Good budget gaming PC?

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Thetantank

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Dec 9, 2013
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GIGABYTE GA-B85M-DS3H LGA 1150
Team Elite Plus 8GB (2 x 4GB) 1600
Intel Pentium G3258 Haswell Dual-Core
Western digital 1 tb hard drive
Zotac gtx 650 2 GB
I already have the GPU so that's not for debate. I want to do last gen gaming like: Skyrim, fallout ect. Is this an ultra settings set up for that?
 
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belzoth


The pentium should work well for you. If you want to go a step up from there I would go up to the AMD FX 8350 which is around $160. The pentium is good for now but in a couple of years you may want something more substantial like the FX 8350 if you continue to play newer games.

So if you are tight on budget or really aren't worried about new games in the coming years go with the pentium. If you want to be able to play newer games over the next few years without upgrading again and you have the cash, jump up to the AMD FX 8350. That's my opinion at least. I hope that helps.
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belzoth

belzoth

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Oct 4, 2014
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I have one major tip for you. You may need a new graphics card sometime in the future (you can keep it for now) but you do need a better CPU than that. If you are looking to save money get atleast an AMD FX 8320 if you can.

http://www.amazon.com/AMD-FD8320FRHKBOX-FX-8320-FX-Series-Edition/dp/B009O7YU56/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1418286138&sr=8-2&keywords=amd+fx

If you can't afford even that you could still use an AMD 6300. If you can't afford that even then I wouldn't bother building a gaming PC until you save up more money. For gaming you need to get your hands on an intel i5 quad core at or an AMD with 6-8 cores minimum. If you build this PC with a pentium dual core your computer will struggle with gaming and you will regret the decision.

Do you have any other questions for me? Sorry to rain on your parade, but you really will regret your CPU choice in the future if you go this route.
 
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Thetantank

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Dec 9, 2013
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The Gpu was free, i will upgrade. But in the future.Also i said i want to play last gen games! As for the CPU, many reviewers say that despite the dual core strucrure, this is a good budget CPU. But thanks anyway, ill check out the 6300?
 
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synphul

synphul

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Mar 11, 2011
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It may not be as strong, but the g3258 overclocks well and will still do ok on a lot of games. I don't play the latest games, I think my newest is cod ghosts and I can play it at 60fps on an older core 2 duo e8400. That g3258 is a little faster than the e8400. The real perk is if you pair it with a z97 motherboard and ddr3 ram, then you're already set up for a painless cpu upgrade in the future. An i3, i5 or i7 will drop right into place and z97 is broadwell ready - so it's not a dead socket/chipset.

If you go the amd route, you'll be somewhat stuck since there's nowhere to go and if you want anything better you'll be back to buying a whole new motherboard and cpu all over again.
 
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synphul

synphul

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Just a couple potential options:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor ($64.29 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($26.75 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI Z97-G45 Gaming ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($121.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Team Vulcan 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($73.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $347.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-11 19:20 EST-0500

Or

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4150 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($102.98 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($26.75 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI Z97-G45 Gaming ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($121.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Team Vulcan 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($73.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $385.69
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-11 19:22 EST-0500

The i3 gives you similar to the 3258 except has hyperthreading so may be a bit more performance.

If you need quad core performance, the i5 4460 is a locked i5 at $172, but I still think the g3258 makes a nice temporary placeholder for a system ready to bump up to an i5 or i7.
 
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belzoth

belzoth

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I've been doing some more research on the G3258. I wasn't very familiar with it, so I'm glad you brought it up. I honestly didn't realize how well it could perform for gaming when you overclock it. I would still recommend overclocking a AMD FX 8350 or 8320 if you have the budget, but I will withdraw my idea of an FX 6300. I use to say get the FX 6300 at minimum for gaming but seeing how well the G3258 overclocks, I have to pick it as the best CPU for a tight budget.
 
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synphul

synphul

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Yea I mean the new pentium's (g series) aren't going to break land speed records or anything, but given most of the i5's and i7's are so expensive it's kind of cool to see intel throw out a sort of tribute to the hobbyist cpu. Reminds me a bit of the older days when cpu's were fairly cheap and had enough overclocking room to be fun.

I doubt it'll happen, but with the 'anniversary' edition type nostalgia products it would be kinda cool if intel and amd would come together and do something similar to the old socket 7 setup. You could get a socket 7 motherboard and toss in a pentium, celeron, amd, cyrix.
 
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belzoth

belzoth

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It is nice to see such an affordable CPU from intel that is actually decent. I love intel's i5s and i7s but a lot of the people on this site who are first time builders are working on a very tight budget which is when I'm use to recommended an AMD cpu. For people on a very tight budget it's nice to have such an affordable intel CPU. I'm going to keep overclocking my i5s, but it is a nice option for people on a tighter budget than me.
 
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belzoth

belzoth

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The pentium should work well for you. If you want to go a step up from there I would go up to the AMD FX 8350 which is around $160. The pentium is good for now but in a couple of years you may want something more substantial like the FX 8350 if you continue to play newer games.

So if you are tight on budget or really aren't worried about new games in the coming years go with the pentium. If you want to be able to play newer games over the next few years without upgrading again and you have the cash, jump up to the AMD FX 8350. That's my opinion at least. I hope that helps.
 
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