I wouldn't go for the Q6600... maybe at least grab a Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 for $133 and then try overclocking it. I've spotted a few for $150, so if I could somehow get the price down to $133... then I guess it might be worth it.
Man, things have changed 😁 Personally, I'd probably lean toward the AMD setup. You can usually squeeze a bit more performance out of it, especially if you're planning on playing demanding multiplayer games or pairing it with a beefier graphics card.
1 x Acer G247HLbid 24" LED Monitor 1 x Sharkoon VS3-V Chrome Tower, no power supply, black, USB3.0 1 x HDD SEAGATE Barracuda (3.5",1TB,64MB,SATA III) 1 x GIGABYTE GA-970A-DS3P, AM3+ 1 x Processor AMD FX X6 6300 3.5Ghz (4.1GHz) box 1 x LC POWER LC-CC-97, socket 775/1155/1156/AMD 1 x MSI R7 260 OC, 1GB GDDR5, VGA, DVI, HDMI 1 x MS IMPERATOR gaming mouse 1 x Logitech K120 keyboard, USB, OEM, black (920-002642) 1 x Crucial Module 8GB, 240-pin DIMM, DDR3 PC3-12800, CL=11, Unbuffered, NON-ECC 1 x Fortron Hexa+ 400W, 80+, active, 12 cm
Total for cards: ~$1843 Futura-IT
1 x Acer G247HLbid 24" LED Monitor 1 x Sharkoon VS3-V Chrome Tower, no power supply, black, USB3.0 1 x HDD SEAGATE Barracuda (3.5",1TB,64MB,SATA III) 1 x LC POWER LC-CC-97, socket 775/1155/1156/AMD 1 x MS IMPERATOR gaming mouse 1 x Logitech K120 keyboard, USB, OEM, black (920-002642) 1 x Fortron Hexa+ 400W, 80+, active, 12 cm 1 x Inno3D Geforce GTX660 2GB GDDR5 1 x Crucial 4GB DDR3 1600 MT/s (PC3-12800) CL11 1 x Processor AMD Athlon ii x4 860 k 1 x MSI A78M-E35 1 x MSI A78M-E35 (Sck. FM2+,DDR3,SATA III,USB3.0) mATX
Your power supply would likely struggle quite a bit with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980, and you wouldn't even be able to ocati, which feels like a waste since you have everything else ready to go, so... I'd suggest going with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 instead:
Prices actually dropped about two or three weeks ago—covering the GTX 660, GTX 760, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 700 series, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980, and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980X... so I wouldn't expect any more major sales anytime soon.
80+ 80 Plus Bronze 80 Plus Silver 80 Plus Gold 80 Plus Platinum 80 Plus Titanium
Each certification basically guarantees a certain efficiency level when the power supply is running at 20%, 50%, or 100% of its rated capacity (though I think Titanium is the outlier there, since it also accounts for a 10% load). For instance, if a unit earns an 80 Plus Gold rating, it has to hit specific efficiency targets at those loads—meaning it loses 88%, 92%, and 88% respectively, or rather, it wastes no more than 12% (at 20% load), 8% (at 50% load), or 12% (at 100% load) less when converting AC to DC power.
So, if you have a 500W power supply with an 80 Plus Gold rating, at a 50% load (which would be 250W), it would pull roughly 270W or less from the wall—that’s 92% efficiency or better at the 250W mark—resulting in a loss of less than 20W. Lower losses mean a slightly lower electric bill, though I guess you might not really notice the difference for maybe 3 or 4 years.
Of course, high efficiency doesn't always equal a high-quality unit. That rule mostly applies to Platinum and Titanium models, and I believe there are probably only about three Titanium units on the market right now. Personally, I’d say the quality of the internal components matters way more. Nobody is going to care about saving a few cents on their monthly power bill $1.75 compared to whether or not they fry a GPU or an SSD worth $667+ 😬
Well, for $67 it’s an option, though since it’s brand new at around $167 I guess it’s pretty much a bad deal and still won't handle anything serious. You’d definitely need to upgrade your RAM to at least 2GB too.
Look, the issue might just be the SATA drive. But even if they grab this now, they won't need to upgrade anything else for years—unless they decide to get into gaming, in which case they'll just pick up a dedicated graphics card. They'd end up dropping maybe 300-$133 and then facing $500 all over again when they eventually build a new rig.
I suppose an EVGA 500W would work just fine, though if you're planning on any potential overclocking—or who knows—I’d probably lean toward the EVGA 500W anyway. There isn't a massive difference, maybe just a few extra connectors and perhaps a bit more amperage on the 12V rail, but it seems worth it for an extra $17.
CPU: $50(whatever cheap one is at Best Buy $77) RAM: $60(cheapest sticks at Best Buy $93) Motherboard: $67(basic model from Best Buy around 300-$117) HDD: $17 Optical Drive: $17 PSU and Case (probably just junk): $33
The whole thing is maybe 2/3 the price of a new rig.