Need ideas for 700$ Gaming build

[QtrSkills]

Hello everyone
I want to build a gaming pc for my cousin as follow

1. its intended for gaming
2. He has a case, peripherals and monitor
3. budget is 700 USD

Im open to new builds however I think the only constant is the graphics card, The build I have in mind is

MSI A78M-E35
athlon 760k
vengeance blue 8gb x2
evga gtx 970 ssc
cx 500 psu
12gb samsung ssd
wd hard drive
probably a cpu cooler

 

[StormyIV]

No point in putting an athlon with a gtx 970. Try an fx 6300 with a gtx 760? Or even a 660 would be good.

 

[smorizio]

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Y6GhYJ
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Y6GhYJ/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($209.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus Z97-A ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($137.99 @ NCIX US)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($84.98 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Hitachi Ultrastar 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($47.49 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 280 3GB TWIN FROZR Video Card ($156.00 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.99 @ Micro Center)
Total: $746.43
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-13 11:23 EDT-0400

 

[Shamar Holtz]

An Athlon will bottleneck. here, I left you a bit of money head room for case fans, op drive or OS

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/fKfxVn Use this one, I changed the PSU

 

[Shamar Holtz]

There is no need for more than 8gbs of RAM, unless you plan on doing some very intensive video, audio editing or rendering 3D

 

[StormyIV]

Take a look at this build as well. http://pcpartpicker.com/user/StormyIV/saved/CwtLrH

 

[QtrSkills]

Thank you for your inputs its very appreciated I based the build on a mix between the builds mentioned from StormyIV and Shamar Holtz, However can someone explain why the athlon would bottleneck here? thank you

 

[Shamar Holtz]

The 970 is a very high end GPU, one of the best on the market, thus, the Athlon is a low to mid (Mid if overclocked) CPU. The cpu will most likely hold your GPU back considering in that their performance must just just as good as eachother or one must be SLIGHTLY better than the other to not bottleneck.

Bottleneck is simply just one one PC component limits the other due to different performance levels ^_^ Hope this helped

 

[sammy sung]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor ($149.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($28.99 @ Micro Center)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($116.00 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($53.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 280 3GB TWIN FROZR Video Card ($169.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Antec Basiq Plus 550W 80+ Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($64.98 @ OutletPC)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24F1ST DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Amazon)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($101.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $735.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-14 15:17 EDT-0400

Goes a bit over your budget, but worth it. You could scale back your GPU & processor a bit to add an SSD or more ram. This build is built upon the premise of not overclocking at all.