Need help with picking out parts for a pc. First build!

[jimwize]

First off, I'm a newb. I just got into pc gaming about 4 months ago, when I got a very crappy pc, but still a pc. It was a prebuilt, hp slimline. I hated it. I still do, because its kind of slow, (athlon II x2 250 cpu), integrated 6150se nvidia graphics, 4 gb ram (which is alright), and only a 220 watt psu (no room to grow). I thought i was doomed. Until a thought about building a pc crept into my head. The more I thought about it, the better the idea became- I would build a budget pc that can run some actual games, for under 300 dollars. But I have a problem: im a total newb (as i said before). So i decided to consult you guys. First, I have some questions.

1. Can i build a pc that can run source games, CS GO, dayz/ thewarz, crysis 2, and still have some room to grow for under 300 $?

2. Is it possible for me, a total newb, to build a pc? I've never been very good a assembling things.

3. Is this a good idea? Should I just upgrade my graphics card to an hd 6570 or 6670? (and if so, would they work on my current psu?)

4. Is my pc really that bad?

5. Would I see a DRASTIC increase in speed and gaming performance?

6. What parts should I use to fit my gaming needs? (mid range gaming, nothing too powerful)

To anyone who can answer these demanding questions, i thank you so much. If i'm asking too much from you guys, don't be afraid to say so. And could you guys also answer question 3 even if i should just build it? Just because its been bothering me for a long time. Once again, thanks for any serious replies.

 

[ckholt83]

1. Probably not. You'd be looking at closer to $500-600 even for a fairly barebones 'gaming' rig.

2. Absolutely. It seems intimidating, but almost anyone can do this. There are lots of tutorials and videos you can watch to help you prepare. It's mostly like playing with lego.

3. You ask a two part question here, so I'll sort of split up my answer. If it's not possible for you to increase your budget for the foreseeable future, then your best bet might be to upgrade your GPU and pick up a new PSU to go with, depending. This is assuming your case/motherboard can even hold a modern discrete GPU.

4. Pretty much, yeah.

5. If you can come up with a more reasonble budget, then very much yes.

6. Highly dependent on the former. You could put together an extremely stringent build for $300, or at least start building a platform that would allow you to upgrade it into a decent gaming rig later, but wouldn't be a big improvement for the time being.

 

[Rockdpm]

Well i don't think your going to build a perfect gaming rig for under 300$...especially one that will run crysis 3. and upgrading your current rig is still a lost cause

I'd say save up atleast another 200-300 or shoot for atleast a 650-700$ budget

 

[macgreen]

Slimline PC? Not sure you even can add a GPU to it, and likely not considering the PSU you mention. However, you might be able to use some of the parts inside in a new build to help ease the sting of the prices of a build. Do you have any idea about the RAM? Is it DDR3? What speed? It might be salvaged. If the Optical Drive is also a standard size (unlikely, however, I believe laptop optical drives are common for slimline PCs), you can use that as well. Same goes for the hard drive.

However, the real (unfortunate) kicker is the lack of a usable OS. That right there's gonna cost nearly $90-100. Unless you use Linux or something, perhaps. If you can actually use the RAM and HDD, that helps quite a bit, but not enough to get you both a video card and the OS with a $300 budget. And even then, you probably won't see a substantial increase in a PC's gaming capability until you do get a GPU (let alone an OS installed) into it.

That said, let's see how cheap we can make a system that might at least offer some ability to play games that'd be above that which you have already. Maybe that'll give you an idea of how much you'll want to try and save up for. Honestly, if you can get around $550-700, you can actually have some breathing room to get something decent.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/m5J3 You'll need just over $500 for this build, and with rebates it's only $470 overall. This should give you a step up, but certainly you won't be seeing much difference from what you currently have until you add in a video card, which is not a part of the build I posted there.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/m5Kh This one, on the other hand, adds an MSI Radeon 7770 GHZ edition to the build for $110, making it a bit more expensive, but far more capable (graphically) than most integrated GPUs on a CPU. You could get a 6670 instead for roughly $30 less, though I'd recommend the 7770 over that anytime. Also, if you look around, you may find some combo deals on Newegg, or you could just get one of their DIY kits as well.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=30000007+4018&QksAutoSuggestion=&ShowDeactivatedMark=False&Configurator=&IsNodeId=1&Subcategory=-1&description=&hisInDesc=&Ntk=&CFG=&SpeTabStoreType=&AdvancedSearch=1&srchInDesc= This should get you to the DIY section of Newegg's site. You'll probably still need to find a video card, but for the most part I wouldn't doubt you could get the kit and buy a cheap (and I do mean cheap) video card to tide you over. I'm not sure if they come with a copy of Windows, however, so you'll want to look around at the various kits there.

