Budget CPU to go alongside a Geforce GTX 680?

[slovenlyjimmy]

This might sound like a crazy question, but It does make sense to me, at least right now.

I'm currently in the process of building a Budget gaming rig, my budget started tight and got tighter due to some unexpected expenses. Until yesterday I was looking at picking up a 2nd hand HD 7770 and paring it with an intel Celeron G550 and a really crappy PSU just to get mne going.

However I also been entering every competition going and have just been lucky enough to win a EVGA GTX 680 2GB! Can't believe my luck really. :lol:

So I now need to complete my build and can spend all of my remaining £100 budget on the PSU and CPU. My thought is to get either a XFX 550W Pro (£46) or Corsair CX600 (£51) for the PSU, which leaves me with roughly £50 for the CPU.

I already have a Asus P8B75-M LE Intel board which I picked up secondhand a few weeks ago and need to decide what Intel CPU to go for. Currently thinking that the Pentium G2020 or G860 is my best bet?

Any advice on what CPU I should go with would be appreciated. Or should I wait and try to pick up a secondhand i5 in a couple of months when I might be able to add a little extra cash towards it?

The rest of my current build is below.

Case : Zalman T2 micro-ATX
Board : Asus P8B75-M LE
RAM : 4GB Kingston Hyper X 1600Mhz
HDD : Seagate 500GB 7200

Thanks for any help.

 

[SavageCupcake]

I'd go for the corsair psu and the g2020 if you can afford it seeing as the g2020 is an IB part. Might be worth looking for an i3 3220 or 2100 second hand if you can though

 

[Feronix]

That idea is ridiculous lmfao, there will be heavy bottlenecking!

If you just need a CPU to have it running for now, grab the absolute cheapest of the cheapest and start saving up for a decent i5 straight away... At least that's what I would do, I guess...

Or you could sell the 680 as new (considering it is new?) and buy something like a 660 Ti or HD7870 Tahiti LE. Should be able to get an i5 then?

 

[jamesriley94]

That idea is ridiculous lmfao, there will be heavy bottlenecking!

If you just need a CPU to have it running for now, grab the absolute cheapest of the cheapest and start saving up for a decent i5 straight away... At least that's what I would do, I guess...

Or you could sell the 680 as new (considering it is new?) and buy something like a 660 Ti or HD7870 Tahiti LE. Should be able to get an i5 then?

No no, selling competition prizes is naughty

I'd be looking for an i3 tbh. Maybe look at a second hand Sandybridge, may even be able to push out a 2500k out of your budget tbh.

You may need a slightly bigger budget though.

 

[slovenlyjimmy]

Or you could sell the 680 as new (considering it is new?) and buy something like a 660 Ti or HD7870 Tahiti LE. Should be able to get an i5 then?

That thought had crossed my mind as well (it is new). I'm not going to be gaming at anything more than 1080p, so a HD 7870 would probably be more than enough for my needs. Also I'm upgrading from an Xbox 360 so even a budget card is going to be a big improvement!

Main reason I deciced to keep it rather than sell, is that I should be able to convince my lovely wife to get me an i5 for Christmas, which isn't that far away :huh: so I just need a CPU to last me until then.

I'd hate to loose an amazing card now I've got it!

 

[alpenwasser]

I'd go for the corsair psu and the g2020 if you can afford it seeing as the g2020 is an IB part. Might be worth looking for an i3 3220 or 2100 second hand if you can though

+1 for the Corsair.

That idea is ridiculous lmfao, there will be heavy bottlenecking!

If you just need a CPU to have it running for now, grab the absolute cheapest of the cheapest and start saving up for a decent i5 straight away... At least that's what I would do, I guess...

If you absolutely, positively need the CPU right effin' now, then +1 for this.

And I don't mean "need" as in "want", but in actually bloody need for work or school. Every other reason (surfing, gaming, watching movies) is not "need" (at least as far as I'm concerned) and in that case I seriously recommend saving up for a month or two and getting yourself either an i3 3220 (if money is still tight) or an i5 (recommended solution).

You will be much happier in the long run if you're patient for a little while longer here.

Or you could sell the 680 as new (considering it is new?) and buy something like a 660 Ti or HD7870 Tahiti LE. Should be able to get an i5 then?

Also a valid proposition. As above, an i3 could also be adequate, although for future-proofing if you can afford one get an i5.

It really depends on whether or not you can wait for a bit longer to get the part that will make you happiest in the long run.


Just as a side note: I've been there. The build that I'm about to put together was started two years ago until I had to put it on hold for health reasons until this February when I could finally go about acquiring the remaining components and start the final planning. So I can empathize, but patience and persistence leads to better (and therefore more satisfying results) in the long run. Of course, if necessity really calls for it now, then that's that.

EDIT, simultaneous post :

If you can get an i5 for Christmas and just need something to keep you going, get the cheapest thing you can that will run in this board.
/EDIT

 

[alienware]

This might actually be of some help. Celeron G530 paired with a GTX 480.

http://www.fruitforums.com/vb/showthread.php?34744-Celeron-G530-Review&highlight=celeron+review

I wrote that last summer.

 

[alpenwasser]

This might actually be of some help. Celeron G530 paired with a GTX 480.

http://www.fruitforums.com/vb/showthread.php?34744-Celeron-G530-Review&highlight=celeron+review

I wrote that last summer.

