Picking the right graphics card for a low-end PC can be tricky. Some inexpensive boards even work without an auxiliary power input. If your card of choice does need more than the PCIe slot's 75 W, they're going to be too short to run behind the motherboard. You need to run them up and over instead. If your card doesn't need that much power, run the leads from your PSU where they won't be seen using cable ties.
Mounting a graphics card is easy: loosen the slot bracket’s screw, remove one or two slot shields (depending on the width of your card), and then carefully insert the graphics card. Clamp it into place using the slot bracket. Finish by tightening the bracket's screw.
MSI's surprisingly long GeForce GTX 750 Ti Twin Frozr Gaming card demonstrates that longer high-end boards would bump into the obsolete and useless externally-facing 3.5” bay.
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- Building a Budget Intel-Based MicroATX Gaming Cube
- Deepcool Steam Castle
- MSI H97M-G43 and Intel Pentium G3258
- Deepcool Maelstrom 120: Closed-Loop Liquid Cooling
- Storage Installation
- PSU Installation and Cabling
- Installing the Graphics Card and Finishing Touches
- Overclocking Temperature and Sound
- Picking Parts For Your Own Build



I would get a X4 760K with a better GPU instead of a G3258 with a more expensive motherboard...
Yeah a I5 would totally be better, but as for gaming, it would not push a 750 TI much more than a G3258 would. But you are right to think that a water cooling is not a good idea budget-wise
AIO $ 80, ODD $16 , RAM 8GB (2x4GB) $73
Most of these budget build makes no sense when there is no strict budget cap. Next time when there is another budget build and there is something that just got to have it, but cost like $100 more, let's up the price cap and still call it a budget build!
exactly my first thoughts. I'd go with a Fractal Design Core 1000, an EKL Alpenfohn Sella, and just get a MX100 256GB instead of the HDD. If you really need more space, you can always get a big HDD later, or just buy an external USB 3.0 one, or use an NAS or cloud. Also a good 300W PSU should be more than enough for this system, even if you overclock to 4.5 GHz.
exactly my first thoughts. I'd go with a Fractal Design Core 1000, an EKL Alpenfohn Sella, and just get a MX100 256GB instead of the HDD. If you really need more space, you can always get a big HDD later, or just buy an external USB 3.0 one, or use an NAS or cloud. Also a good 300W PSU should be more than enough for this system, even if you overclock to 4.5 GHz.
Yeah, but in a budget build I would use a HDD only. Games these days are about 20-40gigs. That's a lot. SSD's will only increase the loading times, nothing else, no graphical improvements. I would just go with a WB black and spend the saved money on a better CPU/GPU.
And a 400-500W PSU would be the better way, since good 300W PSU's are hard to find everywhere. Plus if the graphics card gets pumped up, the power will too. The Seasonic S520II is the best budget PSU right now.
G3258 $79
MSI Z87M GAMING motherboard $179
Kingston hyper x fury black $99
western digital caviar blue $69
2nd hand 500W psu $15
2nd hand GTX 660 $140
3 coolermaster sickleflow x green fans x3 $12 ($36)
1 bitfenix spectre pro 200mm green $27
gigabyte k7 force keyboard $59
razer naga hex green $79
and a generic cd rom $19
this is a nice looking budget build and performs really well
and if you where to buy a new GTX 660 it would be $199
and a new 500 w psu it would be $49 so it would be $895
and the G3250 can be overclocked to 4.5 on the stock cooler for me.
I play watchdogs a lot high textures and ultra graphics setting and I get between 25-50 fps average is around 40fps
this is a high performance budget build and stays really cool