Need Advice for a Budget Gaming PC ~$650-750

dshlass · May 9, 2012

Approximate Purchase Date: The next 2 months

Budget Range: $600-800 (including tax and before rebates)

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming and School

Parts Not Required: Monitor/Mouse/Keyboard

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg.ca, Ncix.ca, canadacomputers.com, tigerdirect.ca (preferably a Canadian currency priced site)

Country: Toronto, Canada

Parts Preferences: AMD or Intel, makes no real difference to ME. this will be my first build, any insight as to which one would run better with D3 and some newer upcoming games.

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe

Monitor Resolution: doesn't matter to me

Additional Comments: As I said before, this is my first build and not too sure about which stream to go into, AND or Intel. I have put computers together in High School so building it wont be an issue for me, only choosing which pieces to purchase. Any help would be fantastic.
Thanks

alvine · May 9, 2012

hello
I would go with amd route because they give better bang for the buck and your budged is not that high

$21 ASUS 24X DVD Burner - Bulk 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS - OEM
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204

$65 CORSAIR Builder Series CX500 V2 500W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139027

$100 Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - OEM
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986

$79 SilverStone SST-PS07B Black Steel / Plastic with Aluminum Accent MicroATX Mini Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163186

$80 Seagate Barracuda ST500DM002 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148767

$65 GIGABYTE GA-78LMT-S2P AM3+ AMD 760G Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128504

$130 XFX CORE Edition FX-777A-ZNF4 Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150598

$48 G.SKILL Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBSR
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231416

$115 AMD FX-4100 Zambezi 3.6GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor FD4100WMGUSBX
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103996

Grand Total:*

$701.41

g-unit1111 · May 9, 2012

alvine :

Ugh... why Zambezi? There's been so many problems associated with it that even while it's a better bang-for-buck option it won't give you the same results that an i3-2120 or an i5-2400 will. The 7770 isn't a good choice when the 6850 and 6870 still will beat it.

Here's what I would suggest:

Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 - $59.99 ($10.00 MIR)
PSU: Corsair TX650 V2 - $89.99 ($10.00 MIR)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H - $109.99
CPU: 3.1GHz Intel Core i5-2400 - $189.99
RAM: 8GB G.Skill Ripjaw X 1600MHz 1.5V - $46.99
HD: 500GB Western Digital Caviar Blue 7200RPM - $79.99
Optical: Lite On DVD Burner - $17.99
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 6870 - $159.99 ($10.00 MIR)

Total: $764.92 - $30.00 MIR = $731.92

Onus · May 9, 2012

Alvine is wrong. Recent articles have clearly indicated that AMD no longer offers the best bang for buck at ANY price point; sad but true.
(Disclaimer: I've built a lot more AMD than Intel systems over the last few years, but don't see building another one).
g-unit's selections are good, except the CM case. They have liar-labels on some of their PSUs or claim protections that are missing (Facts, not opinions; reviews at HardwareSecrets), which is dishonest; I will not support a dishonest business by choosing ANY of their products. Fortunately, they have competitors in every market where they are found, offering similar (or better) products for the same price. I've been very happy with every Rosewill case I've bought, even the cheapest ones. Antec is a step up from that, and Lian Li is a further step up.

g-unit1111 · May 9, 2012

Onus :

We know - you don't like Cooler Master, but you can't deny that the HAF 912 is an excellent bargain, I own one and it's been a great case so far.

Onus · May 10, 2012

My comment is not related to quality; I have withheld my opinions on CM quality as not relevant. My remarks only pertain to the fact that they have been shown to be a dishonest business, and I believe that rational, informed consumers would not knowingly care to support a dishonest business, especially if there are comparably price/quality alternatives available.

dshlass · May 10, 2012

g-unit1111 :

Thank you very much for your help, im going to get a buddy of mine to look over this build and see what he thinks/maybe add some input to the matter. My budget just increased slightly, so maybe some upgrades will be in order

cbsevenfifty · May 10, 2012

One comment I would make would be that you said that overclocking was a possibility and with that CPU its not.

juniiflow · May 10, 2012

g-unit1111 :

Well, you cannot overclock with this. but it is a nice build after all.

are you really trying to crossfire? because if not we might take down that 650w and make it 500w or 550w

ddan49 · May 10, 2012

That build is nice, but I'd change:

Optical to a: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-optical-drive-drw24b1stblkbas
(Free shipping like every other week... it changes a lot)

and the GPU to an MSI Hawk 6870... very nice manufacturer.

