Looking for a gaming computer with these specs, need help.

WoWPlayerHorde

New Member
Edit: I've decided to build my own gaming desktop: Need advice.

I want a desktop with at least these specs for gaming: With a GTX 650 Ti Video Card with intel i5 quad core processor at least 3Gb of V RAM dedicated with a total of 8 GB RAM, Expandable to 16 RAM would be awesome but not needed at all, 500GB hard drive at the least. Price tag 500-700, I also plan to wait until Black Friday for my purchase so these specs may actually fit my price tag a lot easier keeping that in mind. Please list some prebuilt models that I should keep an eye out for on Black Friday that fit these specs, thank you in advance.
 
Last edited:
Where are you located on this world? ;) That will tell us the currency and where we need to look. I would recommend assembling the system yourself and buying all the parts in.

Assuming you are American (purely because most people on here are, I'm not though :D ), $700 should hopefully get you something along those kind of lines. If you like I could take a look and throw you a list of parts together?
 
Where are you located on this world? ;) That will tell us the currency and where we need to look. I would recommend assembling the system yourself and buying all the parts in.

Assuming you are American (purely because most people on here are, I'm not though :D ), $700 should hopefully get you something along those kind of lines. If you like I could take a look and throw you a list of parts together?

Yup sorry for the confusion I am American and I'm speaking dollars, but as far as parts I'm not very tech savy.. And I was hoping for a warranty, so I was sort of hoping for a prebuilt even though I understand they tend to be harder to customize or harder to update later on.. I just have absolutely zero experience with building computers, maybe if a website built them for the customers, but then id still be worried about optimization and if anything broke down the line or stopped working properly.. So I'm kind of in a bind.

Edit: I just have no confidence when buying OEM parts to build myself ( if that's even the correct acronym ) or anything besides the prebuilt. I suppose a prebuilt that would be fairly upgradable in the future would be awesome.. I just don't know what specifics make some prebuilts more upgradable then other prebuilts.
 
Last edited:
It's really not hard at all to assemble it. Just watch a couple of videos on YouTube and you'll get the idea. You'll be far better off in the long run building it yourself and you'll spend less money and often get a better-performing PC. The parts do have warranties by the way. Usually at least a year.
 
It's really not hard at all to assemble it. Just watch a couple of videos on YouTube and you'll get the idea. You'll be far better off in the long run building it yourself and you'll spend less money and often get a better-performing PC. The parts do have warranties by the way. Usually at least a year.

Alrighty well I've been convinced by multiple sources including yourself that building one would be the way to go. I'm sure I can handle it. Would you mind posting some parts together that would run well together with the needs I listed? Thank you too, I'm sure I'll be much better off with this decision. It may even be fun to " create " or build my own desktop.

Also can anyone tell me the differences with OEM parts and retail? Is there a difference and should I be interested in OEM more so then retail? Or is there no difference at all, thanks to all.
 
Last edited:
Out of curiosity how does one know that their graphics card will work with their motherboard and processor be able to handle the rest? Is there a secret to pc building or do most of the new processors / motherboards / graphics cards on the market today simply just work together? I just watched a tutorial and while it is slightly intimidating to me since I've never done anything like this it also seems pretty awesome, I'm starting to get excited over the upgradability and pretty much that I'll understand how a machine I've used all my life works.
 
Posting from my phone so can't give a parts list, but to answer your questions

Steer more towards retail as they come with "extras", sometimes those extras being as simple as a box!! OEM parts are meant for system builders, retail for the likes of your self building a computer for yourself. You will notice though that some parts, such as hard drives and DVD drives, will tend to only say OEM. This is because all that comes in the package is the drive and nothing else. Retail will also tend to have longer warranties.

For your other question regarding compatibility, there are now industry standards with a lot of things. All memory in a desktop will be 240 pin DDR3 DIMM's, all graphics cards will use PCIe lanes, all hard drives will use SATA. The only thing to really consider is will my processor work with this motherboard.

