gaming PC under $800

Catteni

Distinguished
Feb 12, 2012
18
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So i was upgrading my old rig and talking about either building or upgrading with someone @ work... and a few people wanted to know what i could build for how much...

my thoughts were i wanted something that could handle everything that's out right now... and at least the next year with no performance issues... and if you turn down the pretty things should hold up 2-3 years w/o an upgrade needed

so.. i came up with this

pcpartpicker.com/p/MnTLYJ

(i don't know why the link shows up like that but copy pasta or click this)
-> http://

Anyway if you have any suggestions on lowering the price without hurting the performance that would be great... or improving the performance without hurting price... or if you see a bottleneck i didn't see let me know and i'll see if i can move things around a bit...


I don't want unfounded claims about one brand outdoing another because of brand loyalty...

so PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

if you make a recommendation please say why... because i'll have to go and download benchmarks in PT to compare the one i've made vs what you're suggesting before i update the actual part

reasons for parts i picked...

CPU was picked first with no preference to brand was due to the very low cost with 4 cores and over 3ghz speed

Added cheap CPU cooler because i will not be OC for them and they can choose a diff cooler and OC themselves later

The mobo was picked for being the cheapest AM3/AM3+ compatible one i could find

Memory was basically the same... cheapest price/gb that fit the board and got to 16GB total because i can't quite bring myself to say 32GB is a needed thing in a budget pc

Storage was again quite simply the cheapest SSD (i know it won't be as fast as other SSD) that i could find price/GB that covered the 256GB threshold that i want to basically give enough room for OS andseveral large load intensive games and the same goes for the 3tb second drive... basically cheapest price/GB disk out there

the video card i know always needs a ton of research and this is the card i will be upgrading to in my own build... between benchmarks reviews etc etc... this card seems like the best idea...

the case... simply put... is the cheapest thing i can shove it all into... i will reccomend they go look for a better case somethign they like the look of with some decent airflow but it *CAN* go into... that... thing...

and the PSU i know it's not needed to be that powerful but it's not that much higher in price than the others out there... and i don't want to go and try and tell them not to OC past the PSU's capabilities... i'd rather they decide on thier own how much of what to do... again i have nothing to do with OC and don't want to

a sincere THANK YOU to anyone who can be helpful and come into this without going all fanboy for one brand or another :D

 
Solution
OK, you asked for reasons etc. I'm gonna dissect your build....

That cooler is rubbish. Either get a better one or stick with the one that comes with the processor for free; it's better!

For gaming you'll see absolutely no benefit with all that ram, 8gb is the sweet spot right now, spend the money where you will see a difference - the gpu

Try for a GPU with at least 3gb of vram, games are getting much more demanding in this area

The PSU is junk, dreadful, cheaply made ripply, can't deliver its rated power, nasty cheap capacitors, junk. Try to stick to decent brands like Antec, Seasonic, evga and rosewill capstone

Here's what I'd do for the budget, it's $740 but there's some great rebates available which bring it to less than $600...
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($179.79 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($71.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($61.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.88 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card ($319.99 @ B&H)
Case: Enermax OSTROG ATX Mid Tower Case ($43.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($49.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $777.62
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-27 06:50 EST-0500
 

Catteni

Distinguished
Feb 12, 2012
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so... after kicking around stuff quite a lot new build is

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/d394jX

they can pick out their own case...

8 core proc apparently AMD is a helluva lot easier on the budget than intel...

vid card... i believe this card is the best price/performance atm at a comfortable level to play anything needed... also can always buy different one or crossfire a second later on when in need of upgrade...

also the GTX 970 is getting some major flac atm about only using 3.5 gb of it's 4gb... including people talking class action for issues with it...

anyone have any suggestions/warnings/price saving tips that won't hurt performance?
 

ZeroGravity780

Reputable
Oct 28, 2014
782
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5,160
PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/cwW2YJ
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/cwW2YJ/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($94.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI 970 GAMING ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($99.89 @ Newegg)
Memory: Kingston Fury Red Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($75.79 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($51.88 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 290X 4GB TWIN FROZR Video Card ($299.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower Case ($42.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($47.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer ($19.75 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($88.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $822.14
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-31 23:34 EST-0500
 

plywrlw

Admirable
OK, you asked for reasons etc. I'm gonna dissect your build....

That cooler is rubbish. Either get a better one or stick with the one that comes with the processor for free; it's better!

For gaming you'll see absolutely no benefit with all that ram, 8gb is the sweet spot right now, spend the money where you will see a difference - the gpu

Try for a GPU with at least 3gb of vram, games are getting much more demanding in this area

The PSU is junk, dreadful, cheaply made ripply, can't deliver its rated power, nasty cheap capacitors, junk. Try to stick to decent brands like Antec, Seasonic, evga and rosewill capstone

Here's what I'd do for the budget, it's $740 but there's some great rebates available which bring it to less than $600

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor ($135.00 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper TX3 54.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($17.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($74.99 @ Micro Center)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($72.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: OCZ ARC 100 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($51.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($15.00 @ Newegg)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 280 3GB TWIN FROZR Video Card ($169.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Antec High Current Gamer 620W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $597.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-01 00:16 EST-0500

EDIT you'll need a case, this ones great for the price, especially after the rebate

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/thermaltake-case-vn400a1w2n
 
Solution
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($179.79 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($71.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($61.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.88 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card ($319.99 @ B&H)
Case: Enermax OSTROG ATX Mid Tower Case ($43.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($49.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $777.62
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-27 06:50 EST-0500

But this isnt bad for a 800 dollar pc