Starter gaming card

[iceman2085]

I'm looking at turning an old computer I have into a entry level gaming PC for a family member. The PC in question is a Intel core2 q6600 2.4 Ghz processor with 8 gigs of DDR2 ram. I'm looking at spending at most $200 US dollars and i would like to us some of that money for a SSD since i'm not sure how good the current hard drive in that system is since it is older. 

 

The card that i'm currently looking at is a GTX 950 which with mail in rebate i can get for right around $100 US dollars your advice would be of much help.

[i_build_nanosuits]

2 minutes ago, iceman2085 said:

I'm looking at turning an old computer I have into a entry level gaming PC for a family member. The PC in question is a Intel core2 q6600 2.4 Ghz processor with 8 gigs of DDR2 ram. I'm looking at spending at most $200 US dollars and i would like to us some of that money for a SSD since i'm not sure how good the current hard drive in that system is since it is older. 

 

The card that i'm currently looking at is a GTX 950 which with mail in rebate i can get for right around $100 US dollars your advice would be of much help.

yeah GTX 950 is as good as it gets for this processor as it will limit anything higher end...the GTX 950 is priced well, perform decently and has low power draw so it's a good card to get for that system IMHO. Just make sure the power supply can handle it.

[Herman Mcpootis]

what's the power supply model and wattage in the system? gtx 950 is a good card for an entry-level pc. for $200, you can also wait for the Rx 480 instead if you're willing to sacrifice the ssd.

[Imakuni]

1 minute ago, herman mcpootis said:

what's the power supply model and wattage in the system? gtx 950 is a good card for an entry-level pc. for $200, you can also wait for the Rx 480 instead.

No, he can't. 200$ is not nearly enough for a 480 + SSD.

[Herman Mcpootis]

1 minute ago, Imakuni said:

No, he can't. 200$ is not nearly enough for a 480 + SSD.

if he's willing to sacrifice the ssd.

[i_build_nanosuits]

1 minute ago, herman mcpootis said:

if he's willing to sacrifice the ssd.

he said he found a GTX 950 for around 100USD which is a very good price the cheapest i can find is like 140$ or something like that...and the CPU will bottleneck anything higher end...the RX480 is way out of that processor league i know because i had one overclocked to 3.6ghz so a 33% overclock and even then it was a bit slow for my GPU at the time which was an HD7950...

[i_build_nanosuits]

damn guys i was browsing the GTX 950 and look at this little bug right here it's so so so cute...sadly enough though it's the most expensive GTX 950 there is at 169$...but it looks really cool

http://pcpartpicker.com/product/CMvZxr/msi-video-card-gtx9502gd5oc

 

EDIT: well newegg has the ''non OC'' version of this card for 129$ after MIR

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127935&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-PCPartPicker, LLC-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

[aisle9]

If you've got a GTX 950 for $100, then you, my friend, are a winner. The best I could find for $100 was a GTX 750 Ti--a nice card by all means, but not as powerful as a 950.

 

If you're willing to dick around with TLC NAND, you can get a 480GB SSD for about $110. If you'd rather stick with MLC NAND, you're capped closer to 256GB at that price point. And as soon as I wrote that, I realized that I'm a liar, because I just bought this three days ago and installed it in a laptop three hours ago. My fourth one of those Micron M500s now. Not the fastest SSDs on the block, but cheap and reliable.

 

 

[Jonathan Lemmens]

You may want to wait for the RX 460 though, I'm guessing that will outperform a GTX 950 (just a guess) and pricing might be similar.....

[iceman2085]

EDIT: well newegg has the ''non OC'' version of this card for 129$ after MIR

8 minutes ago, i_build_nanosuits said:

EDIT: well newegg has the ''non OC'' version of this card for 129$ after MIR

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127935&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-PCPartPicker, LLC-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

That is the card that i found, but one quick question what is a non OC version.

 

Scratch that is not the card i was looking at, the card i was looking at was.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487157&cm_re=gtx_950-_-14-487-157-_-Product

[i_build_nanosuits]

4 minutes ago, iceman2085 said:

EDIT: well newegg has the ''non OC'' version of this card for 129$ after MIR

That is the card that i found, but one quick question what is a non OC version.

it's just that MSI has applied a small factory overclock on the ''OC'' version of the card (OC stands for ''overclocked'') but it's very minimal and if you install MSI afterburner which is the software to control your graphics card parameters (clockspeed, memory speed, fanspeed etc.) and you really should install it...you can just push the core clock slider by say +100mhz in the msi afterburner software you will have a card that is clocked higher than the ''OC'' version for cheaper...

