New gaming PC for under €550

Solitaire

RAM and graphics card are very out of stock And IMHO the Thermaltake V9 is a better case for a similar price (add the extra 140mm fan and its uber :D)

And the reason is that all low-and mid-range Asus and more and more low-end ASRock and (newer) MSI mobos use VIA sound codecs instead of Realtek. Sound quality is reduced slightly but the killer is that some mobos with VIA sound are known to have EMI issues, causing interference bad enough to force users to buy discrete soundcards. Listening to your network port is not acceptable Via!! :eek::p

Curry Addict

Solitaire wrote: »

He probably think it'll detonate. And it might, but IMHO its less likely to detonate - I think its a (very) low-end HEC/Hiroshi PSU - but I'm still worried that it'll be an unreliable inefficient PITA. I seriously doubt it has any PCIe connectors, nor an 8-pin EPS connector, nor Active PFC, and I'm fairly sure that unit maxes out at something like 336W IIRC? Its more like either a very old PSU or an overrated 350W unit. And if there is a PSU you really don't want to load by more than 50% of its true rating, its a cheapy casecombo PSU That rig could approach 200W at stock, which is well over the 50% mark for an overrated 350W model!!

i understand where u are coming from with all this. it is always good to go with overspec on psus because it does have its merits no doubt. why drive around in a lada when u can swan around in a merc and have so much more comfort and possabilities. with psus its more like driving around in a minibus when a small car will also get u there. power supply requirements are a dark mystery to most and most will go with caution, the lines of what suits where are not easily understood.
in the interest of best bang for the buck in system building, understanding what can work ok (for that build)can sometimes help u get a much better end result for your money. there maybe limitations such as upgradability and having to stick with lower powered graphics cards but if the OP doesnt mention it, its not on the menu.
here is a nice article that helps define the lines of what can be used where http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cases/display/system-wattage_6.html
here the HD4850 is a good comparision to the HD5770 as the power drawn at full load is less for the HD5770. this psu is definitely a goer in this application whereas if the graphics card was a 1792MB ASUS ENGTX295/2DI it certainly wouldnt be. note the psu does have overcurrent protection and will shutdown if its overloaded.
a build like this might be a bit hairy for some but it does have its merit imho.

Solitaire

For a sub-€450 ("ultrabudget") gaming rig I'd consider it, but such a build would have a slightly cooler CPU (only slightly - say 60-70W instead of ~80W) and a substantially cooler GPU (say a ~50W HD5750 instead of a 70-80W HD5770) and would be mostly living on a wing and a prayer anyway.

Its not overload that would make it blow (IMHO - HECs usually blow due to heat or failure rather than a lack of capacity and/or OCP, and don't do it too often either!) but I'd be concerned with rail stability, ripple voltage and severe inefficiency. A €40-50 Amazon would be 80-85% efficient. That cheapo PSU would be 70-75% efficient, which means a higher ESB bill for an electrical appliance which could be on for hours at a time and also causes more heat which makes cheapo PSUs much unhappier than overloading would! :eek:

Trevor451

wow thanks for telling me that :eek: What motherboard would you recommend then (that's in a similar price range)

Also would this case be good enough?
http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=25244&agid=631
It has 3 built in fans so I presume it can keep cool even with no additional fans?

deconduo

This is the same case, just without one extra fan:
http://www4.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=23938&agid=631

Your ram is out of stock, grab this instead:
http://www4.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=29670&agid=1192

That 6850 is out of stock, this one comes into stock tomorrow:
http://www4.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=39499&agid=1004

As for the motherboard, you pretty much have to decide whether you want better sound quality or USB3. I have the Asus one and I'm fine with it, but I'm definitely no audiophile. The cheapest motherboard with the Realtek audio is this gigabyte one:
http://www4.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=35051&agid=1232

Trevor451

Thanks for the advice!

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Everything looks good?

