Building My Own Gaming PC With a Budget of $500-$600

GoldJomell

Honorable
Jun 16, 2013
15
0
10,510
This is my first time building a PC. Sadly I only have a short budget of $500-$600. Please provide links to each part! Thank you!

Budget : $500 - $600. $600 is sort of my max, but my absolute max is $650. That's with tax and shipping and all that jazz.
Usage : Mainly playing games like LoL, WoW, Minecraft, and all that.
Required Parts : Tower Case, Motherboard, CPU, RAM, GPU, Power Supply, OS, Hard Drive (Preferably SSD), and Optical Drive.
Non-Required Parts : Keyboard, Mouse, and Monitor.
Preferences to Parts : I'm looking more towards an AMD Processor and motherboard mainly because they're cheaper. Also, an AMD Graphics Card, cause I heard that BF4 is coming out pairing with AMD.
Overclocking : Yes? Since this is my first PC that I'm building, I was thinking of overclocking my processor, but then that requires an extra cooling system, plus I currently have no knowledge of overclocking. I could always study and learn how to, but I would be afraid of doing something wrong.
Additional Comments : No CrossFire, because I don't plan to have multiple GPUs. I was hoping that I could play LoL in like the highest settings or something like that, because I used to play LoL CONSTANTLY, but my laptop is a piece of shit.

Well that's about it! I hope I didn't take the time creating this thread for nothing, so please be descriptive and thorough. Thanks!
 

X79

Honorable
Well here's one hesitant build for Intel:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-3210 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor ($106.26 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ECS H77H2-M3(1.0) Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($56.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($57.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($65.58 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7850 1GB Video Card ($169.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 431 Plus (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($87.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $649.76
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-06-17 06:29 EDT-0400)

I hate Windows.


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($119.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus M5A97 LE R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($68.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($57.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($65.58 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 650 Ti 1GB Video Card ($126.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 431 Plus (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($54.99 @ Microcenter)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($17.98 @ Outlet PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($87.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $650.48
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-06-17 10:15 EDT-0400)

You could also use the GPU from the 2nd build in the first one to make it cheaper still.

And the AMD thing is just marketing I believe. Intel will work too.
 

GoldJomell

Honorable
Jun 16, 2013
15
0
10,510




I actually like that build. Although I feel like I can find a cheaper CPU and Mobo since the GPU will do all the heavy lifting. How's this build? http://pcpartpicker.com/p/17ccH
 

X79

Honorable
A 500GB SSD would be a stupid purchase; especially on a budget.

Don't go higher than 256GB. Gets too expensive otherwise, with the current state of SSD technology.

The Samsung 840 series SSDs are good.