Ballin' on a Budget

[jmoney330]

Hello Tom's Hardware,

I'm going to be in the market for a more budget-friendly gaming PC build and I wanted some opinions...

I may have the opportunity to secure a i7 4770k and MSI Z87 (I think) MB with 16gb of DDR3 for ~$350... from what I've been seeing that is a good deal. Is this true?

If not that I found a i5 4670k with Z87 and 8gb DDR3 for ~$300... is that a good deal?

My goal is to play 1080p with mostly high settings at 60+ FPS... I'm only going to play WoW, GTA V and probably the new roller coaster tycoon (Unfortunately with life being so busy I'm not able to play too often)

I'm looking at the XFX R9 390 that Newegg will be having on sale on black friday for I think $260 or $270.


I'll also need a case, HDD (I'm thinking a SSHD if not just a regular ol' 1tb HDD) and maybe a PSU? I have a older (not too old, maybe 2011?) Corsair 600 Watt PSU. The r9 I read recommends 750W... is that really necessary? If I could just reuse my old Corsair that would be great and save me some $$$. It was used probably less than a year before the HDD got corrupted on my old PC.


If I can't snag the intel builds would a 8350k and ~$80-100 MB OK for gaming at 1080p 60fps? I'm looking to spend about $300 on PCU, MB and RAM.


Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! I'm going to try to hold off until Black Friday to purchase most of the things (I know the savings aren't always that much better, but every little bit helps.)


Thanks guys!

 

[Mark_1970]

Hello Tom's Hardware,

I'm going to be in the market for a more budget-friendly gaming PC build and I wanted some opinions...

I may have the opportunity to secure a i7 4770k and MSI Z87 (I think) MB with 16gb of DDR3 for ~$350... from what I've been seeing that is a good deal. Is this true?

If not that I found a i5 4670k with Z87 and 8gb DDR3 for ~$300... is that a good deal?

My goal is to play 1080p with mostly high settings at 60+ FPS... I'm only going to play WoW, GTA V and probably the new roller coaster tycoon (Unfortunately with life being so busy I'm not able to play too often)

I'm looking at the XFX R9 390 that Newegg will be having on sale on black friday for I think $260 or $270.


I'll also need a case, HDD (I'm thinking a SSHD if not just a regular ol' 1tb HDD) and maybe a PSU? I have a older (not too old, maybe 2011?) Corsair 600 Watt PSU. The r9 I read recommends 750W... is that really necessary? If I could just reuse my old Corsair that would be great and save me some $$$. It was used probably less than a year before the HDD got corrupted on my old PC.


If I can't snag the intel builds would a 8350k and ~$80-100 MB OK for gaming at 1080p 60fps? I'm looking to spend about $300 on PCU, MB and RAM.


Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! I'm going to try to hold off until Black Friday to purchase most of the things (I know the savings aren't always that much better, but every little bit helps.)


Thanks guys!

exactly what corsair model is that psu?

 

[jmoney330]

I believe it's a GS600

http://www.corsair.com/en-us/gs600w

 

[Mark_1970]

I believe it's a GS600

http://www.corsair.com/en-us/gs600w

Ok psu but a touch lite on the watts, yes 750 would be better. get a tier 1 or 2 in 750w and all will run sweet. Oh and the cpu's chosen are both Haswells, so psu should ideally say Haswell ready/compliant (Intel C6/C7 sleep state compatible) or sleep state will not wake up after you move the mouse
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html

 

[Hawkshot]

If not that I found a i5 4670k with Z87 and 8gb DDR3 for ~$300... is that a good deal? Answer is yes that is a very good deal and I would definatly say get this over the I7, also you will need a better power supply for that card look at something like the XFX brand they usually do really good deals and in mail rebates in America(sorry if not American I saw $ and assumed) even if not in America they are an amazing brand at fairly low prices, if you get the I5 build with either the R9 390 states or a GTX 970 you will be able to play pretty much any games at 60+fps on ultra.

