Well after becoming slightly more educated then I was about gaming computers, Id like to get some of your opinions. Im always heading over here to learn and I figure it doesn't hurt to get some advice from you guys! :encouragement: Theres TONS of videos on youtube with different recomendations on building a gaming rig... literally tons... it can get overwhelming and makes it hard to decide :dejection:... heres an example of one I watched http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iiDX2QwGmQ&feature=youtu.be So to mess around Ive been trying different combos on ebay to check some prices out... How about this? CPU... AMD A-Series APU (CPU+GPU) Quad-Core Processor Model A6-3670K 2.7GHz [TABLE] [TR] [TD="align: center"] [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] Motherboard... MSI A55M-P33 FM1 AMD A55 Graphics card... XFX Radeon HD 6770 And from here on id try to find the best deal on ram, a good powersupply, and hardrive and try to find a cheap case locally...any tips about this? So pretty much what im getting at is can I build a decent computer for under $400 that can run some of these newer games? Battlefield 3? ... eventually the Dayz standalone :tongue: Im trying to convince my self to build one... I would love to see your budget gaming rigs and details about them too!!!! What do you guys recommend doing? Thanks for taking the time to view this!!!!
Your budget is $400? If you can, save up another $160 and get this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883227437 My best friend and I both got one. It runs every game I throw at it just great.
advice, do not cheap out on PSU, RAM, Motherboard or HDD if you're going with an AMD APU Go for the fastest ram the motherboard will support and as much as you can afford / cram in.
Thanks for the advice guys im gonna look through everything you guys posted, that charts sweet!!! Also would it be smart to wait for black friday and buy then?
My advice would be to consider buying second hand. I got my processor and GPU from eBay for half their retail price and now I'm sitting on a rather sweet PC which only cost me around £350 including a 24" monitor. It's a risk of course but it's worth looking into. As for which GPU you buy, don't be tempted by the latest and greatest if you're on a budget. I run my system off a Nvidia GTX 260 from 2008. Yes it's ancient and it doesn't have DX11 support but it plays BF3 on high settings with V-Sync enabled without breaking a sweat. So a 2011 card is probably all you need for now until you can afford better.
I built my computer while I was in high school on a budget as it was for a graduation project. Granted, my computer is built more towards being able to cater to video editing, I play a lot of my games on this thing and it runs amazing. Case: Cooler Master Mid-ATX Elite 310 PSU: Corsair Gaming Series 750w PSU Motherboard: I originally had a Gigabyte H61M-D2P-B3 for Hackintosh purposes; however, I have since moved to a ECS Elitegroup H61H2-M2 MicroATX board. Processor: Intel i5 Quad Core Sandy Bridge at 3.1GHz 2400 GPU: PNY NVIDIA GT430 1GB RAM: 6GB DDR3 Corsair (One 4GB and one 2GB) My build is nothing special but I do have to agree with synrgy87 on this one. When it comes to building a computer, don't buy cheap parts. You want something that is going to last you for a long while if you don't plan on upgrading your build every two years or so due to hardware failure. Granted, my previous motherboard was around $60USD, it only lasted me for 2 years and I had to buy a whole new motherboard just to get my computer to even boot. I don't know how much more you could go over, but my build ran me on a budget of around $600 dollars and I only spent around $500 if my memory serves me correct. Your best bet would be to just search high and low and find parts that are going to suit your needs and making a list and adding to all together. If you go over your budget, just eliminate certain parts and search for ones that are going to fit your budget because $400 is quite a stretch for being able to build a computer that should efficiently handle gaming on it. I originally wanted a higher end GPU but my budget wouldn't allow me to get a higher end one so I went with the GT430. Granted, my GPU is more or less built for media centers, it handles every single game I throw at it on high if not max settings depending on the game and its specifications.
I'd agree with the cheap parts thing only to an extent. I believe that anyone who buys anything but budget memory is a muppet, I see so many PC's with fancy "gaming memory" with silly branded heat shields. It all comes from the same place, as long as the speed is good that's all that matters.
