Good $500 budget gaming PC for my friend

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MrCanEHdian

MrCanEHdian

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Apr 9, 2014
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So, I've built my dream PC for $1,500ish CAD, and am super thrilled with it. My friend has seen my joy and wants one for himself, but at a significantly reduced price. He's American and that gives him better purchasing power, but I know $500 isn't a whole lot. For a capable rig, I'm assuming he'll need to skimp out on the PSU and mobo. I was hoping for an idea of what I should tell him to build, since I keep urging him not to go prebuilt.
He would've created an account and asked himself, but he's limited to a smartphone at the moment.
He'd like to be able to play games at high-ultra settings, most of his gaming would be FPS games like DayZ Standalone, Planetside 2, Battlefield 4, and probably Far Cry 3. I suspect he'll also play some RTS games. He has no preference in companies, and might even prefer AMD since his brother built an AMD rig and likes it a lot.

Thank you for your help and input!
 
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Somber
This is my 2 cents Still alittle over budget but pick and choose parts maybe there is something you like over another

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-3250 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($109.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock Z75 Pro3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($66.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($89.98 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($51.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R7 260X 1GB Core Edition Video Card ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Thermaltake Versa H21 ATX Mid Tower Case ($33.03 @ Mwave)
Power...
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MrCanEHdian

MrCanEHdian

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Lmao, he has a PS4 and an Xbox One. I suggest he save his money and enjoy those, but he's become adamant on working and making money for a PC. I'm not sure why he set his budget at $500. Could you build a PC geared towards high-very high settings at 720p with only $500? I guess even if you could that it would become outdated by those standards pretty quickly.
 
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shortstuff_mt

shortstuff_mt

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Apr 1, 2008
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This is about as close as I could get and still be able to call it a gaming system. I already had to cut corners like eliminating an aftermarket CPU cooler and going with a CX series PSU that are usually avoided because they use sub-par capacitors. I'll get heat for even suggesting a build with a CX PSU.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97-HD3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($108.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($57.24 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Asus Radeon R7 260X 2GB DirectCU II Video Card ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Antec VSK-4000 ATX Mid Tower Case ($29.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer ($14.98 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $566.13
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-06 16:21 EDT-0400
 
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getochkn

getochkn

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Jul 2, 2006
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That's about what I was going to suggest, give or take.

My CX handles my 4.8ghz AMD beast no prob. One of those things I think that someone had one once that blew up and it keeps going on the forums. lol.
 
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shortstuff_mt

shortstuff_mt

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Apr 1, 2008
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I used a CX430 in a budget build for my parents years ago and it's worked great. A high quality PSU is critical to a stable system, but the CX line isn't as bad as they are made out to be on the forums. They're certainly much better than a lot of the ticking timebombs used in most pre-built systems.
 
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Z

Zand1s

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Jul 10, 2014
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I am sorry for your friend but unfortunately there is no 500$ good gaming pc that can play those games on ultra . but here is an idea
cpu: Intel Pentium G 3258 69$
motherboard: asus z97 I plus 135$
cpu cooler : included intel cpu cooler 0$
power supply: corsair cx600 69$
Ram: 8gb corsair vengeance low profile memory 86.99$
case: cooler master elite 110 mini itx case 41.88$
graphics card: gtx 750 ti 140$
storage: any 1tb hard drive 60$

Total: 601.87$
that is without an operating system a dvd drive monitor keyboard and mouse. but you might have an old hard drive that it can have and peripheral as well don't you.


 
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MrCanEHdian

MrCanEHdian

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That's pretty sweet actually! I think he'd be happy with high at 1080p on BF4. It blows the Xbox One out of the water.
 
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MrCanEHdian

MrCanEHdian

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I didn't even use the aftermarket cooler on my own build xD. I bought one, but I was finding some of the building tricky, and skipped the aftermarket cooler. The whole rig runs ridiculously cool, so I'm not bummed.

Anyway, ya everyone is against the CX models, I can see why, but for a hardcore budget like my friend's, I wouldn't suggest much better. Thanks for that list, I will show him and see what he thinks. Would the dual core CPU be good enough though?
 
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MrCanEHdian

MrCanEHdian

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So you think the CX is underrated and not as bad as they say? It has a nice price tag lmao.
 
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MrCanEHdian

MrCanEHdian

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That's great that it works so well. For family, who probably aren't gaming, I'd use a lower end PSU or for an extreme budget build. The PSUs in the prebuilts are scary! I totally agree with the timer thing, I wouldn't trust them at all. I strongly suggested he avoid prebuilts because of their garbage PSUs and very basic motherboards. For the same price, you can build your own and get some nicer parts and quality core components.
 
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MrCanEHdian

MrCanEHdian

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I'll also show him this build, I think he'd be fine with it. Is the Pentium good enough for gaming? He has the monitor and keyboard. I don't think he has the other necessities like a mouse, OS, or HDD unfortunately...
 
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MrCanEHdian

MrCanEHdian

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Pentiums can be overclocked? They're not like non-K versions of i5s and i7s? Also, could it run games like Planetside 2 and Civ 5 well? It almost seems like I could've passed on the i5 4460 xD.
 
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shortstuff_mt

shortstuff_mt

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Apr 1, 2008
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Only the Pentium G 3258 can be overclocked. It's a special anniversary edition. No other Pentium chips can be overclocked. Don't get me wrong, it's still an entry level CPU, not a gaming beast. It does perform very well for the price when overclocked, though. Where it is lacking is in threaded workloads since it is a true dual-core CPU with no hyperthreading.
 
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MrCanEHdian

MrCanEHdian

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Ahhh I see, so because of its overclocking ability, it is ok... Do you need a Z series motherboard for it? I'm assuming so. And, if you're going to be gaming, it's the absolute bare minimum you can use for an Intel based gaming rig?
 
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MrCanEHdian

MrCanEHdian

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Apr 9, 2014
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Ya, when it comes to core components, I'd want to play it safe.

Perhaps AMD has some "better" low end gaming CPUs and GPUs with good price/performance?
 
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Somber

Somber

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Jul 6, 2014
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This is my 2 cents Still alittle over budget but pick and choose parts maybe there is something you like over another

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-3250 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($109.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock Z75 Pro3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($66.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($89.98 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($51.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R7 260X 1GB Core Edition Video Card ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Thermaltake Versa H21 ATX Mid Tower Case ($33.03 @ Mwave)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($34.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24F1ST DVD/CD Writer ($19.94 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($84.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $581.88
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-09 13:08 EDT-0400
 
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Solution
MrCanEHdian

MrCanEHdian

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Apr 9, 2014
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Looks fine, the budget wasn't a solid $500, but you think this would do decently in modern games? I guess the R9 260x is like the bare minimum for gaming, eh? Something like the GTX 750?
 
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MrCanEHdian

MrCanEHdian

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Apr 9, 2014
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Would the r7 260x be worse than the 750 ti then? I almost bought the 750 ti.
 
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