What makes you think that machine is too much for her? An i5 isn't that much more expensive than an i3, and you get four cores instead of just two + ht. The R9 270x isn't exactly the most expensive card out there either.

I would've personally gone up to a GTX 760, or waited for the GTX 960 or AMDs new cards. I think one could go up to a GTX 970 and still be within the 1000 dollar budget. What card she needs depends on the games she plays. Plain intel integrated graphics if she plays nothing but dwarf fortress, or a GTX 760 or GTX 970 if she plays these new 3D games.

joacim wrote:

What makes you think that machine is too much for her? An i5 isn't that much more expensive than an i3, and you get four cores instead of just two + ht. The R9 270x isn't exactly the most expensive card out there either.

I would've personally gone up to a GTX 760, or waited for the GTX 960 or AMDs new cards. I think one could go up to a GTX 970 and still be within the 1000 dollar budget. What card she needs depends on the games she plays. Plain intel integrated graphics if she plays nothing but dwarf fortress, or a GTX 760 or GTX 970 if she plays these new 3D games.

Well the OP said that she wouldn't be happy with a socket 775 "for reasons not known to me", so I figured she must not be doing too much with it if he thinks she would be just fine with a socket 775.

Qbix wrote:

*moved to system specs.*

Not the ideal place, but there are starting to be too many hardware related topics in Milliways.

I think this would be remedied if we had a section for discussion of newer hardware.

fyy wrote:

Well the OP said that she wouldn't be happy with a socket 775 "for reasons not known to me", so I figured she must not be doing too much with it if he thinks she would be just fine with a socket 775.

If she isn't doing much with it, then a Pentium or i3 build with a GTX 750 Ti (or similar AMD card) should be enough. It is cheap, and much better than any old LGA775 C2D. An H97 motherboard with a low end CPU will provide a much better upgrade path than any old LGA 775 with an end-of-the-road Q9650.

I still think a machine with a i5 + GTX 760-970 would be a safer option. OP did say it was going to be used for games. Even older games like Skyrim and Sims 3 benefited a lot when I upgraded from my old E7600 to my current i5-4690.

fyy wrote:

Agree with this, except I'd get her a 240GB SSD or larger. 128GB is horrible for a modern OS. Windows 7/8 + patches + system restore, hardly any space for anything else. Also remove the HD if she already has a 3TB drive.

I'm on a 120GB Kingston V300 here. Windows 8.1, all my applications on the SSD and got ~80GB free. Granted, this is a purely OS drive, no games and no user folders in here.

Hello again. With Russian ruble falling fast, it looks like I can not afford this build anymore... 1USD used to be 35RUR in summer and is now well over 55RUR, all the prices are two times up and now I can't buy anything good with what I'm willing to spend. Looks like the new machine has to wait...

I would look for a used socket 1366 system locally.
It will be some time before the Ruble bounces up again as the oil price probably will stay low the next year or so.

Intel, Nvidia and a SSD 😀

Skyscraper wrote:

I would look for a used socket 1366 system locally.
It will be some time before the Ruble bounces up again as the oil price probably will stay low the next year or so.

Well, I've got some once decent hardware in my stash, I might buy a new PSU and a budget SSD to make it feel like a rocket 😀 Will C2D E6850 + 9800GT run Skyrim at 30FPS+? I've got my own Q6600/HD4870X2 machine after all, I think we could share given how much time I spend around retro stuff.

Skyscraper wrote:

I would look for a used socket 1366 system locally.
It will be some time before the Ruble bounces up again as the oil price probably will stay low the next year or so.

I would not, because of a higher power draw..LGA1155 / LGA1156 are more lower on power consumption.

Robin4 wrote:

Skyscraper wrote:

I would look for a used socket 1366 system locally.
It will be some time before the Ruble bounces up again as the oil price probably will stay low the next year or so.

I would not, because of a higher power draw..LGA1155 / LGA1156 are more lower on power consumption.

I doubt that is an issue in Russia 😀
A socket 1366 system draws 100w+ fom the wall at idle so if energy costs is an issue you have a point.

The things to like about the socket 1366 platform are the build quality of the motherboards and the fact that it is a platform without "issues".

RacoonRider wrote:

Well, I've got some once decent hardware in my stash, I might buy a new PSU and a budget SSD to make it feel like a rocket 😀 Will C2D E6850 + 9800GT run Skyrim at 30FPS+? I've got my own Q6600/HD4870X2 machine after all, I think we could share given how much time I spend around retro stuff.

