PC hardware forum: Do I have all the right hardware to build a budget game-rig?

your processor's only going to go as fast as it has to. more demanding apps are going to be what pushes it to the limit. i've got an i5 2500k. stock is 3.3GHz. Turbo is 3.7. I'm stable at with a 4.5GHz OC... given that I have an aftermarket heat sync and k series processors are made for overclocking.

the point is... i sit at about 1.5-1.6GHz while i'm sitting around on the internet with maybe a few small programs open. unless you're going to do some major music production, 3D rendering, or use some kind of super app, you're just not going to use all that power. i'm assuming games will be the most demanding thing you'll be using it for and with a llano processor you'll get twice the performance with the GPU + APU.

But also keep this in mind: any APU's only going to work with Radeon GPU's and only the 6670 and under. otherwise the card becomes too powerful for the processor and it only uses the dedicated card.

in the name of upgrades, getting a motherboard that supports CrossfireX would be also a smart move. I know for sure it wouldn't cost that much more, and maybe even less if you look around and find the right deal. That one I showed you in the package at newegg didn't... i didn't even think about that when i was looking. If you get a board with Crossfire support, it's going to allow you to add a second GPU. Unlike Nvidia, the great thing about AMD cards is you can put two different models together and they'll still work. If you did do this in the future, the integrated graphics wouldn't have any affect, but you wouldn't need them anyway,

leaving doors open and knowing what you want to do in the future will save you a hell of a lot of money in the future if you go ahead and think it through the first time.

disregard all that crossfire crap if you don't really care about upgrading the graphics, but that's just how my brain works. last month i did an entirely new build and ended up spending $500 more than i originally intended.


okay, this: it's a A8-3870K with a crossfire board, 4 (which is sick nasty) USB 3.0's, and supports 32GB of really fast RAM. The K on the end means it's unlocked for overclocking, which means you'll be able to OC it significantly more than a regular non-k,

it's $215 plus a $10 rebate.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.830595

if you wanna look for other crossfire boards on newegg, there's no little check box for it, so i usually google the model name, go to the manufacturer's website and find (ctrl+f) "crossfire" on the page. you'll find it if it does. sometimes a board'll support it and it won't say on newegg's page.