Questions on First Budget Build. Please help! :)

[Cam4Hook]

So I have some PC gaming knowledge, but I am new to building a PC. So I have decided to build a really cheap starter PC for myself. Before I buy the parts for it though, I have some questions.

The parts for the PC are here: http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Cam4hook/saved/4C5t.

So, what I was wondering was, will it be able to run games like Battlefield 3 or 4, Crysis 3, ArmA 2, ArmA 3, Titanfall, Watch Dogs? If it can run these games, then on what settings?

 

[Rationale]

Your CPU is quite out of date. AMD has officially stopped supporting the AM3 and AM3+ sockets now. They're only supporting AM1 and FM2+. That will make the PC very hard to upgrade and will keep performance lower than it has to be.
These would be my suggested revisions, which would increase performance and make upgrades later easier.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 750K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($79.18 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: Gelid Solutions CC-TranQ-01-A 58.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($35.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A75M Pro4+ Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($59.49 @ Newegg)
Memory: A-Data XPG V1.0 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($42.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.44 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R7 260X 2GB Video Card ($114.40 @ Newegg)
Case: Silverstone RL04W ATX Mid Tower Case ($44.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA 430W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply ($34.99 @ Micro Center)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($16.99 @ Newegg)
Case Fan: Antec 75024 79.0 CFM 120mm Fan ($8.08 @ OutletPC)
Other: Rosewill RNX-G300LX Wireless Adapter Card ($10.99)
Total: $502.52
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-08 00:40 EDT-0400)


Also, people might recommend an FX-6300 instead, but I wouldn't go for it. The AM3+ socket is sort of a sinking ship, and the cost is too much higher to justify the bit of extra performance.

Anyway, as you can see, the Athlon runs better than the Phenom II you were looking at and the FM2+ socket means you'll be able to keep the motherboard longer.
http://cpuboss.com/cpus/AMD-Phenom-II-X4-945-95W-vs-AMD-Athlon-X4-750k

The R7 260X performs better than the HD 7750 and is newer/more efficient, but if you want to keep the price lower than the 7750 is still a pretty good choice.
http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Radeon-R7-260X-vs-Radeon-HD-7750

As for a case, your case is ATX and your motherboard is mATX. They'll still work together fine, but if you wanted you could get a smaller case to save space. Or you could stick with the case you already chose, if you like how it looks.

Finally, you only need the CPU cooler if you plan to overclock. If you're not going to overclock the CPU, you don't need the cooler and can save some money there. CPUs come with their own small coolers that work fine unless you overclock.

 

[RCguitarist]

Your CPU is quite out of date. AMD has officially stopped supporting the AM3 and AM3+ sockets now. They're only supporting AM1 and FM2+. That will make the PC very hard to upgrade and will keep performance lower than it has to be.
These would be my suggested revisions, which would increase performance and make upgrades later easier.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 750K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($79.18 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: Gelid Solutions CC-TranQ-01-A 58.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($35.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A75M Pro4+ Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($59.49 @ Newegg)
Memory: A-Data XPG V1.0 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($42.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.44 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R7 260X 2GB Video Card ($114.40 @ Newegg)
Case: Silverstone RL04W ATX Mid Tower Case ($44.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA 430W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply ($34.99 @ Micro Center)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($16.99 @ Newegg)
Case Fan: Antec 75024 79.0 CFM 120mm Fan ($8.08 @ OutletPC)
Other: Rosewill RNX-G300LX Wireless Adapter Card ($10.99)
Total: $502.52
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-08 00:40 EDT-0400)


Also, people might recommend an FX-6300 instead, but I wouldn't go for it. The AM3+ socket is sort of a sinking ship, and the cost is too much higher to justify the bit of extra performance.

