First Gaming PC, budget: 500-650 (added list!)

[ElysianWhip]

Hey,

I'm 16 years old and I'm getting into PC gaming. I'm more interested in games like League of Legends (Not FPS at the moment, I have a xbox for that). I got my first job and I've been wanting to buy a desktop since I play on a horrible laptop. I have around $500 right now and In about 2 weeks I'll have $650.

I'm not worried about building it because my dad used to build computers all the time and so he's gonna take care of that. I've been looking at parts and honestly I really dont know if my combination works but I feel like this is good.

Parts not needed: OS, Monitor (will buy later have a good enough one for now).

List is below, sorry!

 

[Coastaltuba]

You are gonna have to list each item. Sucks but yeah...

 

[ElysianWhip]

CASE (49.99):Rosewill CHALLENGER Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case, comes with Three Fans-1x Front Blue LED 120mm Fan, 1x Top 140mm Fan, 1x Rear 120mm Fan, option Fans-2x Side 120mm Fan

Motherboard: (79.99)(Really don't know anything about the motherboards):ASUS M4A88T-M LE AM3 AMD 880G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

Graphics Card (159.99)(Is this one good, I'm looking for something of high caliber. Saw this on another build so I thought it would work similar.): HIS H685F1GD Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

PSU: (34.95): XIGMATEK NRP-PC Series ACXTNRP-PC402 400W ATX12V Ver.2.3 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply

Processor: (113.99): AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ955FBGMBOX

RAM: (34.99):G.SKILL NS 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory Model F3-10600CL9D-4GBNS

HDD: (69.99): Western Digital AV-GP WD10EVDS 1TB 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal AV Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Disk Reader: (18.99) I dont know if this is good?: LITE-ON Black 18X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM IDE DVD-ROM Drive Model iHDP118-08

SUBTOTAL: $562.88

 

[Zero_]

Look at this.
http://gamingrig.blogspot.com/2011/06/600-gaming-pc-june-2011.html

$600 PC with OS, so just $500 without. For and additional $30, I'd suggest bumping up the graphics to a HD6870 (check the $800 link on my sig).

Oh by the way, don't forget to try out Crysis 2 with DirectX 11 on this. It'll pwn the Xbox360 easy.

 

[manu 11]

have you seen the system building martathon june 2011, it outperforms any game and is better option than a phenom 955 rig
heres the link
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/diy-gaming-pc,2970.html

surely, bump up and take a 6870, much better option for gaming

 

[ElysianWhip]

have you seen the system building martathon june 2011, it outperforms any game and is better option than a phenom 955 rig
heres the link
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/diy-gaming-pc,2970.html

surely, bump up and take a 6870, much better option for gaming

Based on other threads I was under the impression that AMD processors outperformed the intel ones at this low budget area. Is this true or is the intel i-3 better than the one I had listed.

As for the graphics card I can definitely switch it up to a 6870. Any comments on the motherboard i have?

EDIT: Seems to me having 4 cores would be better than having the 2 that are in the i-3. Also If i plan on recording gameplay with Fraps would I need more RAM or is 4GB sufficient?

 

[ElysianWhip]

bump. still looking for advice.

 

[NotANerd]

Hi. I think your motherboard looks fine for it's price. If you stay with AMD you might want to consider bumping up $20 to the ASrock 880G Pro3, that way you can get 2nd gen. Bulldozer ugrade next year. It has a couple more features like USB 3.0 and Sata 6. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157243

There will always be division on which CPU is best for Gaming. I think Tom's Hardware summary in it's $500 System Builder Marathon said it well, "The June 2011 $500 Gaming PC is right for some, but not for all, and I’m expecting the comments section to reflect this. If you are purely a gamer, do not overclock, or are just drawn towards a high level of efficiency, then this build is just your ticket. But the real deal-breaker in my eyes is aggressive pricing on AMD's Phenom II X4 955 BE processor that has cropped up since our order date. Available for a measly $113, it’s just too attractive to ignore. And the fact that the entry-level Sandy Bridge-based chips are so limited in their flexibility doesn't help."

A lot of people recommend this hard drive, the Samsung Spinpoint f3. They say it's faster even though it is Sata 3. It's what I would choose right now and it's on sale for $54.99. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185&Tpk=samsung%20spinpoint%20f3

Really, what ever you choose you will be happy. Hope this helped.

 

[Outlander_04]

Look at this.
http://gamingrig.blogspot.com/2011/06/600-gaming-pc-june-2011.html

$600 PC with OS, so just $500 without. For and additional $30, I'd suggest bumping up the graphics to a HD6870 (check the $800 link on my sig).

Oh by the way, don't forget to try out Crysis 2 with DirectX 11 on this. It'll pwn the Xbox360 easy.

From the terms of use

"Advertisements, chain letters, pyramid schemes and other commercial solicitations are inappropriate on the Forums."

 

[Zero_]

From the terms of use

"Advertisements, chain letters, pyramid schemes and other commercial solicitations are inappropriate on the Forums."

uh huh. so linking an appropriate page from your blog to support an answer that will help the asker make a better informed decision is bad?

 

[ElysianWhip]

thanks so much for all the help guys. Quick question would this motherboard support dual graphics cards? And if I did want to upgrade parts individually later on would you recommend first upgrading the Graphics card or the processor? or something else entirely.

 

[Coastaltuba]

It won't support dual, because it is a micro board. if you would want to sli or crossfire in the future, you will need to get a better motherboard, and the cheapest one I see is over $100.

If you want to upgrade, first upgrade your graphics card (a 6870 will last a while), and then the CPU.

 

[Coastaltuba]

Forgive me, the cheapest one is cheaper than $100. Sorry