Might be ok. I played Skyrim (1920x1080, high preset, max draw distance on everything) on my E7600 + GTX 260. I got 60 FPS in towns, but outside in the wilderness I got about 30-40 FPS. The FPS was decent enough, but there was some stuttering here and there. The stuttering went away when I upgraded to a quad core i5 (Might be that Skyrim is best played on a quad core CPU).

It was the same in a lot of other games. Got playable framerates, and often 60 FPS after I upgraded to a GTX 660, but there was still a lot of stuttering, and in some games, I would get low FPS no matter what settings I played at.

joacim wrote:

RacoonRider wrote:

Well, I've got some once decent hardware in my stash, I might buy a new PSU and a budget SSD to make it feel like a rocket 😀 Will C2D E6850 + 9800GT run Skyrim at 30FPS+? I've got my own Q6600/HD4870X2 machine after all, I think we could share given how much time I spend around retro stuff.

Might be ok. I played Skyrim (1920x1080, high preset, max draw distance on everything) on my E7600 + GTX 260. I got 60 FPS in towns, but outside in the wilderness I got about 30-40 FPS. The FPS was decent enough, but there was some stuttering here and there. The stuttering went away when I upgraded to a quad core i5 (Might be that Skyrim is best played on a quad core CPU).

It was the same in a lot of other games. Got playable framerates, and often 60 FPS after I upgraded to a GTX 660, but there was still a lot of stuttering, and in some games, I would get low FPS no matter what settings I played at.

She can't go higher than 1280x1024 anyway, I call it a deal 😀

Skyscraper wrote:

I doubt that is an issue in Russia 😀

No issue at all, if it was an issue I would rather not get my second-hand HD4870X2. The card was so hot I could not keep my hand on it for more than 5 seconds during Windows install, I can only imagine how much it draws from the wall.

Update: Just got the electricity bill, 1kWh is worth 0.04USD. That means that I pay 8 cents for a heavy 4-hour gameplay session if my machine consumes 500W from the wall.

RacoonRider wrote:

Update: Just got the electricity bill, 1kWh is worth 0.04USD. That means that I pay 8 cents for a heavy 4-hour gameplay session if my machine consumes 500W from the wall.

The price in Sweden is also ~0.04 USD right now.
But to that sum energy tax is added and also a transport fee.
As icing on the cake 25% VAT is added to everything, all in all the price ends up at about 3x the original price.

I just wanted to add that for $1k Intel makes the most sense, just get the slowest non-K-series Core i5 chip and make sure it's a haswell core. Haswell is the best performance-vs-power and best money sweet spot right now. Games are more at most optimized for quad core only, no game exists that will use more than 4 cores. And there are some games out there (Short list: Borderlands 2, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, RAGE) that actually require a quad core to run correctly now a days.

I would also suggest a GTX-770 or 760, they're not very expensive now, and they're really good performance. More games are coming out now optimized for nvidia more than anything else.

If you're going SSD, I very strongly suggest the samsung pro series above any and all other considerations. There are multiple websites that have extensively stress tested them beyond anything any normal user would do. I'm talking artifically creating 80 million - 120 million writes and reads to the things, and even after all that they still work perfectly, just run about -5% slower.

You have the budget for this stuff, so just get the good stuff and spend it on quality parts and you should still be below your $1000 target.

The only other issue is make sure you get a modern name brand power supply. And either 80+ gold, or platinum. Gold and platinum power supplies in the 500 - 550 watt range are the best option right now. The gold/platinum really does make a significant difference on the power draw @ outlet and your utility bills. Brands like Corsair, ThermalTake, OCZ, PC Power & Cooling, etc. I can find a page a little later on power supply tiers and post it here for you to read. I had it the other day.

EDIT: Power Supply Tiers guide for PC Builders: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/183351-pl … -from-eggxpert/

1USD is now 61RUR, which makes a 1k$ build worth a budget car. No, thank you 😀

4 cents a kWh for electric? Really? Its 11 to 12 cents a kWh here, and that is before transmission fees adding another 3-5 cents on top of the rate.

RacoonRider wrote:

1USD is now 61RUR, which makes a 1k$ build worth a budget car. No, thank you 😀

The original post said $1000 ... that's just what I was basing suggestions on.

NJRoadfan wrote:

4 cents a kWh for electric? Really? Its 11 to 12 cents a kWh here, and that is before transmission fees adding another 3-5 cents on top of the rate.

LI is $0.20 per KWH: inclusive of all costs. I try to keep consumption down but it is hard in the winter because of my MIL's room heater, the dish washer, oven and laundry machine / dryer. 😵