So after saving up for a while, I've finally been able to build my own computer!
Several sales made this possible. The G3258 was a steal at 55 dollars, and I've quite fallen in love with it. The stock cooler is keeping everything cool and happy at a 4.4 GHz clock and I don't really think I'll need to try any higher.
My motherboard came with the necessary firmware update, so I didn't have to try and bum a temporary chip off someone else. The bios is laughably overdone and tacky but considering it's price and ability for non-Z overclocking, it's dandy.
RAM is ram, though it is nicely low-profile and pretty-looking. Amazon accidentally sent me another stick, so I actually managed to get 8GB! Woo! However, I'm sure for most applications the 4GB would've been sufficient.
Hard drive is a breath of fresh air coming from a old, slow, 5200rpm 130gb laptop drive. I'll probably add an SSD later on, but for now I'm enjoying the WD.
The GTX 650 was given to me free by a friend who was upgrading. It's definitely not the fastest card, but it can max out TF2 and gets good frame-rates at Medium-High settings in most games.
The case is probably one of my favorite parts of this build. My cable management sucks, but I love the exterior of this case. For $20 at newegg, it's nice, clean, white and pretty. All I really need in a case for a ridiculously cheap price.
Lastly, I probably went overkill on the PSU, but it's quiet, pretty and will allow me to upgrade to a r9 series card when it comes time.
Kind of impressive for $270, congrats on the build!
Only thing that really needs upgrading next is the gpu. Spend a bit on that and you've got yourself a nice compact gaming rig.
Just wondering though, what are the temps you're getting with the pentium at 4.4ghz on the stock cooler in that case? I'm having trouble believing the stock cooler is actually doing a good job keeping it cool when overclocked that high let alone with the average at best airflow from that tiny case...
EDIT: Okay, case isn't that tiny, still though... Stock cooler? :/
Kind of impressive for $270, congrats on the build!
Only thing that really needs upgrading next is the gpu. Spend a bit on that and you've got yourself a nice compact gaming rig.
Just wondering though, what are the temps you're getting with the pentium at 4.4ghz on the stock cooler in that case? I'm having trouble believing the stock cooler is actually doing a good job keeping it cool when overclocked that high let alone with the average at best airflow from that tiny case...
EDIT: Okay, case isn't that tiny, still though... Stock cooler? :/
If you're having trouble then it's more than likely that your heatsink is faulty.
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Can you match my resolve? If so then you will succeed. - Monty Oum
That's just complete rubbish. With the scaling you will be getting after an overclock the Pentium will clearly start to suffer from the lack of cache and memory bandwidth, it'll be barely half as fast as an i5 if you actually use all four threads.
Eh, run Prime if you want to actually stress the CPU. A single Cinebench run is simply not long enough to stress the CPU to the maximum. The first thing you are going to pop are the VRMs, which is what you should really be looking at.
Fair enough, might have over-estimated a little. but even then the Pentium is by far not a crappy CPU.
That Pentium actually does better than a Quad-Core athlon on most games. Also, you should get the Hyper 212 Evo for $30 later. And also, I'm Pretty sure it doesn't heat up because of the Low thermal Design Power.
Where did you get that case? It looks so old. and also, you should probably get a Hyper 212 evo later.
That Pentium actually does better than a Quad-Core athlon on most games. Also, you should get the Hyper 212 Evo for $30 later. And also, I'm Pretty sure it doesn't heat up because of the Low thermal Design Power.
Where did you get that case? It looks so old. and also, you should probably get a Hyper 212 evo later.
Why would he need the 212 Evo? The stock heatsink does fine with an overclock.
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Can you match my resolve? If so then you will succeed. - Monty Oum
That Pentium actually does better than a Quad-Core athlon on most games. Also, you should get the Hyper 212 Evo for $30 later. And also, I'm Pretty sure it doesn't heat up because of the Low thermal Design Power.
Where did you get that case? It looks so old. and also, you should probably get a Hyper 212 evo later.
I really don't think I need a heat-sink. My clock @4.4 is fine enough with stock and I really don't think the extra .3ghz an aftermarket cooler will give me is worth 30 dollars.
As for the case, I got it from newegg for 20 dollars. It's got USB 3.0 and rounded metal edges so it's not particularly old. Just kinda basic and a bit cheap. It's not like I'm staring at it 24/7, it doesn't need to look god-like, it just needs to conform to the budget.
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That Pentium actually does better than a Quad-Core athlon on most games. Also, you should get the Hyper 212 Evo for $30 later. And also, I'm Pretty sure it doesn't heat up because of the Low thermal Design Power.
Where did you get that case? It looks so old. and also, you should probably get a Hyper 212 evo later.
I really don't think I need a heat-sink. My clock @4.4 is fine enough with stock and I really don't think the extra .3ghz an aftermarket cooler will give me is worth 30 dollars.
