Building New PC - Any Suggestions?

[wagstuff13]

Hi I looking at building my own budget PC. I have never done this before so feel free to make me suggestions. I want a budget PC that I will also be able to play some games (Minecraft, TF2, Counter Strike, maybe a Need For Speed etc. ) (Probably on Mid-settings). I basically want the best I can get with my $400 max price range. Here it is:

Case/Power Supply: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811121002
-This is on Kijiji brand new for $25

AMD x3 3.2Ghz CPU/Cooler + Motherboard combo: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.956118

8GB RAM: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820313123

$250gb Hard Drive: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136771

Graphics Card: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500223

DVD Drive: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106333

Let me know what you think. All of the products above with tax and shipping = $350.
The case and power supply I can get for $25. So altogether I have a decent PC that can run some games for $375?
Let me know If this looks alright or if you have suggestions. But remember: $400 price Limit! Thanks

 

[Pinhedd]

That power supply is going to be a fire hazard. Power supplies are easy to manufacture but very hard to manufacture well. There are a lot of knockoffs that are downright hazardous. HardOCP reviews PSUs from all sorts of manufacturers and very few if any cheap ones are recommended. Thus, any PSU less than $60 is an immediate red flag because any decent one will have at least $50 worth of components in it. The same goes for PSU/Case combos less than $100 dollars. The PSU is absolutely one component which you cannot skimp out on, buying a cheap one can turn your $400 investment into a $400 paperweight or worse, a $400 torch.

The GT520 is not a gaming card, not even close. It won't be able to play much of anything even at low resolutions. AMD tends to own the midground here, I suggest that you get a Radeon HD 6770, it's a bit pricey but it will work well for what you want it to do whereas the 520 will not. If the 6770 is too much the 6670 will do instead.

 

[Proximon]

No, the HEC PSU is a bad idea.

The Nvidia chipset board is not a great idea either.

Wow 8GB of RAM is not a priority here. 4Gb is FINE.

■SAMSUNG CD/DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-222AB - OEM
■Rosewill Blackbone Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Comes in combo with the PSU
■Western Digital Caviar Blue WD2500AAKX 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
■SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6670 1GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card (11192-22-20G)
■AMD Gift - Dirt3 Game Coupon - OEM
■G.SKILL NS 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory Model F3-10600CL9D-4GBNS
■MSI H61M-P20 (G3) LGA 1155 Intel H61 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
■Intel Pentium G620 Sandy Bridge 2.6GHz LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80623G620
■Rosewill Green Series RG430-S12 430W Continuous @40°C, 80 PLUS Certified, Single 12V Rail, Active PFC "Compatible with Core ...
TOTAL: $371.92
Note that this is the price before shipping, but there are rebates that will bring it down a bit. This is absolutely the cheapest gaming PC I could assemble at newegg.ca

 

[wagstuff13]

WOW. Thanks guys those were 2 really good answers I was looking for. I knew it was too good to be true, but just needed someone to help me. The PC I am on now is Acer T180 an I was looking to upgrade. It has AMD x2 2.4Ghz, maxed at 4gb ram, 450 watt power supply, 240gb hard drive, Nvidia Geforce 220. The options you gave me are too pricey, so what do you suggest me to do to I can do gaming better? A new PC seams too expensive, so how could I upgrade mine? Thanks a bunch

 

[Pinhedd]

WOW. Thanks guys those were 2 really good answers I was looking for. I knew it was too good to be true, but just needed someone to help me. The PC I am on now is Acer T180 an I was looking to upgrade. It has AMD x2 2.4Ghz, maxed at 4gb ram, 450 watt power supply, 240gb hard drive, Nvidia Geforce 220. The options you gave me are too pricey, so what do you suggest me to do to I can do gaming better? A new PC seams too expensive, so how could I upgrade mine? Thanks a bunch

The system that Proximon posted is actually really good for the price and would stand you in good stead for a while. Rosewill is NewEgg's inhouse brand and offers great reliability and value. Unfortuately gaming requires an investment so there's not much that can be done to game better short of finding the money to spend on it. With your current system you MIGHT be able to get away with just swapping out everything in the case. I don't particularly trust Acer's PSU not to die but it's far more trustworthy than the other one that you were looking at. That way you would be able to knock off the Case/PSU combo, upgrade the graphics card to a 6770 and save a little bit. With taxes and shipping that should come to just under $400.

Alternatively you could take that exact list (totalling $371) into your local computer shop and see if they can come up with something similar. You'll still have to pay taxes but no shipping. A lot of stores have sales reps that work on commission and can give 5%-10% off of the ticket price.

 

[wagstuff13]

The system that Proximon posted is actually really good for the price and would stand you in good stead for a while. Rosewill is NewEgg's inhouse brand and offers great reliability and value. Unfortuately gaming requires an investment so there's not much that can be done to game better short of finding the money to spend on it. With your current system you MIGHT be able to get away with just swapping out everything in the case. I don't particularly trust Acer's PSU not to die but it's far more trustworthy than the other one that you were looking at. That way you would be able to knock off the Case/PSU combo, upgrade the graphics card to a 6770 and save a little bit. With taxes and shipping that should come to just under $400.

Alternatively you could take that exact list (totalling $371) into your local computer shop and see if they can come up with something similar. You'll still have to pay taxes but no shipping. A lot of stores have sales reps that work on commission and can give 5%-10% off of the ticket price.

Thanks, but would his system be THAT much better then mine to be worth the price? I mean still dual-core, just a little bit faster then mine, and the same RAM. Would I be better off just buying a better graphics card? Like what is holding my pcc back from playing games? Just graphics card? Thanks

 

[Pinhedd]

Thanks, but would his system be THAT much better then mine to be worth the price? I mean still dual-core, just a little bit faster then mine, and the same RAM. Would I be better off just buying a better graphics card? Like what is holding my pcc back from playing games? Just graphics card? Thanks

The dual core processor linked is extremely good and gets significantly more instructions per clock cycle per core than what you have now. It may still be a dual core but it is a much better dual core.

 

[wagstuff13]

The dual core processor linked is extremely good and gets significantly more instructions per clock cycle per core than what you have now. It may still be a dual core but it is a much better dual core.

OK last question. If I bought the Raedon 6670, would that let me play games good enough on my current pc, or will my cpu limit it?

 

[Pinhedd]

The 6670 isn't a terrific gaming card but it isn't horrible either. All else equal it will provide 2-3 times the framerate of your current GT220. This is why I recommend finding another 50 bucks for a 6770, it's a much better solution that will be more enjoyable in the long run.

Here's a chart showing the relative performance of some different GPUs

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-6670-review/5

A 6770 would come in just below the 6790 on that chart

 

[wagstuff13]

The 6670 isn't a terrific gaming card but it isn't horrible either. All else equal it will provide 2-3 times the framerate of your current GT220. This is why I recommend finding another 50 bucks for a 6770, it's a much better solution that will be more enjoyable in the long run.

Here's a chart showing the relative performance of some different GPUs

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-6670-review/5

A 6770 would come in just below the 6790 on that chart

So a good graphics card would be all I will need to play newer games? (My PC is fast enough for me in every way except gaming). Lets say I got the 6770, would I be able to play MW3 with decent framerates?

 

[Pinhedd]

It's worth a shot. You can always get the rest later on if your CPU can't handle it