it's not the idea to minimize the cost by itself. It is to minimize the costs by maximizing utility aka how much fun this new system will be, how much longevity it will have.

I can buy a second hand computer Pentium 4 with 512MB of ram and 17inches CRT for 200 bucks via ebay.
yet I won't be able to play Witcher 2 which I had since day one.

you have a point about PSU being higher end.
There were three reasons why I chose it

First is because I am a bit afraid getting this:
Link
I don't know what kind of PSU they throw in and I suspect it is the cheapest one. For extra 30 bucks I can get seperate, modular, more powerful and more reliable. Minimize the risk of a grill.

Second reason why I thought 550W might be a good idea over 500W is that my logic says that under the same strain 550W will be quiter. Therefore better overall experience when using the system. and it will give me extra head when using new GPU and a second HDD later on.

Third reason is that it is only 20 bucks more expensive than cheapest 500W. and it is modular.

CPU is the second cheapest AMD offering (which is actually good)... Not much more expensive than its first cheapest but at the same time giving you better clocks.

Single core is a big NO nowodays. Dual Core is a minimum for even everday tasks like unzipping 1GB of porn or watching 1080p youtube video. So that's why I chose CPU I did.
What's wrong with Gigabyte? I thought they were, together with asus and MSI top Tier companies?

Phenom II will be faster? that's... just wrong. I knew bulldozer was not a powerful processor but for previou gen. to be better than current one? I might reconsider that.

I kinda want quad tough. i3 is all good and all that but is is only dual core which I believe will bottleneck faster in a longer run than slower quad core. Correct me if I'm wrong tough.
Even if it is not the case, FPS in games is mostly dependant on GPU. I might reconsider spending a bit more for cheapest i5 or switching to dual core i3 if it is really a better choice.


sorry about double post. Expected gog forums to merge my posts.

I bet that's not the only thing he'd be unzipping. Doh ho ho!

(I'm sorry. I just couldn't help myself.)

AMD quad cores just aren't competitive with the high-end Intel quad cores. Even a Core i3 2120 is the equal of a faster-clocked Phenom II and trounces the FX-41xx series. AMD took a giant step backward in performance; I hope they have not endangered the future of the company, but I fear they have.

Don't be fooled into thinking 4 AMD cores are necessarily superior. Two Intel cores and two bogocores are still faster, and Ivy Bridge will just widen the gap.

As for Gigabyte, the main problem is their UEFI implementation, or lack thereof. They didn't have any at all until last November, and it's still only for X79 chipsets.

I checked the chartz and they say FX 4170 is better than i3 2130
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

F*** Passmark. Their results are idiotic and do not deserve any credence.

lol. how? can you show me anything better?
http://paulisageek.com/compare/cpu/

this also says AMD is better. so the F...?

Gigabyte boards (which are always awesome, never seen a dud) come with SATA cables (usually 2) so unless you REALLY want a red one you can probably save $2.50

Is there any avenue for buying the case locally at a reasonable price? The shipping cost on a case is likely to hit the $40-50 mark, that's money that could be better spent on bits. Coolermaster make decent PSU's so getting one with the case probably wouldn't be a bad choice but yeah if its only 30 bucks more you might as well get the better parts and go modular to help the heat dissipation.

Told you PCCG was a good shop!

Yay. savings I can get a case locally. Plenty of shops and MSY has a shop near where I live. Now I am getting 60 bucks for whole shipment. I got my sapphire 4850 ages ago from them as well as a hdd a year and half ago.

still the question remains on the cpu.

There are a lot of crap Coolermaster PSUs. The "Ultimate" and "Real Power Pro" are very good, but expensive. The "Silent Pro" line is OK, but it is inferior to, and usually more expensive than, the Seasonic-made Corsairs. Their lesser lines are junk that is dangerous to the other components in your system, if not to your fire insurance.

Useful long-running discussion of power supplies that are and aren't good here: http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/1/323050/ShowThread.aspx

is that a big deal?


and i3 boards seem a bit expensive... so I wonder whether mATX with four ram slots and 2 PCIe and 2 other slots would be still a good board?

You can do. But then you'd most likely be out of further slots, and also I was able to find a single 4GB stick for less than 2x2. It's up to you. But to me, 2x2 doesn't seem like it would offer any advantages.

is there any reason for having more than eight gigs?
and i fear i might have problem getting another stick of the same ram later on. i can get any other 2x2GB sticks later on but getting second the same one might be problematic.

It doesn't have to be exactly the same. Just the same speed. Plus 4GB stick should become more commonplace, not less. As for needing more than 8GB, you certainly don't at present. So it depends on how much you want to future proof the rig really.

But if it's cheaper to get 1x4 as it was for me, I'd say go with that.