AMD Budget Build

Well , afraid no, your build price is low as it gets. Only if you get asrock pro3 mobo but thats not that not much of a save

I actually found some good parts on craigslist for more than half off the retail price for my new bulid im still working on. just a suggestion if you trust used stuff.

The only place I see that you could cheapen this would be the choice of video card.

Otherwise the rest is a solid build which to cheapen would not make you happy with the results.

That may apply to the 7870 as well, but you get what you pay for.

Newf.

.

Under $600. The 7850 can be OC'd for comparable specs of the stock 7870. Lowered the motherboard to mATX, but still overclockable. Slimmed down the HDD to 500GB (you can add another one later). Slimmed down the case to something decent for the price. Slimmed down the PSU to 550W which will still be plenty of power.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($133.79 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock 960GM/U3S3 FX Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($60.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Kingston Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($36.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7850 1GB Video Card ($179.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Cougar Solution (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Rosewill Hive 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($15.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $597.69
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-01-24 15:12 EST-0500)

Thing you gotta look out for on cheaper motherboards is power phasing though. On a gaming rig, get the better board.

Do you live near microcenter? If so usually if you buy an amd CPU they take 40 off a board.

the cpu ships with a cooler , and can even be OCéd moderately . Save $30 at the expense of some noise

drop the RAM to a 2 x 2 gig kit if its just gaming . That wont affect performance in any noticeable way Save $12

Stick with the Illusion , or the 300 [ if its cheaper ]

How are the stock coolers for the fx6300? I worked on an fx 6100 rig where the CPU failed within about 3 months, they'd used the stock cooler and stock paste and the CPU fried not sure I am confident in some of the stock coolers on the lower end fx models.

I want to keep the fan because I will be overclocking a bit and don't really trust the stock cooler. I like cball1311's build and changed a few things around. People say corsair is one of the best psu makers so I decided to stick with that.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($124.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ Best Buy)
Motherboard: ASRock 960GM/U3S3 FX Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($60.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($41.26 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.98 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7850 1GB Video Card ($179.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 600W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($15.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $613.15
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-01-27 18:15 EST-0500)

Corsair has their ups and downs on PSUs. I would get this one, it is made by SeaSonic. One of the most reliable (if not, the most reliable) PSU makers on the planet.

Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($53.99 @ NCIX US)

AMD are not shipping cpu's with inadequate coolers . If they were there'd have been a few million failures of these processors by now

The stock cooler on an FX 6300 is a small pretty basic , but Im sure it works


If youe OP goes with the build with the 7850 he can use a 450 watt psu

f he spends the extra for the 7870 he still only needs a 500 watt psu

You can say all you want they aren't buy I've been working on computers since I was 17 and have been a tech for at least 5-6 years professionally. I am simply speaking for what I have seen, and that was only 1 of 2 maybe 2 CPU failures I've seen. Considering the CPU was only 3 months old and failed that quickly, plus the fact that there were burn marks on the processor, and the user said that it'd never been overclocked.

Apologize for the grammar, typing on touch screen phone sometimes does not work lol.