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Hey guys im just asking for some help on a rig someone wants me to help them build.
I need a $500-600 rig with just the Motherboard, ram, video card, processor, also a power supply
if someone could maybe throw a list of the best parts for that price at me that would be great
Comments
im using his old case and hard drive.
His computer is like 5 years old but he has a 650w power supply do u think i could use that or do u think i should get a new power supply for his computer?
Also im just looking for those parts i listed before im not sure which build would be more bang for the buck amd or intel for that price
it's your money (or your friends), but any hard drive older than 3 years I wouldn't re-use. There's a very high chance that it could fail, and there's nothing worse than getting your new computer all put together only to have the hard drive crap out randomly 2 weeks later.
Not that a new drive can't also crap out, but the odds go up dramatically as drives get older.
Case, CD-ROM, sure re-use those.
Power supply - also, replace it. It may still make adequate power but things like fans have a limited life span, and you really want a good power supply as the foundation for any rig you plan on gaming on, because it affects the entire stability and longevity of the system.
Also - I think there are 2 sweet spots for bang for the buck.
The FX-6300, at $110, is an awesome deal. 6-core CPU, fast enough for any game out today, and room to overclock a good bit.
The next bump up would be the Core i5 - either a 3570k ($225) or 4670k ($240). Note your paying $20 for the K to be able to overclock, and they are still nice w/o overclocking, although most gamers like to at least have the option. The 4670 will be a bit faster out of the box (Haswell), but the 3570 (Ivy Bridge) is still a great chip and can typically overclock better. The main improvements to Haswell don't really affect it's gaming performance. Here you get a quad core, room to overclock a bit.
Now, the price difference is more than just the CPU - the Intel version is twice as much for just the CPU, and they are faster per core - that's pretty well accepted without argument. But, Intel motherboards also cost more (licensing to Intel) - a similarly equiped motherboard will be around $25-30 more than it's AMD equivalent. So there's a bit more you need to budget for if you plan on going Intel.
And how much will that speed really net you? Is the difference between 85FPS and 112FPS really that important? That's the typical net between these 2 CPUs - both are more than fast enough for pretty much every game.
But it really comes down to overall budget. If you have the money, then there aren't a lot of reasons to not go with Intel. But if your on a budget, then an AMD system will save $125-$150 over a similarly equiped Intel system (RAM/Video/PSU/etc).
Im pretty much building this computer for a 8th grader for xmas his dad contacted me about building it
So as u said id need a new hard drive then to? alright well im prolly not going to buy him a K series sense he'll have no reason to overclock his pc.
pretty much looking for a pc around $600 with motherboard,ram,hard drive, gpu and idk if i could reuse his power supply
Depending on the power supply, check what kind and research it. I say this because I have a 5 year old PSU that has a life time warranty. If this is the case, then use the old power supply. I even know of some that have 7 year warranties. I use mine as a back up now, which came in handy recently when my 8 month old PSU failed, lol
At $600 total for the build and with the expectation it will play modern PC games (last post you added gpu) I'd have to agree that AMD is your best option. AMD's A series of CPUs (APU) are the sweet spot for budget gaming PC's as they offer very decent integrated graphics that Intel currently can't touch. I'd also argue that is this computer was not absolutely needed before Xmas that you suggest to the father he hold off until after the New Year as the latest line of those APU's, Kaveri, is schedule to be release in January and will offer the best bang for your/his buck. If that is not an option there is nothing wrong with the current generation (Rickland).
EDIT: With regards to the poster below I'll respectfully say I disagree completely. His suggestions lead me to believe he is the type of person who can't deal with the fact a budget gaming PC is not expected to be playing modern games on high-max settings. If a discrete GPU was a real upgrade over an APU within a $500-600 budget (assuming new and not skimping on other parts just to get it) outside of laptops AMD's APUs wouldn't have a real market niche to begin with.
This is outstanding value for a budget based gaming PC:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CPLGGXM/?tag=extension-kb-20
There are plenty of available reviews online that show how well this performs when slightly OC'd with modern games on modest settings (which is what you should expect to play on with a budget gaming PC). But don't take my word for it, feel free to type in "amd a10-6800k review" in Google and see for yourself.
If it's a quality power supply (can you find out the manufacturer and model number?) there is no need to replace it, saving you 50-80 bucks right there.
About the rest of the parts, I'm assuming you don't want to overclock the computer for an 8th grader? If that's the case, I would actually suggest you invest in a Xeon 1230v3 and a compatible H81 or H87 motherboard. You get the power of an i7 at the price of an i5 and only lose in integrated graphics (not important here, as you will use a discrete VGA anyway) and overclocking ability.
