The Brief:
Build a new PC, just for gaming for €400.
My only benchmark here is my old machine (dual booting windows7/hackintosh) was a follows:
- Intel i5 2500k 3.3GHz
- Radeon HD 6870 1GB
The Constraints
Cash money, €400
Monitor will be the Tv.
Needs to be a small case as it needs to fit in a Ikea shelf in the front root.
Ideally needs to be inconspicuous.
I briefly considered an A Series combined CPU and GPU. But that was not going to cut it.
After some healthy discussion on boards.ie I found it difficult to go any less than my old processor, plus I reckoned I could do better on the graphics card for about the same money as before (circa €140)
I went with Mini ITX to keep the case as small as possible. This machine will not need to be all things to all users in my house so I am keeping it small, and simple.
So here was the final parts list and the costs:
(the i5 was second hand on ebay, as was the memory, all the rest came from hardwareversand)
PCPartPicker part list: http://de.pcpartpicker.com/p/kqQMyc
CPU: Intel Core i5-2500 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor (Purchased For €109.67)
Motherboard: ASRock B75M-ITX Mini ITX LGA1155 Motherboard (Purchased For €58.58)
Memory: Crucial 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1333 Memory (Purchased For €21.20)
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Purchased For €58.73)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card (Purchased For €128.78)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 110 Mini ITX Tower Case (Purchased For €36.75)
Power Supply: XILENCE Redwing Series, 350W, Rev. 3 ATX Power Supply (Purchased For €21.25)
Total: €434.96
I could have gotten a cheaper motherboard but I disliked doing without USB3, so the ASRock B75M-ITX was perfect.
There were 3 options for the Cooler Master Mini ITX. The Elite 110 was the cheapest and the smallest, at 260 x 208 x 280 mm.
Parts ordered, hurry up mr postman!
Cash money, €400
Monitor will be the Tv.
Needs to be a small case as it needs to fit in a Ikea shelf in the front root.
Ideally needs to be inconspicuous.
I briefly considered an A Series combined CPU and GPU. But that was not going to cut it.
After some healthy discussion on boards.ie I found it difficult to go any less than my old processor, plus I reckoned I could do better on the graphics card for about the same money as before (circa €140)
I went with Mini ITX to keep the case as small as possible. This machine will not need to be all things to all users in my house so I am keeping it small, and simple.
So here was the final parts list and the costs:
(the i5 was second hand on ebay, as was the memory, all the rest came from hardwareversand)
PCPartPicker part list: http://de.pcpartpicker.com/p/kqQMyc
CPU: Intel Core i5-2500 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor (Purchased For €109.67)
Motherboard: ASRock B75M-ITX Mini ITX LGA1155 Motherboard (Purchased For €58.58)
Memory: Crucial 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1333 Memory (Purchased For €21.20)
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Purchased For €58.73)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card (Purchased For €128.78)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 110 Mini ITX Tower Case (Purchased For €36.75)
Power Supply: XILENCE Redwing Series, 350W, Rev. 3 ATX Power Supply (Purchased For €21.25)
Total: €434.96
I could have gotten a cheaper motherboard but I disliked doing without USB3, so the ASRock B75M-ITX was perfect.
There were 3 options for the Cooler Master Mini ITX. The Elite 110 was the cheapest and the smallest, at 260 x 208 x 280 mm.
Parts ordered, hurry up mr postman!
