The "Just Enough" gaming box

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Chester Burnett

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Nov 7, 2011
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Hello and thanks in advance for any advice. My son and a couple of his friends want to build themselves gaming computers. We need to keep the cost per box as low as possible while still being able to handle most modern titles decently. It doesn't need everything on ultra, just respectable performance. I'm hoping to get the most bang for the buck by overclocking the CPU and GPU rather than buying top of the line hardware. I'm fine with AMD or Intel I'm just not sure where the budget processors start being viable.


Approximate Purchase Date: Next month or so

Budget Range: How low can you go?

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming > ya know... everything else.

Are you buying a monitor:Yes

Parts to Upgrade: The whole shebang.

Do you need to buy OS: Yes

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Most US websites. No Microcenter in my state 🙁 There's a Compusa not far from me.

Location: City, State/Region, Country - Florida USA

Parts Preferences: Any

Overclocking: Yes

SLI or Crossfire: No

Your Monitor Resolution: 1920x1200 hopefully

 
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Jonjon...There is no specific budget. I'm trying to get an idea of what would constitute an entry level budget. I'd like to be as inexpesive as possible while getting decent preformance. Whatever that winds up costing we'll figure out a way to make it work.

I'll be watching the game too Swifty!

Thanks
 
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to overclock on intel you need at least a 3570k and z75 mb. never mind took the os off. and of course you could get a lesser video card but without knowing a budget its partly guessing.

intel
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($204.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.98 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock Z75 Pro3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($84.55 @ Newegg)
Memory: Mushkin Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($35.57 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($64.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7870 2GB Video Card ($204.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: BitFenix Merc Alpha (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224BB DVD/CD Writer ($15.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $741.04
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-01-05 15:47 EST-0500)

amd
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($129.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.98 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI 970A-G46 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Mushkin Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($35.57 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($64.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7870 2GB Video Card ($204.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: BitFenix Merc Alpha (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224BB DVD/CD Writer ($15.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $651.48
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-01-05 15:46 EST-0500)
 
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You probably want to do most of the research yourself (or get the boys to do it, but check out what they're doing). I'm not the most experienced person either, so there may be better options.

I'm pretty sure the sweet spot for price/performance is ~800 dollars.
 
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an OC'd 7950 for the GPU and a 3570k for the CPU would be best imo.

EDIT: Oc'd 7950 beats the 670 in alot of stuff, and is like 100$ cheaper. It would pretty much destroy everything but the witcher 2 and mebbe metro at 1920x1080. ;p frame latency on nVidia cards are better doe, so you might wanna go for a 660ti if you really think you can tell the diff.
 
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These guys seem like they jump around from different games. They've been doing BF3 lately but will probably be on to something else by the time these get built. I'm just looking for something that preforms acceptably across the board but it doesn't really need to excel at any particular game. I'm not looking for ultra settings for the most part. Just as cheap as I can go without having things be a slide show.
 
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BF3 is one of the most demanding games so if you optimize for that you should be A-OK. if you want the best for the least grab an fx 6300, a 7870, and a decent 90$ mobo and you should be fine. OCing isn't worth the cost of the heatsync+the CPU limitations if you're on a budget imo. A 7870 should perform great in most games high-ultra.
 
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Oooook. So I think some of the builds are way exceeding the "Just-Enough" aspect of this build. I'm presuming that you're expecting to play games on ~Medium/High settings while keeping the build itself as cheap as possible. For overclocking, you might want a higher end CPU than the one in this build.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/w45h

For overclocking, you might want a higher end CPU than the one in this build, but like zed said, it's not worth the extra cost to get a better CPU and heatsink. The OS contains 3 licensed uses of Windows 7, so you can use it on your son's friends' PCs too if they all chip in a bit of money to pay for the 3-pack, it's cheaper than buying 3 individual. The Hannspree monitor in the build another person posted is a no name brand. I have a hanns-g (which is the same brand) and it had dead pixels right out of the box. As you can see here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7770-7750-benchmark,3135-8.html

The graphics card recommended (HD 7770) performs nicely for your budget, and allows for high overclocking headroom.

One last thing, the case recommende (NZXT Source 210) is available right now for $17.99 compared to the normal $45 on Microcenter.com w/rebates.

The total cost is... drumroll please... $863.33! Now you must take into account that the price is higher than it should be due to Windows 7 being a 3-pack. If you split the price with the other kids it should be about $663.33 more or less, and it has a good quality monitor from DELL. I hope you take this build into consideration, as I kept it as cheap as possible but you'll still be playing games like Skyrim on High/Ultra at 1920x1080 at exceptional frame rates.
 
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What's with the good luck?... It's enough for the settings he's playing at. He said he doesn't need to play at highest settings and what not. If you really think it's gonna be that much of a problem you can upgrade to maybe a Phenom II x4 965 BE or i3 but I think the Pentium would be adequate.
 
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a 7770 can barely get 30fps on battlefield with with 4x msaa. battlefield is one of the few games that uses all 4 cores on a cpu. what really confuses me is why you would suggest a windows 3 pack at the expense of cpu and gpu. did i miss something? it would already be a dated machine before its even built. if you can afford it $200 more its much better computer. this is the main problem they don't give us a budget so its a pointless discussion anyway. if you want as cheap as you can go yes a G860 and 7770.
 
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Wait. I might sound like a total idiot right now, but I think the 3-pack allowed you to install on 3 different systems? And he says he wants to build for his son and a couple of his friends, so that's my logic.
 
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