Exactly! I can understand that some people want to put the "best" parts into their builds but at what cost? I'm running every day Corsair DDR3 RAM sticks that aren't built for "gaming" and my computer runs just fine. Granted, I do a lot of video work on this computer and I do a lot of gaming on it as well but I have no gripes with what I'm using. As long as my render time doesn't reach 1hr< (currently, my render times for .mp4 in 720p are around 15min) and I can do things efficiently on this build, I'm a happy man.
That's what it's all about. Too many rig builders out there just like waving their cocks around. As long as you're happy that's all that matters.
Could you give me the full specs of what your running? That would be sweet! If thats possible I would probly just build with an older card but it seems like everyone exaggerates how nice of a card you need to play newer games... :/
I'm running an i3 3.3 GHZ Sandy Bridge. 8GB of 1066 DDR3 Ram (admittedly I could have got a little faster) on a GA-Z77-DS3H Gigabyte Motherboard with 2 x 500GB Hard Drives and the GPU mentioned earlier. 450watt silent PSU. All wrapped up in a second hand £10 Thermal Take case. No fancy water cooling, no fancy fans. Everything stock. It's not an amazing spec, but do you know what I use it for Windows 7 and Mac OS X and I love it, doesn't give me any problems and copes with most things I throw at it. If I were really bothered about performance in games I could get a better GPU and CPU (probably wouldn't need anymore than an i5). The only games I do play are Borderlands 2, Battlefield 3 and Counter Strike GO. No I can't max them out but I can get them pretty close and performance is in the 40-60fps mark. I even tested with Crysis 1 on high (not Ultra) and even then it's very very playable. So yeah, it's not a stellar system but it does the job and it's future proof to a point. It won't support a new Haswell Intel processor but I don't think I'm gonna need that much power...an i7 Ivy Bridge would probably be enough for me. Seeing as you're building for gaming, I'd recommend one of the higher spec 4 or 5 series Nvidia cards (ATi are good as well, I just don't know anything about them). Alternatively, cheap out on everything but the GPU and spend as much as you can on one. The question you have to ask yourself is...do you want to max out everything and have every tiny piece of detail available to see in the game...or do you just want to play and have fun? I'm not saying that you should run a game on low settings in 640x480 resolution, but if you're gonna start chasing the absolute max and frame rate then you'll be paying through the nose, and once you start over clocking and comparing specs, you'll end up getting trapped in a never ending race for performance...it happened to me back in the 90's and I spent more time fucking around with my machine than I did playing games. This site is great for making a decision. http://www.hwcompare.com/category/gpu-comparisons/ I guess my overall point and advice is...don't go with cheap parts but then don't listen to those who recommend the gaming or black edition of every product out there, also try not to worry about fancy LED's and fans either. Yes keep your computer cool and yes the quieter the better but at the end of the day, it's just a box that sits under your desk and it's whats on the screen that counts. The beauty of building your own machine is that you're in control. And what you can't afford now, you might be able to later so just get something reliable and working first and you can always upgrade later. One thing to keep in mind however is that whatever you buy, it's very hard to sell on a custom built system and if you do you'll lose money. So whatever you build you have to love it.
i5 used cpu sandybridge $99 any i5 compat board from asus or gigabyte $59 Nvidia gpu for good drivers support for years $330 Antec Basiq Vp450 psu $60 Case, whatever it's just a box $19-30 No optical 4gb ram $59 Windows 7 oem sticker+code off aliexpress $19 or so for legit windows Western digital Red 4K sector 1/2/3 TB drive for storage - $99/129/159 respectively 64GB boot drive, SSD samsung $60 Or if you want to save even more money , go amd black cpu and an asus board.
I personally prefer AMD over Intel as it's a bit cheaper for what I perceive to be nearly the same power...
