Budget-Gaming-ITX build! Opinions greatly appreciated.

[Harrybizzle]

It's been an awfully long time since I last built a computer (nearly 10 years ago. A 2.8Ghz P4!), and at the time it wasn't a disaster, but I could have done a lot of things better (like buying a better case and PSU!), so want to make sure this is well thought out before I pull the trigger on it. I'm going for ITX as it needs to be relatively easy to transport.

I want to be able to play games at reasonably good settings.

Here we go:

CPU: Intel Core i3-2120

Motherboard: B75M-ITX

RAM: 8 GB (4GBx2)

Case: BitFenix Prodigy

PSU: Coolermaster RS-500-AMBA-D3 Silent Pro M 500W Modular Power Supply

GPU: Really not sure about this. I think the minimum I want is an AMD 6870. My budget does stretch to about £150 though, so am hoping I can get some feedback here on whether it's worth going for a GTX 560 Ti.


HDDs I've got lying around and will make use of one of them until I can afford to put an SSD in.

Thanks in advance.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Looks OK - although the CM PSU does use a sleeve bearing fan. I would look at this PSU too:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/520w-...t-fan-atx12v-v

You can get both the HD6950 2GB and the GTX560TI 448 1.28GB for around £155 to £160:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-x...hdmi-2x-mini-d

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1280m...z-448-cores-2x

http://www.ebuyer.com/301229-zotac-g...i-zt-50313-10m

The GTX660TI is also being released soon - it will be interesting to see how much this is priced and how it will affect the pricing of other graphics cards under £200.

[Harrybizzle]

Thanks very much! The 448 Core was actually the card I had in mind at that price point.

I can't actually assemble for about another 10 days, so I'm planning to hold fire on the GPU specifically to see what the 660Ti does to the price of them (assuming it comes out in time).

The 6950 and 560 Ti seem pretty evenly matched, according to Anandtech's bench, so I'm thinking the 448 Core might have the edge overall?


And thanks very much for the PSU advice. I honestly had no idea about the fan (or what it even meant before googling it) but this is precisely the kind of thing I was hoping people would be able to point out to me.