Budget Gaming PC

[Bopz]

Hey, I wish to build to gaming PC with about a budget of below $1k. My purpose is just to purely game. Don't care about other aspects.

So here's my list of parts that I have come up with so far:

CPU - AMD FX 6350
MOBO - GIGABYTE 970A-DS3P
RAM - 2X 4GB RAM
PSU - COOLER MASTER GX LITE 700W
HDD - WD 1TB
GPU - R9 280X TRI X 3GB
CASING - ANY

Please do comment and recommend any modifications to make it better if any.

 

[LaytonJnr]

Hello,

First off, if you're going down the AMD FX route, buy the FX 6300 instead of the FX 6350 - they are exactly the same except one is overclocked. Save yourself a few bucks and overclock it yourself. But I think for your budget, you could afford to go down the Intel route - a good Z87 motheboard with a i5 4670K. I'm sure you'll be flooded with potential builds very soon.

Layton

 

[RCoon]

Knock that PSU down to a solid 550W like the XFX Core 550, Sea Sonic G Series 550, or Corsair RM 550. That will provide ample wattage for your system.
As said above, this might free up some cash, so see if you can grab an i5 and a generic Z87 motherboard, like the Extreme4, UD3H, GD45 or Asus PRO whatever it's called.

NZXT Source 210 is the preferred budget chassis for low cost systems, as it combines excellent value and some pretty great features.

 

[Bopz]

Hello,

First off, if you're going down the AMD FX route, buy the FX 6300 instead of the FX 6350 - they are exactly the same except one is overclocked. Save yourself a few bucks and overclock it yourself. But I think for your budget, you could afford to go down the Intel route - a good Z87 motheboard with a i5 4670K. I'm sure you'll be flooded with potential builds very soon.

Layton

Well, I live in Malaysia. The Intel i5 4670k costs around RM750 (equivalent to $233) while FX6350 costs RM480 (equivalent to $149).

Knock that PSU down to a solid 550W like the XFX Core 550, Sea Sonic G Series 550, or Corsair RM 550. That will provide ample wattage for your system.
As said above, this might free up some cash, so see if you can grab an i5 and a generic Z87 motherboard, like the Extreme4, UD3H, GD45 or Asus PRO whatever it's called.

NZXT Source 210 is the preferred budget chassis for low cost systems, as it combines excellent value and some pretty great features.

How do you exactly calculate power consumption? And does the brand of the PSU matter?

 

[LaytonJnr]

How do you exactly calculate power consumption? And does the brand of the PSU matter?

There are online power consumption calculators, however these are only guidelines. And yes, brand of PSU often matters, but more specifically who the PSUs are made by (not always by the brand). But as RCoon said, the XFX TS/XTR 550W or the Seasonic G-550 are both great PSUs (both made by Seasonic, one of the best PSU manufacturers), and both have 80+ Gold, as does the Corsair RM550 (manufactured by Channel Well... I think). Good PSU manufacturers make great PSUs - bad ones can often be a fire hazard. And inefficient.

Layton

 

[RCoon]

bad ones can often be a fire hazard. And inefficient.

True dat, I've seen plenty of badly made cheap power supplies spark and catch fire, and sometimes kill components they are connected to, costing more money than just buying a good PSU in the first place.

Here's a PSU calculator
http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

Most standard systems with a high end GPU and a high end quad core with standard 8-16GB RAM, SSD+HDD, fans etc draw less than 550W, it's the general standard for gaming systems, and gold rated 550W PSU's are so cheap nowadays there's really no reason to buy a 650 or 700W cheapass PSU. Unless you intend to SLI or Crossfire in future, 550W is more than enough. For dual graphics I'd recommend 750W+.

Decent OEM for PSU's include but are not limited to, FSP, Sea Sonic, Enermax to name but a few (google the OEM for a PSU and you'll find out who makes them for that manufacturer). In most cases you'll recognise a good PSU, as the high quality 550W ones will be priced around the £70 mark give or take £10. Anything that costs half of that is generally suicide.

 

[Toothless]

Well, I live in Malaysia. The Intel i5 4670k costs around RM750 (equivalent to $233) while FX6350 costs RM480 (equivalent to $149).

The i5 is a LOT more powerful than the FX-6300, and also has a lower power consumption. Intel is your "pay for power" while AMD is your "hey look at me and my cores, I'm cheap."

 

[CJCerny]

Do you want to spend all of your 1k budget or is that the amount you think you need to spend to build a good gaming machine? If you don't have a high resolution monitor or don't want one and game at 1280x1024 or something like that, you can build a pretty nice gaming PC for about $500 in the US.

