~ $600 budget gaming build for a friend

S

Superhuman

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
May 19, 2006
Messages
1,037
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$600 with tax/shipping, but he said he's willing to spend a little more if it means he'll get a significant performance increase out of it.
3) Where do you live?
Southern California, so we have a Microcenter nearby FYI.
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
Case, PSU, CPU, memory, motherboard, video card, hard drive, dvd drive
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Not reusing any parts (besides monitor, keyboard, and mouse).
6) Will you be overclocking?
No.
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
1680x1050
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
As soon as possible.
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
Don't need any specific features.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? 32bit or 64bit?
Yes, Windows 7 64bit.


Here's a quick preliminary build I've done just to get an idea. Give me your thoughts and opinions.

Case: Cooler Master 330 - $36
PSU: Antec BP550 Plus 550W - $50
CPU + Mobo: AMD Phenom II X4 965BE + MSI 785G-E53 - $170
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws 4GB DDR3 1333 - $82
GPU: EVGA 768MB GTX 460 - $170
HD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 500GB - $50
DVD drive: Anything - $20

Subtotal: $578
 
Superhuman said:
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$600 with tax/shipping, but he said he's willing to spend a little more if it means he'll get a significant performance increase out of it.
3) Where do you live?
Southern California, so we have a Microcenter nearby FYI.
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
Case, PSU, CPU, memory, motherboard, video card, hard drive, dvd drive
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Not reusing any parts (besides monitor, keyboard, and mouse).
6) Will you be overclocking?
No.
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
1680x1050
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
As soon as possible.
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
Don't need any specific features.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? 32bit or 64bit?
Yes, Windows 7 64bit.


Here's a quick preliminary build I've done just to get an idea. Give me your thoughts and opinions.

Case: Cooler Master 330 - $36
PSU: Antec BP550 Plus 550W - $50
CPU + Mobo: AMD Phenom II X4 965BE + MSI 785G-E53 - $170
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws 4GB DDR3 1333 - $82
GPU: EVGA 768MB GTX 460 - $170
HD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 500GB - $50
DVD drive: Anything - $20

Subtotal: $578
Click to expand...

I can't recommend the BP550 when just a little more money buys you something more robust. The BP550 provides only 32A total on its +12V rails, which is on the low side compared to other "good" 550W PSUs these days. (I'm speaking only for the version of the BP550 that's sold in North America, which is not 80 Plus certified. The version of the BP550 sold in Europe is a different PSU than the North American version.)
 
Last edited:
I think you did nicely on the preliminary.
It's not getting much better than that for $600.

Just a thought: On another thread someone had the idea to buy a unlockable cpu like the x2 555 and save some money.
You could get the 1GB version of the 460.
Again just a thought.

You need a mobo with unlocking feature for that.
 
Nathalex said:
I think you did nicely on the preliminary.
It's not getting much better than that for $600.
Click to expand...
Yea, I don't know how much better you can do for $600, but I wanna see what other people suggest.

Nathalex said:
Just a thought: On another thread someone had the idea to buy a unlockable cpu like the x2 555 and save some money.
Click to expand...
If I was building it for myself, I might try that, but it's for a friend who doesn't knoow anything about computer hardware, and I don't feel like fussing around with this shit so I just wanna build it for him and forget about it.
 
E4g1e said:
I can't recommend the BP550 when just a little more money buys you something more robust. The BP550 provides only 32A total on its +12V rails, which is on the low side compared to other "good" 550W PSUs these days. (I'm speaking only for the version of the BP550 that's sold in North America, which is not 80 Plus certified. The version of the BP550 sold in Europe is a different PSU than the North American version.)
Click to expand...

The PSU is actually the part I was most uncertain with so ths is the area I'd like the most suggestions in.
 
Superhuman said:
I don't think it's worth paying an extra $30 for negligble performance increases.
Click to expand...

Actually, if your monitor's resolution were 1080p (1920x1080) instead of 1680x1050, the extra graphics memory would be worth it. But since the monitor thet he would be using is only 1680x1050, the 768MB version would suffice.
 
Superhuman said:
How about these PSUs?

SeaSonic S12II 520 Bronze 520W - $60
BFG Tech GS-550 550W - $45
Click to expand...

The SeaSonic is clearly the better choice. Don't buy BFG for now because their PSUs now have absolutely no warranty support at all whatsoever due to the company now out of business. Best Data, the owner of the Diamond Multimedia brand, bought the BFG brand and certain assets of the company and may relaunch that company as a brand name used on certain products which we don't know yet.
 
E4g1e said:
The SeaSonic is clearly the better choice. Don't buy BFG for now because their PSUs now have absolutely no warranty support at all whatsoever due to the company now out of business.
Click to expand...

Oh yea, shit I forgot about that. Thanks for reminding me LOL.
 
E4g1e said:
Actually, if your monitor's resolution were 1080p (1920x1080) instead of 1680x1050, the extra graphics memory would be worth it. But since the monitor thet he would be using is only 1680x1050, the 768MB version would suffice.
Click to expand...

oh okay.. it also depends on what games??
 
If he's a gamer the 1gb could come in handy in games like gta4 and other open world games that suck the video ram up like a sponge.

Also @ lower res. AA is preferable and it also uses up more video ram.
 
He's a noob gamer. He's just getting into it. He doesn't care about cranking up the settings to ultra. As long as he can play at medium settings he'll be fine. He's gonna be playing mostly BFBC2 and Team Fortress 2.
 
Superhuman said:
How about these PSUs?

SeaSonic S12II 520 Bronze 520W - $60
Click to expand...

That Seasonic is a good quality PSU BUT isn't a good buy for the money. Once you factor in shipping, that Seasonic costs the same as this similar quality and larger Antec PSU:
$70 - Antec NEO ECO 620C 620W PSU

In fact, the above Antec is based on the same Seasonic PSU platform as the Seasonic. So yeah, I wouldn't recommend getting that Seasonic

Though if you want to save some cash, the Antec case + PSU combo that hossdaddy posted earlier is a good deal.
 
Danny Bui said:
That Seasonic is a good quality PSU BUT isn't a good buy for the money. Once you factor in shipping, that Seasonic costs the same as this similar quality and larger Antec PSU:
$70 - Antec NEO ECO 620C 620W PSU

In fact, the above Antec is based on the same Seasonic PSU platform as the Seasonic. So yeah, I wouldn't recommend getting that Seasonic

Though if you want to save some cash, the Antec case + PSU combo that hossdaddy posted earlier is a good deal.
Click to expand...

Roger that. How about just going with the Antec NEO ECO 520W (has $10 coupon code) for $50 + the CM 330 for $35?
 
Superhuman said:
Roger that. How about just going with the Antec NEO ECO 520W (has $10 coupon code) for $50 + the CM 330 for $35?
Click to expand...

Also a decent choice. Just note that the $10 coupon expires today in about 8 hours from this post.
 
that cm330 case doesnt even compare to the Antec three hundred. Its only $14 more for a far superior case with 2 fans.
 
Ok so we ended up going with this:

Case: Thermaltake V3 - $36
PSU: Corsair VX550 - $53
CPU + Mobo: AMD Phenom II X4 965BE + MSI 785G-E53 - $170
RAM: Mushkin Enhanced 4GB DDR3 1333 - $76
GPU: Sparkle 768MB GTX 460 - $160
HD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 500GB - $40
DVD drive: LG 22X - $18

Subtotal: $553

Got everything but the PSU and RAM at Microcenter. Total with tax and shipping was around $605.

How do you guys think it looks?
 
Can't wait to build it this weekend! I'll try to get pics up in this thread some time next week.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top