500-700 dollar gaming PC

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nthorn

Honorable
Aug 4, 2012
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10,510
Hey. I am looking to build a Gaming PC with a budget of 500-700 US dollars, preferably AMD. The problem is that this is my first time and I need some of your guys help. I want this PC to run the following games at a stable framerate:

GTA (The entire series and if possible GTA IV)
COD (The entire series)
Battlefield (Battlefield 2, Bad Company 2, and if possible, BF3.)
GMOD
Counter Strike
L4D
Portal
And if possible DayZ

What I need:

CPU:
Motherboard:
Memory: Corsair
Storage:
Video Card:
Case:
Power Supply:
Optical Drive:
Total:
 
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ScrewySqrl

ScrewySqrl

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Aug 2, 2010
11,199
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ok.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-2400 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor ($184.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H77M Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($39.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Western Digital RE2 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($53.78 @ Compuvest)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon HD 6850 1GB Video Card ($135.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 370 ATX Mid Tower Case ($29.98 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Corsair 500W ATX12V Power Supply ($41.98 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Sony AD-7280S-0B DVD/CD Writer ($16.99 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Samsung S22B150N 21.5" Monitor ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $683.68
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-08-06 21:06 EDT-0400)

includes a better monitor
 
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G

Guest

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Do you live near a MicroCenter? They`re offering $40 off motherboard with purchase of Black Edition CPU, Phenom II 965 BE. Check it out

You could put this cpu with ASRock 970 and a 7850 and have plenty money left for case and psu.

Enjoy!
 
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jessterman21

jessterman21

Splendid
Dec 14, 2010
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Overall, you'll get better gaming performance with an i3-2120 and a stronger video card, but there are a few games, (GTA IV is one) that are very CPU-bound. The Sandy Bridge i3s are great bang for the buck, but you will get the odd drop below 30fps from time to time in CPU-hogging games. (Personally, if it doesn't drop below 25, I'm good, and my i3 never does - your call.)

Here's my suggested build:
Rosewill Challenger Case
Rosewill Hive 550w Modular PSU
ASRock H77M Motherboard
Intel Core i3-2120
Corsair 2x4GB DDR3-1333 RAM
64GB OCZ Agility 4 SSD
500GB Western Digital Caviar Blue HDD
Sony Optiarc DVD Burner
Sapphire Radeon HD 6950
Total: $715 without MIRs
 
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nekulturny

nekulturny

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Feb 9, 2012
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Why the hell does GTA IV have problems with your i3? Sure its a CPU bound game to a degree, but its also 4 years old. Thats odd.

FYI, I'd say drop the SSD on that budget, but thats my personal opinion. Between Windows7 and NTFS formatting, you lose 20GB of storage, since a game can easily take 10GB+ just for one, unless you can afford at least a 128GB SSD, I'd forget it and put the money elsewhere.
 
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jessterman21

jessterman21

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Dec 14, 2010
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I don't own GTA 4, but I know at a lower resolution like ours, and with badly-coded ports, the CPU carries the show... (Drew most of my assumptions from this thread: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2212309)

I don't expect too many drops to 30 - that's smooth in my book, anyways.

True, drop the SSD and get an HD 7850 instead - or an i5.
 
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nekulturny

nekulturny

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Feb 9, 2012
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Well, just a guess. Since both PS3 and Xbox 360 use tri-core CPUs, in theory, console ports should perform better with a quad core CPU. Skyrim which is a console port definitely uses 4 cores. 2 heavily and the other 2 situationally based on my observations.

That thread mentioned Metro 2033. That game uses 4 cores, but its a frickin' mess no matter what CPU you use. i5, i3, i7, Bulldozer, Phenom II, doesn't matter. I find in Metro 2033, its where your character has "visions" of the alien things where things really go to hell in a handbasket in terms of FPS dips. (if you're familiar with the game)

But yea, as long as you're staying around 30-40FPS, you're fine in theory and anything above 60 doesn't matter at all.

As far as the games the OP specifically mentioned. All of the COD games use the same game engine, thats pretty easy to max out. My old Dell laptop with a Core2Duo can do that. I've never played any of the other games, but being that I haven't heard of many of them, I doubt they're CPU intensive (since popular benchmarking sites tend to pull the CPU intensive ones from their library to really test out the CPUs) I'd assume they're all going to be GPU bound.
 
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ScrewySqrl

ScrewySqrl

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Aug 2, 2010
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232
53,540
aven: they have a bbcode button, which you then copy and paste as a post.

Oh, and Nekulturny: I sacrificed video card for the monitor :) for the price of the monitor, I coul have swapped in a 7850 instead of a 6850, but that felt ridiculous for a 1440x900 monitor :)
 
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N

nthorn

Honorable
Aug 4, 2012
11
0
10,510


Thanks man! Are you sure it will run the games I listed on high?
 
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nekulturny

nekulturny

Splendid
Feb 9, 2012
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I would get the 965 not the 955, if I were going that route. But once again, a stronger CPU cannot make a weaker video card perform better. So the extra power of the i5 is both irrelevant and counterproductive if it cuts into your video card budget.

A Phenom II 965 with a 6950 like I suggested is going to game better than an i5 with a 6850. And yes, a 6870 with a 965 is going to do better than an i5 w/6850 as well.
 
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werewolfhunter

werewolfhunter

Honorable
Jul 27, 2012
5
0
10,510

are these parts any good? http://pcpartpicker.com/p/e1yF
 
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ScrewySqrl

ScrewySqrl

Champion
Aug 2, 2010
11,199
232
53,540
working from your choices, I changed around a few things:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor ($192.14 @ NCIX US)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($23.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock 880GM-LE FX Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($61.97 @ Newegg)
Memory: PNY Optima 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($36.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($77.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: VisionTek Radeon HD 7850 2GB Video Card ($224.69 @ Amazon)
Case: Rosewill Challenger-U3 ATX Mid Tower Case ($48.00 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair 500W ATX12V Power Supply ($53.74 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: MSI DH-24AAS-17 R DVD/CD Writer ($20.98 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Samsung S22B150N 21.5" Monitor ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $850.48
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-08-08 22:30 EDT-0400)

better cooler, better motherboard, slightly smaller hard drive (still 1 tb), different case, much, much, MUCH better video card, higher quality power supply, and a 1920x1080 monitor for about $850, compared to your earlier $831
 
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