$500-$600 New Gaming System Help

trickynick · Jun 9, 2014

Current Specs:
Motherboard: ASRock 870 EXTREME3 AM3
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) -- I want to keep these.
Video Card: XFX HD-577A-ZNFC Radeon HD 5770
Monitors: ASUS VG248QE Black 24" 144Hz 1ms and Dell S199WFP (can't find link with details)

Approximate Purchase Date: e.g.: No date set yet, still saving, Probably 3-6 months.
Budget Range: 500-600 After Shipping
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Games, Videos (Netflix, etc), Surfing
Are you buying a monitor: No, will use the ones above
Parts to Upgrade: Everything except RAM
Do you need to buy OS: No, have full version of Windows 7 Ultimate
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg or Amazon, or any trustworthy site
Location: Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA
Parts Preferences: No specific preference
Overclocking: No
SLI or Crossfire: Maybe
Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080 (on the ASUS) and 1440x900 (on the Dell)

Additional Comments: I would like a quiet PC, I'm currently playing Thief, Splinter Cell Blacklist, and Assassins Creed Blackflag, a few others as well.

Why Are You Upgrading: want to be able to play with high graphics on the above games and because the sound doesn't work any more, but mostly to play games on high.

damric · Jun 9, 2014

This will be Ultra Low Power and run cool and very quiet, but fast!

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-4360 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($154.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($43.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill AEGIS 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: PNY XLR8 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($58.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($52.92 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Xion XON-560 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 300W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($42.99 @ Mwave)
Total: $598.85
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-09 22:19 EDT-0400)

Or if you are keeping same RAM/Drives:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock H81M-HDS Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($52.99 @ Micro Center)
Video Card: HIS Radeon R9 280 3GB IceQ OC Video Card ($189.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Aerocool DS-Cube MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($89.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: XFX TS 550W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply ($74.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $597.95
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-09 22:26 EDT-0400)

Znoxz · Jun 9, 2014

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/hD4MTW
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/hD4MTW/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/hD4MTW/benchmarks/

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($52.92 @ Amazon)
Video Card: HIS Radeon R9 280X 3GB IceQ X² Video Card ($244.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT H230 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($49.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $387.89
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-09 22:26 EDT-0400)
The X4 955 is still a good cpu I say stick with it a little longer until ddr4 motherboard come out and then switch to I5

AgentTran · Jun 9, 2014

You can upgrade your current system substantially.
First, let's start off with the essentials, and then work our way down.

HDD: 1TB WD Blue 7200RPM, a great and reliable hard drive, but if you want you can get their black series, if you're willing to pay more.
Case: NZXT Source 210, a pretty good ATX case.
PSU: XFX 550W, reliable and a great supply.
GPU: R9 290X, a great and extremely powerful GPU. You won't be hardpressed to get Ultra graphics with this beauty.

We can keep your CPU for now, as it's not a bad CPU but definently not the best you can get. You could upgrade to a different one, but that would require a motherboard swap too. So I've invested more heavily into the new graphics card, this will be a beast of a computer to use for gaming.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($55.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: HIS Radeon R9 290X 4GB IceQ X² Video Card ($459.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($37.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $613.96
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-09 22:27 EDT-0400)

Znoxz · Jun 9, 2014

AgentTran :

You can upgrade your current system substantially.
First, let's start off with the essentials, and then work our way down.

HDD: 1TB WD Blue 7200RPM, a great and reliable hard drive, but if you want you can get their black series, if you're willing to pay more.
Case: NZXT Source 210, a pretty good ATX case.
PSU: XFX 550W, reliable and a great supply.
GPU: R9 290X, a great and extremely powerful GPU. You won't be hardpressed to get Ultra graphics with this beauty.

We can keep your CPU for now, as it's not a bad CPU but definently not the best you can get. You could upgrade to a different one, but that would require a motherboard swap too. So I've invested more heavily into the new graphics card, this will be a beast of a computer to use for gaming.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($55.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: HIS Radeon R9 290X 4GB IceQ X² Video Card ($459.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($37.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $613.96
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-09 22:27 EDT-0400)

I would get the 290 over the 290x it $70 cheaper and could easily overclock to 290x level.

trickynick · Jun 9, 2014

The motherboard will need to be changed out, as the sound doesn't work for it any more. See this link for details: http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2175117/unable-hear-sounds.html

The only thing I'll be keeping is the RAM, unless upgrading would be better for now. My HDDs do need to be upgraded, I have 2, but only 1 usable as the other is my backup drive.

Znoxz · Jun 9, 2014

trickynick :

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/DccH8d
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/DccH8d/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/DccH8d/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($184.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock H81 Pro BTC ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($59.99 @ Micro Center)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($52.92 @ Amazon)
Video Card: HIS Radeon R9 280X 3GB IceQ X² Video Card ($244.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT H230 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($49.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $632.87
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-09 22:44 EDT-0400)
If you want to keep the mobo and cpu alittle longer you can buy a sound card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132052&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=
If not you can sell the cpu on ebay or amzon for $100-$130

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$500-$600 New Gaming System Help

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