 

[jmoney330]

Thanks for your suggestions y'all.

Yes I'm American so I can take full advantage of mail in rebates!

Would the PSU be something I could upgrade in say 1 or 2 pay checks and survive on the 600w for a few weeks or is it something I should just purchase out of the gate?

Only reason I ask is because I actually found my current PSU the day after christmas for about ~$40 cheaper than what it was Christmas eve.

If not I found this on new egg, let me know what you thing. It's 80+ Gold Certified...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153198


Also just curious - why the i5 over the i7?

 

[Hawkshot]

Thanks for your suggestions y'all.

Yes I'm American so I can take full advantage of mail in rebates!

Would the PSU be something I could upgrade in say 1 or 2 pay checks and survive on the 600w for a few weeks or is it something I should just purchase out of the gate?

Only reason I ask is because I actually found my current PSU the day after christmas for about ~$40 cheaper than what it was Christmas eve.

If not I found this on new egg, let me know what you thing. It's 80+ Gold Certified...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153198


Also just curious - why the i5 over the i7?

it maybe 80+ Gold certified doesn't mean its very good though look at something made by XFX or you can do the same as me and get the EVGA 650W G2 PSU as these are top tier PSU's and will last you a long time.

The difference between the I5 and the I7's is that I7's are hyper threaded meaning that it performs as if it has double the cores but as no game at the moment uses more than 4 cores its pretty useless having a 4 core processor that is hyper threaded unless you want to stream while you game, in this instance it can use 4 cores for gaming and use the hyper threading to run the streaming software without an impact on performance where as the I5 cannot do that, so for just gaming without anything else the I5's will work just as well as its i7 counterpart without the price increase

 

[jmoney330]

Thanks for your suggestions y'all.

Yes I'm American so I can take full advantage of mail in rebates!

Would the PSU be something I could upgrade in say 1 or 2 pay checks and survive on the 600w for a few weeks or is it something I should just purchase out of the gate?

Only reason I ask is because I actually found my current PSU the day after christmas for about ~$40 cheaper than what it was Christmas eve.

If not I found this on new egg, let me know what you thing. It's 80+ Gold Certified...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153198


Also just curious - why the i5 over the i7?

it maybe 80+ Gold certified doesn't mean its very good though look at something made by XFX or you can do the same as me and get the EVGA 650W G2 PSU as these are top tier PSU's and will last you a long time.

The difference between the I5 and the I7's is that I7's are hyper threaded meaning that it performs as if it has double the cores but as no game at the moment uses more than 4 cores its pretty useless having a 4 core processor that is hyper threaded unless you want to stream while you game, in this instance it can use 4 cores for gaming and use the hyper threading to run the streaming software without an impact on performance where as the I5 cannot do that, so for just gaming without anything else the I5's will work just as well as its i7 counterpart without the price increase

Okay thank you for the tip! I'll keep digging and see what I can find.

And OK that makes sense in reference to the difference between the i5 and i7. I would like to use video capture to upload to youtube... I highly doubt I'll do much in the way of live streaming. Will the i5 do fine for video capturing while playing games? If I can get me a good PSU I'll do some over clocking on it (Say 4.2 maybe 4.5ghz) as well.

 

[Hawkshot]

Thanks for your suggestions y'all.

Yes I'm American so I can take full advantage of mail in rebates!

Would the PSU be something I could upgrade in say 1 or 2 pay checks and survive on the 600w for a few weeks or is it something I should just purchase out of the gate?

Only reason I ask is because I actually found my current PSU the day after christmas for about ~$40 cheaper than what it was Christmas eve.

If not I found this on new egg, let me know what you thing. It's 80+ Gold Certified...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153198


Also just curious - why the i5 over the i7?

it maybe 80+ Gold certified doesn't mean its very good though look at something made by XFX or you can do the same as me and get the EVGA 650W G2 PSU as these are top tier PSU's and will last you a long time.