[Imakuni]

3 minutes ago, Jonathan Lemmens said:

You may want to wait for the RX 460 though, I'm guessing that will outperform a GTX 950 (just a guess) and pricing might be similar.....

Right, so wait for a card that we have no idea as to when it's coming, how much it'll cost, what's the performance.... That's not a good advice in the slightest.

[ivan134]

Wait for the rx 460

[ivan134]

2 minutes ago, Imakuni said:

Right, so wait for a card that we have no idea as to when it's coming, how much it'll cost, what's the performance.... That's not a good advice in the slightest.

June 29

$100

Much better than a 950

[Imakuni]

1 minute ago, ivan134 said:

June 29

$100

Much better than a 950

Source please? I must have slept for the past week, because I just don't remember any of those being announced.

[TheAmazingCookieFromSquare]

If you really want just skip out on the SSD and get a RX480 when it comes out, which is what I would do.

 

Or if you really want a SSD just get a 950 for $100 and get your self a nice Samsung 250GB 850 EVO with the other $100.

[Jonathan Lemmens]

2 minutes ago, Imakuni said:

Right, so wait for a card that we have no idea as to when it's coming, how much it'll cost, what's the performance.... That's not a good advice in the slightest.

Did you notice all the 'mays' and 'mights' in my previous post? I'm not saying "get the RX 460", i'm saying "wait to buy a GPU until after we know more about it". 

At least we know it's coming and if it isn't better than a GTX 950, it will at least be competitive, maybe lowering the GTX 950's price a bit.

 

If you're buying hardware on a budget the one thing that sucks the most is the release of a better/cheaper product 1 month after you bought yours.

[iceman2085]

4 minutes ago, TheAmazingCookieFromSquare said:

If you really want just skip out on the SSD and get a RX480 when it comes out, which is what I would do.

 

Or if you really want a SSD just get a 950 for $100 and get your self a nice Samsung 250GB 850 EVO with the other $100.

That is kind of what i was thinking because i figure the SSD and a okay graphics card would be the biggest increase to performance to the system then a $200 dollar card but i'm not sure let me know what you all think.

[Jonathan Lemmens]

2 minutes ago, iceman2085 said:

That is kind of what i was thinking because i figure the SSD and a okay graphics card would be the biggest increase to performance to the system then a $200 dollar card but i'm not sure let me know what you all think.

I'm guessing your mobo still has only SATA2, in that case you could get away with a cheaper (and generally a little slower) SSD like this one: http://pcpartpicker.com/product/gf98TW/a-data-internal-hard-drive-asp550ss3240gmc That would leave a larger GPU budget....

[BunnyLab]

Use the $200 on a 960 rather than $100 on a 950 and $100 on a SSD. While you are out buying the 960, use the good ol 'five finger discount' for your SSD.  All good.

[JabroniBaloney]

54 minutes ago, BunnyLab said:

Use the $200 on a 960 rather than $100 on a 950 and $100 on a SSD. While you are out buying the 960, use the good ol 'five finger discount.'  All good.

Or just knock over a liquore store and get a whole new system.

[BunnyLab]

3 minutes ago, JabroniBaloney said:

Or just knock over a liquore store and get a whole new system.

Yes, you could go that route too.

[Bleedingyamato]

3 hours ago, iceman2085 said:

That is kind of what i was thinking because i figure the SSD and a okay graphics card would be the biggest increase to performance to the system then a $200 dollar card but i'm not sure let me know what you all think.

I'd suggest skipping the ssd.  Great thr computer will boot up fast and load certain genes quicker but unless the ssd isn't the only drive in the computer you're better off with a Western Digital Blue 1TB.  Or a WD Black 2TB if you want more space.  The WD Blue HDDs drop to 5400RPM above 1TB so for anything larger you'd want a Black drive.

 

If you stick with a WD Blue 1TB you could put a little more of the $200 into a better graphics card if your family member would make use of it.  You might be able to get a GTX 960 or AMD equivalent.  Someone else would be better for helping with that but that's my suggestion anyway.