Some help please

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mike1294

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Oct 7, 2012
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So I'm getting my income taxes back in another week or so and plan on building my own computer. I'm willing to spend $400 to $500 on the system. Now I plan on playing games like Civ 5 and the new simcity. Not a whole lot of graphic intensive games. A couple of quick questions. One more quick note I have been trying to research and understand as much as I can about building a computer but not the most knowledgeable so any help is greatly appreciated. Also I do not intend to overclock just looking to play those games and build a computer that will be able to play the newest games that come out for the next couple of years.

1. When it comes to those types of game should I go with an i5 processor or is it fine to save a little and get an AMD? (Was looking at FX-6100, Fx-6200 or Phenom II X4 965 Black)

2. What kind of graphics card should I go with? I wanna get one that will be a decent one for the next couple of years but I don't wanna over kill it since I have no plans on playing Call of Duty or anything like that.

Thanks for the help.
 
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Spartin503

Spartin503

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Jul 24, 2012
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An i5 would be prefered but the FX8350 is also great and you can save about 20$ but for games like Civ 5 and Simcity I would at least get the 8350. Also a you should get the best GPU you can afford because anything you can afford in a 400-500$ budget your not going to get anything that is way overkill. I would aim for the Radeon HD 7850 or 7870, or the GeForce GTX 660.
 
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mike1294

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I wanna say thanks for the reply. I have looked up your suggestions. It's kinda out of my price range. From what I could find a Radeon HD 7850 is $200 and an FX8350 is another $200. Just those two alone would already put me at $400. I would still need a motherboard, a tower, and memory. Would you have other suggestions? Thanks again for the help.
 
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mike1294

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No I am just gonna use the windows 7 from the laptop I have. I don't have any use for the laptop anymore when I build my new computer.
 
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mike1294

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Thanks for taking the time out to make that up for me. I have a desktop that is a few years old and thought about using the DVD burner out of it. I'm pretty sure that it wouldn't be a problem. I also have a 500GB HDD. How would I be able to find out if I would be able to use it? I was thinking if I could it would save me a few bucks.
 
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iceclock

iceclock

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ok.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/AcN6
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/AcN6/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/AcN6/benchmarks/

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($84.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock 970DE3/U3S3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($37.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Diamond Radeon HD 5850 1GB Video Card ($151.20 @ Compuvest)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 370 ATX Mid Tower Case ($36.39 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Antec Neo Eco 620W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NS72 DVD/CD Writer ($22.75 @ Amazon)
Total: $483.29
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-01-28 22:28 EST-0500)

Base Total: $503.29
Mail-in Rebates: -$20.00
Total: $483.29

should do the trick :)

 
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Spartin503

Spartin503

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You can use the DVD burner and 500GB HDD from your old computer as long as they are SATA drives and not IDE drives. SATA drives have an L shaped plug while the IDE drives have a lot of little pins.
 
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mike1294

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Is there a way to check if its SATA or IDE without opening the case up?
 
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mike1294

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Yes they both are SATA.
 
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Spartin503

Spartin503

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Ok then you can use both of those in your new build and save about 80$, you can put that into a FX8350 or Radeon HD 7850, either one will improve your overall performance but the better GPU will give you more performance in games.
 
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iceclock

iceclock

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Dec 4, 2010
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42,960
PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Adnu
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Adnu/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Adnu/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i5-3470 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($149.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: ASRock H77M Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($37.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7770 1GB Video Card ($104.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 370 ATX Mid Tower Case ($36.39 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Antec Neo Eco 620W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $429.33
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-01-28 23:10 EST-0500)

Base Total: $477.34
Mail-in Rebates: -$20.00
Shipping: $10.98
Total: $468.32

 
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