Gift of Giving. Gaming PC.

[MicroStutter]

My brother really wants a gaming PC he doesnt have a lot of money to spend at one time. So I am going to build one for him, however I do not have enough money to just buy all the parts outright myself. I was thinking of buying the parts overtime vs. saving the money then spending it all at once.

Also I want the specs of the computer to handle current games on a single GPU at medium settings averaging as close to 60 FPS as possible. Also the GPU needs to be SLI/Crossfire capable for future upgrade to allow for play on higher graphical settings while mainting as close to 60 FPS.

I currently have $250 set aside for this build and I am debating what to purchase first for his system. I want it to be a surprise so I am trying to keep him out of the loop and do this with money I save here and there.

I currently have 8gb of extra memory at the house and Windows 7 OS.

I spent roughly 1,500 on my PC when I built it in OCT. I have a top tier gaming rig and I was thinking of something more entry level for his that he can still get enjoyment out of, with the ability to upgrade into a performance level machine by adding an additional GPU.

What price range will this system cost me? If my 1,500 gaming rig is the top of the line what does a not so top of the line gaming rig cost?

I was thinking the CPU and MOBO need to be top tier so any future upgrade wont be bottlenecked. Everything else can be budget or entry level. Allowing him to upgrade when he has the money too. I just want to get him started.

 

[bigcyco1]

This is an excellent price for an extremely good gaming build that will play pretty much everything you throw at it at medium to high settings 1080p.

CPU: Intel Core i5-3470 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($199.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock H77 Pro4/MVP ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($87.55 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 660 2GB Video Card ($232.55 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.94 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply
Optical Drive: Sony AD-7280S-0B DVD/CD Writer ($18.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $669.01
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-12-27 03:41 EST-0500)

 

[bigcyco1]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127681&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=#top <--- The MSI Radeon HD 7870 HAWK is the MSI Lightning's smaller brother. It uses the company's signature Twin Frozr II dual-fan cooler. MSI has also increased the clock speeds of the HD 7870 HAWK to 1100 MHz GPU and 1200 MHz memory.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127699&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=#top <--- The MSI GeForce GTX 660 OC with a Twin Frozr cooler. MSI's card is factory overclocked and comes with the company's Twin Frozr III cooler, which the company has used extensively on both GeForce and Radeon based performance-segment graphics cards. The card ships with a core clock speed of 1033 MHz, and 1098 MHz GPU Boost.