Help with $500 budget gaming pc for bf3

bazinga73

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Mar 23, 2013
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I recently continued playing my bf3 that I bought a year ago, and now I seriously need a decent gaming desktop. I stopped because of all the fps lag. If I have the money, I would definitely increase my budget but unfortunately I'm still a student and I'm stuck with an 1 year+ old laptop.

I don't expect much out of 500 bucks, so I would just want smooth online gameplay and good fps. (My laptop stucks at 20-35 fps all the time) I hope to get at least 40 fps, somewhere around there, where it's playable.

I do not request much, I just want good fps and resolution. I don't mind running medium, or even low, but i guess running low is unlikely. In this case, I prefer performance over graphics. I have good internet connection, optic fiber, so that's all set. I found many similar threads but most of them wants ultra settings etc. I just want a decent build to play comfortably.

Country: Singapore
Just post your lists as usual, although I think I can only buy via amazon, but I believe there are some local shops that sell the same product around the price range.

I would like the prices to be before shipping.
I do not need a monitor, mouse, keyboard or any softwares***

Please try to make it as cheap as possible as when it converts to singapore dollars, it will be $500+ , probably close to $600. which is sadly all my savings.

I am not familiar with all the different components and stuff, all I can recognize are some amd and geforce graphic cards, intel, amd processors. Anyway, I hope there will be a mini discussion or something so I can understand better.

Thank you, i'll be waiting for responses.

*bf3: battlefield 3
 
Solution
Without a monitor resolution to use as a reference point, also different markets are quite different in regards to their pricing structure and availability so it's a bit hard to offer you a specific pick of what to buy.

It's quite likely if $500 is the limit cap then you'll be looking at a GTX650Ti or the new HD7790, though it'd be nice to squeeze in a HD7850.

Here's an Intel build, quite like Azns tbh
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-3220 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor ($119.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: MSI B75MA-E33 Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($56.98 @ Outlet PC)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600...

Azn Cracker

Distinguished
Hmm dunno whats available there or at what price. But in US dollars:

You can get a cheaper case if you want, but this one is pretty nice. Also 4gb of ram might work as well. The 7850 is nice for a $500-600 build. You can go for a 1gb version if you are over budget.

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PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-3220 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor ($119.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Biostar H77MU3 Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($59.99 @ Microcenter)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($47.98 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Scorpio Blue 500GB 2.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($53.41 @ Adorama)
Video Card: HIS Radeon HD 7850 2GB Video Card ($179.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Antec Three Hundred Illusion ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224BB DVD/CD Writer ($15.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $557.32
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-03-23 22:44 EDT-0400)
 

Rammy

Honorable
Without a monitor resolution to use as a reference point, also different markets are quite different in regards to their pricing structure and availability so it's a bit hard to offer you a specific pick of what to buy.

It's quite likely if $500 is the limit cap then you'll be looking at a GTX650Ti or the new HD7790, though it'd be nice to squeeze in a HD7850.

Here's an Intel build, quite like Azns tbh
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-3220 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor ($119.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: MSI B75MA-E33 Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($56.98 @ Outlet PC)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($47.98 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($64.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 650 Ti 1GB Video Card ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Silverstone PS08B (Black) MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($34.90 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224BB DVD/CD Writer ($15.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $490.80
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-03-23 23:04 EDT-0400)

AMD Version
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($133.79 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($47.98 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($64.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 650 Ti 1GB Video Card ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Silverstone PS08B (Black) MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($34.90 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224BB DVD/CD Writer ($15.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $502.61
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-03-23 23:06 EDT-0400)
 
Solution

rostrow416

Distinguished
Nov 2, 2012
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CPU: Intel Core i3-3220 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor ($119.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Biostar H77MU3 Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($59.99 @ Microcenter)
Memory: Corsair 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($64.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 1GB Video Card ($173.19 @ Newegg)
Case: Rosewill FBM-01 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($29.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224BB DVD/CD Writer ($15.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $509.11

with most of these you should be able to get good, smooth gameplay in everything besides the heavy multiplayer maps.
 

Rammy

Honorable


The GPU is identical, it's just the memory that is increased. The only reason the 1Gb version exists is because there was quite a big gap (in both price and performance) between the HD7770 and HD7850(2Gb) so they produced a slightly cheaper version. Very soon the HD7790 will fit into that gap too, between the HD7770 and 1gb HD7850.

For most gaming, there will be little-no difference between variants, but if you want to run something with particularly high textures (for example) at high resolutions then you might start to need more than 1Gb of ram. Something like the Skyrim high def textures pack would be a good example of this.
 

bazinga73

Honorable
Mar 23, 2013
22
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10,510


i see, then 1GB should be enough, since i just want playable fps. okay a few more things, is i3 suitable enough for a game like bf3? should i5 be considered? i've seen here and there, there are a few setups with i5 so i just want to make sure i get the most out of my money, haha thanks. and.. i don't know if this is like a really dumb question, can i buy any type of casing? are they all somehow the same, just slightly different but still able to fit all the components into?? :heink: forgive me, i just started researching stuff last night so i'm totally new.

Thanks. :ange:

 

Rammy

Honorable
A quad core is definitely a better choice for gaming with a view to new titles. BF (and others) benefit from the scaling. Problem is, most of the benchmarks you'll see are for single player because it is nearly impossible to reliably benchmark multi-player - too many things change every time you repeat. In multiplayer the CPU gets hammered fairly hard when in single player you can use almost any modern CPU if it is matched up to a good graphics card.
Your issue will be that an i5 is probably out of your price range. I don't fully understand what your budget actually is. You mention $500 but you also mention how it has to covert to under 600 Singapore dollars (around $480 USD). Also all of the builds we have been linking can involve rebates and whatnot which (I think) will only be available in a US context.

Cases are mainly aesthetics, but there is quite a lot of stuff to watch out for. I personally specify front USB3.0 ports on all cases, simply because you can, and it may have benefits. Also you want to watch out for motherboard size. A case manufacturer will specify supported motherboard forms, usually these will be micro ATX and ATX. All the motherboards mentioned above are mATX, and the case I suggested is mATX only, so you couldn't fit a full size ATX board in it. The reason I used it in my builds is because it is basically the cheapest case you can buy in the US with front USB3.0, and on cheaper builds motherboards are very often mATX. Also, Silverstone make some very good cases.
 

Azn Cracker

Distinguished
Yep^

The 1gb version will be better for your budget as i said before. The reason i put in the 2gb version is b/c it was only a few dollars more for us in the US. Getting an i5 will be way over your budget. An i3 will be fine for BF3 since its not very cpu oriented.


Btw op said his budget will be close to $600 so my build is still viable. Of course I am not taking in account of OS and price discrepancies
 

peep1988

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Dec 14, 2011
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How much cheaper is a AMD 965 or 975 compared to the i3 if its more than 20 bucks get the AMD chip its quad core