Anyway, as you can see, the Athlon runs better than the Phenom II you were looking at and the FM2+ socket means you'll be able to keep the motherboard longer.
http://cpuboss.com/cpus/AMD-Phenom-II-X4-945-95W-vs-AMD-Athlon-X4-750k

The R7 260X performs better than the HD 7750 and is newer/more efficient, but if you want to keep the price lower than the 7750 is still a pretty good choice.
http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Radeon-R7-260X-vs-Radeon-HD-7750

As for a case, your case is ATX and your motherboard is mATX. They'll still work together fine, but if you wanted you could get a smaller case to save space. Or you could stick with the case you already chose, if you like how it looks.

Finally, you only need the CPU cooler if you plan to overclock. If you're not going to overclock the CPU, you don't need the cooler and can save some money there. CPUs come with their own small coolers that work fine unless you overclock.

That's a good build for his budget, but he should get this memory set instead of the 1 stick you recommended:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231427

Or better yet, for $20 more, get this 8GB set since games are now starting to required 6GB: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231428

 

[James Mason]

If you can scrape together a little more cash you could go with an intel build.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor ($134.36 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock H81M-DGS R2.0 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($54.82 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($42.03 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($64.48 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card ($149.96 @ Newegg)
Case: Cougar MG100 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($45.60 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 300W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($46.97 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer ($16.11 @ Newegg)
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WN725N 802.11b/g/n USB 2.0 Wi-Fi Adapter ($10.73 @ Newegg)
Total: $565.06
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-08 15:09 EDT-0400)

 

[Cam4Hook]

After reading what was wrote, I came up with this: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3GAh2
I am willing to spend about $60-$80 more, but the cheaper the better. So, are there any upgrades I could make to this to make it better, while staying within the budget? Would this be able to run the games mentioned above? If so then on what settings?

 

[Rationale]

If you can scrape together a little more cash you could go with an intel build.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor ($134.36 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock H81M-DGS R2.0 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($54.82 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($42.03 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($64.48 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card ($149.96 @ Newegg)
Case: Cougar MG100 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($45.60 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 300W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($46.97 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer ($16.11 @ Newegg)
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WN725N 802.11b/g/n USB 2.0 Wi-Fi Adapter ($10.73 @ Newegg)
Total: $565.06
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-08 15:09 EDT-0400)

After reading what was wrote, I came up with this: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3GAh2
I am willing to spend about $60-$80 more, but the cheaper the better. So, are there any upgrades I could make to this to make it better, while staying within the budget? Would this be able to run the games mentioned above? If so then on what settings?

Well, as James Mason posted in his build, you could actually save $10 by switching to an internal Wifi card instead of using a USB Wifi adapter. Also, that would look cleaner and it'd free up a USB slot.

Other than that, I can't think of any other options to really cut costs without losing performance, or increase performance without increasing cost.

That Sapphire R7 260X is also on sale for only $110 right now, I hope you noticed that. The PC Part Picker price is actually a bit high as it wasn't updated for the sale.

 

[Cam4Hook]

So what about the games? Also, when I begin to upgrade the parts, should I upgrade my processor first or my gpu first, or something else?

 

[James Mason]

Well for gaming, the GPU is usually the most important. but you'll need to drop around $250-300 to get a GPU that's worth being considered an upgrade.

 

[Cam4Hook]

Oh, ok, and als Does anybody have an answer for the question about the games?

 

[AgentTran]

You should drop the R7 260X and get the HD 7850 instead, you'll save $10.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131562

 

[Rationale]

Oh, ok, and als Does anybody have an answer for the question about the games?

It's hard to say, as we don't know what resolution your screen is and we don't know what kind of framerate you want.

 

[RCguitarist]

You should drop the R7 260X and get the HD 7850 instead, you'll save $10.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131562

After rebate the 260x is the same price as the 7850. So get the 260X.

 

[Cam4Hook]

I have two 15 inch monitors. They both are 1024 x 768. I would be wanting 30-60 FPS. Also, which is better the 260x or the 7850?

 

[Cam4Hook]

This wouldn't need to be that great of a PC to run photoshop and premeire pro/sony movie studio right?