Sora
Renowned Budgeting Master
- Messages
- 4,153
- Location
- Uniontown, PA
Now you see alot of topics these days that people try to Budget money for a mid to high-end gaming PC. Yet they spend too much money in one place where as they could cut down on one thing and go for something better in a different item.
I have spent the last 3-4 months trying to fufill a pretty low budget of $850. yet the final rig i've put together should pretty much blaze past any game out right now.
If you are trying to get the most FPS in games in terms of your money then heres what i think.
The most common form of wasting money is when buying a CPU. People seem to want a mid-line CPU and a Mid-line GPU in a "Gaming" PC.
If you want the best bang for your buck then why not lower the CPU a and raise the GPU instead.
In all honesty as far as gaming goes right now the best bang for a CPU is the E6300 and just OC it. But eventully that extra 2mb will make a difference in applications and its nice to have if you jhave the money. But in no way do you "need" 4mb cache for a "gaming" comp
Lets say someone has an E6600 and is on a "budget"
Instead why not save yourself $130 bucks and go for the E6300.
Then put that $130 in a better video card
Oblivion: 1200x800 inside
E6600->E6300 $130 Saved----66->54.4 FPS Thas about a 17% increase
seems like a lot right? Well watch next one
Lets say you then spend 130 on an upgrade of your video card
I chose these becuase they were the best possible margin of 130.
7950GT->7900GS 290->170 thats about $120. Close enough
Oblivion 1200x800 Inside
7900GS-->7950GT 70-->96 FPS thats about a 27% increase
Now a 10% increase in games might not seem alot. But when your trying to budget, an extra 10% performance in games is excellent for the same price. Also don't forget you can OC the E6300 to about 2.4 with 667 ram,stock cooling and a cheap mobo easily.
Another way to save a bit of cash is with RAM. I see alot of times people are trying to budget they choose ram that was OC'd by a premium company to get better timings for more cash.
take these for instance this is Patriot 1GB DDR2-800 RAM at 4-4-4-12
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820220142
That seems better of coarse than this G.Skill 5-5-5-15. Which it is by a little bit.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820231085
The Difference is 30 bucks each, so if you buy 2 sticks you've just spent 60 bucks extra right?
Well here is a test done over two years ago with regular DDR Ram.
The principle is still the same, does cas latency really have a big improvement in gaming?
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1637769,00.asp
Cas for DDR is 2-3 While for DDR2 is 3-5 so its safe to say its still the same concept.
DDR 3---> DDR2 5
DDR 2.5-> DDR2 4
DDR 2---> DDR2 3
If you look the average increase from 3->2.5 is 2%
Then the average from 2.5->2 is 4%
So then the average from 3->2 is about 6% average right?
Now look back at those ram chips.
The G.Skill is $115 and is Cas 5,while the Patriot is $145 and is Cas 4
So if I were to buy the Patriot I would gain about 2% maybe 4 in some games right? So lets just go with 3%
Now I dunno $60 doesnt seem like its worth 3% increase in gaming to me. Id rather put that in a card upgrade or geez id get an E6400 before I got Cas 4 Ram. Also take a look at the voltage of the patriot. It's 2.1 while the G.Skill is probably 1.8. All they did was up the coltage so they could lower the timings, you could do that with the **** G-Skill is you wanted good timings that bad.
Another way to cut down cost is dont buy a PSU that has 600w while your system maybe only needs 440. Then look for a good 500 or even a cheap 480 to give you some upgrade room. I see people post builds with 550w antectrue power for only 100 bucks lol. While their system has 1 vid card, a low power C2D, a mobo and a few lights. Waste of cash, simple as that. 600w is really only needed with maybe the new GeForce 8's or SLI.
Bottom line is, if your buidling a budget gaming PC think smart. What will give you most FPS in games for your money. Also make sure you research and shop around.
Sorry if it was a bit long
I have spent the last 3-4 months trying to fufill a pretty low budget of $850. yet the final rig i've put together should pretty much blaze past any game out right now.
If you are trying to get the most FPS in games in terms of your money then heres what i think.
The most common form of wasting money is when buying a CPU. People seem to want a mid-line CPU and a Mid-line GPU in a "Gaming" PC.
If you want the best bang for your buck then why not lower the CPU a and raise the GPU instead.
In all honesty as far as gaming goes right now the best bang for a CPU is the E6300 and just OC it. But eventully that extra 2mb will make a difference in applications and its nice to have if you jhave the money. But in no way do you "need" 4mb cache for a "gaming" comp
Lets say someone has an E6600 and is on a "budget"
Instead why not save yourself $130 bucks and go for the E6300.
Then put that $130 in a better video card
Oblivion: 1200x800 inside
E6600->E6300 $130 Saved----66->54.4 FPS Thas about a 17% increase
seems like a lot right? Well watch next one
Lets say you then spend 130 on an upgrade of your video card
I chose these becuase they were the best possible margin of 130.
7950GT->7900GS 290->170 thats about $120. Close enough
Oblivion 1200x800 Inside
7900GS-->7950GT 70-->96 FPS thats about a 27% increase
Now a 10% increase in games might not seem alot. But when your trying to budget, an extra 10% performance in games is excellent for the same price. Also don't forget you can OC the E6300 to about 2.4 with 667 ram,stock cooling and a cheap mobo easily.
Another way to save a bit of cash is with RAM. I see alot of times people are trying to budget they choose ram that was OC'd by a premium company to get better timings for more cash.
take these for instance this is Patriot 1GB DDR2-800 RAM at 4-4-4-12
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820220142
That seems better of coarse than this G.Skill 5-5-5-15. Which it is by a little bit.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820231085
The Difference is 30 bucks each, so if you buy 2 sticks you've just spent 60 bucks extra right?
Well here is a test done over two years ago with regular DDR Ram.
The principle is still the same, does cas latency really have a big improvement in gaming?
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1637769,00.asp
Cas for DDR is 2-3 While for DDR2 is 3-5 so its safe to say its still the same concept.
DDR 3---> DDR2 5
DDR 2.5-> DDR2 4
DDR 2---> DDR2 3
If you look the average increase from 3->2.5 is 2%
Then the average from 2.5->2 is 4%
So then the average from 3->2 is about 6% average right?
Now look back at those ram chips.
The G.Skill is $115 and is Cas 5,while the Patriot is $145 and is Cas 4
So if I were to buy the Patriot I would gain about 2% maybe 4 in some games right? So lets just go with 3%
Now I dunno $60 doesnt seem like its worth 3% increase in gaming to me. Id rather put that in a card upgrade or geez id get an E6400 before I got Cas 4 Ram. Also take a look at the voltage of the patriot. It's 2.1 while the G.Skill is probably 1.8. All they did was up the coltage so they could lower the timings, you could do that with the **** G-Skill is you wanted good timings that bad.
Another way to cut down cost is dont buy a PSU that has 600w while your system maybe only needs 440. Then look for a good 500 or even a cheap 480 to give you some upgrade room. I see people post builds with 550w antectrue power for only 100 bucks lol. While their system has 1 vid card, a low power C2D, a mobo and a few lights. Waste of cash, simple as that. 600w is really only needed with maybe the new GeForce 8's or SLI.
Bottom line is, if your buidling a budget gaming PC think smart. What will give you most FPS in games for your money. Also make sure you research and shop around.
Sorry if it was a bit long