My Rig: Cut the price down without cutting performance?

LambentTyto

LambentTyto

Member
Alright, after taking some suggestions from a few users for better/cheaper hardware, I'm still over budget.

I need to buy an OS which costs around $100.

That leaves me $750 for: A Video Card, Processor, RAM, Hard Drive, SSD, Tower Case, Power Supply, Motherboard, and a DVD Drive.

So far I've gotten a suggestion for an under $800, but the dude's links won't work and I can only find some of the hardware on newegg by typing in manually.

Anyways, currently I'm working with this:

Video Card - $210
ASUS R9270X-DC2T-2GD5 Radeon R9 270X 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 CrossFireX Support Video Card

Processor - $160
AMD FX-8320 Vishera 3.5GHz (4.0GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 125W Eight-Core Desktop Processor FD8320FRHKBOX

RAM - $74
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2133 (PC3 17000) Desktop Memory Model F3-2133C9D-8GXL

Hard Drive - $70
Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive

SSD - $129
Kingston HyperX 3K SH103S3/120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) (Stand-Alone Drive)

Tower Case - $70
Corsair Carbide Series 300R Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Power Supply - $60
CORSAIR CX series CX500 500W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply

Motherboard - $100
GIGABYTE GA-970A-UD3P AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

DVD Drive - $20
SAMSUNG DVD Burner SATA Model SH-224DB/BEBE - OEM

I've added that all up and it comes to $893 bucks. Is it possible to shave off $150 without hurting the performance of my rig very much?

Really, I'm trying hard to end up with a build that will let me play the newest games on Ultra High graphics.

Anyways, any help would be appreciated!

Thanks

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I'm spending cash to buy this stuff, so I literally don't have more than money than what I've listed, so rebates won't help me in the "now."
 
Last edited:
The only way you are gonna cut the money is by getting rid of the SSD drive. The only performance gain on SSD's is faster boot times and a bit faster loading programs.
 
johnb35 said:
The only way you are gonna cut the money is by getting rid of the SSD drive. The only performance gain on SSD's is faster boot times and a bit faster loading programs.
Click to expand...

So the SSD has no bearing on gaming then? Because as far as programs and stuff, I think I'll be okay. I'm used to a Duel Core 1.4Ghz laptop with an nVidia GeForce 8400.
 
You could change the ssd drive and case, also have you shopped around based on your final choices a lot of the time you can find each item $10 or so cheaper on different sites which across the whole build soon mounts up.
 
Yep, getting rid of the SSD and maybe downgrading the FX-8320 to an FX-6300 are really the only things that should be changed.

SSDs don't have much impact on gaming at all and nor does the FX-8320 over the FX-6300.

You could look at the some of the cheaper cases if you like, the Zalman Z9 and Z11 are good cases and also have a look at the Corsair 200R, but I think you should stick with the 300R if you can.
 
Not really. Gaming requires good video card, processor and decent amount of ram.
 
Yeah, shopping around is good advice to some extent, but try and buy the majority of parts from one place if you can. It just makes it easier if anything needs to be sent back, because you don't have to remember where you purchased each part from if you bought it all (or the vast majority of it) from one place.

That's just what I think. I know some people really like to shop around a lot and buy parts from all over the place.
 
spirit said:
Yep, getting rid of the SSD and maybe downgrading the FX-8320 to an FX-6300 are really the only things that should be changed.

SSDs don't have much impact on gaming at all and nor does the FX-8320 over the FX-6300.

You could look at the some of the cheaper cases if you like, the Zalman Z9 and Z11 are good cases and also have a look at the Corsair 200R, but I think you should stick with the 300R if you can.
Click to expand...

According to your suggestions, spirit, I'll have shaved off $169 right there.

That would allow me to get a more powerful power supply, but would it really matter? I don't know anything about power supply.
 
spirit said:
Yeah, shopping around is good advice to some extent, but try and buy the majority of parts from one place if you can. It just makes it easier if anything needs to be sent back, because you don't have to remember where you purchased each part from if you bought it all (or the vast majority of it) from one place.

That's just what I think. I know some people really like to shop around a lot and buy parts from all over the place.
Click to expand...

That makes sense. I'm pretty familiar with newegg as well and I like their service.
 
LambentTyto said:
According to your suggestions, spirit, I'll have shaved off $169 right there.

That would allow me to get a more powerful power supply, but would it really matter? I don't know anything about power supply.
Click to expand...

Only $10 more for the cx600 which is the one I would get just to be safe.
 
You could look at a SSHD from Seagate. They are surprisingly good value when you look at the performance. And you don't have to configure anything yourself, it's all built in to the controller.
It's Solid State Hybrid Drive btw, which combines SSD and HDD for a caching solution.
 
Toss the SSD, downgrade the CPU to FX 6300 if needed, maybe look for a cheaper case, and bump the PSU to a CX600M if you can.

I recently added an SSD to my computer. Gaming is unchanged but booting Windows, launching programs installed to it, and using Windows apps like Control Panel and Windows Explorer, feel super snappy. It's nice to have but for gaming performance it's not needed if you're straining your budget.
 
spirit said:
+1 to this. I'd get the CX600M, but I wouldn't get anything more powerful or more expensive since it will be a waste of money.
Click to expand...

Hmmm the CX600M is $20 more. I could get that, but then there's no way I'll be able to get a better video card.

I was thinking of maybe going with the Corsair 200R tower case and sticking with the $60 CX500 Corsair power supply, that way I'd be under budget by $35 so that I could maybe replace the video card with something a little better, but would $35 even get me anything?
 
Denther said:
Toss the SSD, downgrade the CPU to FX 6300 if needed, maybe look for a cheaper case, and bump the PSU to a CX600M if you can.

I recently added an SSD to my computer. Gaming is unchanged but booting Windows, launching programs installed to it, and using Windows apps like Control Panel and Windows Explorer, feel super snappy. It's nice to have but for gaming performance it's not needed if you're straining your budget.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I think that's pretty much exactly what I'm going to do, unless it's possibly to go with the Corsair CX500 for $60 and maybe I'll have a few dollars left over to get a slightly better video card, or would downgrading the PSU not be a safe bet?
 
You would need the higher wattage psu to push a better video card and the rest of your system. Never skimp on a psu, its the backbones of your system. Borrow a little bit of money to get that better video card, go with the cx600 or cx600m.
 
johnb35 said:
You would need the higher wattage psu to push a better video card and the rest of your system. Never skimp on a psu, its the backbones of your system. Borrow a little bit of money to get that better video card, go with the cx600 or cx600m.
Click to expand...

Alright, I'm going to go with the CX600M then.

What do you think is better:

MSI N660 TF 2GD5/OC GeForce GTX 660 2GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Or

ASUS R9270X-DC2T-2GD5 Radeon R9 270X 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 CrossFireX Support Video Card

It's the Asus? It's got more bits at 256
 
LambentTyto said:
According to your suggestions, spirit, I'll have shaved off $169 right there.

That would allow me to get a more powerful power supply, but would it really matter? I don't know anything about power supply.
Click to expand...

Don't downgrade to a FX-6300. It just isn't worth it. The 8320 is like 30 percent better and only 40 bucks more. And, a PSU upgrade is worthless. 500W is more than enough for a 8320 and a 270X.

270X=180W
8320=95W
Other Components=80W
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top