The difference between the I5 and the I7's is that I7's are hyper threaded meaning that it performs as if it has double the cores but as no game at the moment uses more than 4 cores its pretty useless having a 4 core processor that is hyper threaded unless you want to stream while you game, in this instance it can use 4 cores for gaming and use the hyper threading to run the streaming software without an impact on performance where as the I5 cannot do that, so for just gaming without anything else the I5's will work just as well as its i7 counterpart without the price increase

Okay thank you for the tip! I'll keep digging and see what I can find.

And OK that makes sense in reference to the difference between the i5 and i7. I would like to use video capture to upload to youtube... I highly doubt I'll do much in the way of live streaming. Will the i5 do fine for video capturing while playing games? If I can get me a good PSU I'll do some over clocking on it (Say 4.2 maybe 4.5ghz) as well.

Yes the I5 will perform just fine, I do the same thing on my I5-6600k and I also stream sometimes without any problem although the I7 would be a bit better for me its not worth the price increase in my mind but recording while playing on an i5 is not a problem and yeah overclocking just gives you so much more for your money totally worth it

 

[Vic 40]

If you can get an i7+8gb of ram more for $50 is that imo a good deal,better than the one with the i5.
The GS600 is a pretty solid psu which should cover the needs of the parts you want to use.If it's not used for too long.

 

[jmoney330]

If you can get an i7+8gb of ram more for $50 is that imo a good deal,better than the one with the i5.
The GS600 is a pretty solid psu which should cover the needs of the parts you want to use.If it's not used for too long.

Hawkshot, good to know!


And Vic thank you for your input. I'm going to try to grab the i7 first but if it gets swiped away I'm just gonna roll with the i5 😉 The guy also said he'd throw in a 1TB SSHD for $40 more so it might be a no brainer.

And if I end up using the GS600 it is in no way permanent solution. Just a temporary PSU until maybe after christmas where I can buy a new higher watt PSU. I guess I just have to make sure it has all the connectors I need. lol.

I'm trying to get this build around ~$600. I suppose if I have to I'll drop down from the R9 390 to the 380x to save $50 maybe even more than that.

Anyone know of any decent budget cases? I really love the CM HAF XB but unfortunately I can't find one in my price range. Unless someone would be willing to part with theirs? 😉

 

[Hawkshot]

If you can get an i7+8gb of ram more for $50 is that imo a good deal,better than the one with the i5.
The GS600 is a pretty solid psu which should cover the needs of the parts you want to use.If it's not used for too long.

Hawkshot, good to know!


And Vic thank you for your input. I'm going to try to grab the i7 first but if it gets swiped away I'm just gonna roll with the i5 😉 The guy also said he'd throw in a 1TB SSHD for $40 more so it might be a no brainer.

And if I end up using the GS600 it is in no way permanent solution. Just a temporary PSU until maybe after christmas where I can buy a new higher watt PSU. I guess I just have to make sure it has all the connectors I need. lol.

I'm trying to get this build around ~$600. I suppose if I have to I'll drop down from the R9 390 to the 380x to save $50 maybe even more than that.

Anyone know of any decent budget cases? I really love the CM HAF XB but unfortunately I can't find one in my price range. Unless someone would be willing to part with theirs? 😉

you could always build a wall mounted computer as long as you have a small amount of handyman still and the desire to do it as they as cool as hell

 

[jmoney330]

you could always build a wall mounted computer as long as you have a small amount of handyman still and the desire to do it as they as cool as hell

While it would look sweet and be bad ass I don't really have the room for a wall mount PC 🙁

 

[Vic 40]

And if I end up using the GS600 it is in no way permanent solution. Just a temporary PSU until maybe after christmas where I can buy a new higher watt PSU. I guess I just have to make sure it has all the connectors I need. lol.

There are different versions of the GS600 so are you sure it's the one you linked? It has all the connectors you need anyway.

I really love the CM HAF XB but unfortunately I can't find one in my price range. Unless someone would be willing to part with theirs?

Sorry,keeping mine.😀

Something similar,but a tower model,
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/cooler-master-case-rc912kkn1
no usb 3.0 at the front if that's alright.

