I guess there's one Intel Core i5-4440 soc 1150 available. I think there's one Intel Core i5 4440 MSI H81M-P33 available—it's an mATX board with a 1150 socket, D3, S3, U3, DVI, and VGA. Maybe just one HDD Western Digital 3.5, 500GB, spinning at 7200rpm with 32MB cache. Just one Zalman ZM-T4, USB 3.0, micro ATX. Just one Chicony HPA-400W. Just one stick of 4GB Kingston DDR3 RAM, clocked at 1600MHz (PC3-12800) with CL11 latency.
Total: $922 Looks like there’s a 10% markup on graphics cards over at Newegg.
I mean... you'd get way more RAM and maybe a slightly better integrated GPU, but that processor is a massive step down. Honestly, neither setup is going to handle any heavy lifting, so you might want to look into picking up something used instead.
Maybe just one 500GB Western Digital 3.5, running at 7200rpm with 32MB cache. One Zalman ZM-T4 with USB 3.0, micro ATX. I guess I have one Chicony HPA-400W on hand. Maybe an Asrock FM2 FM2A88M EXTREME4 would work here. Maybe just one AMD A8 5600 k Black edition FM2? Maybe just one kit of Patriot Viper3 1866MHz, 8GB (2x4GB). I guess there's one Spire Kepler Rev.2 cooler available, fits 1156/775/FM1 sockets.
Total: $913 Looks like there's a 10% markup on the graphics cards over at Newegg.
I guess you could run Call of Duty 4 on this at least on medium settings without much trouble, though I wouldn't expect much from any newer titles.
Just purely out of curiosity, what’s left of the current setup? I’m not sure if upgrading is even worth the hassle at this point—DDR1 RAM feels like it belongs in the Stone Age. 😬
The Z77 chipset can be pretty rough sometimes. It might handle 4.3 GHz just fine since you aren't seeing a huge spike in voltage or power draw, but I guess I worry about the long-term reliability.
With those 4-phase VRM setups using D-PAK mosfets, you're basically looking at the bottom-tier Z77 boards.
...honestly, MSI boards tend to be pretty weak when it comes to the VRM, and having solid VRMs is pretty crucial if you want a stable, long-lasting overclock.
Well, I suppose some people are happy enough with them, but those mid-range MSI boards can be a real headache for overclocking (probably more of an issue with AMD builds, anyway).
I’m not so sure about the Z77A-G45; from what I’ve seen, the VRM really struggles during overclocking and people have been complaining about it. I’d probably go with the Z77 Extreme3 for about $33 more, just like how @halek suggested 😉
1 x TOSHIBA 500GB, 7200rpm, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB, DT01ACA050 1 x DDR3 4GB (1x4GB) Kingston, 1600MHz, CL9, HyperX, KHX1600C9D3B1/ 1 x Chicony HPA-400W, Advanced Highly HPA Series 1 x 1 x Zalman ZM-T4 micro tower case. 189(W) x 427,5(H) x 364(D)mm. MB 1 x AMD Trinity Athlon ii x4 760 1 x ASUS HD7770-1GD5, AMD Radeon, HD7770, PCIe 3.0, 1024 MB, DDR5 1 x Samsung SH-224DB sat Bulk Black, SATA 1 x desktop Athlon ii x4 750 k Zalman CNPS5X 1 x ASRock FM2A55M-VG3, FM2, FM2+, AMD A88X (Bolton-D4), DDR3
$1065 AMD
The graphics card wasn't great (that DDR3 version is noticeably slower). I went with 4GB instead of 8GB just to give the GPU more breathing room, plus a significantly better motherboard and CPU cooler. Does this budget look okay, I guess?
In that case, maybe look into a group buy... You could probably test out 2GB using a 2x4 setup in dual-channel mode. If it doesn't work, just sell it. It’ll likely be fine, I guess.
The NVIDIA GeForce GT 630 is barely an upgrade over the HD 4890, except it pulls about 120W less power... which, in other words, means it probably isn't worth the money.