BTW since the only outputs on that graphics card are DVI and HDMI, will a DVI to VGA adapter work with one of these cards?
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.20275

Solitaire

That's nearly €590 shipped And the PSU is way overspec anyway. You could get away with a decent 450W PSU if you're not OCing that build much, and a 550W PSU even if you do. The former (Amazon 450W) might be out of stock, but AFAIK the Amazon 550W is still in, and for €50 its a huge leap beyond the 300W-PSU-in-wolves-clothing we saw a page back!

Fairly sure I've seen the windowless version of the V9 a good €20 cheaper on HWVS too

Trevor451

Solitaire wrote: »

That's nearly €590 shipped And the PSU is way overspec anyway. You could get away with a decent 450W PSU if you're not OCing that build much, and a 550W PSU even if you do. The former (Amazon 450W) might be out of stock, but AFAIK the Amazon 550W is still in, and for €50 its a huge leap beyond the 300W-PSU-in-wolves-clothing we saw a page back!

Fairly sure I've seen the windowless version of the V9 a good €20 cheaper on HWVS too

I managed to get another 50 on to my budget so I am ok .

Anyway only reason I am choosing that case is because I think it includes enough fans to keep the build cool enough without purchasing more fans

I would also go for a lower watt PSU but I have heard that corsair do make good PSU and they don't have any 550W versions on HWVS

Do you know if the DVI - VGA adapter will work with the graphics card as I only have a VGA monitor ATM?


EDIT: I think that the corsair psu is not compatible with the case so I may as well go with the Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 550W. Are you guys sure it wont blow up like in the video on the other page? :P

Solitaire

The Amazon PSUs are also decent, and they do have a 550W for just over €50.

My bad, just realised you're getting the Black Editon, which has an extra 230mm side fan. AFAIK all V9s are missing the 140mm front fan, you'll need to get one to complement the powerful exhaust (a 120mm at the back and a 230mm fan up top). I'd be tempted to get a NZXT Hades myself, for a lot less money it looks badass and comes with a full fan complement AFAIK including front and top 200mm fans. AFAIK it also has cable routing, which very few Thermaltake cases have

Amazon got good reviews, the exploding PSU in the video is a cheap RaidMax, to be fair even Curry's casecombo PSU wouldn't be that bad! :P

Trevor451

Thanks for all of the advice I should be able to order by the end of the week! Hardwareversand is quite annoying since one day all of the stock is available and then the next day its all out of stock :mad:

Tea_Bag

you should be able to unlock that athlon X3 to become a phenom 2 X4 with any luck!

Solitaire

More likely an Athlon X4, most of those chips have the L3 lasered off rather than disabled

Trevor451

Looks like I will be changing my case

Curry Addict

Solitaire wrote: »

RaidMax, to be fair even Curry's casecombo PSU wouldn't be that bad! :P

maybe i just like to live on the edge but i installed a power hungry GTX275
in my PC a few days ago. its running fine lol and im gaming like mad

OP i think your mad not to go for i5 760 and cheap ass case/psu combo with a 6850 because its such a low power draw gpu.
u will have way better performance overall than that donkey amd proecssor!

if u want to play it safe with the PSU then this is a good buy http://www4.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=23612&agid=240&pcconfAddUri=pcconfigurator.jsp%3FpcConfigurator.pwradaptor.pwradaptor.0%3D23612%3A3005&pcconfBackUri=pcconfselect.jsp?pcConfigurator.catid=44&pcConfigurator.maid=0&search.sKey=&rp=1

Solitaire

Fairly old and none too amazing Fortron unit. Amazon 550W thrashes that in both quality and capacity. AFAIK only the D-series Basiq units are much good (being made by Delta just like the Earthwatts-D, Signature and CPX-size units).

deconduo

Solitaire wrote: »

More likely an Athlon X4, most of those chips have the L3 lasered off rather than disabled

I dunno, maybe I'm lucky but 3 out of 3 of the X3s I've ordered from HWVS unlocked with no problem and had that juicy L3 cache.

