$300-400 for CPU/Mobo/RAM

[Ziontrain]

Hey guys,

I am upgrading my nephews PC. He is running running my old Q6600 and AMD 280x.

What is the best bang for the buck in the $300-400 that would pair nicely with his existing 280x?

I would like to stick with Intel.

Thanks in advance!

 

[whateverer]

Super-cheap, but still impressive: 4 thread, 3.5 GHz Kaby Lake with m.2 slot. Basically the same performance as last-year's i3 6100 in games, for half the price.


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G4560 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($59.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B250M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($68.39 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($109.78 @ OutletPC)
Total: $238.16
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-03-30 16:52 EDT-0400

Longer-lived with a real quad-core, but costs a whole lot more.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-7500 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.49 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B250M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($68.39 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($109.78 @ OutletPC)
Total: $367.66
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-03-30 16:54 EDT-0400

You can spend a bit more on a z270 motherboard if you want to overclock your memory, but I expect DDR4 2400 will be more than enough to power these processors at-stock. And you'd have to pay more for a DDR4-3000 kit, which together might put you over $400.

 

[horrorshow]

I would definitely get the 7500 over the Pentium.

 

[Ziontrain]

Thanks Whateverer! This'll definitely help. Much appreciated. that i5-7500 looks like it's worth the extra cash.