$400 1080p Game Machine for my Wife

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sazyario

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Nov 20, 2011
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So my brother, his girlfriend and myself finally convinced my wife to join the #PCMasterRace
We will be starting out with Guild Wars 2, Skyrim and Minecraft.
I will be purchasing all parts within 24-48 hours.

This is the build I'm thinking of: (I'm a bit over budget)
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/L6BzXL

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 $59.99 Microcenter (CPU+Mobo Bundle)
http://www.microcenter.com/product/435187/G3258_32_GHz_LGA1150_Boxed_Processor

MoBo: MSI Z97 PC Mate $39.99 Microcenter (CPU+Mobo Bundle)
http://www.microcenter.com/product/433127/Z97_PC_Mate_Socket_LGA_1150_ATX_Intel_Motherboard

RAM: G.Skill ARES 4GBx1 DDR3-1600 $42.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231717

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L9i $39.99 (Already Purchased)
http://www.amazon.com/Noctua-Low-Profile-Cooler-Retail-Cooling/dp/B009VCAJ7W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1408069250&sr=8-1&keywords=noctua+nh-l9i

GPU: EVGA GTX 750Ti FTW $134.50 (After Discount & Rebates)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487028

Case: RAIDMAX Super Hurricane $52.98 (She picked it, bleh)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811156277&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

PSU: Rosewill Arc M450 $24.99 (After Rebate)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182296&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

SSD: Sandisk Ultra Plus 128GB $59.99 http://www.microcenter.com/product/406437/Ultra_Plus_SDSSDHP-128G-G2_128GB_SATA_60Gb-s_Internal_Solid_State_Drive_(SSD)

 
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truegenius
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Jashan Singh

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May 4, 2014
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Take a smaller ssd for the boot
and for gaming you might wanna look for a quad core cpu
and go for a R9 270x
 
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Iron124

Iron124

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The 3258 is totally overrated. It's decent for a very low-tier gaming rig, or perhaps if you plan to upgrade in the future, but you would be better served by a quad-core CPU. Also, that SSD is too small, games can be up to 10GB+ nowadays. An SSD is nice, but not totally necessary. I think a 7200RPM drive will work fine.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 760K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor ($84.73 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A55M-S1 Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($34.69 @ Newegg)
Memory: Team Xtreem Dark Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($72.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Momentus 7200.4 500GB 2.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($39.95 @ Mwave)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 270 2GB Dual-X Video Card ($154.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Rosewill FBM-02 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($28.76 @ Mwave)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $446.10
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-15 02:37 EDT-0400

This can game in 1080p at high settings without problems.
 
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truegenius

truegenius

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Oct 22, 2011
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did i read it correctly, gaming machine for wife :sweat:
i see, you convinced her , i bet it wasn't an easy task for you isn't it :miam:

i was surprised to see the color of that cabinet, i thought it would be some pinkish in color :ouimaitre: because you know girls and their choices :whistle:

regarding the build, i don't think that i can do much here as you already choose the best part that i would have recommended,
i will only suggest that if you want to install many games then hdd would be better else ssd will do fine
that cpu and gpu is also good, i hope you will overclock both of them to squeeze extra performance for which they are designed
 
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smeezekitty

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Sep 11, 2012
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I share similar feelings to others. Actually I think the case looks cool

Anyway 128GB isn't that big and might fill up quickly with a lot of game installs.
That PSU is rated at 450w at 40*C. 40* is quite cool and a case can easily exceed that
Luckily the gPU and CPU are not power hungry.

The motherboard is way overkill but you are getting a good deal IF you can get to microcenter.
It has a good upgrade path atleast

4GB is a little small on the RAM now but until you can upgrade it should be usable
 
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sazyario

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This build will be expanded on.
By Thanksgiving I will add a 1TB WD Black and additional 4GB of RAM.
The small-ish SSD will be fine as the only big game she will start playing GW2 & Skyrim without mods.

I plan on OC'ing the crap out of the PentiumK and the GPU.

The MoBO may be 'overkill' for a PentiumK... But considering that it will cost more to get a H81 Mobo from ASUS than to do Microcenter's bundle I'm not complaining. Plus Z97 gives this computer a better upgrade path in the future. Broadwell + Devil's Canyon. I know that Quad Cores and MOST games don't matter. Dual Core is sufficent, and this has a much better upgrade path than the recommended 760k from someone above. Plus I live within 20 minutes of the Detroit Microcenter.

Thanks for pointing out the running temperature limitation on the Rosewill PSU. I didn't even notice. I will just switch to a slightly more expensive CX430M. I have to keep modular because there isn't any wire management on this case. I wish she would've stuck with the Corsair 200r I recommended.
 
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