 

[Hawkshot]

you could always build a wall mounted computer as long as you have a small amount of handyman still and the desire to do it as they as cool as hell

While it would look sweet and be bad ass I don't really have the room for a wall mount PC 🙁

The following case is pretty good on a budget: Thermaltake Versa H21 Window ATX Mid Tower Case

 

[jmoney330]

And if I end up using the GS600 it is in no way permanent solution. Just a temporary PSU until maybe after christmas where I can buy a new higher watt PSU. I guess I just have to make sure it has all the connectors I need. lol.

There are different versions of the GS600 so are you sure it's the one you linked? It has all the connectors you need anyway.

I really love the CM HAF XB but unfortunately I can't find one in my price range. Unless someone would be willing to part with theirs?

Sorry,keeping mine.😀

Something similar,but a tower model,
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/cooler-master-case-rc912kkn1
no usb 3.0 at the front if that's alright.

Well I went and dug up my old box for the PSU and it looks the exact same!


And damn 🙁 But the alternative that you've provided isn't bad at all. I can suffer without 3.0 in the front... I'll just buy a hub or something and mount it on my desk 😀

The following case is pretty good on a budget: Thermaltake Versa H21 Window ATX Mid Tower Case

This may be a winner winner chicken dinner!

 

[Hawkshot]

Does that mean I get 3x my original bet back 😀 ?

 

[Vic 40]

If your GS600 has 576watts at the +12voltrail is it the oldest,if it has 588watts on there is it a newer version.Even 576watts on the +12voltrail should be enough for the components your looking for.
Thought about a gtx 970? It uses alot less power and isn't much weaker.

 

[jmoney330]

Does that mean I get 3x my original bet back 😀 ?

Funny you say that. I actually leaving for Vegas tonight. I suppose if I win 3x my bet consistently then you can win yours back! House rules 😀

 

[Hawkshot]

Does that mean I get 3x my original bet back 😀 ?

Funny you say that. I actually leaving for Vegas tonight. I suppose if I win 3x my bet consistently then you can win yours back! House rules 😀

Sounds good to me Good luck in Vegas my friend and don't do anything I wouldn't do (I have no morals I would do anything) 😀

 

[jmoney330]

Sounds good to me Good luck in Vegas my friend and don't do anything I wouldn't do (I have no morals I would do anything) 😀

Ahaha, well unfortunately I work at a police department so I can't get too wild 🙁


Also if anyone cares it seems like Cooler Master is having a very nice pre-black friday sale at New Egg. Good prices on a lot of things!

 

[Hawkshot]

Sounds good to me Good luck in Vegas my friend and don't do anything I wouldn't do (I have no morals I would do anything) 😀

Ahaha, well unfortunately I work at a police department so I can't get too wild 🙁


Also if anyone cares it seems like Cooler Master is having a very nice pre-black friday sale at New Egg. Good prices on a lot of things!

Thanks for the tip but I don't buy things during black Friday due to the manufactures building things specially for this time of year the saying "you get what you pay for" has never been more true in my eyes XD

 

[Vic 40]

Also if anyone cares it seems like Cooler Master is having a very nice pre-black friday sale at New Egg. Good prices on a lot of things!

I liked the HAF case just under $40.

 

[jmoney330]

Also if anyone cares it seems like Cooler Master is having a very nice pre-black friday sale at New Egg. Good prices on a lot of things!

I liked the HAF case just under $40.

I saw you linked it but I didn't notice the price of being sub-$40 - makes it a hard bargain to pass up on! Still crossing my fingers the HAF XB goes on sale

 

[Vic 40]

Still crossing my fingers the HAF XB goes on sale

If you get this one make sure you get a nice 120mm fan for at the back as well. I have both (912 PLUS) and in all honesty,the HAF 912 is easier to work in.
When you want to change something underneath the motherboard tray of the XB you always need to get it out to reach things easily.If you don't do that much is it a nice case though.