Monday, May 6, 2013

Entry Level budget gaming computer

Here  there are two suggestions for budget gaming computer.

AMD:
CPU - AMD FX-4300
Motherboard - ASROCK 970 PRO3 /AMD970/AM3+
RAM - any 2x4 GB running at 1600 MHz
Hard drive - Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 1TB
Case - COOLER MASTER Elite 350 with 500W powersuply
Video card - Radeon HD7790 or GTX 650 Ti boost

Intel:
CPU - Intel i3-3220
Motherboard - ASROCK B75M-GL
RAM - any 2x4 GB running at 1600 MHz
Hard drive - Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 1TB
Case - COOLER MASTER Elite 350 with 500W powersuply
Video card  - Radeon HD7790 or GTX 650 Ti boost

So lets see the CPUs  FX-4300 vs i3-3220 both are similar priced with similar performance. FX-4300 is quad core and i3-3220 is dual core featuring Hyper Thread technology making this dual core processor working almost like quad core.
The main difference between those is the single core performance. Intel i3-3220 has better single core performance and this mean that every program and game that is not optimized for work on multi-core processors will work faster on the i3. FX-4300 has better multi-core performance making it better for games and programs which are able to utilize all of its  four cores.
The latest games like Far Cry 3, Battlefield 3, use more cores so they have better performance on FX-4300.   The older games however have better performance on i3-3220 and here are all those catching games which keep you on the PC with hours like World of Warcraft, Diablo 3, Starcraft 2, League of Legends, Dota 2 HoN and so on. The difference between these two processors however is not so big so i place them evenly its just a personal choice if you are fan of AMD or Intel go for it. If not just pick one!

The both motherboards are similar priced and actually for gaming PC they have more than enough. Both have USB 3.0.

Memory 2x4GB RAM running at 1600 MHz is enough for this computer. Even too much, to save some cash its possible to get only 4 GB. The brand of the memory and the the memory timings are not so important just pick one for example A-data which offer good price/performance memory modules. Even memory at 1333 MHz will do the job but lets not be too cheap since the difference is only few bucks.

In this gaming configuration we are saving from the computer case. So there will be more money available for the video card. This case offer enough for this configuration, there is good enough airflow to keep the components cool there is one rear fan included with the case, the 500 W power supply is more that enough for this configuration. There is one flaw however the front panel doesn't support USB 3.0 and this mean that if  you want to you the USB 3.0 you have to use the rear ports.

The hard drive is again 1TB Seagate Barracuda with good price, there is not so much to be said about it either.

Last thing is the video card. After comparing FX-4300 vs i3-3220 its time to compare the video cards.
Radeon HD7790 vs GTX 650 Ti boost. Again the performance of the both cards are similar, the choice must come from the games which will be played.
Here is one comparision between the both cards Radeon HD 7790 1GB & NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST 2GB Review. You can see that there is no clear advantage. In some games the GTX 650 is better in other HD7790. If you will play games that use for example NVIDIA PHYSX then go for GTX-650.

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