$300 - $400 Christmas Gift for a Friend!

[Tundraxis]

I'm looking to buy a $300 - $400 PC for a friend for Christmas. We are in a group of about 6 friends and mostly everyone has upgraded or is upgrading their PC to something game worthy ($650+ Builds). Meanwhile this friend of ours has a HP desktop from 2004. I'm not rich or anything but I had some extra money saved up I'm willing to spend toward a small system for him to be able to play games with us. His tolerance for lag is good as he runs games with very very low settings and low fps. So I 'd think any upgrade in general is more than nothing.

From what I know he was gifted a new gpu (very cheap) for Christmas by his family, Radeon HD 5450.

If you're able to build around that to save money, then great. But if you can fit a better card in the price range even better! Thanks to all that submit a build, I'll look over all them to get an idea.

 

[Tundraxis]

Anyone?

 

[CG100]

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2gutG
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2gutG/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2gutG/benchmarks/

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($95.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Asus M5A97 LE R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($38.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 1GB Video Card ($136.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: NZXT Source 210 Elite (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($42.98 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: XFX 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($17.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $457.88
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-12-07 11:51 EST-0500)

You can always change something to make it cheaper

 

[Tundraxis]

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2gutG
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2gutG/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2gutG/benchmarks/

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($95.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Asus M5A97 LE R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($38.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 1GB Video Card ($136.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: NZXT Source 210 Elite (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($42.98 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: XFX 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($17.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $457.88
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-12-07 11:51 EST-0500)

You can always change something to make it cheaper

Thanks for build

 

[Tundraxis]

I may be able to buy a GTX 650 Ti 1GB from a personal friend for about $80ish.
Maybe it'll be easier to build around that?

 

[RazerZ]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor ($129.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-D3P ATX AM3+/AM3 Motherboard ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($52.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.98 @ OutletPC)
Case: Antec One ATX Mid Tower Case ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: OCZ ModXStream Pro 500W 80+ Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($47.99 @ Microcenter)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $390.92
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-12-07 12:00 EST-0500)

Let him use the graphics card he has and later on he can upgrade it

 

[Tundraxis]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor ($129.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-D3P ATX AM3+/AM3 Motherboard ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($52.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.98 @ OutletPC)
Case: Antec One ATX Mid Tower Case ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: OCZ ModXStream Pro 500W 80+ Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($47.99 @ Microcenter)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $390.92
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-12-07 12:00 EST-0500)

Let him use the graphics card he has and later on he can upgrade it

Thanks for the build, I took some considerations from your build and toned it to my preference.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2gvlj
CPU: I can save money and drop to an Athlon or Phenom and sill offer good experience.
MoBo: I do not buy Gigabyte product, bad experiences and rep.
PSU: Cheaper and I prefer the semi modular corsair psu's
Case: Love BitFenix cases, same price range. So why not!

 

[MDXX]

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2gutG
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2gutG/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2gutG/benchmarks/

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($95.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Asus M5A97 LE R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($38.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 1GB Video Card ($136.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: NZXT Source 210 Elite (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($42.98 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: XFX 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($17.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $457.88
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-12-07 11:51 EST-0500)

You can always change something to make it cheaper

I hope you see this

But i was looking at the 90$ model of the MOBO. How does the LE perform? They reviews i read seemed to sway from side to side. I wanted to go cheaper. So is the LE a good choice?

 

[RazerZ]

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2gutG
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2gutG/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2gutG/benchmarks/

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($95.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Asus M5A97 LE R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($38.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 1GB Video Card ($136.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: NZXT Source 210 Elite (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($42.98 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: XFX 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($17.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $457.88
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-12-07 11:51 EST-0500)

You can always change something to make it cheaper

I hope you see this

But i was looking at the 90$ model of the MOBO. How does the LE perform? They reviews i read seemed to sway from side to side. I wanted to go cheaper. So is the LE a good choice?

Yes if you don't need the features of the standard one LE is great.

 

[Tundraxis]

I'm looking around and I'm finding that the Phenom II X4 965 Black is nearly impossible to find for sale. It's all discontinued.

 

[mastrom101]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus M5A97 LE R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($58.13 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Asus Radeon HD 7850 1GB Video Card ($104.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($29.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $443.07
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-12-07 20:39 EST-0500)

 

[MDXX]

I'm looking around and I'm finding that the Phenom II X4 965 Black is nearly impossible to find for sale. It's all discontinued.

omg please dont say that... i was going to buy one for my build this month. Now im sad, if i cant find it i guess i will have to settle with an fx6300

 

[Tundraxis]

I'm looking around and I'm finding that the Phenom II X4 965 Black is nearly impossible to find for sale. It's all discontinued.

omg please dont say that... i was going to buy one for my build this month. Now im sad, if i cant find it i guess i will have to settle with an fx6300

I believe it's been discontinued.

 

[MDXX]

I'm looking around and I'm finding that the Phenom II X4 965 Black is nearly impossible to find for sale. It's all discontinued.

omg please dont say that... i was going to buy one for my build this month. Now im sad, if i cant find it i guess i will have to settle with an fx6300

I believe it's been discontinued.

Yeah but i was hoping some places might still have stock. Ill scope around more

 

[CG100]

I'm looking around and I'm finding that the Phenom II X4 965 Black is nearly impossible to find for sale. It's all discontinued.

omg please dont say that... i was going to buy one for my build this month. Now im sad, if i cant find it i guess i will have to settle with an fx6300

I believe it's been discontinued.

Yeah but i was hoping some places might still have stock. Ill scope around more

Don't worry. A 6300 will perform very well it's just the x4 965 is cheaper so I chose it.