Need a $700 budget gaming PC. No OS needed.

[ivDeTox]

Approximate Purchase Date: e.g.: June

Budget Range: $700

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming (DayZ standalone, Battlefield 4, League of legends, Guild Wars 2, all the latest games)

Are you buying a monitor: No

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Wherever there is the best price

Location: VA, USA

Parts Preferences: Doesn't matter

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe

Your Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080

Hi there! I am looking for a $700 budget gaming PC. No need for operating system or peripherals. I would love to be able to run all of the latest games. Planning to play lots of DayZ but I've heard that its really hard to run that game 🙁. Given my tight budget, I'm guessing that an Fx 6300 or 6320 would be ideal along with a good GPU, but would that bottleneck my PC and force me to upgrade again in a few years versus getting an i5 4670k? I've heard different things about DayZ. Some have told me it is very CPU intensive and recommend an i5 4670k for max performance while others say no matter what you have, its poorly optimized and performance will not be good on any system.

Here's a build I was looking at but I'm not sure if its good or not. If you think I could cut down on any costs while maintaining the performance let me know!

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/PhoKingTasty/saved/LTBTwP

I know it is $800 with the intel i5 4670k processor, but if I drop down to an fx 8320, it cuts about $100 off the price.

Thanks in advance guys!

 

[numanator]

I would go for a no OC i5 build, something like this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 PRO4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($89.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($72.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 270X 2GB Double Dissipation Video Card ($179.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($54.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Antec High Current Gamer 620W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($67.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Asus BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($60.97 @ OutletPC)
Total: $761.89
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-28 18:09 EDT-0400)

Edit: If you don't need modular cables for your power supply this is a great deal right now, the sale ends in a few days though:
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($26.99 @ Newegg)

550w would be enough for your system and XFX psus ar made using a seasonic OEM so they are very high quality.

 

[ivDeTox]

I would go for a no OC i5 build, something like this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 PRO4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($89.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($72.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 270X 2GB Double Dissipation Video Card ($179.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($54.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Antec High Current Gamer 620W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($67.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Asus BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($60.97 @ OutletPC)
Total: $761.89
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-28 18:09 EDT-0400)

Edit: If you don't need modular cables for your power supply this is a great deal right now, the sale ends in a few days though:
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($26.99 @ Newegg)

550w would be enough for your system and XFX psus ar made using a seasonic OEM so they are very high quality.

Does that intel processor perform better than the fx 8350 in gaming? At microcenter the fx 8350 is cheaper along with a good motherboard.

 

[numanator]

The major difference between the i5 and the fx-8320 is the core performance. The i5s have stronger cores by quite a bit but the fx-8320 has 8 cores vs the i5's 4 cores. Almost always, the i5 is better for gaming than the fx-8320 because most games are not programmed to use more than 4 cores so 4 of the fx-8320's cores typically go to waste. Also some older games only utilize 1-2 cores and so the i5 will perform much better on those games.

If you have a microcenter near you, there are some cheaper/better i5 options:
CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($169.99 @ Micro Center)

Overall, if you can afford the i5, it is the best option for gaming right now.

 

[ivDeTox]

The major difference between the i5 and the fx-8320 is the core performance. The i5s have stronger cores by quite a bit but the fx-8320 has 8 cores vs the i5's 4 cores. Almost always, the i5 is better for gaming than the fx-8320 because most games are not programmed to use more than 4 cores so 4 of the fx-8320's cores typically go to waste. Also some older games only utilize 1-2 cores and so the i5 will perform much better on those games.

If you have a microcenter near you, there are some cheaper/better i5 options:
CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($169.99 @ Micro Center)

Overall, if you can afford the i5, it is the best option for gaming right now.

Whats a good budget motherboard for that i5? There is no bundle deal at microcenter for that processor. The i5 4670k bundles give a nice motherboard for $320. Is there a motherboard for less than $100 that is also good? No need for overclocking but I don't want my CPU or motherboard dying after a year or two. Would much rather shell out the extra cash for a good motherboard or just go with the fx 8320 and gigabyte ga 990 fxa ud3.

I do believe intel has better processors for gaming. I'm just in this budget situation right now 🙁. I would easily pick the i5 4670k over the fx series any day.

 

[numanator]

For your budget you either need to go with a non-OC intel build or the fx-8320 build. The major difference between the Z97/Z87 and the H97/H87 is that the H motherboards do not support overclocking. Also, if you don't trust asrock then there are good gigabyte boards for $100 in the H97 series. Here is what I would do for intel:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($169.99 @ Micro Center)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H97-D3H ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($72.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 270X 2GB Double Dissipation Video Card ($179.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($54.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($26.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($60.97 @ OutletPC)
Total: $720.90
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-28 19:24 EDT-0400)

This is what I would do for the AMD:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor ($129.99)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($30.98 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($94.99)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($72.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 270X 2GB Double Dissipation Video Card ($179.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($54.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($26.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($60.97 @ OutletPC)
Total: $696.88
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-28 19:23 EDT-0400)

The CPU/Mobo price is from the Microcenter bundle.