With limited money and parts, what would you recommend.

[kylendm]

Alright so my girlfriend is looking to upgrade her computer. Right now she has one still running an AGP card lol. It's time to move up.

She wants to play games but obviously not anything with ridiculous settings but at least medium. Her monitor also only supports 720p so no need for crazy resolutions. We have the case, PSU, and other little things like an optical drive and hard drive.

So the limit is $300 and that's max. I see the AMD A10 5800k but it looks like it can't really run games all that great. But at the same time, all the benchmarks I see are 1080p.

So basically we need RAM, Mobo, Cpu, and Gfx. I know it's a lot for limited money but there's got to be some kind of config that'll do this.

[killer_939]

How about a Radeon 7770, i3 3220, cheapo b75 motherboard and ram. If that is too much then maybe a Pentium g2120.

[Mraz]

Originally Posted by killer_939

How about a Radeon 7770, i3 3220, cheapo b75 motherboard and ram.

I think this is the best possible solution atm!

Also at 720p and those things that killer mentioned they would kick ass at that resolution, we are talking like high-very high settings on 720p with that cpu and GPU.

EDIT:

Yep I was right, just look at it's performance here!

Batman Arkham city all max without the AA ofc it hits 70FPS, BF3 all max without MSAA and with X2 AA it hits 45FPS!!

[Loophole35]

An A10 5800k at 720p may not be a bad deal remember 1080p is twice the pixels of 720p effectively halve the benchmarks you see at 1080 and that should be close to your 720 res. The i3 2100 and the A10 5800k are fairly close in computing as well http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/675?vs=289 the 3220 however is a bit more powerful http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/675?vs=677 but the integrated GPU of the A10 is far superior and overclockable too don't forget that. And here is a good review that shows the A10 with fast ram at 720p http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/cpu/46...er-ram/?page=3

Side not the A10's igp is close to the performance of a 460se just for comparison.

[Lowki]

Could get this deal right here http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...7&Sku=M69-0836 Tripple core Athlon 2 at 3.2 and still have like 170 for a decent video card. I think that would do well for a 720p setup My nephew was playing with an athlonx3 but at 3.3 ghz before I let him use my old 1090t. That with a GeForce 550ti did pretty well on a 1360x768 hdtv. You would still have that 170 so you could prolly get something like this http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...172&CatId=7005 and that's a pretty beast card.

[XBEAST]

i3 3220 + GTX 650 Ti or HD 7770 would run most games on high to max settings @ 1280x720, with exceptions like Crysis 1/3, Metro 2033, Hitman Absolution and a few others.

[dr.noob]

My tests on 3dmark11 with the same system:

Stock

7770: scored 4000

650ti_ scored 4500

Overclocked

7770 1.2GHZ_core: scored 4500 http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/5662285

650ti ~1.9GHZ_core: scored 5400 http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/6166657

If you are going stock the 650ti is not worth it.But it's worth to get the 7850 because mine went from 5800(0.860GHZ_core_stock) to 7300(1,25GHZ_core).
http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/5437863

[XBEAST]

Stock GTX 650 Ti is around 20% faster than 7770. Overclocking potential is better than 7770s, reaching 20-30% on core and 20-40% on memory.

There's a good deal on Galaxy GTX 650 Ti GC @ Newegg, 125$ AR.

[deltatux]

You could technically get the A10-5800K and pair it with an AMD Radeon HD 6670 and have them both working together for gaming. The APU's GPU and the discrete GPU can be CrossFired together for better gaming performance on a budget. I think this is a much better option if you're tight on budget.

AMD A10-5800K ($129.99)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819113280
ASUS Radeon HD 6670 1GB GDDR5 EAH6670/DIS/1GD5 ($89.99)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121442
ASRock FM2A75 Pro4 ($69.99)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157333
CORSAIR XMS 2 x 4 GB DDR3-1600 CL9 ($61.49)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145324

Subtotal: $351.46

The Core i3 3220 + either the GTX 650 Ti or Radeon HD 7770 would be way over your budget as it does not account for motherboard and RAM as you requested. This is probably the best bang for your buck. To get better pricing, try to source your parts from multiple vendors.

deltatux

[Loophole35]

Originally Posted by deltatux

You could technically get the A10-5800K and pair it with an AMD Radeon HD 6670 and have them both working together for gaming. The APU's GPU and the discrete GPU can be CrossFired together for better gaming performance on a budget. I think this is a much better option if you're tight on budget.

AMD A10-5800K ($129.99)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819113280
ASUS Radeon HD 6670 1GB GDDR5 EAH6670/DIS/1GD5 ($89.99)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121442
ASRock FM2A75 Pro4 ($69.99)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157333
CORSAIR XMS 2 x 4 GB DDR3-1600 CL9 ($61.49)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145324

Subtotal: $351.46

The Core i3 3220 + either the GTX 650 Ti or Radeon HD 7770 would be way over your budget as it does not account for motherboard and RAM as you requested. This is probably the best bang for your buck. To get better pricing, try to source your parts from multiple vendors.

deltatux

I'd say cut the 6670 and get faster ram I have seen a few different test showing better gains in FPS with faster ram than the hybrid CFx actually the extra GPU most of the time adds no additional performance and a few times has a negative impact.

[deltatux]

Originally Posted by Loophole35

I'd say cut the 6670 and get faster ram I have seen a few different test showing better gains in FPS with faster ram than the hybrid CFx actually the extra GPU most of the time adds no additional performance and a few times has a negative impact.

The OP was concerned that the A10-5800K would not be sufficient for his gaming needs, that's why I quoted the 6670.

If he doesn't mind putting another $10-20 for faster RAM, I'd recommend going DDR3-1866 (that's the max native speed that the AMD memory controller goes to) and have the 6670.

EDIT: Actually DDR3-1866 is only $3 more lol: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820233240

EDIT2: I would also recommend an aftermarket cooler for gaming as stock coolers tend to be crappy. You can get a good cheap one for an extra $30: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835186059

deltatux

[sykozis]

A10-5800K with DDR3-1866 should suffice for 720 with medium settings in most games....

[BLEH!]

AMD is definitely the better route. A10 APUs are pretty kickass. Can also do hybrid Xfire with the IGP and a separate GPU (6670?), which should own 720 p