Build Opinions and Recommendations

[turkey3_scratch]

In about December I plan on building a very cheap gaming pc only for playing old games, mainly 2006-prior. I want to play Age of Empires III on 1080p max settings. I need your advice on how to make:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4150 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($116.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-E33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($44.99 @ Micro Center)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($89.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($53.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GT 640 2GB Video Card ($85.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Phantom 410 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ Amazon)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ OutletPC)
Keyboard: Logitech K360 Wireless Mini Keyboard ($19.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $641.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-09-02 22:03 EDT-0400

Cheaper down to $500 or maybe even $400 and still be able to have max settings in Age of Empires III. Please modify the build and show me what you changed! Would a 4th gen Pentium work fine?

 

[Codeless]

I would do pretty much the exact things you have listed except the following:

*If you are playing games 2006 prior, I honestly think you only need 4 GB of RAM. 4 GB is quite enough to run most standard applications, and most games 2006 prior are fairly simple, and are mostly CPU based.

*The operating system can be anything really past Windows 7. It's much cheaper to just get Windows 7 Starter or Professional.

*3.5 GHz!!!!!!! INTEL!?!?! I have nothing against Intel, but you can get AMD A8 processors for only $85 each, and they are 3.2 GHz. That is WAY fast enough for the game you are talking about.

*One more thing: You can always overclock CPUs....

 

[turkey3_scratch]

what about a Pentium? Would that be fine?

 

[turkey3_scratch]

Okay will this play Age of Empires III max on 1080p 60FPS:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3420 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-E33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($44.99 @ Micro Center)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($53.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($53.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GT 640 2GB Video Card ($85.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Rosewill REDBONE U3 ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer ($13.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ OutletPC)
Keyboard: Logitech K360 Wireless Mini Keyboard ($19.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $532.88
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-09-03 17:15 EDT-0400