650 dollar gaming pc

septhepcnoob

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hello guys
i'm looking for a gaming pc for around 650 euro, less if possible
I dont need a monitor, keyboard etc., just the case and the other components and windows
the games i want to be able to play are primarily minecraft, planetside 2 and tf2
I live in the netherlands and prices are fairly high here so that equals around 650 dollar as well.
thanks in advanced and if you need more information just ask me :)

edit: I will build it myself, no prebuilt pc's
 

septhepcnoob

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i'll have a look, thanks for your reply
 

septhepcnoob

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are you sure i can play these games at a solid 60 fps with 4 gb ram and dual core processor?
because maxing out minecraft and tf2 would be nice, planetside 2 on high with solid 60 fps would be great too is that possible?
 

Josh McGiff

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Minecraft and tf2 easy peasy 50-60 fps , planet side on the other hand if you are looking for 60 fps I'd spent a little bit on a GPU you will get great fps on mc 100 solid , 60 fps for tf2, Try an nvidia gtx 620 for a good GPU!
 

Intel Celeron

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http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/Zkmnyc
waay underbudget. You could add a graphics card in crossfire. just make it simple like an r7 260x. I chose AMD RAM over G.Skill 'cause the integrated graphics card need high speed to take advantage of the memory. I just went with AMD 'cause well... they made the APU. Adding a video card will fit your budget but I don't see the point since you play mild games.
 
I can't recommend an APU at all for that budget and the one mentioned is a horrible idea for gaming (especially for Planetside 2). Also, if you give a BUDGET then just give a Maximum or else you'll get a zillion different build combinations.

It's also been my experience that when looking at super low budget builds you're better off getting a pre-built because adding Windows yourself just kills the value. This shifts at a certain point though and you end up better off with your own build.

I'll put together a build for you that is at least 90% of your budget.
 

septhepcnoob

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how about you guys make me a build without windows? just the case plus components for 650 dollar? could that be better? and I'll just save up for windows after I built the pc and temporarily installed linux
 
My 655 pound build (with comments): http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/PwZst6

1) CPU:
The i5-4460 is, IMO, the best CPU at this price point. I can't recommend AMD at all since this CPU beats it in gaming in 99% of the games averaging 25% better depending on your games chosen which does vary a lot. It goes as high as 46% in Skyrim versus the FX-8350 (yes) and for a few games it's roughly the SAME such as BF4 (with the caveat of lower FPS for the minimum which means slightly more stutter).

2) Motherboard:
A few choices here, but there's a minimum I'll go on quality. This is it. Look at Customer Feedback etc, but I recommend Asus, Gigabyte or Asrock in general but carefully look at the quality as a dead board is bad news.

3) Graphics Card:
There's some CHEAPER ones you could go with definitely. I'd go with a GTX750Ti as the minimum. I could have gotten a cheaper R9-270X even but I wanted:
a) one with good quality, and good cooler
b) Factored in the GPU frequency (higher performance), and
c) really wanted at least 3GB of VRAM to future proof a bit.

Had the extra VRAM been too much I'd have dropped it. But all the above considered I like this card the best. There MAY be some NVidia specific options you want so that's worth considering (PhysX, Shadowplay, possibly G-Sync though a new monitor is required that's currently expensive)

So if NVidia, then a GTX750Ti or a GTX760 are my only recommendations (Asus for the either).

4) CASE:
There are cheaper, but this one is nice but also has two good FANS which I believe can be plugged into the motherboard for fan control. You really want TWO good fans which cheaper cases don't tend to have.

*Move the 12cm fan to the front as Intake. Plug both (and CPU) into the motherboard then setup fan control software.

5) Power Supply:
A couple choices but looking at one that's sufficient for the graphics card, decent reviews and reasonable price.

6) Memory:
8GB of DDR3 1600MHz CAS9 (2x4GB) is pretty standard for a good gaming PC. Better isn't needed arguably.

7) HDD:
1TB is pretty typical. You may want an SSD in the future but I didn't want to include one as I'd have to get a lower-end graphics card.
*Partition the HDD into two. I recommend 200GB for the first partition (Windows). I do recommend putting Steam on the 2nd partition though.
**Make a backup Image periodically of C-drive using Seagate DiscWizard (or Acronis True Image Free if WD drive). Put on 2nd partition. Ideally you want two drives but it does protect you in case of severe virus or corrupted software requiring a RESTORE.

8) CPU cooler:
The "EVO" I recommend is much better than the included stock CPU cooler. Both would work, but the stock one gets loud.

9) Windows 8.1 64-bit:
The ONLY Windows version I recommend. Much better than Windows 7 in many ways. I recommend Start8 (Stardock) to make the interface work like Windows 7 (Start Menu, disable Charms Bar... you can Google how to boot directly to your DESKTOP.)

SUMMARY:
This is my recommended build. There's a couple parts you might change but I strongly recommend the CPU for this budget. There are CHEAPER parts than I've recommended but I'm looking at a combination of quality and performance so take that as you will.

