Building PC with $900 budget (including monitor), suggestions?

[Saljen]

My friend asked me to build a PC for him. His budget is $900 and he needs the tower and monitor. I threw something together on Newegg, but I really want to make sure he gets the most for his money. He plays mostly Blizzard games; StarCraft 2, Diablo 3, and WoW. All of those games are more CPU intensive than graphics card intensive, which is why I went for the more expensive CPU. Also just wanted a second look through to make sure everything is compatible. Thanks!

Total Budget: $900

-Monitor: $144.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824001783
-Tower: $34.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811853002
-Motherboard: $69.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157387
-Power Supply: $69.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171090
-RAM: $156.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231480
-Video Card: $159.99 - 7.20" x 4.38"
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133530
-Processor: $189.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116992
-HDD: $59.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236339
-Shipping: $15.22

Total: $902.14

 

[Calnin]

You don't need 16gb of RAM. 8gb is enough. You could get a 2x4gb kit for 72.99$ I believe. Check pcpartpicker.com. As for those games, you could play on a pentium g3258 and it'll give relatively the same performance. Those games don't really use more than 2 threads as far as I'm aware. Of course, the i5 is still a stronger CPU. The i5 4460 is cheaper. (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80646i54460) and it will provide practically the same performance. The frequency difference wouldn't make a huge difference.

 

[BigBadBeef]

You can get better for you money, and with the aforementioned games my build will be much better because of shared cache between the graphics card and PSU. It guarantees high setting 1080p gaming of all the new titles and gives you plenty of budget room for customization:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/K3LqrH

Just add the monitor of your choice.

 

[Saljen]

You can get better for you money, and with the aforementioned games my build will be much better because of shared cache between the graphics card and PSU. It guarantees high setting 1080p gaming of all the new titles and gives you plenty of budget room for customization:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/K3LqrH

Just add the monitor of your choice.

Thanks for the build! I should have mentioned this in the original article, but he is an intel fan boy. I don't think he has any particular reason for being one, since he's not a huge enthusiast, but he said specifically he wants an intel cpu.

 

[Saljen]

You don't need 16gb of RAM. 8gb is enough. You could get a 2x4gb kit for 72.99$ I believe. Check pcpartpicker.com. As for those games, you could play on a pentium g3258 and it'll give relatively the same performance. Those games don't really use more than 2 threads as far as I'm aware. Of course, the i5 is still a stronger CPU. The i5 4460 is cheaper. (http://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80646i54460) and it will provide practically the same performance. The frequency difference wouldn't make a huge difference.

You're probably right on the RAM bit. I might drop down to 8GB and add in an aftermarket CPU fan. Thanks for the reply!

 

[zeyuanfu]

I would get the i5-4690K.

 

[Calnin]

If you're not getting an overclockable chip, there's no point in getting an aftermarket cooler. Throw the money into a better gpu or psu or something.

Also as a side note, as far as I'm aware, SC2 and D3 both are limited to 1 or 2 threads. It wouldn't matter how many cores your CPU has, as long as the single thread performance is strong enough, you could run it on a dual core. A pentium g3258 would run practically just as well as the i5 4590 and is overclockable as well. I'm not entirely sure with WoW, but I imagine it's just the same, maybe slightly better optimizations for more cores.

 

[Saljen]

I would get the i5-4690K.

It's almost $50 more on newegg, which is why I didn't pick it. Is the only difference unlimited overclocking?

 

[BigBadBeef]

but he is an intel fan boy.

 

[Saljen]

If you're not getting an overclockable chip, there's no point in getting an aftermarket cooler. Throw the money into a better gpu or psu or something.

Is the i5-4590S not over clockable at all?

 

[zeyuanfu]

I would get the i5-4690K.

It's almost $50 more on newegg, which is why I didn't pick it. Is the only difference unlimited overclocking?

it has a higher base clock speed and more cache.

 

[Calnin]

Overclocking wouldn't make a big difference now. It'll make a bigger difference later on. It's like a little extra life in a system when it's about ready to upgrade. As far as I'm aware, from intel's lineup, only the k series chips are overclockable, the exception to that rule is the pentium g3258.

 

[Saljen]

Thanks for the help guys. Ended out dropping the RAM to 16GB and upgrading the processor to the i5-4690K.