 

[BLKBRDSR71]

I agree, $1k is alot of money, here's my specs, and it costs less then $600!

Operating System
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1
CPU
AMD Phenom II X4 955 59 °C
Deneb 45nm Technology
RAM
6.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 668MHz (9-9-9-24)
Motherboard
ASUSTeK Computer INC. M4A87TD/USB3 (AM3) 55 °C
Graphics
Acer AL1916W (1440x900@60Hz)
ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series (Sapphire/PCPartner) 42 °C
Hard Drives
112GB Samsung SSD 840 EVO 120GB ATA Device (SSD) 38 °C
153GB Hitachi HDS721616PLA380 ATA Device (SATA) 48 °C
Optical Drives
HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH22LS50 ATA Device
Audio
ATI High Definition Audio Device

All info above is from Speccy.

Just because my system is made of old parts, doesn't mean it's outdated. (Except the SSD).

 

[LaytonJnr]

Here would be my suggested build:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3JOzu

It's over $1000, but you could always remove the SSD from the build.

Layton

 

[RCoon]

I agree, $1k is alot of money, here's my specs, and it costs less then $600!

Operating System
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1
CPU
AMD Phenom II X4 955 59 °C
Deneb 45nm Technology
RAM
6.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 668MHz (9-9-9-24)
Motherboard
ASUSTeK Computer INC. M4A87TD/USB3 (AM3) 55 °C
Graphics
Acer AL1916W (1440x900@60Hz)
ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series (Sapphire/PCPartner) 42 °C
Hard Drives
112GB Samsung SSD 840 EVO 120GB ATA Device (SSD) 38 °C
153GB Hitachi HDS721616PLA380 ATA Device (SATA) 48 °C
Optical Drives
HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH22LS50 ATA Device
Audio
ATI High Definition Audio Device

All info above is from Speccy.

Just because my system is made of old parts, doesn't mean it's outdated. (Except the SSD).

That may be true, but why would anyone buy old parts when new ones that are equally good are on offer? Seems silly to cheap out on second hand parts from years ago, miss out on warranty and features such as Sata 6Gbps ports, USB 3.0 headers, merely to save some cash.

Here would be my suggested build:
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3JOzu
It's over $1000, but you could always remove the SSD from the build.
Layton

Good build, lack of SSD puts it on budget, perhaps we can make some savings elsewhere. Perhaps a cheaper motherboard? Alternative GPU manufacturers?

 

[LaytonJnr]

Good build, lack of SSD puts it on budget, perhaps we can make some savings elsewhere. Perhaps a cheaper motherboard?

Work your rocket-y powers, sir.

 

[RCoon]

Work your rocket-y powers, sir.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3JQrr

$3 under, no sweat

@ne6togadno @BarbaricSoul

 

[Bopz]

Here would be my suggested build:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3JOzu

It's over $1000, but you could always remove the SSD from the build.

Layton

Is GTX 770 enough to play recent games on ultra settings?

I want to play ultra settings, that's why I chose R9 280X.

 

[RCoon]

Is GTX 770 enough to play recent games on ultra settings?

I want to play ultra settings, that's why I chose R9 280X.

770 and 280X are basically almost identical performers. If you want to play Ultra on 1080p, you might need a little more horsepower, but mostly either of those cards will do what you require of them. Pick whichever colour GPU you prefer from either manufacturer.

 

[LaytonJnr]

Is GTX 770 enough to play recent games on ultra settings?

I want to play ultra settings, that's why I chose R9 280X.

770 and 280X are basically almost identical performers. If you want to play Ultra on 1080p, you might need a little more horsepower, but mostly either of those cards will do what you require of them. Pick whichever colour GPU you prefer from either manufacturer.

I can play a number of games at Ultra at 1080p on my R9 270X, so I'm sure you'll be fine.

 

[Bopz]

770 and 280X are basically almost identical performers. If you want to play Ultra on 1080p, you might need a little more horsepower, but mostly either of those cards will do what you require of them. Pick whichever colour GPU you prefer from either manufacturer.

So you mean I need a better CPU? Just a question, for gaming, do we consider the number of cores or the speed of the CPU?

 

[ELiTRiGG3R]

Is GTX 770 enough to play recent games on ultra settings?

