Cheap Gaming PC Build

[o2taku]

My cousin recently had a laptop die and was looking to get a PC. I told him I'd help him with it, but I've been out of the loop on hardware for a while. I looked at a cheap pre-built with the intention of adding a low-mid end GPU. However, it had a Pentium J2900 which didn't look very promising. I'm wondering about the possibility of building a PC in that price range.


1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Will be for gaming and web browsing. However, he isn't looking for max settings or anything too demanding.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$400-500 with shipping included.

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
Canada

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
CPU, RAM, Case, DVD Drive, PSU, Mobo, GPU

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Nothing.

6) Will you be overclocking?
Would be up for it if the CPU has significant headroom/cooling is adequate.

7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
Probably 1600x900 or 1920x1080.

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Likely as soon as possible.

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
Nothing in particular. If it could be matx it would be nice, but not a necessity.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Already has the W7 Premium 64-bit.

Thanks.

 

[tiraides]

Which retailers are you using?

Which games does your cousin play?

Please confirm the resolution he's using.

 

[o2taku]

Which retailers are you using?

Which games does your cousin play?

Please confirm the resolution he's using.

I've typically stuck with NCIX in the past.

He tends to play quite a different array of games (DOTA, MMOs, different FPS).

I'm very certain he will be using 1600x900 for this build.

 

[Dangman]

I'm very certain he will be using 1600x900 for this build.

"Very certain" is not exactly clear considering that you can get 1080P monitors for really cheap these days (I got my 24" 1080P for $110 shipped from Dell). So please confirm if you can.

Also, which FPS games does he play? The performance requirement for CS:G0 is a lot different from BF4.

 

[o2taku]

He's actually using a 22" 1680x1050 monitor. He's not planning to upgrade it any time soon, as it does the job for him.

The games he plays tend to be all over the place. FF14, CS:GO and DOTA 2 are titles I know he has played more recently. I would not be surprised if he plays a game like BF4 down the road.

Given that he used a HD 6630m previously, I doubt he expects to run every game at max settings. For him, I would say the goal is that demanding games are playable.

 

[o2taku]

Alright. I've finally had the opportunity to do the research and piece together a build.

Intel Pentium G3258 - $70.99
ASRock H97M PRO4 - $109.99 with $25 MIR
Corsair CX430W - $39.98 with $20 MIR
Radeon R7 260X - $129.99 with $10 MIR
Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM - $54.99
Kingston Hyperxfury 8GB DDR-31600 - $89.99
Zalman Z1 Mid ATX Tower - $34.77 w/ $10 MIR

Total - $530.70 CAD
$594.39 CAD with 12% tax and free shipping from NCIX.

Any opinions on this build? Doesn't seem like I could find much better value than this.

 

[zave]

I'd say if he doesnt care too much about graphics the Radeon hd 6670 is a good gpu it can handle bf3 and cs go also maybe going amd and getting a quad core Athlon x4 750k for around the same price and get the added benefit of 2 more cores