A budget gaming PC

Rohan Shrestha

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Sep 30, 2014
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It's been over 10 years since I've been using my old PC. I think it has some of the worst specifications possible in the past and more so now (Intel Celeron 1.6 Ghz, dedicated graphics 64 mb, no graphic card, 608 MB DDR1 RAM).
So, I was wondering about an upgrade. Not such a high-end gaming rig, just a basic one to run few of the recent not-so-big games, Crysis, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3, Need For Speed Rivals to name a few and for 3D modeling and rendering. I searched the internet and I ended up with the following combo:

Intel Pentium G3258 20th anniversary edition
AMD Radeon R7 260X
ASRock H97M PRO4 motherboard
Corsair CMV4GX3M1A1600C11 4GB(1x4GB) DDR3-1600 RAM
(I don't know what other components would best suit the configuration)

Would it be a good configuration?
 
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Abmario

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Oct 1, 2014
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Pentium G3258 is at it's best if you are into overclocking.. with better graphic card, it can run games you mentioned in decent preset resolution. Seems you're not into over-clocking but using rendering, i3-4360 Haswell refresh can do better by its hyper-threading that is not available in G3258.

[PCPartPicker part list](http://pcpartpicker.com/p/fxWVf7) / [Price breakdown by merchant](http://pcpartpicker.com/p/fxWVf7/by_merchant/)

Type|Item|Price

CPU: Intel Core i3-4360 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80646i34360) | $149.99 @ NCIX US
Motherboard: Asus H97-PLUS ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-motherboard-h97plus) | $109.89 @ NCIX US
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f314900cl9s4gbxl) | $40.98 @ OutletPC
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/western-digital-internal-hard-drive-wd10ezex) | $54.99 @ Amazon
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB TWIN FROZR Video Card (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-video-card-n750titf2gd5oc) | $147.98 @ Newegg
Case: Corsair: 200R ATX Mid Tower Case (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-case-200r) | $38.98 @ NCIX US
Power Supply: Corsair RM 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply]
(http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-power-supply-rm550) | $89.99 @ Newegg

Total: Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available $632.80

Price could go less if you will pick Intel G3258, it fits on the same motherboard then you can upgrade later on.
 

Rohan Shrestha

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Sep 30, 2014
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Thanks for the configuration and yes, I do not intend on overclocking. By the way, isn't GTX 750 Ti one of those high performance graphic card?
 

Abmario

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In particular since I mentioned MSI GTX-750 Ti Twin Frozr, it is not in the high-end expensive graphics level but it runs most games at 1080p, high preset and decent frame rate, the games like COD, BF3, BF4, Crysis, AC4, Titanfall, etc. Low power consumption since no power connector required. It has two fans to lower temperature, and support for CUDA/PhysX.
 

Rohan Shrestha

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Well if it is worth spending some more for this, I guess I'll buy this one instead. After all it's better than the AMD Radeon R7 260x, isn't it?
 

Abmario

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Both cards are pretty much identical in performance, but I'm gonna give you noticeable ups and downs of GTX 750ti Twin Frozr compare to R7 260x:

GTX 750ti /// R7 260x
* max power: 60W /// 115W (260x requires PCI-E power supply)
* max resolution: 4096x2160 /// 2560x1600
* Bandwidth: 86.4Gbps /// 104Gbps
* SLI/Crossfire: No /// Yes
* Release date: Feb 2014 /// Oct 2013
* Current Price: GTX 750ti is $10-$20 higher than R7 260x

Hope this could help you decide.

Other consumer reviews for reference:
R7 260x (Asus) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121801
GTX 750ti (MSI) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127783
 

Rohan Shrestha

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Thanks Abmario. Guess I'll go with GTX 750 Ti for the graphic card.
By the way, which processor should I pair it up with? The Intel Core i3-4360 as you mentioned or should I opt for a slightly cheaper Core i5?


 

Abmario

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Intel core i3 has Hyper-threading that is not available in core i5. But core i5 is a mainstream CPU and performs better than core i3. It can handle computing for multimedia creation, photo editing, video trans-coding, multi-tasking, switching between multiple programs, etc, with its turbo boost feature. I myself had core-i5 before switching to i7 Canyon.
Aside from its general features, when it comes to gaming here is a link to TH Best Gaming CPUs For The Money: September 2014: Intel i5-4430 Haswell was chosen though there are latest Haswell Refresh around.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-3.html
 
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Rohan Shrestha

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Sep 30, 2014
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Thanks again Abmario. Guess I'll just go with your configuration though with some alternatives...you know to make it a little more friendly to my budget! :)