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First Attempt Gaming Rig (Need to shave $1000 down to ~$800)

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January 22, 2014 1:12:59 AM

My first attempt at putting together a gaming rig. The goal is to put together a budget gaming rig that can run whatever I throw at it on max to near max settings. I mostly play LoL and some MMORPGs like Tera and WoW although sometimes I play more intensive games like SC2 and Crysis 3. I wanted something that won't need upgrading for at least a few years but can be upgraded easily when the time comes. Uses will primarily be gaming and simple tasks (word processing, browsing, etc).

I've never done this before and it probably shows through my part choices :??: 

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/imjustach/saved/3vHP


CPU AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core $109.99
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/amd-cpu-fd6300wmhkbox

CPU Cooler Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing $27.97
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/cooler-master-cpu-cooler-r...

Motherboard Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P ATX AM3+ $106.98
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-motherboard-ga970...

Memory G.Skill Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 $84.99
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f314900cl9d8...

SSD Storage Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" SSD $69.99
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/kingston-internal-hard-dri...

Storage Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM $64.99
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/seagate-internal-hard-driv...

Video Card VisionTek Radeon R9 280X 3GB $349.95
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/visiontek-video-card-90065...

Case NZXT Source 210 Elite (Black) ATX Mid Tower $39.99
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/nzxt-case-s210e001

Power Supply EVGA 650W ATX12V / EPS12V $74.99
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-power-supply-120pg065...

Monitor Asus VH238H 23.0" $119.99
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-monitor-vh238h

Total : $1034.83


Thoughts behind part choices:
Picked a high end GPU with a cheaper CPU because from what I read, even CPUs like the 6300 shouldn't bottleneck even the higher end GPUs. Goal here was a CPU/GPU combination that wasn't too expensive but would last for at least a few years

Read a lot about how great SSDs so wanted to give it a shot.The SSD is mainly for the OS and maybe some random other programs (Spotify, Skype, etc.) while the games will probably be on the HDD. Might put LoL and/or Tera on the SSD if there's enough space leftover since they're the games I play most.

Everything else was chosen based on price and ratings. Also will I need to buy a network card, sound card, or am I missing anything else important?

If you have any tips or suggestions for how I could cut down on my price to get closer to my $800 target budget without greatly sacrificing performance they would be greatly appreciated!!

*Sorry for the wall-of-text-ish post. Wanted to be thorough on providing as much information as possible to make giving advice as easy as possible*

More about : attempt gaming rig shave 1000 800

a b 4 Gaming
January 22, 2014 2:02:43 AM

I'm not sure you can get to $800 without sacrificing the SSD and some GPU quality. I also note that you have no OS or optical drive selected and assume this is intentional. Anyway, here's what I'd suggest if you wanted to stay at $800:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($109.99 @ TigerDirect)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($27.97 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI 970A-G43 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($71.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($84.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 270X 2GB Video Card ($217.27 @ TigerDirect)
Case: NZXT Source 210 Elite (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($74.99 @ Microcenter)
Monitor: Asus VH238H 23.0" Monitor ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $797.16
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-01-22 05:00 EST-0500)
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a b 4 Gaming
January 22, 2014 2:51:46 AM

I doubt you will be able to shave off $234 without cutting down on the gpu and ditching the ssd

Managed to get it close without sacrificing on the gpu, in fact adding a slightly better one, but cheaper

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($109.99 @ TigerDirect)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3P ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($79.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: GeIL EVO Veloce Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($62.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card ($330.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Thermaltake VL80001W2Z ATX Mid Tower Case ($24.99 @ Microcenter)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($54.99 @ Microcenter)
Monitor: AOC E2260SWDN 60Hz 21.5" Monitor ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $823.89
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-01-22 05:55 EST-0500)

The gtx 770 is about 3% faster than the 280X and cheaper

Had to ditch the ssd

Went for a cheaper case, monitor, RAM, mobo and power supply
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January 22, 2014 8:48:47 AM

Thanks for the awesome suggestions

I left the OS/Optical Drive out because I have an OS ready and I hardly, if ever, use my current CD/DVD reader.

Both of these solutions are great suggestions so it looks like I have two options:
Sacrifice the SSD and
1. Downgrade GPU
or
2. Keep the GPU quality but cut the CPU cooler and use cheaper parts

Both are very feasible options. If I opted for choice 2, how much would the performance go down (if at all) by using the cheaper parts? (ddr3-1600 vs ddr3-1866, overheating potential w/o a CPU)?

Also, I do have the budget to go up a couple hundred dollars to around 900-1000 (including the monitor) but I don't want to spend the money unless the resulting performance would be significantly greater than these current builds.

