[Build Ready] $700-$800 Gaming PC
Hi everyone. I'm looking at building a PC primarily for gaming in the $700-$800 range. I'm able to get a free copy of Windows 8 and am salvaging an optical drive and CPU cooler from a previous build so I'm hoping to save some money there.
My current build is at $734 (I overrode a few prices to stick with Amazon/Newegg just to make the shipping easier, but if the difference is more than a few dollars than I'll gladly use different sellers). Looking at my build I'm wondering if anyone has a way to shave off a few dollars without sacrificing too much performance. I've been telling myself that if I can get the price below $700 I'll splurge and get an SSD (although to be honest, there's a decent chance I'll splurge and get an SSD anyway...). I'm also trying to make sure there aren't any compatibility issues. My primary concern is my motherboard. I need to fit both my GPU and wireless network card (due to the layout of my apartment I am stuck using wireless) and some of the reviews sound like space is tight.
Also I'm curious as to AMD vs. Intel CPU. From what I've been reading at lower price points AMD is better but Intel has better performance at higher price points. At my price point is it worth it going for an i5 instead of sticking with an AMD processor? I'm primarily using this computer for gaming and would like it to be somewhat future-proof so I just want to make sure the CPU isn't bottle-necking the GPU.
Anyway, thanks everyone, and Merry Christmas.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks
| Type | Item | Price |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | Intel Core i5-4670 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor | $214.99 @ Amazon |
| Thermal Compound | Arctic Silver Arctic Alumina Premium Ceramic Polysynthetic 1.75g Thermal Paste | $4.99 @ Newegg |
| Motherboard | ASRock H81M-HDS Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard | $58.97 @ Newegg |
| Memory | G.Skill NS Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory | $69.99 @ Newegg |
| Storage | Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | $59.99 @ Amazon |
| Video Card | Gigabyte Radeon R9 270X 2GB Video Card | $215.91 @ Newegg |
| Wireless Network Adapter | Asus PCE-N10 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter | $14.99 @ Newegg |
| Case | Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case | $54.98 @ Newegg |
| Power Supply | Corsair CX 500W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply | $39.99 @ Newegg |
| Total | ||
| Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available. | $734.80 | |
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-12-24 21:23 EST-0500 |
Posted Dec 25, 2013, 2:39 AM UTC
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks
the i5 is a great choice for the price, definitely stick with it
B85 mobo, 4 RAM slots, more sata slots, front panel USB 3.0, and pcie 3.0
cheaper/faster RAM
faster GPU
usb wifi adapter, some matx boards have trouble fitting PCIE cards with GPUs
nice budget matx tower to match mobo, you can stick with the 200R if you prefer
Hi, I'm someone who is looking to build a computer for the first time and I liked the price of this. I was also looking at cpubenchmark.net. I found this which has been given a higher cost efficiency. What would happen if I were to use the AMD card instead of the i5?
You gotta be careful with sites like cpubenchmark because they base their score on synthetic benchmarks that aren't necessarily indicative of real world performance. Anandtech has a nicer benchmark suite, CPU-world is another alternative but they mostly do synthetics also.
To answer your question, the FX 6300, while probably a better value strictly from a performance per $ perspective, is objectively slower than an i5. If this is for gaming, you might run into issues in some of the more CPU demanding titles where no matter what graphical setting you put your game at you will still lag due to a CPU bottleneck. For the most part this won't be an issue, as most games are GPU bound rather than CPU, but it is possible in some titles.
I would say if you don't want to overclock stick with the i5. Intel also gives you PCIE 3.0, which whilst not really necessary now might come in handy at some point in the future.
Since I have your attention, I'm also looking at putting a small SSD in the case to boot from. Will it fit as well as a small (Less than or equal to 1TB) HD?
Yes. The xion Xon 560 has special SSD mounting points but you could literally put it anywhere in your case. With no moving parts, it doesn't really matter if your SSD is laying unattached in your case.
Any thoughts on this GPU? It's still a 760 GTX but with the mail in rebate is a bit cheaper than the EVGA one you have listed.
If you don't mind paying $20 more now in the assumption that you'll get $20 more later. Also the PNY card only has a 1 year warrnty, while most GPUs have at least 3 year warranties.