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Need Help On A TIGHT Budget PC Build ($300-$400)

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  • CPUs
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May 12, 2014 11:08:44 PM

Hello Everyone
I am here today to propose a challenge
I need the absolute BEST PC in the budget of $300-400 (Yikes I Know D: !)
Im 15 years old and every penny will come out of my own pocket so I need the best pc possible
I need a good start a PC in the range of 300-400 (Can be slightly more but not a ton please) but that is HIGHLY up gradable
I will be upgrading at least 1 component every 2-3 months so I need just a good start
I do not need a Monitor (Have a ASUS 1920x1080 Monitor Already) ,Peripherals, Or a OS
What I really need is just a good start something that I can use to start I won't be running any super graphics needy games to start but I would like it to be able to do some games to start like LOL or CS:GO and then be able to run more after upgrades
Thank You For Your Time :) 

More about : tight budget build 300 400

a c 79 à CPUs
May 12, 2014 11:44:25 PM
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May 13, 2014 1:19:41 AM

Hey

For CS:GO and LoL as starters you do not need high end GPU. The following build is a nice micro-ATX with a sufficient GPU for the games mentioned above.

You can change the Case if you do not like it ofc. I think it is HIGHLY upgradable, first thing would be to change the GPU then the combo MOBO CPU.

Let me know


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-4300 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus M5A78L-M LX PLUS Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($44.99 @ Micro Center)
Memory: Kingston Fury Red Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($64.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.43 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GT 630 2GB Video Card ($72.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Rosewill FBM-01 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($29.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA 430W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply ($29.99 @ Micro Center)
Total: $397.36
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-13 04:17 EDT-0400)
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a b à CPUs
May 13, 2014 5:28:59 AM
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a c 79 à CPUs
May 13, 2014 7:05:20 AM

both the power supplies suck in both those builds. not much there to be able to upgrade with.
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May 13, 2014 7:17:31 AM

I agree I will be using a Corsair Builder instead
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Best solution

a c 85 à CPUs
May 13, 2014 7:25:08 AM

For now, this will run CS GO and LOL (and other less intensive or older games) very well.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 760K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor ($84.74 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A55M-VG3+ Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($42.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Kingston Fury Series 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($32.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Pipeline HD 250GB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive ($31.70 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R7 250 1GB Video Card ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Rosewill FBM-01 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($29.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($48.91 @ Amazon)
Total: $351.31
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-13 10:17 EDT-0400)

Now, this is my reasoning.

I picked an Athlon X4 760K instead of an FX-4300 because the Athlon 760K performs about the same and is a bit cheaper. Also, the FM2+ socket that the 760K uses has more potential for the future.
http://cpuboss.com/cpus/AMD-FX-4300-vs-AMD-Athlon-X4-76...

That motherboard is cheap, but it's ASrock and well reviewed. It won't hold you back and it's durable, which is really all that's important for a budget motherboard.

I chose 4GB of single channel RAM because it's cheaper now, it'll still run most games fine including the ones you listed, and you can easily add another 4GB stick of the same type later, whenever you get the money to upgrade. That'd make it a very solid 8GB, suitable for any high end game.

I chose the poor HDD because although it'll increase your load times a bit, it won't hurt game performance, and it's cheaper. The low capacity won't matter, since eventually you can just add another HDD for $30 or whatever. On a budget build, it's better to cut the HDD as much as possible because they're easy to upgrade without losing anything or throwing anything out.

The R7 250 is the best budget card at the low price range, and it will run CS GO and LoL quite well. As well as older games and indie games. Check Youtube if you want to see gameplay.

The case is very cheap, but Rosewill generally makes pretty good parts and all the case really needs to do is look decent and hold your parts. It'll work.

I chose that PSU because it's Bronze Certified (good) and it's very well reviewed with 5/5 stars on Newegg, 4.5/5 stars on Amazon, and good specs (40A on the 12v rail). It will let you upgrade to just about anything reasonable in the future, so it's worth spending that much on a PSU now to ensure reliability and upgrades later. It's significantly better than the Corsair CX430.
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a c 79 à CPUs
May 13, 2014 7:28:03 AM

FeverHD said:
I agree I will be using a Corsair Builder instead


see that picture in your sig?
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a b à CPUs
May 13, 2014 7:32:37 AM

Rationale said:
For now, this will run CS GO and LOL (and other less intensive or older games) very well.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 760K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor ($84.74 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A55M-VG3+ Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($42.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Kingston Fury Series 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($32.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Pipeline HD 250GB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive ($31.70 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R7 250 1GB Video Card ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Rosewill FBM-01 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($29.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($48.91 @ Amazon)
Total: $351.31
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-13 10:17 EDT-0400)

Now, this is my reasoning.