I want to play ultra settings, that's why I chose R9 280X.

can you tell us the resolution? anything less than 1440p..and you will play each and every game on Ultra other than max of 1 or 2 game a year..
and I recommend to get a i5 3rd or 4th gen ..k version if you want overclocking..amd is pretty bad in single thread..and less than 3 games utilize more than 4 cores efficiently to make a difference,,..now as you mentioned the price , can you tell me the cheapest 3rd gen i5 that you can find?
and a 770 and 280x go neck and neck with basically no difference..now, most importantly what are your majority of the games are they action, adventure , shooters or strategy..only strategy and highly detailed physx games (physx on cpu) can drain a decent cpu..if you don't lik strategy, I recommend to bunk out cash in the gpu department

 

[ELiTRiGG3R]

So you mean I need a better CPU? Just a question, for gaming, do we consider the number of cores or the speed of the CPU?

neither...mainly architecture and benchmarks..only clockspeed can be used to compare speed of smae series like fx 6300 and fx6350..and the sweet point of cores is 4

EDIT: In general, i5s are the best gaming cpu for every faction whether rich or poor..

 

[Bopz]

neither...mainly architecture and benchmarks..only clockspeed can be used to compare speed of smae series like fx 6300 and fx6350..and the sweet point of cores is 4

EDIT: In general, i5s are the best gaming cpu for every faction whether rich or poor..

So, what are some good i5s that you recommend for budget gamers?

I wish to play ultra settings on 1080p.

 

[RCoon]

So you mean I need a better CPU? Just a question, for gaming, do we consider the number of cores or the speed of the CPU?

No not at all. Quad core is the sweet spot for single core performance and multithreaded performance.

So, what are some good i5s that you recommend for budget gamers?

I wish to play ultra settings on 1080p.

Non K 4670, or even the slightly lower clocked i5's: 4440, 4430, 4460, 4590, 4570 (NOTE: These are NOT overclockable).

 

[LaytonJnr]

No not at all. Quad core is the sweet spot for single core performance and multithreaded performance.

Non K 4670, or even the slightly lower clocked i5's: 4440, 4430, 4460, 4590, 4570 (NOTE: These are NOT overclockable).

But at their budget, they might as well get the 4670K - stuff like a CPU cooler, SSD are easier to upgrade than a processor. Not impossible, but much easier. And it allows the OP much more flexibility in overclocking.

 

[Bopz]

I have read a lot of articles and I think I am going to go for Intel i5. Casting that aside, I now have problem choosing between R9 280X and GTX 770. I did some research and found out that R9 280X has Mantle which is supposedly better for future gaming. Anyone care to enlighten me?

 

[Toothless]

I have read a lot of articles and I think I am going to go for Intel i5. Casting that aside, I now have problem choosing between R9 280X and GTX 770. I did some research and found out that R9 280X has Mantle which is supposedly better for future gaming. Anyone care to enlighten me?

Mantle does have it's boosts, but I'd still stick with the 770. AMD has been known to give more FPS at a lower cost, but with every NVIDIA card I owned, the frames and gameplay was a lot smoother. (This even applied to my GT 220)

So it really is your choice.

-Cheaper with more frames, but frames aren't tightly-knit together

-Smoother gameplay in general, at the cost of a few FPS.

 

[ELiTRiGG3R]

Now

So, what are some good i5s that you recommend for budget gamers?

I wish to play ultra settings on 1080p.

, listen..firstly you Have to givve an online site where we can check prices...and secondly..if you won't want to upgrade..which won't really happen unless Intel has been really holding something back for 3-4 years, you will have 80< ℅ of future gen i5..so all in all if you don't want to upgrade and get a new PC within next 5 years get 3rd gen 3450and if you want to over clock then 3570k,..I've checked on a Malaysian site it is 580-590..don't know reliability..now don't stop reading the best realistic thing to do here is to get the 4460or 4430..but you will also be paying for the hugely increased igpu which you won't use...if you can get 4460 very close to 3570k and want to upgrade in future then get it...if you want to save money here and use and throw PC then get 3rd gen...very little performance increase is implemented on CPU side from 3rd to 4th gen...the problem with getting 3rd gen is it uses and. Older socket which is most possibly obsolete..

EDIT: ON GPU SIDE, kindly read my previous message and tell the kind of games...even if you dont know just get 770,,,been on the green team forever and never faced frame time issues...awesome performance is seen from 337.5 beta..waiting for the whql as for the past few months some errors were reported and they most possibly will be fixed as it is taking long...it is up to you mantle supports 3-4 games..98% of the games are dx11

EDIT: just see my rig for example.I don't generally play extreme turn based stratedy game so I saved 100$ by getting i3..and got 900monitor and got a good amount of boost from 1080p basically no difference in visuals..with a rig far cheaper than yours completey based on bang for buck I can play every game on ultra other than bf3 mp (med-high)..on 55-60fps with min more than 52 fps
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