
Arma 3
Our Infantry Showcase test is most effective when comparing graphics cards, but doesn’t properly reflect just how taxing Arma 3 can be on the processor. To compensate, I shoot for an average of at least 50 FPS, though I ultimately base my conclusion on time spent playing Altis Map showcases like Fixed Wings and Gunships.

Both rigs survive through 1920x1080 at the standard defaults, though this quarter's PC delivers higher average and minimum frame rates, regardless of the scenario or showcase I loaded.
At 4800x900, last quarter’s AMD-based box suffered frame rate drops down into the teens. Overclocking its graphics card yielded no improvements. Rather, the game needed us to crank Trinity’s frequencies up to help smooth out performance. Intel’s Pentium G3258 proves to be more capable of withstanding the demands of three displays.

Ultra quality was too much for last quarter’s PC, even overclocked. The new machine outpaces it with ease, but leans on overclocking to smooth out the more demanding sequences. Lower resolutions become playable, though 1920x1080 requires a drop to the game’s High quality defaults.
Battlefield 4
Barring any frame pacing or micro-stuttering issues, an average of 40 FPS in this demanding sequence should prove playability through the entire single-player campaign.

Battlefield 4 favors last quarter’s quad-core AMD processor, at least until we raise the resolution enough to shift the bottleneck to our graphics hardware. At medium-quality default settings, both rigs remain fully capable through all tested resolutions.

The demands of DICE's Ultra preset reward my decision to shift funding away from the platform and over to the graphics card. Both processors keep up, but this quarter's Radeon R9 270 survives more definitively at 1920x1080. In order to remain playable, last quarter’s R7 265 needed overclocking and a drop to 2x MSAA.
We did face one issue when running Battlefield’s campaign. Each and every time we entered the game and loaded up the Tashgar level, there was a one- to two-second pause during the loading scene, where the sound hung and stuttered. Thankfully, the issue disappeared once we were in and playing.
- Overclocking Haswell On The Cheap
- CPU And Cooler
- Motherboard And Memory
- Graphics Card And Hard Drive
- Case, Power Supply And Optical Drive
- Assembling Our Gaming Box
- The Trials (And Tribulations) Of Overclocking
- How We Tested Our Q3 2014 Budget Gaming PC Build
- Results: Synthetics
- Results: Audio And Video
- Results: Adobe Creative Suite
- Results: Productivity
- Results: Compression
- Results: Arma 3 And Battlefield 4
- Results: Far Cry 3 And Grid 2
- Power Consumption And Temperatures
- Performance Summary
- Did We Build a Better Machine?
Its rated to serve up to 30 Amps but can do far more. Tests on this little gem shows it can output 22amps on each rail and maxes out around 38~39 Amps on both. Im paraphrasing a popular power supply testing site. Max wattage is about 553ish which is a good deal more than rated. This power supply can't be certified due to it lacks a circuit required but exceeds 80 percent efficiency.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pentium-g3258-overclocking-performance,3849-5.html
When toms reviewed this CPU it was shown to have poor latency
For a 500$ build i would probably do a 6300+265 build. 600$ i would probably jump the build up to a I5+265 or 8320+270X.
Pentium G3258 - $69.97
NZXT Kraken X31 - $73.98
Asus MAXIMUS VII HERO - $203.99
G.Skill Trident X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2133 - $184.99
Crucial M550 1TB 2.5" SSD - $447.98
Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX - $349.99
NZXT Phantom 530 (White) - $121.98
EVGA 650W ATX12V - $64.99 (not sure about its power good signal value?)
Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer - $16.99
Asus VG248QE Monitor - $264.99
D-Link DWA-171 802.11a/b/g/n/ac USB 2.0 - $29.27
Logitech MK550 w/Laser Mouse - $49.99
Corsair Vengeance 2100 - $79.99
Logitech Z506 155W 5.1ch - $69.99
Microsoft Windows 8.1 Professional (32/64-bit) - $170.99
Total: $2200
What you guys think? Usage? Racing Games at homes, audio/video encoding etc. I don't need K CPUs because I'm not in a hurry in this case.
Power source: 100% green aka Solar energy.
i use i3-4130 btw.
Its rated to serve up to 30 Amps but can do far more. Tests on this little gem shows it can output 22amps on each rail and maxes out around 38~39 Amps on both. This power supply can't be certified due to it lacks a circuit required but exceeds 80 percent efficiency.
To be more specific, the VP450 lacks PFC circuitry and as you said, this is required for 80+ certification. If the VP450 had it, it might manage 80+ Bronze.
I bought one last month to replace an old PSU (Antec SmartPower SL350) that got damaged by a power surge. At a glance, it looks like a nice little unit... and it is tier-2b too, which means close to as-good-as-it-gets.
you could possibly get mobo for half of your estimated price and put this money towards better CPU(that's necessary for video/audio encoding).
Also Crucial M550 1TB 2.5" SSD - $447.98 is overkill, you'll be better off with 256GB SSD & 3 TB regular HDD = more capacity and your saved money could be spent on better PSU(Seasonic, Corsair, whatever).
You may want to put Antec at the first place in that list. Look them up as they are oldest and second to none in power supply companys. Seasonic was once their main manufacturer and many of their units are designed off Antecs leading power supply designs. Look up on newegg for example the highest rated power supply and you will see the Antec earthwatt 380. At the 650 Watt they again are the highest rated with Seasonic in about a second place. Their 750 hcg is about a tight with Corsairs much higher priced HX 750i.
Trust me that PSU is the best part of that build. While it doesn't have a second PCI-e power plug you could use a molex to PCI-e connecter and run a R9 285. Again this power supply is highly under rated in both watts and Amps output.
This is what Corsair is doing now, with their CX (and I believe GS) lines; CWT builds them with Samxon capacitors that can't take heat. If you're interested, you can read more about these over on the badcaps.org forum.
P.S. I have a Phenom II x4 in one of CPUs and have built with more AMD CPUs then intel but that doesn't mean I spew this AMD "future proof" jargon line