Graphics card / build for G3258 budget gaming PC

[dproberts]

I'm thinking of building 2 new budget gaming PCs for myself & my wife. We don't play any high-end games (at least now) - she plays LOTRO and I play SW:TOR. We both may graduate to newer MMOs at some point. I might want to play the new Star Wars: Battlefront, but I'm fairly certain that a PC in this range won't be up to that, so it's not a dealbreaker.

My goal is to build each PC for about $400-$450. This will only be the second time I've ever built a PC and the first one wasn't very stable (I'd rather not go into that now), so I'd like to keep this as simple and easy as possible.

I'm leaning towards the G3258 for the CPU. I know that chip is best known for its easy overclocking, which I've never done before but might try to do - however, I'd like to stick with the stock fan & cooling. I'm planning on keeping these PCs for 4-5 years, and I'm wondering if I'll regret going with a 2-core CPU.

These are also our general use / everyday PCs for e-mail, light Photoshop, etc., so they're generally left on - it would be great if they were efficient & booted up quickly. I'm thinking of going with SSDs to help with this.

As to the graphics card - for a $400ish build, I figure I can spend about $100-$150 on the graphics card. I'm leaning towards the GTX 750 Ti, as it seems to perform well in that price range, & consumes less power so I could go with a smaller power supply too. However, I'd be open to any other options.

So, I think the G3258 + GTX 750 Ti would work well for my current requirements and fit within the budget, but I'm not sure how flexible it would be in the future. Any comments or alternate build suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Joseph DeGarmo]

Make sure to get a Z97 motherboard. ASRock Z97 Pro4 is a decent budget motherboard. That way you can overclock the G3258 or upgrade to an i5-4690k if more performance is needed. Star Wars Battlefront is expected to require a quad-core CPU, so don't expect to play it on the G3258.

 

[stephen291994]

Right well $450 is about £285.00 which isnt alot at all , 750 ti + G3258 + crucial 120gb ssd + western digital 500gb harddrive already at £242, You still need a psu a case motherboard and ram unless you use some stuff from your current pc.

Try look at some videos on youtube for $400-500 dollar builds etc they will give you some great ideas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYTpiTnN-9M

 

[dproberts]

I've been poking around the forums, youtube, etc over the past few days, & have a lot of elements settled. The following components are fairly definite choices right now (especially the G3258, which is only $50 at Micro Center):

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor ($53.73 @ Micro Center)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97-HD3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($79.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($48.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($99.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB WINDFORCE Video Card ($119.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Rosewill CHALLENGER ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($26.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer ($12.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 OEM (64-bit) ($85.75 @ OutletPC)
Total: $567.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-27 17:35 EDT-0400


My real question is still the video card - I'm leaning towards the GTX 750 Ti due to its reasonable performance and low power, & it's running $115-$140 for most of the well-reviewed cards. However, I've also found a Zotac GTX 760 for $150 at Newegg. From what I've read, the GTX 760 is about a 40% increase in performance over the 750 Ti.

Based on this build, is the GTX 760 worth the extra $30?

 

[Joseph DeGarmo]

The GTX 760 uses much more power than the GTX 750 Ti since it is an older Kepler GPU, so you'll need a bigger PSU, such as an XFX 550w, for that.

 

[dproberts]

Per Joseph's suggestion I decided to look for a z97 motherboard & stick with the G3258. I ended up finding a good deal on a Gigabyte z97 board for $60, so it shouldn't be difficult to upgrade to a quad core processor down the road.

I also found a great deal on an R9 270x graphics card, which uses more power than the 750 Ti, but is a step up for basically the same price (on sale).

 

[Himei]

As others have suggested, get a z97 motherboard but try to not get too cheap (wont overclock good) and of course not to expensive (to fit your budget). I recommend Asus for you due to easier BIOS or windows software to overclock the Pentium, something that might confuse you if you use the other brand's BIOS/Software.