Budget Gaming Build... Any experienced builders have suggestions?

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digah2750

New Member
If you think you can make my build better while staying under my budget, please read on.

Budget: $550 Barebones
Goal: Make a cheap, yet still powerful gaming and school pc, with some power for 1080p video rendering and editing.
Notes: I could take out the SSD and have more money for other components, but I really want a fast boot. If you have any suggestions for me, please reply. I will be playing games like Destiny, TF2, League of Legends, Minecraft, and CS:GO. My friend might build the same system if mine turns out good enough.

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 760K 3.6GHz Quad Core
I was going to use an 860K, but the 760K recently went low in price. I would use the Pentium G3258, but I am nervous about overclocking, and I wanted a four core CPU. I can get this on Amazon Prime for $80

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A78M-HD2 Micro ATX FM2+
I really don't know too much about this motherboard, but it has everything I really want so I'm not too picky.

Memory: Team Zeus Red 2x4GB DDR3-1600
In order to save cost while still having 8GB of Dual Channel RAM, I went with 1600 RAM. I don't know too much about Team memory, which makes me uneasy, but I wanted to see if their RAM was worth its salt, so I may send it back if it doesn't perform like I want. One good thing about this RAM though, is that it has a newegg combo with my motherboard, which combined with the RAM, is a total of $112

SSD: Kingston SSDNow V300 120GB 2.5"
DANG THESE THINGS ARE CHEAP! I want an SSD to only speed up boot time, which is the reason I went with 120GB. 'Nuff said, for only $60 on Amazon Prime.

HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM 64MB Cache 3.5"
I needed a 1TB, 7200RPM, 64MB Cache hard drive for all of my storage, and I decided to pick the very cheap Barracuda. Also, it has 940 reviews, hitting 4.6/5 stars. $54 on Amazon Prime.

Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 270X w/ Dual-X Cooler
The R9 270X was exactly what I needed, and I decided to go with the Sapphire Dual-X version because it was, well, exactly what I needed. Apparently, the Dual-X Cooler is very quiet and works great, and at $180 on Newegg, didn't break the bank (too hard). If I get rid of the SSD, I could end up with a GTX 760 instead, but that's an option I'll leave for you to suggest.

Case & PSU: Cooler Master Elite 350 ATX Mid-Tower case w/ 500W PSU
When I saw this bundle, I thought I died an went to heaven. I'm not one for looks when it comes to budget builds, and it was more like a $40 PSU and a $10 case. The only problem I really see is that the PSU may not be enough, because it probably is 80+, and according to PCPartPicker.com, my system may run on 374W. It may just be me though, so I don't know.

OS: Is Windows 7 better than Windows 8/8.1? Should I wait for 10? How should I get the OS for a cheap price? I have got a lot of questions on this subject, so please try to answer.

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/digah2750/saved/YDxV3C
PCPartPicker Link^
 
Pretty good build, but my pentium absolutely smashes that CPU in benchmarks and games. Overclocking is okay, even with the stock Intel cooler

Don't go with a bundled PSU, there is a high chance they may crap on you

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/vrBnjX

If you can afford it, buy the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo for a CPU cooler, its 30 bucks more, but will allow you to overclock all the way up to 4.5 GHz or so.

Even with the stock cooler, my CPU can go to 3.5ish with good temps.


And sadly, Intel crushes AMD in performance, even with similar specs


EDIT: the windows 10 technical preview is great if your on a budget, free download and product key from Microsoft too.
 
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I was going to go with the Pentium G3258 at first, but I found out that it is actually kind of unstable in games and can cause strange lag spikes in games... If I had a higher budget I would go with an Intel i5, but I think I'm gonna stick with AMD. I may get the cooler to OC though, thanks for the idea.

Also the PSU is Cooler Master, so I at least know that it won't explode. I'm more concerned about whether or not I have enough wattage.
 
Don't get the AMD chip, you'll regret it. Where are you seeing stuff about lag spikes with the G3258?
 
My pentium is a beast in games, borrowing my dads gtx 760, it can play BF4 and the like fine.

500w is enough, but check how much output is on the 12v rail, cheapy PSUs don't have a lot, and that can cause some components to not get enough power
 
I would get a better case and Psu. The case will be of pretty poor quality, little cable management and you will find yourself upgrading pretty quick.

And its advised you get a quality PSU such as a corsair cx500. Better efficiency and quality. You don't want it going bang.

For your build an AMD cpu and Gpu will be fine. AMD is better than Intel at a low price range. The same with a low price Gpu.
 
Yeah those Athlon's aren't that great. The Pentium has hyper threading so it also functions as a quad core instead of a dual core. I'd advise the Pentium.

Edit: My bad, was thinking of a different chip. Just a dual core, no Hyper Threading.
 
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The pentium g3258 does not have hyper threading so it's just a dual core.

Was just thinking gaming might be benifited with 4 cores rather than 2.
 
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Sorry I was doing reading about some i3's and being surprised that they had HT and mistakenly mixed it up with the Pentium.

The Pentium architecture is much better and getting that chip would allow you to go up a lot in terms of upgrading to a better processor later down the line. The Athlon will lock you in with an FM2+ socket, which for more intensive applications is not what you want.

Also the Pentium just benches higher. Even though it is down 2 cores.

Check out the benchmarks in this article to see.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pentium-g3258-overclocking-performance,3849.html
 
I may just wait a few months so I can afford a $1,800 or so PC. I'm probably going to switch out the case and PSU and get rid of the SSD to fit my budget.
 
You won't be happy, FM2+ locks you into an a10 7850K at best. However, that pales in comparison to an i7 4790K, which you can upgrade later into
 
id try and go for a cheap z97 or z87 (or hseries of those chipsets if you cant afford the price of the z series), and go for a cheap i3. this cpu keeps up with 6 core amd chips in games, and will handle rendering fine. it will also allow you to upgrade later to an k series i5 or i7, unlike amd, where they have been stuck on the same socket and havnt released any new chips that are much different than the ones before in a very long time, and I consider amd am3+ socket dead unless they do something great, but by the looks of it , amd is sticking with creating better apu's for thte for seeable future.
 
Do yourself a favour and go with a inexpensive Gigabyte, ASUS or MSI Z97 board and an i3. Forget the Pentiums and the crappy AMDs. :cool:
 
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