Good luck.

 

[jimwize]

Okay, let me get this straight- I don't want to run crysis 3, or even crysis 2. I'm actually a light gamer. The most intense games I currently have include portal 2 and tf2. The rest are source, torchlight 2, and minecraft. (terraria as well, but that runs fine.) As you can see, this doesn't require an elite system. I'd like to build one that can run the following games on high to max, playable frames. My onboard get only 5-10 fps on lowest settings for portal 2 and tf2, and the rest get 10-15 lowest settings. I don't expect much, so I'd want like 20-40, maybe even 30-60 at best. When I say room to grow I don't mean the latest and greatest- I mean that if I wanted to play, say, fallout 3, i could run that. Or if I bought legend of grimrock, I could run that. Or amnesia the dark descent. As you can see, I don't expect much. Thats why I said 300$. I hope you guys were just thinking that I wanted an elite pc for 300 dollars, capable of running crysis 3, and black ops 2 max settings. Because thats not what i want.
Anyway, here are some parts I'd want- tell me if they would be good for what i want, worth the money, and if they're bad, tell me, maybe shoot me back a better selection:

Motherboard:
ASRock H77 Pro4-M LGA 1155 Intel H77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard- 90$

Video card:
Hd 6570 or 6670- 45 to 75$

Case+psu
LOGISYS Computer Area 51 CS51WSL Silver Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 480W Power Supply- 50$

Cpu:
AMD A6-5400K Trinity 3.6GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) Socket FM2 65W Dual-Core Desktop APU (CPU + GPU) with DirectX 11 Graphic AMD Radeon HD 7540D AD540KOKHJBOX- 75$

Fan/cooler:
Rosewill RCX-Z1 Long life ball bearing for over 45,000/hrs CPU Cooler- 25

Final price: 285$
If you see pricing errors, or missing components, politely respond. Please correct me if these won't fulfill my gaming needs. If it doesn't, im essentially screwed and will have to slink back into console gaming. (Not being trying to be 100% pc gaming here, but I prefer it to console)

 

[ckholt83]

Well... first off you picked out an intel motherboard and AMD CPU, those won't work together. I'd also be leery about that case/PSU combo. The CPU cooler also looks dicey to me, and if you're not overclocking then you don't need a 3rd party HSF and can stay with the stock.

 

[macgreen]

Well first, the motherboard is for an Intel CPU, while the CPU you've chosen is AMD. You'll want something like this one instead:

ASRock FM2A75 Pro4 ATX FM2 Motherboard- $87 (on Newegg).

In fact... http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1076942&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID= Combo'd for $145, which saves you... $20 compared to what you'd chosen before. Or...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1081776 This gets you a PSU, a case, and the CPU for $145, so just buy the mobo (different from the one linked to above) seperately at $50 (Here: http://pcpartpicker.com/mr/amazon/msi-motherboard-fm2a55me33 ). That's $195. Choose a video card, and pick up some cheap RAM (or take it from the old PC, if it's compatible) and an optical drive...

On such a tight budget, I wouldn't recommend overclocking. The CPU will come with a standard cooler, which should be fine until you replace it in the future to overclock. Otherwise, what you're missing would be a hard drive, RAM, an optical drive, and a copy of Windows.

 

[ckholt83]

I think Macgreen has the right idea there. If your gaming needs are light and you aren't running at high resolutions, you could put together a trinity based rig fairly cheap so long as you can also re-use some parts from the old machine, like HDD and DVD and RAM. The trinity integrated graphics should get you by for now, and you'd then have the option to add a discrete GPU in the future when more funds are available for a hefty performance boost.

 

[grich96]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Kcba

This is the cheapest build I would suggest.

 

[RGG7598]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Kcba

This is the cheapest build I would suggest.

I'd also go with the pre-built one(if you can afford it). and it looks better than the one you picked out.
It has a quad core instead of dual core for starters and it comes with a graphics card so it should deliver much better performance. it also includes hdd and dvd drive