How good will this computer be for gaming?

[firelily]

So I'm going to be building my own computer for the first time ever, but I'm on a tight budget of only about $600. I pretty much have a good idea of what parts I might be getting, so I'm just wondering how well this build will do against all the current games out right now. I'm hoping that it will at least be able to handle most games on medium+ settings with very little lag.

Here's the build:

CPU: AMD Phenom II x4 965 Black Edition
GPU: Radeon HD 6870
MOBO: Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3
PSU: Antec NEO ECO 520c 520W
RAM: 8GB DDR3 1600
HDD: Reusing my 500gb hard drive from my old computer
Case: HAF 912
Optical Drive: Reusing the one from my old computer
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

 

[excella1221]

Should be good, and able to go High settings on most games.

The 6870's performance in terms of fps is right in the middle of the 7770 and 7850.

Great job. Happy building!

 

[ckholt83]

Not bad, but for $600 I think you could do a little better.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-3220 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor ($119.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3V Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($56.70 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($33.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7870 2GB Video Card ($214.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.49 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($49.99 @ NCIX US)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (64-bit) ($89.99 @ CompUSA)
Total: $615.14
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)


That puts you a teeny bit over, but gives you a much better GPU and a CPU that handles games better. If your budget is firm, you could swap your case for the Antec 300 and that would put you right at $600:
http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=29812&vpn=THREE%20HUNDRED&manufacture=Antec

Also, if you live near a microcenter you could pick up an i5 for only $30 more than the i3, which is a great deal.

There should also be some good deals coming up for Black Friday / Cyber Monday if you can wait that long.

 

[Deemo13]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-3220 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor ($119.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3V Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($56.70 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($33.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 1GB Video Card ($159.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.49 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($49.99 @ NCIX US)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (64-bit) ($89.99 @ CompUSA)
Total: $560.14
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

The 7850 is a bit cheaper, but much better than the 6870.

 

[mrdowntownkiller]

nice builds from Deemo13 and ckholt83 but i would go with the one which has the better GPU (7870 or going with gtx 660 non-ti)

 

[ckholt83]

It actually looks like his build is identical to mine except for the lesser GPU. You could do that too, but I wouldn't recommend it. Just swapping the case out like I mentioned is enough to keep the better card and get you back down to your budget cap.

 

[Deemo13]

It actually looks like his build is identical to mine except for the lesser GPU. You could do that too, but I wouldn't recommend it. Just swapping the case out like I mentioned is enough to keep the better card and get you back down to your budget cap.

It is, I was just taking the easy way to get a lower budget. I might come back in a bit with a really nice build.

 

[firelily]

Thank you to all of you for the positive feedback, I really appreciate it . I had a feeling that I could've done a little better in picking the parts, but I didn't really do a ton of research and it's my first time building a computer. However I still haven't put together all of my money yet, so I probably won't be able to build my computer for another few weeks. But I will have most of my money in time for the Black Friday sale, so I'll be sure to make good use of that 😛