site, it's 80+ silver, which means it HAS been reviewed reliably, just not in hot tests or quality.

The efficiency of AMD is hardly worth considering, but for some it plays a larger role.

If you can get a cheaper 660, it will be worth the price over that particular 7870.

Keep in mind Nude it is only the 7870 XT that has a significant rise over the 660 base. In 660 base versus 7870 base, you're better off with the 660 I think. The 7870 XT is more on par with the 660Ti. The XT is a cut-down version of a 7950.

As far as I could tell I found the exact same you suggested (Myst. Edition, Thaiti chip)
From your partpicker link:

While looking for better deals for your recommended 7870 I noticed there's several different models even with different chipsets:
Pitcairne is the chip from the 78XX series.
The other one is the Thaiti LE which is from the 79XX series and is noticeably more expensive.

So the Pitcairnes are slightly worse than the GTX660 while the Thaitis are to be preferred over the GTX 660 Ti, right?

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on May 4 2013, 7:35 pm by NudeRaider.

correct, and expected.

I always check Techpowerup. http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7990/25.html