Thanks again for your responses guys :D 
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a b 4 Gaming
January 22, 2014 8:58:38 AM

Well i guess it really comes down to if you want speed and efficiency vs a graphical grunt at the expense of blazing speed through normal use when not gaming. I'd personally go for something like an R9 270X that should last around 3 years at 1080p Ultra/High 60~ fps with the SSD for speed and efficiency, though you could go for an R9 280X that'd last 5 before an upgrade but you wouldn't have the speed that a quality SSD offers.
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a b 4 Gaming
January 22, 2014 9:25:56 AM

imjustzach said:
Thanks for the awesome suggestions

I left the OS/Optical Drive out because I have an OS ready and I hardly, if ever, use my current CD/DVD reader.

Both of these solutions are great suggestions so it looks like I have two options:
Sacrifice the SSD and
1. Downgrade GPU
or
2. Keep the GPU quality but cut the CPU cooler and use cheaper parts

Both are very feasible options. If I opted for choice 2, how much would the performance go down (if at all) by using the cheaper parts? (ddr3-1600 vs ddr3-1866, overheating potential w/o a CPU)?

Also, I do have the budget to go up a couple hundred dollars to around 900-1000 (including the monitor) but I don't want to spend the money unless the resulting performance would be significantly greater than these current builds.

Thanks again for your responses guys :D 


Well, I would definitely sacrifice the ssd for a better gpu

The cooler is only really needed for overclocking

1600Mhz vs 1866Mhz ?, don't worry no performance loss when going with 1600Mhz

I would go with the gtx 770 since its is cheaper than the R9 280X and around 3% faster

To your question, How much performance is lost by going with option 2 ?, I am assuming you are referring to my build

Answer is none, the 280X and gtx 770 offer similar performance, in fact the 770 is a bit faster, as I mentioned above no performance is lost by the slower RAM

If you can stretch to $900, I would add in the cooler and a better quality psu than the Corsair CX like the XFX pro 650W
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January 22, 2014 12:23:22 PM

After hearing that the computer would last an extra 2 years with a bit more invested into it, I decided to bite the bullet and just drop a couple hundred more to make the system last longer before it needs upgrades. This is the build I ended up with:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($27.97 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus M5A99X EVO R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($104.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($72.25 @ Newegg)
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card ($329.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: NZXT Source 210 Elite (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 750W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Asus VH238H 23.0" Monitor ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1075.13
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-01-22 14:42 EST-0500)

Took your advice and went for the GTX 770 as well as upgrading the PSU.
Other changes were a new MOBO for easy OCing and possibly 2-way SLI in the future. Stronger CPU was also chosen keep from bottlenecking in case I go for dual cards later. Everything else is pretty much the same as what you suggested. The only one that would have been a bigger price cut that I opted out of was the monitor (which isn't really set in stone since I don't know the optimal resolution for this system) and the case because the reviews for the case were pretty mixed and kind of scared me away (since I'm a first time builder).

Total price is $40 more than my original build but thanks to your suggestions I was able to end up with an upgraded CPU/GPU, PSU, and mobo.

Do you think this system is worth the extra investment or am I just throwing my money to the wind?
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a b 4 Gaming
January 22, 2014 10:22:21 PM

imjustzach said:
After hearing that the computer would last an extra 2 years with a bit more invested into it, I decided to bite the bullet and just drop a couple hundred more to make the system last longer before it needs upgrades. This is the build I ended up with:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($27.97 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus M5A99X EVO R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($104.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($72.25 @ Newegg)
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card ($329.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: NZXT Source 210 Elite (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 750W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Asus VH238H 23.0" Monitor ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1075.13
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-01-22 14:42 EST-0500)

Took your advice and went for the GTX 770 as well as upgrading the PSU.
Other changes were a new MOBO for easy OCing and possibly 2-way SLI in the future. Stronger CPU was also chosen keep from bottlenecking in case I go for dual cards later. Everything else is pretty much the same as what you suggested. The only one that would have been a bigger price cut that I opted out of was the monitor (which isn't really set in stone since I don't know the optimal resolution for this system) and the case because the reviews for the case were pretty mixed and kind of scared me away (since I'm a first time builder).

Total price is $40 more than my original build but thanks to your suggestions I was able to end up with an upgraded CPU/GPU, PSU, and mobo.

Do you think this system is worth the extra investment or am I just throwing my money to the wind?


Yes, its definitely worth the extra $40
From what I see, you have a better motherboard, processor and graphics card compared to your previous build

You can save a bit more and go for the 8320 as the only difference between the 8350 is the 500MHz boost which you can easily get by bumping the 8320 up, but if you don't want to go through the hassle, stick with the 8350

Overall it's a very good build
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