Cheap 1155 Gaming Build

[wesamess]

My friend is looking to upgrade his current rig so he can play StarCraft 2 at higher settings. I don't know what his current build at the moment is but I will know tonight. What I think may work is an i3 2120 with my current MSI 560 Ti.

Cheap mobo, ram, i3 2120 bundle: $214.99
NCIX.com - Buy NCIX Crazy Value Bundle Deal Intel Core i3 2120 & MSI H61M-P21 Motherboard & 4GB Mushkin RAM - Bundle Deals - 2120 & H61M-P21 & 4GB - in Canada
Is this a good deal? To me it does.

Other parts:
My used MSI 560 Ti: $200 (I'm looking to switch to ATI).
I'm going to use a couple of my old hard drives as storage (two 250GB 7200.10).
Maybe the current case, power supply and any other spare parts that might be useful.

I am mostly looking to gauge if that bundle is good value. So does it have good value? My friend will be playing on a 1920 x 1080 screen. If I do get that bundle, it was only one x16 slot but three x1 slots. Are there any decent x1 sounds cards? I am aware that this mother board has audio output on it already.

[_dangtx_]

yup,gonna be fine. now if you were tyalking gtx 570/80,then the i3 would be a bit of a big no :p

what power supply are you going to buy/give him?

[p86aaron]

^ yup should be no problem for sc2 at high settings(ish)

as for sound cards, depends on what your budget is...

[ilya]

You can pricematch the exact same components for $5 less than the combo price. I would personally go for a different board.

[wesamess]

Originally Posted by _dangtx_

yup,gonna be fine. now if you were tyalking gtx 570/80,then the i3 would be a bit of a big no :p

what power supply are you going to buy/give him?

Not sure on which power supply yet. I will know after I see his current rig tonight.

Originally Posted by p86aaron

^ yup should be no problem for sc2 at high settings(ish)

as for sound cards, depends on what your budget is...

I will find out...The max budget is for the whole rig is $700 but he's only looking to play SC2 so I'm trying to save him money. He wants a speaker set up for his TV too so they money saved here will go towards that.

Originally Posted by ilya

You can pricematch the exact same components for $5 less than the combo price. I would personally go for a different board.

I will look at other prices! What motherboard do you suggest? He won't be CrossFire'ing or SLI'ing at all. Overclocking isn't necessary either.

Noise and heat are not issues.

[p86aaron]

^ I run sc2 at max settings with a i7 950 and a HIS 6970 no problem so it should be good

as for a sound card may i suggest Newegg.ca - Creative 70SB088000004 7.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Express 1x Interface PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium

[wesamess]

So I took look last night. Some cheap Optimax 550W power supply. I will have to replace it with something better.

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5000+ 2.61 GHz
2.00 GB
32-bit Windows 7 Ultimate
150gb space
1920x1200

I forgot to check what the video card is. I was told it's a GeForce 9800. Looks like I'll be swapping out all the major components.

It looks like I'll be getting the bundle. Can anyone suggest to me a 500W-600W power supply? Thanks.

[_dangtx_]

corsair builder is nice and can be found on sale :)

[wesamess]

Gotcha. Ordered the bundle and the corsair 600cx.

[hal314]

I'm running an i5 2500K and xfx 6870 graphics. Plays Starcraft II (starter edition, haven't shelled out for the full game yet) with no problem at all at 1920x1080, settings on ultra.