Gaming PC Under 700

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FrootLoopsnPizza

FrootLoopsnPizza

Honorable
Oct 28, 2012
7
0
10,510
Approximate Purchase Date: Mid December
Budget Range: 500-700 USD
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, Watching Movies, Browsing The Internet, Doing Homework/Other Things
Monitor Needed: Yes, Preferably 20-23 inch 720p/1080p
Any Parts Upgrade: No (Or not in the near future)
Need To Buy OS: Yes, Preferably Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit
Websites For Parts: Newegg, Tigerdirect
Location: Chicago, IL, USA
Parts Preference: AMD but Intel works too. Radeon instead of NVidia, But if the better card is Nvidia then go for it.
Overclocking: Probably not
Additional Comments: Try to get the best parts please.


 
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You can get a decent 1080p monitor for ~$130. After that I would go for:

-$100 Phenom II x4 965
-$52 AM3+ Mobo
-$130 7770 GHz
-$30 4GB 1600 MHz RAM

That should give you a good start. Come back with a full build and I will help from there.
 
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With a budget like this that requires both a monitor and an OS, you can't really afford the 'best parts'. Overclocking, unless you get an AMD CPU, might be a tad difficult. However, let's see what we can do here. I won't be adding a keyboard or mouse- if you have a Goodwill or some thrift store nearby, you can probably get both for well under $10.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/lKUu

We'll have to cut a few corners, I'm sorry to say, but I did manage to find a 21.5" monitor at 1920x1080 for $117. You could probably find one for cheaper elsewhere, even on Craigslist, but that's up to you to do. If you choose to not overclock, then you could put the extra $20 towards the GPU and potentially get a Radeon HD 7770 instead of the 6670 that I listed in the build. I also managed to get you a better than bottom of the ladder Piledriver CPU, with a 6300 instead of the 4300 (so you should be roughly on par with the i3 CPUs. Perhaps not better, but it's not bad by any means).

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/lL1P

And here's an Intel build, with an i3-3220 and a Radeon HD 7770. It's fairly similar to the AMD build, but the CPU's locked. On the bright side though, the GPU's more powerful.
 
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As the FX-6300 is on average is just barely superior to the i3 (and honestly, it's like rating it a 6 compared to a 5 on a scale of 1-10), I'd suggest that. Though, I would try to get enough cash together to afford the Radeon HD 7770, if possible. Let me try reworking the build a little.

Edit: Okay, after a bit of tweaking, the easiest way to get the 7770 into the budget is to get a monitor that runs at a native 1600 x 900 resolution. With that in mind, I have to recommend the i3 build instead: you get the 7770 video card and can keep the 1920x1080 monitor in the budget, and in the future you can upgrade to core i5s, when you have the cash. Until then, the i3 should work just fine. Just don't try playing too many games past High settings at that full resolution and you should be okay. Future upgrades might be an i5-3450 and a Radeon HD 7850/7870, though if you go for the 7870 I might suggest upgrading the PSU to something over 500w (and don't go too high on an overclock of the 7850, if you do go that route).
 
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The only trick with that is that I believe the H61 motherboard needs to have the BIOS updated in order to support Ivy Bridge CPUs. Which means it needs to have a Sandy Bridge CPU installed first, which is why I went with a B75. Otherwise, it's certainly got more video card power and a good PSU. If the OP can get ahold of a Sandy Bridge CPU to update the BIOS, then this would be a good build to use. Not sure I'd go with the Win8, but since it's within $10, I'd leave that decision to the OP as well.
 
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The i3 2120 is a sandy bridge cpu, also windows 8 is better then windows 7. I have windows 8 and it has a faster boot up time, I also find that I am starting to enjoy the metro system. However like you said it is all down personal preference.
 
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I think I'll go with Win7, Win8 looks really complicated and rearranged, looks to confusing lol. And I might be able to go a little over 700, maybe 750-775. So I'll probably go with the i3 system. Maybe I'll try getting a little better-looking case also (Although it doesn't really matter). Thanks to you all :)
 
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I agree. While saving money is fun and all, $800 is really the sweet spot in gaming PC's. Go for a 7870 now and you will thank yourself later. Even if you have to wait an extra month, it is worth it.
 
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Depends on the FX. If it's an FX-6300, FX-8320 or FX-8350? Then no, the Phenom II isn't better. It's about on par with the FX-4300, if I remember the benchmarks from anandtech correctly.

And if you can go $200 on the CPU, I'd suggest the i5-3450 in samuelohagan's build. However, if you really want to game, you should put the extra cash into the GPU instead and get either the 7850 2gb or a gtx 660 (or 7870 if you can afford it). Most games are GPU dependent, so getting a better GPU will serve you better in a game than a more powerful CPU you will (as a whole, anyway). If you're willing to put in another $80, the Radeon 7870 cards become available (when you use samuelohagan's build, I mean).

For example, here's a quick edit of his build, but with a 7870 card instead of the 7850 1gb card.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/lZ3O
 
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The i3 2120 is on par with a phenom ii x4 965 or fx 4300, 4170

If you happen to live near a micro center you can snag an fx 4100 and a motherboard bundle deal for $89. You can spend extra money on a hyper 212 and you can overclock the fx 4100 to fx 4170 level.
 
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I think I'll go with that. Seems like I'll be able to get what I need with it, plus I can always upgrade to an i5 later if I really need to. Thanks for all the help!
 
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No problem at all. Just remember to update the BIOS after you get the PC up and running- so you don't forget about doing so before you do any upgrades to an Ivy Bridge CPU later on (it'll need the update to become compatible with Ivy Bridge CPUs). Doing it sooner rather than later is a good idea, I think, so you don't have issues later on.
 
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Ok so now I changed my mind again because I intend to do Youtube videos and I will be editing in Sony Vegas a lot. I read that a Phenom ii x4 965 would be better than the i3 2120 for editing so, I came up with this. Now it's time to figure out how I'll get the money, but that's for me :) Is this better than the i3 build? http://pcpartpicker.com/p/mksE
 
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It's perfect. At 900p you will be able to max out any game with a 7870 for years to come!
 
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