Cheapest Decent Gaming Build

[sciamwow]

Hey guys,
I just posted a thread about a $700 gaming build, but I realized that I might not have that much money (I'm in high school). Does anyone have any decent builds that can play games like Kerbal Space Program, Insurgency, BF3, Arma 2/3, etc. on at least medium graphics at around 30-60 fps? I already have a DVD drive and could possibly use the 500 gig HDD that I already have in my old computer, so that should save some money. And preferably I would like it to be decently upgradeable. I know I'm asking of a lot for a small budget, but it can't hurt to see what y'all have to say. And I love PC Part Picker lists.
Thanks!

Edit: What do you guys think of the GTX 750 and the GTX 750 FTW? Is the FTW worth the extra $20?

Edit 2: How about the Intel Core i3 4130 CPU? Does it help much more than a much cheaper CPU? What would its performance be like?

 

[wildfire707]

Well, I would recommend something like this (all parts included) for $690 before rebates:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4150 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($109.49 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($87.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($75.97 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($53.97 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card ($114.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Enermax ECA3253-BW ATX Mid Tower Case ($38.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($63.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer ($15.00 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($88.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $649.37
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-10 01:24 EST-0500

Just add a keyboard, mouse, and monitor and you have a good i3 system with a decent video card. You can save $15 by using your current DVD drive, but I would tend to build a new system with a new hard drive (better to be safe than sorry).

If you can afford it, an i5 CPU would make the system a solid entry level gaming computer - but it would add another $100 to the system cost (before rebates).

 

[FreezeTime26]

Fx 6300 , r9 270x 2gb (grapphic card) , 500gb sata3 disk (go for a 120gb ssd if you want) , 8 or 4gb ram hyper x , kingston or crossfire , 960gm vgs3 fx or m5a97 r2.0 motherboard , 700w or 800w power supplie. I have a similar pc and i can play bf4 in ultra on 60 120fps.

 

[sciamwow]

Fx 6300 , r9 270x 2gb (grapphic card) , 500gb sata3 disk (go for a 120gb ssd if you want) , 8 or 4gb ram hyper x , kingston or crossfire , 960gm vgs3 fx or m5a97 r2.0 motherboard , 700w or 800w power supplie. I have a similar pc and i can play bf4 in ultra on 60 120fps.

How much does that come out to be?

 

[RCFProd]

Fx 6300 , r9 270x 2gb (grapphic card) , 500gb sata3 disk (go for a 120gb ssd if you want) , 8 or 4gb ram hyper x , kingston or crossfire , 960gm vgs3 fx or m5a97 r2.0 motherboard , 700w or 800w power supplie. I have a similar pc and i can play bf4 in ultra on 60 120fps.

How much does that come out to be?

Don't go with the FX6300, very limited upgrading possibilities nowadays. Maybe in early-mid 2014 I would have suggested the budget AMD CPU but Im not recommending it anymore.

The i3 build posted above is good. It's a dual core with hyper threading for quite a significiant performance boost, It's decent clock speed only helps the performance. It's somewhere on par with a PS4, probably better framerates in most games except games that really are optimised well for PS4 such as Battlefield 4 and also Planetside 2 soon. I would say you can go a bit cheaper without performance loss though. Here is my build without a Windows copy:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4150 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($109.49 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($71.95 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($66.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.88 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB FTW ACX Video Card ($104.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Fractal Design Core 2500 ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($44.99 @ Micro Center)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer ($15.00 @ Newegg)
Total: $503.28
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-10 06:05 EST-0500

I wouldn't go below an i3-4xxx. The combination with a GTX 750 Ti is pretty solid.

 

[RCFProd]

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