Amd cpus are considerably less powerful than intel chips. Thing is nothing really uses all the cores past dvd or bdr ripping and video encoding. New intel chips suck as they put out too much heat as voltage reg is on cpu , cannot overclock well even with water. New amd chips compare poorly to even old sandy bridge cpu but are super cheap, often $99 with a free motherboard. Really all the intel rigs I have ever built worked forever , but I've been through three amd chips and motherboards with continuous RMAs concerning the am3 chipsets. That said the PC I am using right now is: Asus m5a97 $80 Sempron 145 overclocked to 4.2ghz $29 4GB DDR3 $50 now, ddr3 is expensive, I paid $29 Overclocked to the max bus speeds 64GB something ssd $60 560ti (twice RMA's grrrr) $90 now used, I paid launch price. Antec VP450 (it is a crazy psu value, read the reviews) $70 $358 plus a reused case. $99 lg led screen Mind you I need the single core sempron for technical reasons, a FX black edition chip can be had for $99 with free motherboard, so it's even cheaper than what I paid for 4 cores. The thing I hate about amd is the poor poor driver support on everything once it gets past 1-2 years in age. They just abandon you. Nvidia drivers just make your GPU better and better. Just my opinion.
[TABLE="class: tableCartHeader"] [TR] [TD][/TD] [TD] [/TD] [TD="align: right"] Price [/TD] [TD="align: right"] Total [/TD] [TD="align: right"] Quantity [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] [TABLE="class: tableCart"] [TR] [TD] [/TD] [TD] ASUS M5A78L-M LX PLUS Socket AM3+ 760G mATX AMD Mo SKU: 083790 [/TD] [TD="align: right"] $10.00 Free after Rebate [Details] [/TD] [TD="align: right"] $10.00 [/TD] [TD="align: right"] Update Remove [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [/TR] [TR] [TD="align: right"] [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="colspan: 3"] [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] [TABLE="class: tableCart"] [TR] [TD] [/TD] [TD] AMD FX 4130 Black Edition 3.8GHz Quad-Core Socket SKU: 300749 [/TD] [TD="align: right"] $99.99 [/TD] [TD="align: right"] $99.99 [/TD] [TD="align: right"] Update Remove [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [/TR] [TR] [TD="align: right"] [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="colspan: 3"] [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] [TABLE="class: tableCart"] [TR] [TD] [/TD] [TD] Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB DDR3-1600 PC3-12800) C SKU: 211789 [/TD] [TD="align: right"] $39.99 [/TD] [TD="align: right"] $39.99 [/TD] [TD="align: right"] Update Remove [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="colspan: 3"] [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="align: right"] [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="colspan: 3"] [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] [TABLE="class: tableCart"] [TR] [TD] [/TD] [TD] MSI Tactical TC-128 ATX Mid Tower Computer Case SKU: 794032 [/TD] [TD="align: right"] $24.99 [/TD] [TD="align: right"] $24.99 [/TD] [TD="align: right"] Update Remove [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [/TR] [TR] [/TR] [TR] [TD="colspan: 3"] [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] [TABLE="class: tableCart"] [TR] [TD] [/TD] [TD] Antec Basiq Series VP450 450 Watt ATX Power Supply SKU: 643486 [/TD] [TD="align: right"] $39.99 [/TD] [TD="align: right"] $39.99 [/TD] [TD="align: right"] Update Remove [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="colspan: 3"] 10 in Stock [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="align: right"] [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="colspan: 3"] [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] [TABLE="class: tableCart"] [TR] [TD] [/TD] [TD] Samsung 840 Series MZ-7TD120BW 120GB SATA 6.0Gb/s SKU: 035436 [/TD] [TD="align: right"] $99.99 [/TD] [TD="align: right"] $99.99 [/TD] [TD="align: right"] Update Remove [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [/TR] [TR] [TD="colspan: 3"][/TD] [TD="align: right"] [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="colspan: 3"] [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] [TABLE="class: tableCart"] [TR] [TD] [/TD] [TD] Gigabyte GV-N770OC-2GD NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 204 SKU: 627638 [/TD] [TD="align: right"] $399.99 [/TD] [TD="align: right"] $399.99 [/TD] [TD="align: right"] Update Remove [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [/TR] [TR] [TD="align: right"] Subtotal $714.94 [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE]
i'd go with a cheaper gfx card or SSD and go with 8gb ram and you could probably get a 880/890 chipset motherboard for a decent price other than that, that's a pretty decent rig although no mass storage but a second hdd could be added down the line or whatever