Those will set you back ~300 bucks, but it will be a solid base on which to build the rest of the system. As for VGA card, go for a GTX760 or Radeon R9 280X. It will cost you another ~300 bucks, but the rest what you need (case, memory) you can squeeze to around 100 USD.
If the 600 USD budget is set in stone, switch to an AMD CPU and motherboard and you can shave off that 100 USD without sacrificing too much. Don't start saving on the GPU, you will end up regretting that from the get-go.
And if you're really looking into a gaming PC, forget all advice about the APU's. They just don't have the beef to run new games and as the next gen games are starting to pump out, PC game requirements will only get higher now.
On an H-series motherboard you also lose on max turbo frequencies, which doesn't sound like much on the face, but it will affect your gameplay.
You'll still be beating an AMD system, but it will game significantly slower than a core i5 on a Z87 -- those hyperthreaded cores on an i7 do nothing for gaming (in 99.997% of all games ever written, and in probably in the 3-4 year future), but the turbo frequency definitely does.
And on a $600 budget, throwing $300 at a motherboard and CPU doesn't really leave you enough to flush out the rest of the system.
I'd agree with the A10 6000-series APU as well - those are nice little chips on a budget like this. You won't max-max anything, but your essentially getting the same thing that's in the new next-gen consoles. And yes, a month or two from now the upgrade to those comes out - but they should use the same FM2 motherboard, so your in line to do a drop-in upgrade at some point in the future. The only thing with an APU is to you need to pay more attention to your memory - make sure you get something that can clock decently, preferably DDR3 1800+ with <=1.5v <=9 latencies -- if your careful about it that won't cost you a whole lot more money.
Alright
Well then i think i should get the A-10 for the processor then
Processor- http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CPLGGXM/?tag=extension-kb-20
can anyone recommend me a good motherboard to goo with this?
Any of the boards at the following link will work just fine but if you plan on OC'ing the APU (and if you don't go for the A10-6700 instead and save a few dollars) I'd recommend you look at those just over $100, though the Asus Pro model at $129 is most likely overkill for this build.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007625%20600469847%20600469841&IsNodeId=1&name=AMD%20A88X%20%28Bolton%20D4%29
Proc- http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CPLGGXM/?tag=extension-kb-20
Mobo- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157457
Ram- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231718
Gpu- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130967
HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136769
This is what i came up with if anyone could maybe point out something that would save more money or thats better lmk
But do u think a 660 is overkill or should that be fine?
EDIT: theres a bundle on amazon with that proc but with a different mobo and hard drive for $283 tell me if thats a better deal
Mobo- http://www.amazon.com/MSI-Socket-MicroATX-Motherboard-FM2-A75MA-E35/dp/B009HP42HQ/ref=pd_bxgy_pc_img_y
HDD: http://www.amazon.com/WD-Blue-Desktop-Hard-Drive/dp/B0088PUEPK/ref=pd_bxgy_pc_img_z
So there are some things on your list while they will work just fine don't really make much sense for what I understood you were trying to achieve.
The only reason to go for the A series of AMD APU's is for the integrated GFX in order to save on the overall cost and NOT purchase a dedicated GPU (such as the GTX 660 you linked). Also if you were in fact going to go that route unlike a system with a dedicated GPU the APU's will take advantage of higher clocked ram for improved GFX performance and thus you should be looking at 2133Mhz vice the standard 1600Mhz that is usually suggested.
If you want to go with a dedicated GPU and it fits in your budget that is fine but there are other things to consider. First, the one you linked is overpriced and the same card can be had from Galaxy for under $150 (I linked it in another thread titled "GPU selection help"). Second, I would still highly recommend going AMD but in this case the A series lineup doesn't really make much sense when you can go for a FX series with higher clocks and more cores (the extra cores won't do much for most games but that doesn't mean they are useless assuming the computer will be used for more than just gaming). The AMD FX 4350 or FX 6350 would both work and are similar in price to the A10-6800K (up to $20 more). Though those require different MB's as they are a different socket than the A series but suggesting a new motherboard is not hard at all.
Since you did not list a CPU cooler I'll assume you plan to use the stock version in which case OC'ing is definitely out. If you wish to OC you will need to consider spending an additional $25+ to get a third party cooler, in that budget range I'd suggest one from Cooler Master.
Regarding the bundle you linked there is a reason it's bundled and at a discount. The motherboard is pretty bottom bin and while it will work don't expect any real performance out of it. And OC'ing is a no go from the get go with that board.
Well the price was raised to $750 so im planning on buying him a intel build prolly going sandybridge
All im looking for is the best parts for the price range
I found this deal on newegg for $680 i might just end up telling my freinds dad to just buy this for him?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=83-227-506&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=5&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Keywords=%28keywords%29#scrollFullInfo
Dont think i can get anything much better for $750