I picked an Athlon X4 760K instead of an FX-4300 because the Athlon 760K performs about the same and is a bit cheaper. Also, the FM2+ socket that the 760K uses has more potential for the future.
http://cpuboss.com/cpus/AMD-FX-4300-vs-AMD-Athlon-X4-76...

That motherboard is cheap, but it's ASrock and well reviewed. It won't hold you back and it's durable, which is really all that's important for a budget motherboard.

I chose 4GB of single channel RAM because it's cheaper now, it'll still run most games fine including the ones you listed, and you can easily add another 4GB stick of the same type later, whenever you get the money to upgrade. That'd make it a very solid 8GB, suitable for any high end game.

I chose the poor HDD because although it'll increase your load times a bit, it won't hurt game performance, and it's cheaper. The low capacity won't matter, since eventually you can just add another HDD for $30 or whatever. On a budget build, it's better to cut the HDD as much as possible because they're easy to upgrade without losing anything or throwing anything out.

The R7 250 is the best budget card at the low price range, and it will run CS GO and LoL quite well. As well as older games and indie games. Check Youtube if you want to see gameplay.

The case is very cheap, but Rosewill generally makes pretty good parts and all the case really needs to do is look decent and hold your parts. It'll work.

I chose that PSU because it's Bronze Certified (good) and it's very well reviewed with 5/5 stars on Newegg, 4.5/5 stars on Amazon, and good specs. It will let you upgrade to just about anything reasonable in the future, so it's worth spending that much on a PSU now to ensure reliability and upgrades later. It's significantly better than the Corsair CX430.


That motherboard doesn't have USB 3.0, what about an FM2A75M instead?
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a c 85 à CPUs
May 13, 2014 7:36:15 AM

LucoTF said:
Rationale said:
For now, this will run CS GO and LOL (and other less intensive or older games) very well.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 760K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor ($84.74 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A55M-VG3+ Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($42.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Kingston Fury Series 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($32.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Pipeline HD 250GB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive ($31.70 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R7 250 1GB Video Card ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Rosewill FBM-01 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($29.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($48.91 @ Amazon)
Total: $351.31
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-13 10:17 EDT-0400)

Now, this is my reasoning.

I picked an Athlon X4 760K instead of an FX-4300 because the Athlon 760K performs about the same and is a bit cheaper. Also, the FM2+ socket that the 760K uses has more potential for the future.
http://cpuboss.com/cpus/AMD-FX-4300-vs-AMD-Athlon-X4-76...

That motherboard is cheap, but it's ASrock and well reviewed. It won't hold you back and it's durable, which is really all that's important for a budget motherboard.

I chose 4GB of single channel RAM because it's cheaper now, it'll still run most games fine including the ones you listed, and you can easily add another 4GB stick of the same type later, whenever you get the money to upgrade. That'd make it a very solid 8GB, suitable for any high end game.

I chose the poor HDD because although it'll increase your load times a bit, it won't hurt game performance, and it's cheaper. The low capacity won't matter, since eventually you can just add another HDD for $30 or whatever. On a budget build, it's better to cut the HDD as much as possible because they're easy to upgrade without losing anything or throwing anything out.

The R7 250 is the best budget card at the low price range, and it will run CS GO and LoL quite well. As well as older games and indie games. Check Youtube if you want to see gameplay.

The case is very cheap, but Rosewill generally makes pretty good parts and all the case really needs to do is look decent and hold your parts. It'll work.

I chose that PSU because it's Bronze Certified (good) and it's very well reviewed with 5/5 stars on Newegg, 4.5/5 stars on Amazon, and good specs. It will let you upgrade to just about anything reasonable in the future, so it's worth spending that much on a PSU now to ensure reliability and upgrades later. It's significantly better than the Corsair CX430.


That motherboard doesn't have USB 3.0, what about an FM2A75M instead?


