Need some input on this $600 gaming budget build

[purpleandgold]

Hello, I have currently become interested in building a PC, and as my first project, I decided that I needed an upgrade from my 2004 HP Pavilion laptop.

I found a build that fits my budget at around $600 (with a monitor) and my maximum budget is at $800 after shipping and rebates.

I would like some input on this build, and I would gladly take suggestions that would make this build run smoother. Every penny counts!

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/purpleandgold/saved/1Vkz

I will be using this mainly for gaming (League of Legends, Diablo III, Guild Wars 2) and I'd prefer to be running on high settings with a decent amount of FPS at 1920x1080 resolution if that would be possible.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Madn3ss795]

Hmm are you interested in overclocking?

 

[Jack Revenant]

There's a pretty big gulf between $600 and $800 in terms of performance, so I'll offer two builds:

$600ish:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($90.97 @ Outlet PC)
Motherboard: Asus M5A97 LE R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($68.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($62.13 @ TigerDirect)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 1GB Video Card ($139.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Gamma Classic (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($17.99 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Asus VS238H-P 23.0" Monitor ($137.58 @ Newegg)
Total: $619.62
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-07-09 06:58 EDT-0400)

Stronger GPU, more RAM, more storage, and what is in my opinion a better monitor than your build.

$800:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock 970 Extreme3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($89.98 @ Outlet PC)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($62.13 @ TigerDirect)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card ($265.66 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Gamma Classic (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($44.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($17.99 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Asus VS238H-P 23.0" Monitor ($137.58 @ Newegg)
Total: $805.30
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-07-09 07:02 EDT-0400)

Much stronger GPU, capable of maxing most current games, stronger CPU, better motherboard, better power supply. Honestly, the only weak link in this build is the case, which could be replace with a Corsair 300R for an additional $25, if desired.

 

[purpleandgold]

Hmm are you interested in overclocking?

Oh sorry, forgot to include that.

I will not be overclocking for now.

 

[purpleandgold]

There's a pretty big gulf between $600 and $800 in terms of performance, so I'll offer two builds:

$600ish:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($90.97 @ Outlet PC)
Motherboard: Asus M5A97 LE R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($68.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($62.13 @ TigerDirect)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 1GB Video Card ($139.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Gamma Classic (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($17.99 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Asus VS238H-P 23.0" Monitor ($137.58 @ Newegg)
Total: $619.62
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-07-09 06:58 EDT-0400)

Stronger GPU, more RAM, more storage, and what is in my opinion a better monitor than your build.

$800:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock 970 Extreme3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($89.98 @ Outlet PC)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($62.13 @ TigerDirect)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card ($265.66 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Gamma Classic (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($44.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($17.99 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Asus VS238H-P 23.0" Monitor ($137.58 @ Newegg)
Total: $805.30
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-07-09 07:02 EDT-0400)

Much stronger GPU, capable of maxing most current games, stronger CPU, better motherboard, better power supply. Honestly, the only weak link in this build is the case, which could be replace with a Corsair 300R for an additional $25, if desired.

I think I'll just take the monitor you suggested since it's a bigger screen.
What I'd like to know is if the $600 build be able to play games such as League of Legends, Guild Wars 2 and Diablo III on high? I'm not that much interested in playing the current games.

Maybe I could mix and match the $600 and the $800 build.

Thanks!

 

[Jack Revenant]

I think I'll just take the monitor you suggested since it's a bigger screen.
What I'd like to know is if the $600 build be able to play games such as League of Legends, Guild Wars 2 and Diablo III on high? I'm not that much interested in playing the current games.

Maybe I could mix and match the $600 and the $800 build.

Thanks!

Most reasonably modern toasters can max out LoL, but I'm afraid that I don't know the requirements for Guild Wars 2 or Diablo III terribly well. Given that they're both (to my memory) fairly low-requirement games, I would guess that the $600 build could run them on high-ish settings, though I'd want to look at benchmarks to be sure.

Edit: I found a couple (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/diablo-iii-performance-benchmark,3195-5.html) of benchmarks (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/guild-wars-2-performance-benchmark,3268-6.html) on this very site. I always forget that they do that sort of thing here. Based on the charts, the only game you couldn't max with the $600 build would be Guild Wars, at least not if you want 60 FPS.

 

[purpleandgold]

I think I'll just take the monitor you suggested since it's a bigger screen.
What I'd like to know is if the $600 build be able to play games such as League of Legends, Guild Wars 2 and Diablo III on high? I'm not that much interested in playing the current games.

Maybe I could mix and match the $600 and the $800 build.

Thanks!

Most reasonably modern toasters can max out LoL, but I'm afraid that I don't know the requirements for Guild Wars 2 or Diablo III terribly well. Given that they're both (to my memory) fairly low-requirement games, I would guess that the $600 build could run them on high-ish settings, though I'd want to look at benchmarks to be sure.

Edit: I found a couple (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/diablo-iii-performance-benchmark,3195-5.html) of benchmarks (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/guild-wars-2-performance-benchmark,3268-6.html) on this very site. I always forget that they do that sort of thing here. Based on the charts, the only game you couldn't max with the $600 build would be Guild Wars, at least not if you want 60 FPS.

Oh, okay. I think I'll have to settle for the $600 build since I'm a little bit tight on the budget at the moment, but I'll use the monitor you've suggested.
Thanks for you time!

 

[Jack Revenant]

I think I'll just take the monitor you suggested since it's a bigger screen.
What I'd like to know is if the $600 build be able to play games such as League of Legends, Guild Wars 2 and Diablo III on high? I'm not that much interested in playing the current games.

Maybe I could mix and match the $600 and the $800 build.

Thanks!

Most reasonably modern toasters can max out LoL, but I'm afraid that I don't know the requirements for Guild Wars 2 or Diablo III terribly well. Given that they're both (to my memory) fairly low-requirement games, I would guess that the $600 build could run them on high-ish settings, though I'd want to look at benchmarks to be sure.

Edit: I found a couple (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/diablo-iii-performance-benchmark,3195-5.html) of benchmarks (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/guild-wars-2-performance-benchmark,3268-6.html) on this very site. I always forget that they do that sort of thing here. Based on the charts, the only game you couldn't max with the $600 build would be Guild Wars, at least not if you want 60 FPS.

Oh, okay. I think I'll have to settle for the $600 build since I'm a little bit tight on the budget at the moment, but I'll use the monitor you've suggested.
Thanks for you time!

In that case, taking settings down a notch should allow you to hit 60 fps on GW2, and you should be able to max Diablo and LoL without any problems.

It was my pleasure to be of assistance. Feel free to contact me if you have any concerns or questions. Good luck and happy gaming!