Gaming Builds $300 through $800

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
We are giving you direction. Prices should be at the end of each part and probably a link to newegg for each one so they get an idea of what the part looks like. As I said before, technically you should have done the guide and send it to a mod for approval/recommendations. Once it got the final approval is when its finally posted to the open forum.
 

Darren

Moderator
Staff member
Explain the differences especially between the different tiers.

Example for the first you would say something like.

This build features a quad core processor at 2.05GHz. While a lower clock speed the 4 cores will be beneficial in newer games and multitasking. It's an APU, meaning it's a CPU and GPU on the same chip. Because of this we have picked 8GB of fairly speedy RAM at 2133MHz. Since dedicated video cards have very fast video RAM, you'll want to spend a bit more on faster RAM to speed up the performance of the GPU in this chip. The motherboard is the right socket and decently priced. 1TB of storage is fairly standard and the power supply is adequate while offering room for a modest dedicated GPU.

Then for the second one pointing out the difference.

This features an APU as well (see now they know what APU means, educate them, don't just give them a list) that is faster. Different motherboard was used to account for a different CPU socket. Same speedy RAM to help the APU. 1TB of storage is adequate again and a slightly higher wattage PSU will allow for a better dedicated video card to be added later on.

And continue with the rest.

Basically you want to educate them on the basic idea of what the machine is and how it's different than the other ones. This will allow them to weigh cost versus benefit when they're building.

Also I personally would get a quad core AMD chip (760K probably) rather than the Pentium. Quad cores really are a necessity anymore and the overclockability will be lost on most people that come to a thread like this for help. Remember this is a more guideline and can be tailored based off of what specific users want. Besides even that 760K can clock pretty well, even if it isn't as efficient as the Intel offering, I'd prefer 4 AMD cores as opposed to 2 Intel ones in 2014.
 
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C4C

Well-Known Member
Explain the differences especially between the different tiers.

Example for the first you would say something like.

This build features a quad core processor at 2.05GHz. While a lower clock speed the 4 cores will be beneficial in newer games and multitasking. It's an APU, meaning it's a CPU and GPU on the same chip. Because of this we have picked 8GB of fairly speedy RAM at 2133MHz. Since dedicated video cards have very fast video RAM, you'll want to spend a bit more on faster RAM to speed up the performance of the GPU in this chip. The motherboard is the right socket and decently priced. 1TB of storage is fairly standard and the power supply is adequate while offering room for a modest dedicated GPU.

Then for the second one pointing out the difference.

This features an APU as well (see now they know what APU means, educate them, don't just give them a list) that is faster. Different motherboard was used to account for a different CPU socket. Same speedy RAM to help the APU. 1TB of storage is adequate again and a slightly higher wattage PSU will allow for a better dedicated video card to be added later on.

And continue with the rest.

Basically you want to educate them on the basic idea of what the machine is and how it's different than the other ones. This will allow them to weigh cost versus benefit when they're building.

Also I personally would get a quad core AMD chip (760K probably) rather than the Pentium. Quad cores really are a necessity anymore and the overclockability will be lost on most people that come to a thread like this for help. Remember this is a more guideline and can be tailored based off of what specific users want. Besides even that 760K can clock pretty well, even if it isn't as efficient as the Intel offering, I'd prefer 4 AMD cores as opposed to 2 Intel ones in 2014.

TAKE THIS ADVICE NINJA. It's helped my guide quite a bit (I'm even dialing back from the $400-900 range back to the $400-700 range)....

Why? Because quality is better then quantity and while you may want to list a bunch of lists and sh**.... You want to make sure that the reader understands WHAT they are looking at and WHY they should choose the parts.

The other thing is that your guide could say a specific base build at $800 per se can be upgraded using parts A, B or C and the advantages would be 1, 2 and 3....

Just little things to think of... + my $0.02..
 

Darren

Moderator
Staff member
Yeah you don't really want to do much more than 100 dollar increments. After each one suggest a few things that can be tweaked to save/spend money like a cheaper hard drive or a different GPU or whatever the case may be.
 

C4C

Well-Known Member
Yeah you don't really want to do much more than 100 dollar increments. After each one suggest a few things that can be tweaked to save/spend money like a cheaper hard drive or a different GPU or whatever the case may be.

I'm not sure if you've seen my link to the google drive live draft in the Guides thread but I went from 6 builds down to 4 just for the sake of time, and giving precise, detailed information.
 

ninjabubbles3

Active Member
Wow thanks for all the help guys!

I will definitely update the guide with explanations and prices.

BTW: should I delete this thread, save the post, and send it to a mod?
 

C4C

Well-Known Member
Wow thanks for all the help guys!

I will definitely update the guide with explanations and prices.

BTW: should I delete this thread, save the post, and send it to a mod?

possibly... but, make sure to save the guide frequently (I recommend GDrive because it can be edited and saved while live).. Then copy and paste to send to a mod..
 

Jiniix

Well-Known Member
For the $300 build, no reason to go with 2x4GB 2133MHz. You won't be able to run it above 1600MHz anyway, and doesn't support dual channel.
Something like this will be cheaper, and actually better. Instead of two independent 4GB sticks, you get 1x8GB + the possibility to upgrade (should you need 16GB with an AM1 APU :D)
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-memory-cmz8gx3m1a1866c10
Edit: Didn't see the RAM was on sale, might be invalid for this thread then. But you should still go for 1x8GB RAM anyway.
 

ninjabubbles3

Active Member
For the $300 build, no reason to go with 2x4GB 2133MHz. You won't be able to run it above 1600MHz anyway, and doesn't support dual channel.
Something like this will be cheaper, and actually better. Instead of two independent 4GB sticks, you get 1x8GB + the possibility to upgrade (should you need 16GB with an AM1 APU :D)
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-memory-cmz8gx3m1a1866c10
Edit: Didn't see the RAM was on sale, might be invalid for this thread then. But you should still go for 1x8GB RAM anyway.

Yeah, your right, but if they want to upgrade to a new system, at least they have RAM, PSU, and a Hard Drive.
 

Darren

Moderator
Staff member
With the FX 6300 drop the board to a 970 and see if you can squeeze an R9 280 in there.
 

StrangleHold

Moderator
Staff member
You need to list a price for each item so that it will show current price. If someone clicks on that pcpartpicker link months from now and it comes up with a huge price difference they will wonder why.


That's one of the problems with a systems build list. Sometimes a week later, just price changes on all the parts can mix it all up. What's the best $600 build on Monday could be a completely different build on Thursday. Always thought they were just to difficult to keep up with.
 
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