$450 budget gaming build

[smathis11]

At about this christmas I will be building a new gaming computer. My budget is $450 without the monitor. I need everything but the monitor, OS, keyboard, and mouse.

This is what I have so far:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/mpoB

Any help is appreciated! Will prices drop during cyber monday sales or just around holiday time in general? What parts can I swap to make the system better? It needs to have a high price to performance ratio. Thanks!

 

[zZCory]

So you don't need the monitor in the build you listed? Are you subtracting the monitor cost then? Where do you live and what games do you plan are playing?

 

[macgreen]

It's hard to tell what'll be on sale around Black Friday/Cyber Monday. That said, let's not rely on what is available at that time and concentrate on the here 'n now.

What is your monitor's resolution? And honestly, for a budget of this amount, you may want to look into AMD APUs rather than a Phenom II. They're cheaper, have a better iGPU, and can use something like a 6670 to nice effect. I'd also suggest waiting to get the SSD later on as well, to save some of your cash for mass storage and the rest of the build in general. Plus, 5400 RPM HDDs aren't exactly quick, you'll probably want a 7200RPM minimum. Apevia cases and PSUs are not exactly thought well of around these forums, due to various issues (inferior materials, bad caps in the PSU, etc)- while I had an Apevia PSU in my old PC from about 5 years ago, I would rather have a well-regarded PSU instead. Cases tend to be buyer-preference, but you should get something that has decent airflow.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/mpMd

This build is a fair amount different from yours. I didn't add the monitor, unlike your build, so I'm guessing that you have cash set aside from the budget to get one. I did only go with 4GB of RAM and a Radeon 6670, but I also added in a CPU Cooler so you can OC the CPU as well. If you don't plan to OC, then feel free to omit the cooler and apply the remaining amount toward a 7770 if you prefer. Or pocket it, your choice.

Also went with better quality case in the Antec One, and PSU in the Antec Earthwatts 430w. A 500gb 7200rpm hdd should tide you over until you can really afford an SSD in the system. Total before rebates is $464.

zZCory has some good questions though, so the answers to them could definitely help determine what route to go with for a suggested build.

 

[smathis11]

So you don't need the monitor in the build you listed? Are you subtracting the monitor cost then? Where do you live and what games do you plan are playing?

I'm going to buy the monitor but it is not included in the $450 price. I live in the United States, specifically Ohio. THere is a microcenter relatively close to me also.

I will be playing mainly call of duty and minecraft, and probably GTA and possibly battlefield 3.

 

[smathis11]

It's hard to tell what'll be on sale around Black Friday/Cyber Monday. That said, let's not rely on what is available at that time and concentrate on the here 'n now.

What is your monitor's resolution? And honestly, for a budget of this amount, you may want to look into AMD APUs rather than a Phenom II. They're cheaper, have a better iGPU, and can use something like a 6670 to nice effect. I'd also suggest waiting to get the SSD later on as well, to save some of your cash for mass storage and the rest of the build in general. Plus, 5400 RPM HDDs aren't exactly quick, you'll probably want a 7200RPM minimum. Apevia cases and PSUs are not exactly thought well of around these forums, due to various issues (inferior materials, bad caps in the PSU, etc)- while I had an Apevia PSU in my old PC from about 5 years ago, I would rather have a well-regarded PSU instead. Cases tend to be buyer-preference, but you should get something that has decent airflow.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/mpMd

This build is a fair amount different from yours. I didn't add the monitor, unlike your build, so I'm guessing that you have cash set aside from the budget to get one. I did only go with 4GB of RAM and a Radeon 6670, but I also added in a CPU Cooler so you can OC the CPU as well. If you don't plan to OC, then feel free to omit the cooler and apply the remaining amount toward a 7770 if you prefer. Or pocket it, your choice.

Also went with better quality case in the Antec One, and PSU in the Antec Earthwatts 430w. A 500gb 7200rpm hdd should tide you over until you can really afford an SSD in the system. Total before rebates is $464.

zZCory has some good questions though, so the answers to them could definitely help determine what route to go with for a suggested build.

My resolution will be 1080p. Eventually I will have 2-3 monitors up and running, but only one will be used for gaming

 

[sonicers]

Actually, anything lower in power consumption than say, a 560ti, you could go with the Antec VP-450 for $35. That will save you even more money, and then you could maybe upgrade to say, a 7850. Other than that, macgreen has already said everything to be said, haha.

Good luck!

 

[smathis11]

It's hard to tell what'll be on sale around Black Friday/Cyber Monday. That said, let's not rely on what is available at that time and concentrate on the here 'n now.

What is your monitor's resolution? And honestly, for a budget of this amount, you may want to look into AMD APUs rather than a Phenom II. They're cheaper, have a better iGPU, and can use something like a 6670 to nice effect. I'd also suggest waiting to get the SSD later on as well, to save some of your cash for mass storage and the rest of the build in general. Plus, 5400 RPM HDDs aren't exactly quick, you'll probably want a 7200RPM minimum. Apevia cases and PSUs are not exactly thought well of around these forums, due to various issues (inferior materials, bad caps in the PSU, etc)- while I had an Apevia PSU in my old PC from about 5 years ago, I would rather have a well-regarded PSU instead. Cases tend to be buyer-preference, but you should get something that has decent airflow.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/mpMd

This build is a fair amount different from yours. I didn't add the monitor,
unlike your build, so I'm guessing that you have cash set aside from the budget to get one. I did only go with 4GB of RAM and a Radeon 6670, but I also added in a CPU Cooler so you can OC the CPU as well. If you don't plan to OC, then feel free to omit the cooler and apply the remaining amount toward a 7770 if you prefer. Or pocket it, your choice.
Also went with better quality case in the Antec One, and PSU in the Antec Earthwatts 430w. A 500gb 7200rpm hdd should tide you over until you can really afford an SSD in the system. Total before rebates is $464.
zZCory has some good questions though, so the answers to them could definitely help determine what route to go with for a suggested build.