Yep, a better option for a slightly higher cost. That would work as well.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
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a b à CPUs
May 13, 2014 7:44:17 AM

Looking good, the 760k is a great performer for the price :) 
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a b à CPUs
May 13, 2014 9:34:17 AM

FeverHD said:
I agree I will be using a Corsair Builder instead


Please don't use the Corsair Builder series. A simple search regarding quality will show you the cheap components. Both the Antec and EVGA listed are better units (although I don't like the EVGA). Stick with Antec, XFX or Seasonic for a power supply.
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May 13, 2014 4:55:22 PM

Hmm i was also looking at builds using a AMD A10 6800k would that be better using a APU instead of a discrete CPU and GPU? Thank you for the help by the way !
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May 13, 2014 4:56:58 PM

And also are all these builds up gradable in the future if so what components would be the best to upgrade
At this moment im just looking to build a good build that can run CS:GO,LoL and Minecraft all at reasonable settings pretty much a cheap but good little steam machine
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May 14, 2014 5:39:13 AM

Basically a worst build than mine but you saved 40$ ?

OK!

For real, I agree with the GPU tho.



Rationale said:
For now, this will run CS GO and LOL (and other less intensive or older games) very well.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 760K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor ($84.74 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A55M-VG3+ Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($42.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Kingston Fury Series 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($32.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Pipeline HD 250GB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive ($31.70 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R7 250 1GB Video Card ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Rosewill FBM-01 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($29.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($48.91 @ Amazon)
Total: $351.31
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-13 10:17 EDT-0400)

Now, this is my reasoning.

I picked an Athlon X4 760K instead of an FX-4300 because the Athlon 760K performs about the same and is a bit cheaper. Also, the FM2+ socket that the 760K uses has more potential for the future.
http://cpuboss.com/cpus/AMD-FX-4300-vs-AMD-Athlon-X4-76...

That motherboard is cheap, but it's ASrock and well reviewed. It won't hold you back and it's durable, which is really all that's important for a budget motherboard.

I chose 4GB of single channel RAM because it's cheaper now, it'll still run most games fine including the ones you listed, and you can easily add another 4GB stick of the same type later, whenever you get the money to upgrade. That'd make it a very solid 8GB, suitable for any high end game.

I chose the poor HDD because although it'll increase your load times a bit, it won't hurt game performance, and it's cheaper. The low capacity won't matter, since eventually you can just add another HDD for $30 or whatever. On a budget build, it's better to cut the HDD as much as possible because they're easy to upgrade without losing anything or throwing anything out.

The R7 250 is the best budget card at the low price range, and it will run CS GO and LoL quite well. As well as older games and indie games. Check Youtube if you want to see gameplay.

The case is very cheap, but Rosewill generally makes pretty good parts and all the case really needs to do is look decent and hold your parts. It'll work.

I chose that PSU because it's Bronze Certified (good) and it's very well reviewed with 5/5 stars on Newegg, 4.5/5 stars on Amazon, and good specs (40A on the 12v rail). It will let you upgrade to just about anything reasonable in the future, so it's worth spending that much on a PSU now to ensure reliability and upgrades later. It's significantly better than the Corsair CX430.


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May 14, 2014 5:48:45 AM

FeverHD said:
And also are all these builds up gradable in the future if so what components would be the best to upgrade
At this moment im just looking to build a good build that can run CS:GO,LoL and Minecraft all at reasonable settings pretty much a cheap but good little steam machine


Hey FeverHD.

Here is an APU build for you, just under the $400 mark.

Keep in mind you need the highest freq RAM possible for this kind of CPU. Moreover, the motherboard is microATX if you want to change the case feel free!
The power supply is XFX which is way better than a Corsair or an EVGA.

It has enough Wattage to allow for upcoming upgrades.

The MOBO has 4 ram slots and every requirements.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD A10-6800K 4.1GHz Quad-Core Processor ($134.29 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A75M Pro4+ Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($59.49 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($71.10 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($52.48 @ OutletPC)
Case: NZXT Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($32.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($47.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $398.34
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-14 08:45 EDT-0400)
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May 14, 2014 7:15:21 AM

Is the AMD A10-6800k better than anything else I would get in my price range using a discrete CPU and GPU? Im wondering
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a c 79 à CPUs
May 15, 2014 6:24:00 PM

i looked quick at the build you selected as best answer................... you don't want a 5900rpm hard drive.
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