Trevor451

Hi solitare I was watching a review on youtube about the NZXT hades case and the reviewer said that you might have trouble fitting some graphics cards and cpu heatsinks. Would my 6850 and the rest of the case fit in there perfectly?

deconduo

The Hades fits GPUs up to 12inches, and the 6850 is 9 inches so you'll be fine.

Solitaire

You might have trouble fitting a Noctua NH-D14 CPU cooler, but FFS its a midi-tower, it fits midi-tower coolers :rolleyes::P If you want to fit a maxi-tower cooler (140mm+ fans!!) get a HAF932 or larger!

Trevor451

Solitaire wrote: »

You might have trouble fitting a Noctua NH-D14 CPU cooler, but FFS its a midi-tower, it fits midi-tower coolers :rolleyes::P If you want to fit a maxi-tower cooler (140mm+ fans!!) get a HAF932 or larger!

Nah I will only be using the stock CPU cooler. Id take it that that fits?

Anyway somebody told me to use the exact same ram but use a CL7 version of it since it has faster times but the its about €20 more expensive :rolleyes: Should I really get the upgraded ram or is the ram I was going to go with good enough for gaming?

EDIT: Decided to go with this ram
http://www3.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=33149&agid=1192

VenomIreland

Solitaire wrote: »

You might have trouble fitting a Noctua NH-D14 CPU cooler, but FFS its a midi-tower, it fits midi-tower coolers :rolleyes::P If you want to fit a maxi-tower cooler (140mm+ fans!!) get a HAF932 or larger!

HAF 922 will also fit it

Solitaire

I know, but to be fair the HAF922 is amazingly wide for even a top-end supersized midi-tower. And even then its the lack of the side-mounted 200mm fan that allows it to be mounted

Skerries

i'm thinking of getting the 922 with the NH-D14 and you reckon its ok?
i was originally looking at the H-70 but others are saying it's not as good and could be messy?

VenomIreland

Skerries wrote: »

i'm thinking of getting the 922 with the NH-D14 and you reckon its ok?
i was originally looking at the H-70 but others are saying it's not as good and could be messy?

the H70, IIRC, performs only slightly better than the D14, but costs like €20 more.

Solitaire

Its been noticed that the H-series is much more failure-prone than other Asetek coolers. Those were probably the first low-quality/high-margin Corsair line but their ValueRam and refreshed low- and upcoming mid-range PSUs seem to follow that new trend :mad:

The NH-D14 would easily fit an unmodded HAF922, the problems would only set in once you tried to fit fans on the side as well

Trevor451

heya this is going to be the final build I am ordering




A few items are out of stock and it does not show when they are going to be back in? Willl hardwareversand ship the items together or will they ship the ones that in stock first and the ones that are out of stock at a later date?

Also I just want somebody to double check that everything is comparable and fits in the case correctly?

Solitaire

PSU is overkill. You might as well wait for the 550W to come back in. Or even the 450W if you're not OCing, HD6850s only use about the same juice as an old HD4830

Otherwise you may need to hold on for a bit and see what's coming back in as all the HD6850s and most of the suitable PSUs are out of stock at the same time. You can risk it as I'm fairly sure they keep their shipemtns together, you can change it before it ships

Trevor451

HD6580s are coming back in stock but now the case is sold out :rolleyes:

darego

Trevor451 wrote: »

heya this is going to be the final build I am ordering




A few items are out of stock and it does not show when they are going to be back in? Willl hardwareversand ship the items together or will they ship the ones that in stock first and the ones that are out of stock at a later date?

Also I just want somebody to double check that everything is comparable and fits in the case correctly?

looks sweet man, let me know how it goes please! i'm going to be doing my first build in the next month or 2 so i might use your build

Trevor451

darego wrote: »

looks sweet man, let me know how it goes please! i'm going to be doing my first build in the next month or 2 so i might use your build

Yea sure no problem I am also going to order with credit card (I read here that somebody ordered before with CC and it worked and it also states in the HWVS terms that you can pay by credit card but there is a extra 3% charge)