But what items typically go on sale during the holidays? Or is it just at random? But i definately want a ssd as my boot drive. Hell i use like no memory, a 60gb ssd and a 250gb hdd would settle for me. If i do end up needing more i can aleays buy one in the future when hard drive prices go down. I also want 8gb of ram, cheap 1600 ddr3 ram. I dont need coolers on it. And i dont plan on oc either so id rather have a better gpu. But i do like that processor, for some reason ive never seen it before.

 

[macgreen]

Not really sure, honestly. I was building my PC during summer, so I wasn't paying a lot of attention to what goes on sale for the holidays. However, I'd fully expect a bit of everything to go on sale. And if you really want an SSD, you could remove the CPU cooler and the HDD from my build and free up enough cash to get the SSD and HDD from yours. And you could save a few bucks by switching to VP-450, I suppose, but that is only a few bucks. It'll help in getting the whole thing under budget again though.

 

[smathis11]

Not really sure, honestly. I was building my PC during summer, so I wasn't paying a lot of attention to what goes on sale for the holidays. However, I'd fully expect a bit of everything to go on sale. And if you really want an SSD, you could remove the CPU cooler and the HDD from my build and free up enough cash to get the SSD and HDD from yours. And you could save a few bucks by switching to VP-450, I suppose, but that is only a few bucks. It'll help in getting the whole thing under budget again though.

Yeah thats what I figured. Newegg has black november sales or something where they have different sales each week. I was reading up on the APU you reccommended. I think I might just use the igpu on that for awhile, until I have money to buy a better GPU. It gets great frame rates on cod and minecraft so I think I'm gonna do that. How much faster is an SSD compared to a 7200 RPM HDD as a boot drive?

 

[smathis11]

This is going to be my build:

AMD A8-5600k processor
AsRock Fm2A75 mobo

Newegg combo deal total: $180

RAIDMAX tornado ATX-238wu black/blue: $30 after MI

RAIDMAX -RX500af 500 watts 80 plus bronze certified: $25 after MIR

GIGABYTE Radeon HD 6770 1gb: $50 after MIR

Mushkin Enhanced Callisto Deluxe 40gb SSD: $45

SAMSUNG Spinpoint f4 320gb 7200rpm hdd: $45

SILICON Power 2 x 4gb 1600 ddr3 ram: $34

SAMSUNG DVD BURNER: $21

ACER G215HVAbd 21.5" 1080p monitor: $120

TOTAL: $550

I think thats a pretty good build for my needs. I will crossfire the 7560d and the 6770. I read that i will get 7850 performance with those two cards. Hopefully these parts will go on sale this holiday, so that i can get my build down to possibly under $500.

Eventually I'm gonna buy another monitor.

Also I'm going to check my local microcenter and see if they have this processor, and I'll put the parts into pcpartpicker to see if there are places with cheaper prices.

 

[sonicers]

You can't crossfire the 6770, just saying. You can crossfire it with a 6670, but at the moment crossfiring is kind of derpy, and makes performance worse in most games.

If you have the money, the GTX 560ti is only 93 dollars with a mail in rebate, which would outperform the 6770 and would be almost on par with the 7850.

If you haven't bought yet, I'd recomment you buy an i3 2120 ($110) with a B75 motherboard ($55). It'll be cheaper and FAR outperform the A8, as the A10 can't even beat out the i3.

I don't know where you found the 6770 for $50, because the cheapest you can get it including rebates is like 85 bucks at the moment. I'd seriously consider the GTX 560ti; it's the best GPU under $100 right now.

If you can't afford the GPU as of right now, your build looks good. Just don't try to crossfire with a 6770.

Good luck!

 

[smathis11]

You can't crossfire the 6770, just saying. You can crossfire it with a 6670, but at the moment crossfiring is kind of derpy, and makes performance worse in most games.

If you have the money, the GTX 560ti is only 93 dollars with a mail in rebate, which would outperform the 6770 and would be almost on par with the 7850.

If you haven't bought yet, I'd recomment you buy an i3 2120 ($110) with a B75 motherboard ($55). It'll be cheaper and FAR outperform the A8, as the A10 can't even beat out the i3.

I don't know where you found the 6770 for $50, because the cheapest you can get it including rebates is like 85 bucks at the moment. I'd seriously consider the GTX 560ti; it's the best GPU under $100 right now.

If you can't afford the GPU as of right now, your build looks good. Just don't try to crossfire with a 6770.

Good luck!

Whyy cant i? there are many videos showing that you can and also the benchmarks of them.and i dont want an intel build.

 

[smathis11]

You can't crossfire the 6770, just saying. You can crossfire it with a 6670, but at the moment crossfiring is kind of derpy, and makes performance worse in most games.

If you have the money, the GTX 560ti is only 93 dollars with a mail in rebate, which would outperform the 6770 and would be almost on par with the 7850.

If you haven't bought yet, I'd recomment you buy an i3 2120 ($110) with a B75 motherboard ($55). It'll be cheaper and FAR outperform the A8, as the A10 can't even beat out the i3.

I don't know where you found the 6770 for $50, because the cheapest you can get it including rebates is like 85 bucks at the moment. I'd seriously consider the GTX 560ti; it's the best GPU under $100 right now.

If you can't afford the GPU as of right now, your build looks good. Just don't try to crossfire with a 6770.

Good luck!

my bad, i men a 6670. and i think you mean the 550 ti, not a 560 ti. that card costs upwards of $200