$500-$600 Gaming/School PC

[ulysses31]

Approximate Purchase Date: 10 Days

Budget Range: 500-600

System Usage from Most to Least Important: gaming, storage, school, watching movies, surfing the internet

Are you buying a monitor: No


Do you need to buy OS: No


Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg.com

Location: San Diego, CA, United States

Parts Preferences: amd

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: No

Additional Comments: I have a budget of $500, but maybe I can stretch it to $600. I want to use this to play games and store a lot of stuff that I have on my netbook, so a 1tb hard drive is a must. I'm an engineering student and I use software such as Solid Works and CATIA and want it to run it properly. And yeah, also movies.

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: I have an asus 1215t and since I bought it two years ago I kinda moved away from pc gaming because... well, I can't play anything on this computer. I'm having some money coming my way so I want to invest it in a good computer... mostly because of The Elder Scrolls Online. I already have a monitor and OS, I just need the tower.

Thanks a lot for your time. It's my first time posting here... so I hope I did it right.

 

[cutebeans]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($119.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: ASRock 970DE3/U3S3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($44.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($71.68 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 1GB Video Card ($164.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Source 220 ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224BB DVD/CD Writer ($15.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $567.60
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-13 22:29 EST-0500)

Hi, this would be best.

Btw, what is your monitor resolution?

If you don't want to go over the budget.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($133.79 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock 970DE3/U3S3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($44.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($73.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition 1GB Video Card ($104.98 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Source 220 ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224BB DVD/CD Writer ($15.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $523.71
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-13 22:31 EST-0500)

Of course, the 7850 video card is better.

 

[blazorthon]

I suggest against using any CX-430 in such a system as these. Their bad caps are worrisome for a system with both a 7850 and an FX-6300. Going a little cheaper in the case would be adequate (such as done to a Challenger or a Redbone) to get a more reliable PSU such as an Antec VP-450, an Antec BP-430.

 

[cutebeans]

Hi, this is the cx430 v3.

Wasn't that bad caps issue only found in the Corsair cx430 v2?

 

[blazorthon]

Ahh, V3 is new to me. I'll hold comment on it until I've read some reviews and put them through a few tests myself; my bad.

 

[cutebeans]

Yeah, The first one is the Cx430 which doesn't even pass the 80+ cert.

The second one was the Cx430v2 which passes the 80+ cert.

The cx430v3 was just named cx430 which now passes the 80+ bronze cert.

If you google around, you can see that other countries have the v3. I forgot what forum I found that explained this.

Hope this helps.

 

[blazorthon]

I just wish Corsair would be less confusing about the model numbers (what, they can't change it to CX431 and 432? it was bad enough juggling 430 V1 and 430 V2, especially since they seem to like hiding the model version number).

Thanks for the clarification.

 

[cutebeans]

Yeah me too!

It's a good thing we cleared it up. I think that corsair just wants to clear up it's extra inventory of v2s.

If they put in the v3 then no one would buy the v2 anymore because it's outdated and they would be forced to price drop it to oblivion haha.

I'm assuming of course.

 

[ulysses31]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($119.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: ASRock 970DE3/U3S3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($44.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($71.68 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 1GB Video Card ($164.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Source 220 ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224BB DVD/CD Writer ($15.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $567.60
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-13 22:29 EST-0500)

Hi, this would be best.

Btw, what is your monitor resolution?

If you don't want to go over the budget.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($133.79 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock 970DE3/U3S3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($44.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($73.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition 1GB Video Card ($104.98 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Source 220 ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224BB DVD/CD Writer ($15.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $523.71
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-13 22:31 EST-0500)

Of course, the 7850 video card is better.

Wow this looks amazing!
I think I will go mad with this setup. My screen resolution es 1366x768, but I think I'm buying a LED TV to watch movies and as monitor. But it will be on the next couple of months.

Thanks a lot for your time. I'm really happy with this setup... I'm going to go for the first one.

 

[ulysses31]

Best answer selected by ulysses31.