My Friend's First Build. Suggestions Welcome.

Spriggs

Reputable
Apr 22, 2014
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4,540
Hello everyone. I am helping my friend build a gaming pc. He is on a $800-$850 budget (including monitor, excluding OS). He will be playing games like Smite, BF3/4, Watch Dogs, maybe some PS2 if I can convince him. Anyway I was tweaking some builds and came up with these. The only difference is the GPU.
Opinions and suggestions are welcome. If you think you have a better alternative, please post it.
PS: He probably will not be overclocking for a while and or upgrading/switching out parts. The only thing he will probably be getting is a CPU cooler, namely the CM Hyper 212 Evo.

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: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($72.24 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($88.97 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 760 2GB TWIN FROZR Video Card ($239.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Rosewill CHALLENGER ATX Mid Tower Case ($47.07 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Asus VS228H-P 21.5" Monitor ($129.99 @ Best Buy)
Total: $842.22
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-04-27 19:36 EDT-0400)

or

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: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($72.24 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($88.97 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 270X 2GB TWIN FROZR Video Card ($199.99 @ TigerDirect)
Case: Rosewill CHALLENGER ATX Mid Tower Case ($47.07 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Asus VS228H-P 21.5" Monitor ($129.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $802.22
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-04-27 19:36 EDT-0400)
 
Here is an Intel option, if that is something that your friend was considering too. The AMD build's aren't too bad, but just throwing out another option:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4570 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($179.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Pro3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($84.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($68.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 760 2GB TWIN FROZR Video Card ($239.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Rosewill REDBONE U3 ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($37.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Acer H226HQLbid 60Hz 21.5" Monitor ($119.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $851.91
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-04-27 19:57 EDT-0400)

* CPU is 4 core and doesn't OC, but will do 98% of what most people want to do and doesn't require much cooling to keep it comfortable.
* Mobo will cover OC'ing any of the "K" series CPU's, if you decide to upgrade to the 4770k in the future (the 4670k isn't much of an upgrade to the 4570 listed above).
* RAM look for low profile heat spreaders (the ones you selected come with extremely high heat spreaders and can interfere with the CM Hyper 212 EVO - trust me I know).
* HD is good for just about everything needed and has plenty of room. I would consider getting an SSD, but if your only going to get an SSD I would opt for at least the 240-256 gb size, if it's your only drive on the computer. Any smaller and your friend will run out of space quickly.
* GPU should be pretty good and quiet. The R9 270x or R9 280 GPU's are other options to consider.
* Case has front USB 3.0 ports and is a decent case for most people needs.
* PSU has plenty of power and should last for several upgrades down the road.
* DVD burner is just what it is. Nothing special and should work just fine.
* The monitor comes with HDMI input, so keep that in mind when looking for monitors, if that is important to you.
 
So you should be really looking at something like this:, if you want an FX Mobo:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($109.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Asus M5A99FX PRO R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($68.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.44 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 280 3GB TWIN FROZR Video Card ($255.38 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($44.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($16.99 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Asus VS228H-P 21.5" Monitor ($129.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $850.75
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-08 21:44 EDT-0400)