If you'd given me a smaller budget then it starts to get tricky. Slightly smaller and I'd mainly change the Graphics card to say a GTX750Ti. Really small and I'd recommend the G3258 CPU and the GTX750Ti likely (plus 4GB DDR3). The G3258 is a great budget gaming CPU (can Google more). For that, I'd get a suitable Asus H81 or similar because they can overclock that CPU slightly.

*I hope this gets you started. Again, if my build cost is too much at least now you know what I recommend as a minimum.
 
*Sorry, went a little long... skim or ignore. Some good tidbits there though.

Planetside 2 and hardware:

CPU: http://www.hardwarepal.com/planetside-2-cpu-benchmark/
*Note that the FX-8350 is 6% slower than an i5-4570 but at 4.5GHz. However, the i5-4570 has a MINIMUM frame rate of 65% higher so it's less prone to some stutter.

"When we switched to FX CPUs not only did we have worse framerate but the gameplay was simply put, laggy."

Since a dual-core i3 tied the FX-8350 roughly (slightly less stutter) the game seems to need slightly more than TWO cores. It's a good spot to point out that while the G3258 is cheap, and can be overclocked it's also not hyperthreaded. The i3's in this benchmark (up to a 30% improvement theoretically though actually usage hard to say. I'd guess maybe 15% better for this game).

*My rough estimates indicate for this game the G3258 at 4.2GHz should be about the same as the i3-4340 (higher frequency, but no HT, slightly different architecture). For $65 that's nothing to sneeze at though again more threaded games will benefit from a 4-core like the i5-4460. But... if you're thinking about a lower budget it's worth considering especially since you could replace it later if need be with say an i5-4460 or better.

GRAPHICS:
http://www.techspot.com/review/785-free-to-play-games-benchmarks/page5.html
*Assuming minimal CPU bottleneck, at 1920x1200 the GTX750Ti gets 32FPS on Ultra which is nice. Personally I'd drop the quality and aim for either 40FPS to 50FPS with VSYNC OFF, or 60FPS with VSYNC ON.

The R9-270X isn't listed but the Asus I chose works out to 47FPS on the chart. A lot faster than the GTX750Ti though the Asus GTX750Ti is probably closer to 38FPS once overclocked slightly.

*Adaptive VSYNC:
This is an AWESOME feature. It leaves VSYNC ON (to avoid screen tearing) but turns it OFF if you drop below the target refresh (stutter can be very bad if you have VSYNC ON but can't output that frame rate). That's for NVidia but luckily the latest RadeonPro can do the same thing if you apply it properly. It's called "Dynamic" VSync I believe. The ONLY issue I've noticed is that it causes screen tearing in pre-rendered scenes usually since they run at 30FPS thus VSYNC gets turned off. Not a huge deal though. (That's Adaptive or Dynamic as they are identical... I'd like to get NVidia or RadeonPro to monitor if a video is running and leave VSYNC ON if so..)

AMD power consumption:
I just thought I should mention the FX-8350 uses over 100Watts more at 4GHz. At 4.5GHz (to almost match the i5-4460 for average performance, but NOT minimum) the power difference under heavy load goes closer to 140Watts difference all of which is dumped into your room. Speaking as a guy who's room can get too hot whenever my Windows are closed (summer with air, and winter), 140Watts is a massive difference.

(FYI, Haswell is 10% faster than Ivy at the same frequency. It doesn't overclock as well but then you'd need Ivy at 4.8GHz to match Haswell at 4.3GHz roughly... the Devil's Canyon refresh solves that so an i7-4790K at 4.8GHz matches Ivy at 5.3GHz though you'd never get Ivy that high. ***This is really for the sake of benchmarks, and you can easily Google the Intel CPU's to find the CPU Turbo from Intel's site. Since we aren't even considering overclockable models, we can simply state that Haswell at 3GHz is the same as Ivy at 3.3GHz.... that helps with benchmark charts if only Ivy is shown. )

*R9-280X ??
Now I already maxed your budget, but I thought I should point out that the R9-280X is about 20% faster, but only apples-to-apples. The particular 270X I chose was overclocked with an excellent cooler to 1.12GHz. The cheaper 280X cards don't go above 1GHz, and while they can overclock it's hard to estimate based on the probably binned GPU's and different cooler.

I think a 12% difference with a slight overclock of the cheaper R9-280X cards would be closer with almost 20% difference using the Asus which is 225 Euros. 45 Euros more than the card I recommended which again was top-end roughly for 270X. So now we're at 700 Euros unless we cut costs elsewhere (which I don't recommend).

Still, I thought I should give you as much info as possible to make an informed decision. I hope the Benchmark at the top helps as well.
 

septhepcnoob

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how about I lower the requirements and just need it to play games like minecraft and tf2 and perhaps some other not very demanding games. would a r9 270x do the job? and could you guys make me a build for those requirements?
for the same budget $650