As for the case, I got it from newegg for 20 dollars. It's got USB 3.0 and rounded metal edges so it's not particularly old. Just kinda basic and a bit cheap. It's not like I'm staring at it 24/7, it doesn't need to look god-like, it just needs to conform to the budget.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I'm not an administrator. Please don't ask me anything related to moderation.
I really don't think I need a heat-sink. My clock @4.4 is fine enough with stock and I really don't think the extra .3ghz an aftermarket cooler will give me is worth 30 dollars.
As for the case, I got it from newegg for 20 dollars. It's got USB 3.0 and rounded metal edges so it's not particularly old. Just kinda basic and a bit cheap. It's not like I'm staring at it 24/7, it doesn't need to look god-like, it just needs to conform to the budget.
What the Specs of your old PC compared to this PC?
Im just wondering how much of a performance increase your getting.
And also, where did you get that old case?
Well, technically 270 dollars.
So after saving up for a while, I've finally been able to build my own computer!
Several sales made this possible. The G3258 was a steal at 55 dollars, and I've quite fallen in love with it. The stock cooler is keeping everything cool and happy at a 4.4 GHz clock and I don't really think I'll need to try any higher.
My motherboard came with the necessary firmware update, so I didn't have to try and bum a temporary chip off someone else. The bios is laughably overdone and tacky but considering it's price and ability for non-Z overclocking, it's dandy.
RAM is ram, though it is nicely low-profile and pretty-looking. Amazon accidentally sent me another stick, so I actually managed to get 8GB! Woo! However, I'm sure for most applications the 4GB would've been sufficient.
Hard drive is a breath of fresh air coming from a old, slow, 5200rpm 130gb laptop drive. I'll probably add an SSD later on, but for now I'm enjoying the WD.
The GTX 650 was given to me free by a friend who was upgrading. It's definitely not the fastest card, but it can max out TF2 and gets good frame-rates at Medium-High settings in most games.
The case is probably one of my favorite parts of this build. My cable management sucks, but I love the exterior of this case. For $20 at newegg, it's nice, clean, white and pretty. All I really need in a case for a ridiculously cheap price.
Lastly, I probably went overkill on the PSU, but it's quiet, pretty and will allow me to upgrade to a r9 series card when it comes time.
Enough blabbing! Specs:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-E33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Hitachi 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 650 1GB Video Card (Purchased For $0.00)
Case: Cougar MG100 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($29.99 @ Mwave)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply (Purchased For $0.00)
Total: $149.97
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-04 00:54 EST-0500
I don't know what the heck you're talking about, that pentium is on par with some i5's
Overclocked it's a complete beast
Aye, my graphics card is actually bottlenecking my performance in games. I'm sure I could go up to a 280 and get completely awesome fps.
Yeah it's such a shame that you have a 650 XD A 270x or 280x would probably be the perfect match for a G3258
Yes, but it was a free 650. Later on I could always sell it and buy a nicer card.
True true Can't complain at free stuff
Only thing that really needs upgrading next is the gpu. Spend a bit on that and you've got yourself a nice compact gaming rig.
Just wondering though, what are the temps you're getting with the pentium at 4.4ghz on the stock cooler in that case? I'm having trouble believing the stock cooler is actually doing a good job keeping it cool when overclocked that high let alone with the average at best airflow from that tiny case...
EDIT: Okay, case isn't that tiny, still though... Stock cooler? :/
If you're having trouble then it's more than likely that your heatsink is faulty.
VCore is at 1.2
Not gonna lie, that's pretty damn decent
Fair enough, might have over-estimated a little. but even then the Pentium is by far not a crappy CPU.
Still, I'm surprised it was that low after one run. Guess pentiums run much cooler than I thought...
It's only 54w
Where did you get that case? It looks so old. and also, you should probably get a Hyper 212 evo later.
Why would he need the 212 Evo? The stock heatsink does fine with an overclock.
I really don't think I need a heat-sink. My clock @4.4 is fine enough with stock and I really don't think the extra .3ghz an aftermarket cooler will give me is worth 30 dollars.
As for the case, I got it from newegg for 20 dollars. It's got USB 3.0 and rounded metal edges so it's not particularly old. Just kinda basic and a bit cheap. It's not like I'm staring at it 24/7, it doesn't need to look god-like, it just needs to conform to the budget.
I really don't think I need a heat-sink. My clock @4.4 is fine enough with stock and I really don't think the extra .3ghz an aftermarket cooler will give me is worth 30 dollars.
As for the case, I got it from newegg for 20 dollars. It's got USB 3.0 and rounded metal edges so it's not particularly old. Just kinda basic and a bit cheap. It's not like I'm staring at it 24/7, it doesn't need to look god-like, it just needs to conform to the budget.
What the Specs of your old PC compared to this PC?
Im just wondering how much of a performance increase your getting.
And also, where did you get that old case?