Building my first gaming computer, need help.

T

Takoulya

New Member
Hey guys, this is my first post on this forums and my first time building my own computer. I am only fourteen, so I'm going for a less expensive build for a gaming PC. My budget is $400, and I was looking to use the Athlon X4 640. What motherboard and graphics card would go with this? I was thinking of a Radeon 4870, but I'm not exactly sure what would be a proper set up, as I'm extremely inexperienced. Thanks a lot for your help.
 
 
daisymtc said:
Have you got OS?

4870 is last gen. probably go for 5770
Click to expand...

4870 is more powerful than a 5770, you just lose DX11, which, as there are so few games using it, and it will be like DX10, where it stays like that for a long time to come, that doesn't matter.

4870 is ~$100, so $300 for other parts:

Athlon II x4 isn't really with in budget unless you have an extra $30-40 or so over your $400 budget, but we can keep the 4870:

CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103872 $74

Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157176 $55

Memory: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231277 $50

Hard Drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148395 $40

PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139018 $60

Video Card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121376 $130

Case + DVD drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.542982 $47

Total before MIR: $456
Total After MIR: $416
 
Looking at the first two lists, if I were to expand my budget to $500, would I be able to fit in the 5770 and the Athlon X4 640? Also, how would the performance be if I were to get the two?
 
Takoulya said:
Looking at the first two lists, if I were to expand my budget to $500, would I be able to fit in the 5770 and the Athlon X4 640? Also, how would the performance be if I were to get the two?
Click to expand...

The only real difference between the builds is the video card, mine would give much better performance in games because of the 4870 being a much more powerful card

It would allow you to get your x4, add a 120mm case fan (which is needed for that case, as it only comes with 1 front intake), and upgrade to a better video card. With $500 budget:

CPU changed to: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103702 + $25

Video Card changed to: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500173 + $30

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185056 added + $9

New total comes to $520 before MIR
$495 after MIR

a GTX460 is near double the performance of a 4870 or 5770, it is probably the best bang for buck card you can get at the moment
 
Aastii said:
The only real difference between the builds is the video card, mine would give much better performance in games because of the 4870 being a much more powerful card

It would allow you to get your x4, add a 120mm case fan (which is needed for that case, as it only comes with 1 front intake), and upgrade to a better video card. With $500 budget:

CPU changed to: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103702 + $25

Video Card changed to: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500173 + $30

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185056 added + $9

New total comes to $520 before MIR
$495 after MIR

a GTX460 is near double the performance of a 4870 or 5770, it is probably the best bang for buck card you can get at the moment
Click to expand...

Alright, so I can basically have the previous set-up given to me but exchange the Processor for the Athlon X4 640 and change the Video Card for the GTX460? How will it perform in the end?
 
 
Alright, that sounds quite reasonable. I'm Canadian, though, so the prices are a bit more expensive. In total, I'm assuming it's going to cost me about $550 in total. Not too bad for a relatively good computer, though. Just one question, how well will it perform in the end?
 
Takoulya said:
Alright, that sounds quite reasonable. I'm Canadian, though, so the prices are a bit more expensive. In total, I'm assuming it's going to cost me about $550 in total. Not too bad for a relatively good computer, though. Just one question, how well will it perform in the end?
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What games do you play?
It'll perform well for the price. Maybe 60% of the performance of a system twice as expensive.

You can use Newegg.ca for your parts in that case.
 
fastdude said:
What games do you play?
It'll perform well for the price. Maybe 60% of the performance of a system twice as expensive.

You can use Newegg.ca for your parts in that case.
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I was thinking of things like Civilization 5, lots of RTS's, maybe Crysis 2 and L4D. TF2, Oblivion, Fallout, etc.
 
Takoulya said:
I was thinking of things like Civilization 5, lots of RTS's, maybe Crysis 2 and L4D. TF2, Oblivion, Fallout, etc.
Click to expand...

OK, all those games should run fine; you can probably max out the RTSs at 1680 x1050, obviously you won't be able to max out crysis 2, but medium-high settings run smoothly. The others aren't particularly demanding games, your system will eat 'em for breakfast.

EDIT: The only thing I'd mention is that RTSs like to take advantage of cores; you'd see a few fps more in some of the games above if you stretched to an Athlon II X3.
 
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Takoulya said:
Alright, so I can basically have the previous set-up given to me but exchange the Processor for the Athlon X4 640 and change the Video Card for the GTX460? How will it perform in the end?
Click to expand...

Full settings in just about everything you throw at it at high resolutions

fastdude said:
OK, all those games should run fine; you can probably max out the RTSs at 1680 x1050, obviously you won't be able to max out crysis 2, but medium-high settings run smoothly. The others aren't particularly demanding games, your system will eat 'em for breakfast.
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A dual core would be brought to its knees by Civ 5, heck my Phenom II x3, even when at 3.4 is. When unlocked to quad core, it is better, but still not great.
 
Aastii said:
A dual core would be brought to its knees by Civ 5, heck my Phenom II x3, even when at 3.4 is. When unlocked to quad core, it is better, but still not great.
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He can lower the settings though?

He can't unlock to a quad, meh, the X2 is pure dual. How annoying. I did edit my above post, however. At least his GPU is up for the task.
 
Ugh, I'll be hitting $600 if I get all of it from newegg.ca. I'll check out Shopbot (Canadian price comparison website) to see if I can get things a bit cheaper.
 
Takoulya said:
Ugh, I'll be hitting $600 if I get all of it from newegg.ca. I'll check out Shopbot (Canadian price comparison website) to see if I can get things a bit cheaper.
Click to expand...

You can generally find better prices by scouring, but beware of shipping charges if you're buying from multiple sites.

Sorry 'bout the cost, dude.
 
fastdude said:
He can lower the settings though?

He can't unlock to a quad, meh, the X2 is pure dual. How annoying. I did edit my above post, however. At least his GPU is up for the task.
Click to expand...

That isn't at high settings, that is at middle of the road settings. I drop them down, it is still the same. It isn't the graphics or anything else that is the problem, it is because each turn it works out what every AI unit does, every AI city does, it works out what your automated units do, what happens with your resources, if any random events happen, what happens with your buildings that are currently being built... Initially, at the start of the game, it is less than a second per turn, after maybe 20-30 minutes, there is so much going on it is about 15-20 seconds per turn, after an hour or so, you are looking at 5 minutes from the end of 1 turn to the end of another.

With the games he is playing, a quad core is needed. RTS games rely much more on CPU/memory capacity/clocks than they do on graphics, and just about all RTS games out now are multithreaded, so do take advantage of the extra cores
 
Aastii said:
That isn't at high settings, that is at middle of the road settings. I drop them down, it is still the same. It isn't the graphics or anything else that is the problem, it is because each turn it works out what every AI unit does, every AI city does, it works out what your automated units do, what happens with your resources, if any random events happen, what happens with your buildings that are currently being built... Initially, at the start of the game, it is less than a second per turn, after maybe 20-30 minutes, there is so much going on it is about 15-20 seconds per turn, after an hour or so, you are looking at 5 minutes from the end of 1 turn to the end of another.

With the games he is playing, a quad core is needed. RTS games rely much more on CPU/memory capacity/clocks than they do on graphics, and just about all RTS games out now are multithreaded, so do take advantage of the extra cores
Click to expand...

Ugh, that sucks. The Athlon II X3/4 is is then.
 
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