Mini Gaming PC for under $600

[Jahnkeanater]

For my next PC I have been looking at Micro ATX boards. I really like the idea of having a little PC that I can easily bring back and forth to college. I have been looking at the ASUS P8Z77-M. With an i5-2500K and a Radeon HD 6850. I don't plan to do any overclocking. I was wondering what peoples opinion of mini ITX and micro ATX rigs are. Should I finally get a SSD? Any advice is useful.

 

[tinytomlogan]

Moved to new build advice forum.

 

[SeekaX]

if you don't want to overclock the 2500k is completely unnecessary. get some locked CPU, on stock clocks they will do the same at a much lower price.
for anything portable i would always get an SSD. actually i would get an SSD for freaking everything, but especially for Laptops and portable PCs that is just so useful.
also look into the 650ti boost maybe, should be the same price range but do a lot better.

 

[Jahnkeanater]

I already have the graphics card. What I need to buy is ram a processor and a motherboard ect. How much more processing power can you get out of an i5 if you overclock it? and what size SSD do you recommend? I heard that the Z77 and Z75 chipsets can utelize a SSD without installing windows directly to it.

 

[Cru]

the reason he suggested an SSD for portable things is because unlike harddrives they don't just die when handled a bit roughly. although with that kind of a budget its hard to get a big ssd in there.

other things I'd like to mention;
something like a h60 would be good so you don't have a heavy block on your cpu that can cause damage

 

[UkGouki]

look at a bitfenix prodegy case core i5 non k version and ssd it fits your budget

list from new egg>

Product Description Savings Total Price

BitFenix Prodigy Arctic White / White Steel / Plastic Mini-ITX Tower Computer Case Item #: N82E16811345017Return Policy: Standard Return Policy

$89.99

ASUS P8Z77-M LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard Item #: N82E16813131832Return Policy: Standard Return Policy Protect Your Investment (expand for options)



-$5.00 Instant
$124.99$119.99

SAMSUNG 840 Series MZ-7TD120BW 2.5" 120GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) Item #: N82E16820147188Return Policy: Limited Replacement Only Return Policy Protect Your Investment (expand for options)




$109.99

• Intel Core i5-3350P Ivy Bridge 3.1GHz (3.3GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 69W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80637i53350P Item #: N82E16819116782 Return Policy: CPU Replacement Only Return Policy
  Protect Your Investment (expand for options)
• G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL Item #: N82E16820231314 Return Policy: Memory Standard Return Policy Subtotal: $548.95

you will also have some left over for a cpu cooler you can use your current GPU and psu and it will make a very nice budget build

 

[Jahnkeanater]

the reason he suggested an SSD for portable things is because unlike harddrives they don't just die when handled a bit roughly. although with that kind of a budget its hard to get a big ssd in there.

I was planning on having something like a 80 GB and using Intel's Smart Response SSD Caching technology. I only have a 320 GB HDD and its plenty for me. At least for now it is. So I don't think a large SSD for cache is necessary.

 

[Jahnkeanater]

Should I wait for the new Haswell CPU's that are supposed come out this summer? I like the i5-4670S.

 

[s3ns3]

if you don`t wait and buy now don`t get a z77 board get a h77 if you plan to raid some drives otherwise get a b75 one.locked cpu + oc chipset/vrm = no point

 

[Jahnkeanater]

Im looking at the i5-3570 now. I feel like I would need liquid cooling for it though. Im starting to think overclocking is the way to go. I don't really want raid. I just want a SSD for cache. I don't think Smart Response qualifies as RAID. Is the i5-3570 overkill for my HD 6850? I own 2 cards but they wont fit on a micro ATX board with the stock heat sinks. Im not even sure if i can fit one of them in a BitFenix Prodigy case.

What do you think of this case tho?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=11-553-011&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=5&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Keywords=%28keywords%29#scrollFullInfo

 

[alienware]

Is the i5-3570 overkill for my HD 6850? I own 2 cards but they wont fit on a micro ATX board with the stock heat sinks. Im not even sure if i can fit one of them in a BitFenix Prodigy case.

Yes that CPU is total overkill for that GPU.

One of them will fit in a Prodigy with no problems but no ITX rig can run Crossfire.

Not that you would want to any way given that Crossfire is buggered.

 

[NeverBackDown]

Cpu is not overkill. Ya it will be far ahead of the gpu but really cpu power just future proofs you more than a gpu will.

 

[Jahnkeanater]

The micro ATX board I have listed supports Crossfire and there are cases with 4 PCI slots. but i know that the cards wont fit in a small case cause they take up 3 slots. 2 in the back and the heat sink covers up a third one.

 

[NeverBackDown]

It could fit if the first card was in the first 2slots and then then other in the last 2 while having a smaller heatsink. Mainly motherboard layout will determine all this. But i would suggest a more powerful single card over 2 lower end cards to get around this problem.

 

[Jahnkeanater]

Im not going to buy another GPU since I already have both of these Im Probably going to sell one to a friend cause its brand new. So what CPU do you recommend If I want to play games like ARMA 3 with this GPU?

 

[alienware]

ARMA is very heavily CPU dependent so the best one you can for that.

 

[NeverBackDown]

Current Arma 3 beta is not fully optimized so we can't tell you what will be more important. A strong cpu and a lower gpu in any situation is more optimal than a lower cpu and strong gpu. Lower end cpu will bottleneck you and will drop your minimum frames more often.