400$ Gaming PC

[Revanator]

Hello all,

i've recently gotten a budget of 400 dollars from my mother to build a gaming PC. I have no problems with mail-in-rebates, but the OS needs to be included (windows.) I want to run games like DayZ on around 40 FPS on lowest settings, higher then that is amazing for me.

I'm a console peasant, so I don't know most of the jargon, but i'm sure the great TH community will help.

 

[Revanator]

Update;

I chose Brillus Wuce's choice for the build. I loved the compatibility and low cost, and i've achieved my budget and 10$ to spare. I made a few edits (http://pcpartpicker.com/p/s2fqQ7) like updating the Hard Drive and RAM. OS won't be a requirement because of the nice fellows with the trial ideas, so thank you!

I'm quite sure I can find tutorial videos online for the Win7 OS, so one last thing; Is http://pcpartpicker.com/p/s2fqQ7 fully compatible?

Regards, Ryan.

 

[Pivotto]

Update;

I chose Brillus Wuce's choice for the build. I loved the compatibility and low cost, and i've achieved my budget and 10$ to spare. I made a few edits (http://pcpartpicker.com/p/s2fqQ7) like updating the Hard Drive and RAM. OS won't be a requirement because of the nice fellows with the trial ideas, so thank you!

I'm quite sure I can find tutorial videos online for the Win7 OS, so one last thing; Is http://pcpartpicker.com/p/s2fqQ7 fully compatible?

Regards, Ryan.

It won't make a massive difference, but you should get a 2x4GB set of memory so you can run them in dual channel mode.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3220 3.0GHz Dual-Core Processor ($52.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($41.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($44.99 @ Best Buy)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 660 2GB Video Card ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Thermaltake VL80001W2Z ATX Mid Tower Case ($19.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: EVGA 430W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply ($29.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer ($14.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $379.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-21 01:42 EST-0500

I made two adjustments for you. The GTX 660 is a better performing card, and you can pick one up from NewEgg for $120 after a rebate, or $150 before (what you're paying for that 750 Ti is about the same/more). I also swapped the single 8GB stick for a 2x4GB setup and it was $5 cheaper while also being a really awesome kit (G.Skill makes great memory).

More or less, it's costing you $4 more BEFORE rebates to have better memory and a better GPU, and will cost you $11 less AFTER rebates. Sounds good to me!

 

[quilciri]

There are a few games that exist today that do "require" 4 cores to play them, and therefore you wouldn't be able to play those games on the Pentium.

The only game that unapologetically refuses to run on 2 cores is dragon age: inquisition, and that is possibly due to poor optimization just like the other two titles. CoD: Adv. warfare has been fixed and There is an upcoming patch for Far Cry 4 expected to fix that as well; analysis showed that FC4 made quite a bit of use of the 3rd core in a CPU, but hardly any use of the first two, and none of the 4th.