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building a pc for my lil brother. about $600 limit

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  • HIS
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April 26, 2014 1:05:01 AM

My parents gave me some money to build my lil brother a gaming pc for his bday.
I pieced this together but i dont know how good it is:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 760K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor ($84.74 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI A88XM-E45 Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($78.66 @ Newegg)
Memory: A-Data XPG V1.0 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($36.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($56.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R7 260X 2GB Video Card ($132.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 430 ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($39.99 @ Micro Center)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $563.33
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-04-26 03:59 EDT-0400)


Approximate Purchase Date: next 2 weeks

Budget Range: roughly $600, but I can go over a little

System Usage from Most to Least Important: gaming nothing to graphically intense yet (stuff like sims and WoW), music, web surfing

Are you buying a monitor: no

Parts to Upgrade: everything

Do you need to buy OS: Yes

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg/NCIX US/Amazon/SuperBiiz/TigerDirect/Best Buy/Micro Center

Location: California, USA

Parts Preferences: no preferences, just what ever fits in the budget

Overclocking: no

SLI or Crossfire: no

Your Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080

Additional Comments: his favorite color is green,so if you could work that in. also he would probably like a lot of lights, so the more LEDs, the better. Over the next few months I may upgrade his computer if he wants, but dont count on it.
He plays : sims, torchlight 2, WoW, and DCUO. He eventually wants to play games like BF4, but I dont know how likely that is on this budget.

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: Birthday gift for little brother.


More about : building lil brother 600 limit

a c 283 4 Gaming
April 26, 2014 1:18:31 AM

I think you've done a good job of cutting it the bone anyway. But I'd prefer to look at AM3+ socket cpu and mobo. And try some dual channel 2x 2g - apparently it keeps the memory controller happy and faster ram.
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a b 4 Gaming
April 28, 2014 10:16:43 AM

Doorstopper said:
@maurelie
thanks, I bought mostly what you recommended except I was able to get a MSI R9 280 for only $40 more with my company discount, and also my boss bought the OS for me, so I guess my lil brother gets some extra money to customize it how ever unless you have any extra recommendations?


Nice that you could get the OS for free and for $40 more the R9 280. It will be much faster than the R7 260X and it will play every game at 1080p on high settings.
No other recommendations and Happy Birthday to your little brother.
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a b 4 Gaming
April 26, 2014 1:25:45 AM

Doorstopper said:
My parents gave me some money to build my lil brother a gaming pc for his bday.
I pieced this together but i dont know how good it is:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 760K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor ($84.74 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI A88XM-E45 Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($78.66 @ Newegg)
Memory: A-Data XPG V1.0 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($36.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($56.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R7 260X 2GB Video Card ($132.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 430 ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($39.99 @ Micro Center)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $563.33
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-04-26 03:59 EDT-0400)


Approximate Purchase Date: next 2 weeks

Budget Range: roughly $600, but I can go over a little

System Usage from Most to Least Important: gaming nothing to graphically intense yet (stuff like sims and WoW), music, web surfing

Are you buying a monitor: no

Parts to Upgrade: everything

Do you need to buy OS: Yes

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg/NCIX US/Amazon/SuperBiiz/TigerDirect/Best Buy/Micro Center

Location: California, USA

Parts Preferences: no preferences, just what ever fits in the budget

Overclocking: no

SLI or Crossfire: no

Your Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080

Additional Comments: his favorite color is green,so if you could work that in. also he would probably like a lot of lights, so the more LEDs, the better. Over the next few months I may upgrade his computer if he wants, but dont count on it.
He plays : sims, torchlight 2, WoW, and DCUO. He eventually wants to play games like BF4, but I dont know how likely that is on this budget.

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: Birthday gift for little brother.




How about this for sub $ 600
-Better Processor
-Better Motherboard
-More RAM
-Better Case
-Better and PSU with more wattage, so it will handle more power hungry GPUs in the future

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($112.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Kingston Blu 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($64.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Hitachi Ultrastar 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($50.00 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R7 260X 2GB Video Card ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($49.99 @ NCIX US)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $587.93
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-04-26 04:24 EDT-0400)
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April 28, 2014 12:14:10 PM

Alright, thanks for the help. And one last thing, the local PC parts store is having a sale where just about all 1tb HDDs cost about $70, and I haven't bought one yet for my Lil brother. Which do you recommend? Should I get a caviar black?
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April 28, 2014 8:57:05 AM

@maurelie
thanks, I bought mostly what you recommended except I was able to get a MSI R9 280 for only $40 more with my company discount, and also my boss bought the OS for me, so I guess my lil brother gets some extra money to customize it how ever unless you have any extra recommendations?
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a b 4 Gaming
April 29, 2014 1:49:46 AM

Doorstopper said:
Alright, thanks for the help. And one last thing, the local PC parts store is having a sale where just about all 1tb HDDs cost about $70, and I haven't bought one yet for my Lil brother. Which do you recommend? Should I get a caviar black?


If you can get Caviar Black for $70, you should get one. It is easily one of the best mechanical HDD, and has warranty of 5 years. Just check if it is FALS or FAEX model. If it is FALS, don't buy it, it is older unit and slower. Get the FAEX,
the code should look something like this WD1002FAEX
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April 29, 2014 1:06:30 PM

Cool, well I have ordered all the parts for under $540 which is freaking awesome.
If I have any questions regarding the build I will surely ask here on Tom's

What's going into the build:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($112.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($89.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Kingston Blu 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($74.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($88.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 280 3GB TWIN FROZR Video Card ($279.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($50.99 @ TigerDirect)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $837.91
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-04-29 16:02 EDT-0400)
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a b 4 Gaming
April 30, 2014 12:50:52 AM

Doorstopper said:
Cool, well I have ordered all the parts for under $540 which is freaking awesome.
If I have any questions regarding the build I will surely ask here on Tom's

What's going into the build:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($112.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($89.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Kingston Blu 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($74.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($88.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 280 3GB TWIN FROZR Video Card ($279.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($50.99 @ TigerDirect)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $837.91
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-04-29 16:02 EDT-0400)


Yup, looks good. I hope your little brother will enjoy in his new build.
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April 30, 2014 1:00:23 AM

If You Want Lights In Your Case Then Go For NZXT Guardian 921 Or Iball Rider
Both Are Cheap And Have A Lot Of Lighting.
Then This Build Will Be Nice
AMD FX 4300 Or 6300
Ram 4 GB G.Skill
Any AM3+ Mobo
R9 270X
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