What is the best $600 gaming PC?

[OrbitalTrooper]

I have a budget of $700 but I reserved $100 for the OS so I have $600 for the parts. I live in Canada so I need places that ship in Canada. I want to play games like Planetsjde 2, Total War: Rome 2 and Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion. I have an LCD HD TV with 60hz refresh rate at 1920:1080p that I'll be using until I can afford a better monitor. I generally don't play shooters because I have a console for that so I'll play a lot of strategy games. I plan on upgrading sometime next year.

 

[TechyInAZ]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-6350 3.9GHz 6-Core Processor ($139.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Kingston Fury Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($72.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($52.91 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 270X 2GB Video Card ($159.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cougar Solution (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($37.99 @ Mwave)
Power Supply: EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $598.83
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

If you want to pop in a more powerful processor in the future, just get a intel core i3 4130 and a H97 Motherboard.

 

[Jeremiah Fish]

OP is from Canada, is he not?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4150 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($118.11 @ DirectCanada)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 PRO4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($79.75 @ Vuugo)
Memory: Kingston Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($79.88 @ Canada Computers)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($58.98 @ Newegg Canada)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R7 265 2GB Video Card ($164.75 @ Vuugo)
Case: BitFenix Comrade ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ NCIX)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($39.99 @ NCIX)
Total: $581.45
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Left a bit of room in the budget because of the rebates.

 

[t3nn1spr3p]

Good Budget Intel Gaming Build

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4150 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($125.99 @ NCIX)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($66.89 @ Amazon Canada)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($89.98 @ Newegg Canada)
Storage: Western Digital AV-GP 500GB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($53.39 @ Amazon Canada)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card ($149.99 @ NCIX)
Case: Antec One ATX Mid Tower Case ($52.99 @ NCIX)
Power Supply: Antec 450W ATX Power Supply ($39.99 @ NCIX)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer ($17.99 @ NCIX)
Total: $597.21
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

 

[prit87]

http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/r6Mpzy
sorry i have gone a little over your budget that's why i have not included a cpu cooler in this build...

 

[Beezy]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-6350 3.9GHz 6-Core Processor ($139.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Kingston Fury Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($72.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($52.91 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 270X 2GB Video Card ($159.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cougar Solution (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($37.99 @ Mwave)
Power Supply: EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $598.83
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

If you want to pop in a more powerful processor in the future, just get a intel core i3 4130 and a H97 Motherboard.

when DX 12 comes around hell be in a much better place with the 6300 than an i3 owner (unless you like old games from 2011 and before). Even still he would be better of overclocking and or upgrading to an FX 8320/8350 when he needs more oomph. i would also get a r9 270 before if it meant affording something better than an EVGA psu, stick with antec seasonic and xfx for power supply units. Also get 2 x 4GB RAM not a single 8 GB stick, you can find a good DDR3 kit (2 x 4GB) for the same price, and you will utilize dual channel memory.

 

[Jeremiah Fish]

OP stated he would be upgrading next year and an upgrade to an i5/i7 next year would be far better than any of AMD's offerings. An upgrade from the FX 6300 to the FX 8320 isn't very significant and AM3+ is also a dead socket, no use getting that. A H97 motherboard will allow OP to upgrade to Broadwell chips which will come out next year or late this year, should he so desire.