$800 first gaming computer

Banjo_guy · May 28, 2013

I would like to start this off by saying that I have very little idea of how to build a computer. I am aiming for an $800 gaming computer though I may go up to $900 if it's really worth it. Here is what I have made on http://www.centrecom.com.au/catalog/build_pc.php

AMD CPU AMD FX 6300 Six-Core - AM3+ $145.00

AMD Motherboard Gigabyte GA-970A-D3 Mainboard - AM3+ $99.00

Internal Desktop Drive Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM 32MB SATA3/2 $69.00

Internal Drive DRW-24D3ST - ASUS DVD DRIVER BLACK RETAIL $22.00

Desktop Memory Corsair 16GB (2x8GB) Vengeance Performance DDR3 1866MHz CL10 (CMZ16GX3M2A1866C10R) $154.00

Cases (PSU included) Cooler Master Centurion 6 Black $119.00

Graphics Cards Gigabyte nVidia GeForce 650 Ti BOOST (N65TBOC-2GD) $187.00
total price = $795 Australian

Suggestions?

ScrewySqrl · May 28, 2013

1) you only need 8 GB of DDR3-1600.
2) the PSU in that case is not very good. get a corsair cx 430 PSU instead, and a cheaper case.
3) use the money saved to add a 120 GB SSD

bigshootr8 · May 28, 2013

I took the liberty of making a build myself for consideration. Generally power supplies that come with cases are not very good because of this I've suggested a power supply. Also, I believe the case I have suggested as well may be more to your liking however this is a personal choice thing so you may think otherwise. The scout series of cases from cooler master are build very sturdy they also are very easy to build in. Most of everything else remains the same.

^1 and yes you only need 8 gigabytes of memory. And screwysqrl since he lives in AUS its very expensive on computer hardware. So maybe in the future he can get a SSD but for now it wont fit his budget on his build.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($145.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-D3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($99.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($72.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost 2GB Video Card ($195.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Case: Cooler Master Storm Scout 2 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($109.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Power Supply: Antec High Current Gamer 520W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($89.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224BB DVD/CD Writer ($22.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Total: $800.00
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-05-28 20:45 EST+1000)

Jack Revenant · May 28, 2013

Banjo_guy :

There are a number of areas in which you could increase efficiency. First, you don't need that much RAM. 8 GB is fine for present games. You also don't need 1866mhz, 1600mhz is fine, though I'd go for CAS 9 instead of 10, if I were you. You also want to avoid Cooler Master PSUs. Unilaterally untrustworthy and often overpriced. In your shoes, I would get a reasonable case (Corsair 200R or 300R, for example, or the NZXT Phantom 410 if you can afford it) and a SeaSonic, Corsair, Antec, or XFX PSU.

Edit: Beaten to it, and by a squirrel no less.

X79 · May 28, 2013

Supposing you're able to go a little bit over your budget and you have

a screen, mouse and keyboard, you can get this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3470 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($193.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Pro3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($99.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($79.00 @ Scorptec)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($115.00 @ Scorptec)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 2GB Video Card ($219.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Power Supply: Antec High Current Gamer 520W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($99.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224BB DVD/CD Writer ($22.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($99.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Total: $984.00
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-05-28 20:48 EST+1000)

It'll play the latest games at at least medium settings I believe. You can take away

the SSD to reduce cost below 900$ and then possibly add your 1TB HDD.

bigshootr8 · May 28, 2013

x79 you are missing a case in your build that build is moving quite a bit beyond what he was spending. I'll include mine with the os involved.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($145.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-D3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($99.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($72.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost 2GB Video Card ($195.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Case: Cooler Master Storm Scout 2 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($109.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Power Supply: Antec High Current Gamer 520W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($89.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224BB DVD/CD Writer ($22.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Other: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit with SP1 OEM ($99.00)
Total: $899.00
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-05-28 21:05 EST+1000)

X79 · May 28, 2013

God damn. I had added it I thought.

Well he can go for your build then. Still nice performance.

Marcopolo123 · May 28, 2013

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-3220 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor ($118.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Motherboard: ASRock B75 PRO3-M Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($67.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($72.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card ($329.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 430 ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Power Supply: Antec High Current Gamer 520W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($89.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224BB DVD/CD Writer ($22.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Total: $815.00
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-05-28 21:19 EST+1000)

this build contains a hd 7950 which is a large improvement in comparison to a gtx 650 ti boost

the amd build in australia is more expenisve, i recommend the i3-3220 build beacuse its cheaper and performance isnt worse, sometimes even better.

this is the best build so far

ScrewySqrl · May 28, 2013

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($145.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-D3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($99.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Memory: Corsair XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($69.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Storage: Plextor M5S Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($99.00 @ Scorptec)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost 2GB Video Card ($195.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Case: Antec One ATX Mid Tower Case ($65.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Power Supply: Antec High Current Gamer 520W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($89.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Total: $830.00
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-05-28 21:23 EST+1000)

just a bit over cost, but you do't need a $100 case.

bigshootr8 · May 28, 2013

Having something durable and easy to work in is worth it.

ScrewySqrl · May 28, 2013

I have a US$30 case that will see me thru at least 2 more builds

bigshootr8 · May 28, 2013

Well then you lucked in. I have a fractal design define r4 it cost me just under 100 dollars but I know that I'll never have any issues building inside it its easy to work with (meaning getting cut less with cheap cases it happens a lot).

Banjo_guy · May 29, 2013

ScrewySqrl :

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($145.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-D3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($99.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Memory: Corsair XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($69.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Storage: Plextor M5S Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($99.00 @ Scorptec)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost 2GB Video Card ($195.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Case: Antec One ATX Mid Tower Case ($65.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Power Supply: Antec High Current Gamer 520W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($89.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Total: $830.00
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-05-28 21:23 EST+1000)

just a bit over cost, but you do't need a $100 case.

Is the SSD necessary to start with, or can I add it later?

bigshootr8 · May 29, 2013

If for example you spend more on another item say for example you get a 8350 instead of getting that SSD or if you get a stronger graphics card maybe a 660Ti for example then yes I say its worth it. And then later you can add it certainly.

ScrewySqrl · May 29, 2013

Banjo_guy :

ScrewySqrl :

Is the SSD necessary to start with, or can I add it later?

it can be added later, yes.

Banjo_guy · May 29, 2013

Thanks to everyone for your help.

bigshootr8 · May 29, 2013

Of course enjoy your rig

$800 first gaming computer

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