You will see AMD and Intel CPU's and motherboards and you will see the term sockets being thrown about. This is the part of the motherboard that the processor fits into and the size and shape will differ between socket types. Every Intel socket 1150 is the same and every AMD socket AM3+ is the same, but an AM3+ and Intel 1150 socket are very different. This is because only certain processors are designed to work with certain motherboards, so both are manufactured to make only specific CPU's fit in specific motherboards.
 
For $740 (can you go a little over budget?)

AMD FX-6300 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113286
Gigabyte 970-DP3 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128627
RipJaws-X 1866MHz http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231455

Radeon R9 270X http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125476

Corsair 300R http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139011
Corsair CX 600M http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139048
ASUS DVD-RW http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204

Seagate 1TB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148840

I don't know if you need an OS or not.

If you can't go over-budget, replace the graphics card with a 7870 (which tends to be a little cheaper), or if you get 7850 you should be under $700.
 
For $740 (can you go a little over budget?)

AMD FX-6300 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113286
Gigabyte 970-DP3 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128627
RipJaws-X 1866MHz http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231455

Radeon R9 270X http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125476

Corsair 300R http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139011
Corsair CX 600M http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139048
ASUS DVD-RW http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204

Seagate 1TB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148840

I don't know if you need an OS or not.

If you can't go over-budget, replace the graphics card with a 7870 (which tends to be a little cheaper), or if you get 7850 you should be under $700.

Is There any intel equivalent of the AMD FX-6300 for the same price that would fit that motherboard? Just because I hear world of warcraft tends to run better on Intel and probably half my usage for the computer will be world of warcraft. I just don't want to give up a good AMD if there is no fair equivalent though.

However i have no problem going over my budget that amount, the setup looks nice and I appreciate the help so far a bunch.
 
Last edited:
I wouldn't recommend an Intel at that price point. The best you can do is an i3, which is a dual core. World of Warcraft runs fine on a dual core, but it's heavily optimized to shift workload around on unused cores if you have a quad core or more. It'll never use more than two cores at a time, but Blizzard is good at programming, so a quad core really helps.
The i3 has Hyper-Threading, which sort of simulates it into a quad core, but I would recommend a six core that you can overclock at this price point.
 
That chip will run WoW just fine and as said above, at the price point you can get more cores for your money. Which will help.

Spirit's build looks good, as always. +1 for building it as well. It's definitely worth it and really pretty simple.
 
Is There any intel equivalent of the AMD FX-6300 for the same price that would fit that motherboard? Just because I hear world of warcraft tends to run better on Intel and probably half my usage for the computer will be world of warcraft. I just don't want to give up a good AMD if there is no fair equivalent though.

However i have no problem going over my budget that amount, the setup looks nice and I appreciate the help so far a bunch.

Several options:

The Core i3 is in the same sort of price point as the FX-4300 and the FX-6300, but you would need another motherboard because you can't use Intel chips on AMD-based motherboards and vice versa. However, like the others have said, at this price point, I'd recommend you get the AMD over the Intel chips because they are cheaper and allow you to spend more on the graphics card which is what really matters for gaming.

The Core i5s are more expensive than the AMD chip I listed and you would require another board, and for gaming they are great chips but honestly not much better than the FX-6300 which I suggested (considering how much more expensive the i5s are). And again, you need to spend as much on the graphics card as possible.

If you can afford my build, I'd go for it. The 270X is a very good card and paired with that hardware you should be quite happy with it. :good:
 
Several options:

The Core i3 is in the same sort of price point as the FX-4300 and the FX-6300, but you would need another motherboard because you can't use Intel chips on AMD-based motherboards and vice versa. However, like the others have said, at this price point, I'd recommend you get the AMD over the Intel chips because they are cheaper and allow you to spend more on the graphics card which is what really matters for gaming.

The Core i5s are more expensive than the AMD chip I listed and you would require another board, and for gaming they are great chips but honestly not much better than the FX-6300 which I suggested (considering how much more expensive the i5s are). And again, you need to spend as much on the graphics card as possible.

If you can afford my build, I'd go for it. The 270X is a very good card and paired with that hardware you should be quite happy with it. :good:

After reading the responses I'm going to go for that exact build, thank you to the community and most of all to spirit, I appreciate it a lot. Great community.
 
Back
Top