:blink: :blink: :blink:

I love it when somebody just serves up hard data. Of course, sometimes you just don't have any so a little conjecturing is required.

Anyway, very interesting read, my friend. I shall now go and plug my Thunderbird 1400 C into my Titan :lol:

On second thought, that might get tricky with the lack of PCI-E slots and such...

 

[alienware]

Anyway, very interesting read, my friend. I shall now go and plug my Thunderbird 1400 C into my Titan :lol:

On second thought, that might get tricky with the lack of PCI-E slots and such...

Gotta admit that one provoked a physical LOL. :lol:

Yeah I like to test hardware that goes firmly under the radar due to being budget or what not. Intel aren't going to faff with a £30 CPU which is a shame, because add a 6850 to that and it would cost about the same as one of AMD's APUs and would kick its ass.

 

[slovenlyjimmy]

This might actually be of some help. Celeron G530 paired with a GTX 480.

http://www.fruitforums.com/vb/showthread.php?34744-Celeron-G530-Review&highlight=celeron+review

I wrote that last summer.

That really is interesting!

Before I got this win I was going to get a Celeron G1610 for £32 and match it with an HD 7770. Looking up the average benchmarks the newer G1610 gives about 20% extra perfomance over the G530. Given your tests it might well provide a surprisingly decent performance, certainly enough to last me until christmas!

Thanks for the info, really useful.

 

[alienware]

That really is interesting!

Before I got this win I was going to get a Celeron G1610 for £32 and match it with an HD 7770. Looking up the average benchmarks the newer G1610 gives about 20% extra perfomance over the G530. Given your tests it might well provide a surprisingly decent performance, certainly enough to last me until christmas!

Thanks for the info, really useful.

No worries

Just remember Edison's studies.. Keep it at 26.7 FPS and you should get a smooth enough gaming experience

IE - it's the minimums you need to worry most about and a Pentium should see you covered..

Don't forget to do some benchmarks so we can see how the Pentium performs

 

[alpenwasser]

Gotta admit that one provoked a physical LOL. :lol

Happy to oblige :lol:

Although I just remembered that my Thunderbird's actually fried. Pump defect back in the day; got so hot it soldered my Cuplex right together via the O-ring gasket. I can take out all four screws holding the plexi top on the cold plate but it will absolutely not move. And the plexi is seriously bent around the mounting screw holes where the pressure from the springs pushed down onto it. Must've gotten rather warm before giving up :lol:

However, I still have a few working Durons, and I think a slot PIII...

Just had to look it up: Thunderbird core was 37 Million transistors @ 72 W TDP vs the Titan's 7 billion @ ~ 250 W TDP. How times have changed

@ slovenlyjimmy: Yes, please, post results!

 

[slovenlyjimmy]

I'll definately post some results, will be really interesting to see how the Celeron performs!

I agree with the FPS minimums. Given I've been gaming on the Xbox for the last few years 30 fps is what I'm used to and I really can't see anything wrong with it, especially as I don't play online multiplayers!

Going to order the Corsair 600W and the Celeron tonight I think.

Really is going to be an odd build, but in a strange way the weird pairing is quite exciting!

 

[SeekaX]

30 fps? nope nope nope nope
120 or gtfo

 

[alienware]

30 fps? nope nope nope nope
120 or gtfo

Now ask yourself this. 30 FPS on Xbox or 30 FPS on PC....

:lol:

 

[SeekaX]

Now ask yourself this. 30 FPS on Xbox or 30 FPS on PC....

:lol:

neither one, 120fps or i'm on strike!

 

[alpenwasser]

neither one, 120fps or i'm on strike!

What screen size are we talking about here? 17"? :lol:

EDIT: I'm well aware that 120 fps is feasible on decent screens, just to be clear

 

[SeekaX]

What screen size are we talking about here? 17"? :lol:

EDIT: I'm well aware that 120 fps is feasible on decent screens, just to be clear

21.5" 1080p. i much rather play on low settings with a very high framerate than on max settings with 40-50 fps.

 

[alpenwasser]

21.5" 1080p. i much rather play on low settings with a very high framerate than on max settings with 40-50 fps.

Hehe, my preferences are more towards higher picture quality and not-so-high framerates (I'm generally happy with 50 fps and more). But such is the thing with preferences.

Don't really like 16:9 monitors though, much prefer 16:10 (currently running 1920x1200 24", dreaming about a 2560x1600, but I might settle for a 2560x1440 in a few months depending on cash flow ). 1080p is definitely too low-res for me though, too little information can be displayed on those for my tastes.

 

[SeekaX]

Hehe, my preferences are more towards higher picture quality and not-so-high framerates (I'm generally happy with 50 fps and more). But such is the thing with preferences.

Don't really like 16:9 monitors though, much prefer 16:10 (currently running 1920x1200 24", dreaming about a 2560x1600, but I might settle for a 2560x1440 in a few months depending on cash flow ). 1080p is definitely too low-res for me though, too little information can be displayed on those for my tastes.

other way around for me. my second monitor is 16:10, for games that isn't really good.
what i'm looking for is a 21.5" 120hz monitor, but those don't exist unfortunately the resolution is okay, but i never tried 1440p either.