Need Advice for $600 Build... Plz help

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Dvbzz1

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Oct 27, 2015
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I've tried to create a gaming pc that will run most games at 1080p and 60fps for my friend, but I seem to always go over if anyone can help with this I would really appreciate it!

P.S. I need everything within $600 excluding a monitor
 
Solution
Geekwad
With an extra $50 and having a 1Tb drive, I'd make the following changes:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($163.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M Anniversary Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($50.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($44.10 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 960 4GB Video Card ($186.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Thermaltake VL80001W2Z ATX Mid Tower Case ($22.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: SeaSonic...
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cdrkf

cdrkf

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Mar 18, 2013
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Well 1080p at 60fps is easy if you don't mind lowering settings.

My advice: Haswell Core i3 4170
GPU: Radeon R7 260X is a good value option if you can find one, other good choices are the R7 360 and GTX 950.
8gb ddr3 ram
Mechanical HDD

The only thing that might prevent you buying all that- the OS... a copy of Windows 10 will eat a good chunk of your budget. The alternative is teh free Steam OS (number of games is more limited of course), if you decide to go that way make sure to get an nVidia graphics card as AMD's linux drivers are a lot slower (on Windows I think AMD has the edge perf / $).
 
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Geekwad

Geekwad

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Sep 25, 2015
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Here's an option:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor ($66.98 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A88M EXTREME4+ Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($58.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($40.50 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R9 380 4GB PCS+ Video Card ($183.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Thermaltake VL80001W2Z ATX Mid Tower Case ($22.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($65.70 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSC0 DVD/CD Writer ($13.89 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) ($89.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $602.79
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-10-27 22:16 EDT-0400

Or this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($163.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M Anniversary Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($50.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($40.50 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750 Ti 4GB Video Card ($132.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Thermaltake VL80001W2Z ATX Mid Tower Case ($22.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($48.60 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSC0 DVD/CD Writer ($13.89 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) ($89.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $598.81
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-10-27 22:28 EDT-0400
 
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Dvbzz1

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Great list thank you for helping me but if you had an extra $50 would you upgrade the processor or just not do anything because aren't AMD processors slow on windows??
 
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Dvbzz1

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Thanks for helping me and a GTX 950 was in my original parts list and I also had a i5 4460. Is there any possibility to have those two parts incorporated into the build? And one more thing I already have a 1T hard drive so i dont need one
 
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Geekwad

Geekwad

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Sep 25, 2015
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With an extra $50 and having a 1Tb drive, I'd make the following changes:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($163.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M Anniversary Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($50.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($44.10 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 960 4GB Video Card ($186.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Thermaltake VL80001W2Z ATX Mid Tower Case ($22.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($48.60 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSC0 DVD/CD Writer ($13.89 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) ($89.88 @ OutletPC)
Total: $656.41
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-10-28 11:51 EDT-0400
 
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Solution
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Dvbzz1

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Oct 27, 2015
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4,530


Thank you very much for the help
 
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Dvbzz1

Reputable
Oct 27, 2015
28
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4,530


Thank you very much for the help
 
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cdrkf

cdrkf

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Mar 18, 2013
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Looks good, my only thought is an r9 380 might be a better gpu at that price (it's faster than a 960). It's also worth looking at last gen 280x and 290 cards as they're also even faster again and can occasionally be found on offer being eol now...
 
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Dvbzz1

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Oct 27, 2015
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The only problem with that is im trying to keep it around a $600 budget. With upgrading the GPU to one of those is it still going to be $600 or more and also can you tell me what the benchmark for the GPU you picked out? Also it says there is a compatibility issue, here is what it says ASRock H97M Anniversary Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard has an onboard USB 3.0 header, but the Thermaltake VL80001W2Z ATX Mid Tower Case does not have front panel USB 3.0 ports.
 
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Geekwad

Geekwad

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My specific reasoning with the 960 was that it's more power efficient than the 380, though I'd agree that it may have a slight edge. It or the older cards would be a great way to go, but would require a bit more PSU (to be safe).

For the case/USB 3.0 mismatch.....it was on purpose (because it's a great value for a well-ventilated case), but I didn't explain it well. What it means is that only the back (board) 3.0 ports would be available from the get-go, and the 3.0 header on the board to the case would go unused. This can be remedied later easily though with a drive bay add-on for front USB 3.0 access, like may of these offer:

http://www.performance-pcs.com/bay-hardware

Or something as simple and cost-effective as this:

http://www.performance-pcs.com/vantec-2-port-usb-3-0-front-panel.html

((((though considering the options with a card reader and maybe fan controllers for just a bit more would be worth looking at too))))
 
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cdrkf

cdrkf

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He would be able to run a 380 on the same PSU (whilst it uses more juice than a 960, the 380 is actually pretty sensible on power consumption being based on AMD's latest design). The other thing to keep in mind, as resolution and settings go up, the 380 generally pulls further ahead of the 960, that puny 128 bit memory interface on the 960 is just too small imo.

You're correct you'd probably need another 100w on the PSU to run a 290 though, those can chew through power.

Edit: So I've decided to go through that list to give you an alternative- this should be faster in games although it sacrifices a bit on the CPU performance to bump the gpu (note recent benchmark tests show that a Haswell Core i3 actually keeps up with the i5 in 99% of games):
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/QwsvMp

That is *slightly* over budget but only around $10, and the R9 290 is a much more powerful graphics card. I've also bumped the power supply up slightly to ensure there's plenty of power on tap, and also dropped down to a B85 based motherboard (I use on of these in a workstation running a Xeon with no problem, it lacks some of the connectivity options that the Z97 chip set has but to be honest for gaming it's not going to make much difference).

Examples of CPU scaling in games: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/CPU/1319
This shows Shadow Of Mordor on a 290X (next card up) with different CPU's: A core i3 is running as fast as everything else here.

Another example showing performance in GTA V: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/CPU/1363
Here the i3 4330 is about 5fps behind the i5s and i7's but is still very much playable (note the 4130T is lower as it's only a 35W cpu, the CPU listed above should perform similarly to the 4330).

 
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