New Gaming build Budget $600

[stoonley]

Budget Range: $600.00

System Will be used mainly for gaming.

Parts not needed: Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse, and Case. No accessories needed at the moment.

Country: USA

Overclocking: No


I have been trying to do my research and come up with my own answers, but there's just too much information out there to know what parts really complement one another. The focus of this build is for an upgrade in the future. I don't need to run ultra high settings, although that would be nice it's not an absolute. I plan to upgrade in the next 7-8 months anyway, so a computer that will be able to run the latest games right now smoothly, on decent graphics and that is easily up gradable is the goal of the build.

Thank you for your time and future insight, it is greatly appreciated.

 

[jesot]

If you're going to upgrade it again, you'll want to prioritize parts that won't need upgrading when you go to do so. Hopefully motherboard, memory, hdd, ssd.

I'd go with an i3 CPU since you can tend to get motherboards that can mount one and upgrade to i5/i7 easily. I haven't done enough research on GPUs lately to give an informed opinion on what the best value is. I still run everything that comes out on my GTX 260 and really don't plan to upgrade until hardware is being tested against Unreal 4 games.

Do you have an optical drive?

 

[stoonley]

I don't have an optical drive, I'll have to buy. What type of motherboard would be suggested?

 

[stoonley]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Ey6g

This is what I have come up with so far. If you could please review and give advice, it would really help out.

Thanks!

 

[djangoringo]

You need a better card, the 650 gtx is a low end card, the xfx psu is made by seasonic, and it's at 40$ after ap and mir : http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Eyed

 

[jesot]

^ that's a good plan.

Also worth noting the i3 3220 is $100 from Microcenter, so that brings the price down by about $30.

 

[stoonley]

Is there an NVIDIA/EVGA equivalent to that Radeon?

 

[stoonley]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/EyCJ

I decided to raise the budget $100, and maybe won't need an upgrade other then a cpu after market cooler to install if I decide to overclock in the future with that cpu.

ATi generally has cheaper gpu's, but back when I was gaming on the desktop, the drivers really pissed me off. I've read that has changed, but the anger still resides within me. I think that 570 is pretty equivalent to the 7850?

Is this a good build?

 

[djangoringo]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/EyCJ

I decided to raise the budget $100, and maybe won't need an upgrade other then a cpu after market cooler to install if I decide to overclock in the future with that cpu.

ATi generally has cheaper gpu's, but back when I was gaming on the desktop, the drivers really pissed me off. I've read that has changed, but the anger still resides within me. I think that 570 is pretty equivalent to the 7850?

Is this a good build?

Get the i5-3470, it's a quad core i5 ivybridge, you can raise the frequency up to 4 ghz, it's more than enough, there's no more cpu coming for lga 1155, so just get the i5 and a good card, the 570 isn't worth the cost, the 7850 or 660 gtx outperforms it, with lower power consumption, amd offers two games, since you can spend up to 700$, i'd get the 7870 tahiti le, it's out of stock for now, but it will be back soon : http://pcpartpicker.com/p/EyJO
Or if you want a nvidia card, get the 660 gtx : http://pcpartpicker.com/part/zotac-video-card-zt6090110m

 

[jesot]

I think you'd be happy with that. The step up in CPU & GPU will make a big difference in performance. It's been awhile since I was on an ATI card as well and have the same bad memories.

It's tough to get a gaming rig under $600 because if you spend another $100, you can get so much more out of your money. This is a prime example.

When I upgrade (trying to hold out until Unreal 4 Engine so I know where I need to get with my hardware), I usually end up spending $600-800 for Memory, CPU, Mobo, & GPU. Getting almost an entire rig out of that money is a little harder. I think $700-800 is the sweet spot where you get a sweet box before you hit steep diminishing returns.

 

[stoonley]

Thanks, I think I've got my build here. Really appreciate your guys' help!