I'd definitely go Intel.

springhalo · May 10, 2012

g-unit1111 :

this is a good build, but you might be able to get better game performance by going with an i3-2120 and upgrading your graphics card to a 560Ti. Then again you could always upgrade the current build later on with a second 6870, which might bottleneck the CPU. It all depends on your prefferred upgrade path. Personally I'd go for the best bang/buck now, and upgrade the whole system in 2 or 3 years when they're outdated. I made the mistake of getting an expensive motherboard looking to 'futureproof' and only got a 6850. Now I wish I had gotten more horsepower because I really don't want to drop another $150 for a second 6850.

rschroe3 · May 10, 2012

I just built this for $690 all parts from newegg but the chasis(best buy)

i3-2120
GTX 560Ti
ASrock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3
8Gb RAM
OCZ Modular Pro 600W
Cool Master HAF 912
120GB SSD
extra 200mm fan
Some ramdom DVD-RW drive

This should play just about any game you throw at it at Max settings. I litterally just finished my build last night. Boots from cold in about 10 seconds. Great budget build with the 560 you get the power you need to game and the 2120 is perfect for games and processing. In two years ill need an upgrade but the i5-2500K should be around 150 then ez upgade

g-unit1111 · May 10, 2012

juniiflow :

True you can't but you can always upgrade your CPU to one with an unlocked multiplier should you decide to later on. I just can't recommend anything AMD right now - even an overclocked Phenom II still can't match the i3-2120's performance.

g-unit1111 · May 10, 2012

ddan49 :

I had one of those and it nearly exploded on me - I'll stick with Lite On. I'm not the biggest fan of MSI either as most of the regulars here know.

ddan49 · May 10, 2012

Wait... hold on... I thought ASUS was good quality. That's the only reason I'm getting an ASUS drive (for my own build)... because it's supposed to be better quality. What happened to the drive? Could you RMA it?

MSI... I mean, it's pricey, and it's commonly out of stock.

cbsevenfifty · May 10, 2012

That ASUS drive has 5 eggs with 3,100 reviews. I wouldn't worry about 1 persons bad experience. And at $18 it probably wouldnt be worth it to RMA it considering the shipping costs. Just buy a new one.

ddan49 · May 11, 2012

^Exactly what I was thinking (besides the RMA part)

g-unit1111 · May 11, 2012

springhalo :

You can't get a 2500K and a 560TI on a $650 budget - even then I'd still go with the 7850 over the 560TI.

Wait... hold on... I thought ASUS was good quality. That's the only reason I'm getting an ASUS drive (for my own build)... because it's supposed to be better quality. What happened to the drive? Could you RMA it?

Look - I've been at this a long time and I will say that there's not a single manufacturer that makes all 100% quality products. You can get something from say Asus that's the best thing ever and then the next thing you buy has build frying consequences. I RMA'd my drive after it melted a disc and made a loud whirring noise. So from now on I stick with Lite On and Plextor - those are what I've usually had the best experience with.

That ASUS drive has 5 eggs with 3,100 reviews. I wouldn't worry about 1 persons bad experience. And at $18 it probably wouldnt be worth it to RMA it considering the shipping costs. Just buy a new one.

Product reviews don't exist solely on Newegg - check magazines, sites like Tom's, Johnny Guru, and Anandtech, and things of that nature but if you rely strictly on what Newegg says and you get something that explodes on you, well, don't say I didn't warn you.

cbsevenfifty · May 11, 2012

Well, if you can find me a site review that talks about the tendencies of the ASUS drive "exploding" I'd be glad to read it. Otherwise, I'll stick with the majority on this one claiming a solid product with the #1 best rating at a competitive price and hope I don't have dirty rotten bad luck. Because like you said, no manufacturer has a 100% success rate.

ddan49 · May 11, 2012

Yeah... I'm sure that Lite-on and Plextor have failure rates, as well. You seem like you've been over this a lot... maybe you could post a link to a/the thread that you really went over this?

Need Advice for a Budget Gaming PC ~$650-750

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