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Which of these builds is better gaming

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So I am looking to build a gaming PC for around a $500-700 budget. I'm wanting to gain a lot of fps, while still being able to play on medium-high graphics. I've been looking online for builds around the same price and so far I've found 2 that I like. Though, I don't know which one is better for gaming.

ASUS M5A97 LE R2.0 AM3+ ($75)

AMD FX-6100 ($110)

8GB Samsung DDR3 1600MHz RAM

Gigabyte Radeon HD 7850 Graphics Card

Western Digital Blue 500GB (7200 RPM, 16MB Cache) ($60)

Lite-On Internal DVD Writer ($18)

Cooler Master Elite 430 Mid Tower ($50)

Corsair CX430 V2 Series 430 Watt ($30)

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Intel Core i3-3220 Processor
Gigabyte Radeon HD 7850 Graphics Card

Asus P8-H77-I Motherboard

8GB Samsung DDR3 1600MHz RAM

500GB Western Digital Caviar Blue Hard Drive

Bitfenix Prodigy Case

430W Corsair CX430 Power Supply
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If theres another build that you could recommend please tell me.


More about : builds gaming

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Gaming Expert

I would go with something like this

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3470 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($149.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: MSI B75MA-E33 Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($57.99 @ Mac Mall)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($39.98 @ Outlet PC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.98 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB Video Card ($214.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($52.99 @ Microcenter)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($57.98 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($21.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $665.88
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-13 10:09 EST-0500)

Best solution

For around 700$ here's my pick

BitFenix Merc Alpha Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

CORSAIR Builder Series CX500 500W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

AMD FX-6300 Vishera 3.5GHz (4.1GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 95W Six-Core Desktop Processor FD6300WMHKBOX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

ASRock 970 PRO3 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Kingston HyperX XMP Blu Red Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 Desktop Memory Model KHX16C9B1RK2/8X
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

PowerColor PCS+ AX7870 2GBD5-2DHPPV3E Radeon HD 7870 MYST. Edition (Tahiti LE) 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card (UEFI Ready)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

OCZ Vertex 3 Series - MAX IOPS Edition VTX3MI-25SAT3-120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Western Digital WD Blue WD5000AAKX 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

With this you have a 6 core unlocked CPU with a full featured motherboard along with tahity LE 7870 (~3% less powerful from 7950) and 120GB SSD!
Gaming Expert

Some thought's on your pick -

The 7870 LE is a good choice if it fits in the budget.

The hexacore wont be utilised by games, the i5 3470 will beat it out on all games.

The OCZ vertex 3 is not a particularly good SSD, the vertex 4 is a great SSD but is considerably more.
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mikerockett said:
Some thought's on your pick -

The 7870 LE is a good choice if it fits in the budget.

The hexacore wont be utilised by games, the i5 3470 will beat it out on all games.

The OCZ vertex 3 is not a particularly good SSD, the vertex 4 is a great SSD but is considerably more.


If you play at Full HD resolution with filters CPU doesn't make a huge difference as all the work is done by the GPU...only in few games you can see some difference but still it's not that high.

There are games that require a multi core CPU ex BF3 64 client multiplayer. And there are a lot who are build according to BF3 engine.

The last reason I choose AMD is because of future upgrades. The 1155 is already a dead platform thanks to Hasswell coming. I would only go Intel with X79 + 3820 in order to have expandebility but that's costy!

Plus AM3+ is a less costy platform which makes room for better GPU or a SSD.

For Vertex 3 It happens to have it in my system and I didn't experience any problems. I have read some bad reviews though and there are other ssd's in his price so our friend can change it!
Gaming Expert

Multicore yes, hexacore would be pushing what's needed.

"If you play at Full HD resolution with filters CPU doesn't make a huge difference as all the work is done by the GPU...only in few games you can see some difference but still it's not that high." - My point exactly, hexacore isn't necessary and clock for clock on regular tasks Intel beats out AMD.

Agreed this is the end of Ivy bridge but that's not to say it's not worth getting. If AMD keep the trend up of just dumping more cores into there CPU's rather than focusing on clock performance upgrading to a new AM3+ chip later on won't be much of an investment as games programmers are still catching up with utilising four cores let alone 8 or more.

Your points aren't without merit and i'm not here to argue, just to inform the OP.

mikerockett said:
Multicore yes, hexacore would be pushing what's needed.

"If you play at Full HD resolution with filters CPU doesn't make a huge difference as all the work is done by the GPU...only in few games you can see some difference but still it's not that high." - My point exactly, hexacore isn't necessary and clock for clock on regular tasks Intel beats out AMD.

Agreed this is the end of Ivy bridge but that's not to say it's not worth getting. If AMD keep the trend up of just dumping more cores into there CPU's rather than focusing on clock performance upgrading to a new AM3+ chip later on won't be much of an investment as games programmers are still catching up with utilising four cores let alone 8 or more.

Your points aren't without merit and i'm not here to argue, just to inform the OP.


Programs and even games tend to use more cores down the road. Plus with Vishera AMD made a step forward to clock perfomance. There are a lot of real world scenarios that AMD's 8 Core catch up 3570k or even beat it. It's all according to the application.

Plus I like the fact that they offer a more complete platform for the cost! Ex with 200$ I can get a full featured motherboard with SATA & USB III, high quality caps, 16X PCI-E etc while with Intel I must pay 200$ for just a good CPU!

I'm not here to argue too, I'm just sharing what I know with others ;) 

Alright, I like all of your suggestions, but i have another question. should I get a larger amount of memory. Not RAM, but HDD/SSD memory (I'm a computer noob and I apologize if i don't have the correct terminology). I currently have a 138gb HDD in this computer and I am running out of space (only 3gb left). Should I go with a 120GB SSD or the 1TB HDD?
Gaming Expert

I would say it's dependant on how quickly you could buy another HDD. If say you could afford one the month after buying your computer i would get the SSD.

If it's going to be like 6 months before you can afford a new one i'd get the HDD.

Reasoning for this is that you want your OS installed on the SSD along with your programs, games etc. If you start with a HDD and add the SSD later it is more of a pain to switch the OS over and re install programs.

Best thing to do would be go with the SSD, install OS, games and programs on that. Transfer your data from your old HDD to the SSD, format your old HDD so it's blank, copy your data back over to the HDD to use as storage, purchase new larger capacity HDD in the near future.

Or better yet wait til you've got another $50/60 spare then get the SSD and a 500gb HDD all at the same time.

Two more questions. I should have asked this when this thread was newer, but I kinda forgot to ask about this (hopefully someone will see this).

Will either of the setups that michxymi or mikerockett or my own (first post) support dual-monitoring while gaming? ( I like to watch twitch, or video podcast, or YouTube when I game or do school work)

What about video streaming on Twitch, could I do that? This isn't something I wanted to prioritize but I would still like to know.

Two more questions. I should have asked this when this thread was newer, but I kinda forgot to ask about this (hopefully someone will see this).

Will either of the setups that michxymi or mikerockett or my own (first post) support dual-monitoring while gaming? ( I like to watch twitch, or video podcast, or YouTube when I game or do school work)

What about video streaming on Twitch, could I do that? This isn't something I wanted to prioritize but I would still like to know.

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