Young741

You can check out the new pixio px277. 1440p, 27 inch, 144HZ IPS, 4ms response with freesync at 399~ish USD. Its a no name brand, but I've only heard good things about it (Joker made a review video about it on youtube.) Its on amazon for 389.99 right now, I think. Has that IPS advantage over the TN, with the freesync included. I personally think this is awesome at the price.

Got a GTX 670 on a phenom II 965. Trying to get a freesync monitor, and I feel like the polaris would help me take advantage of that feature.

Updated with the latest finalized parts! Please leave comments or suggestions. Thanks!

Thanks for your input, really appreciate it. What do you think about the HDD price and option? Is that good for its price? Also, what do you think about purchasing a 700w PSU for $45? Too expensive? Should I simply buy a 500W on newegg for $30 and forgo the CPU that I may not even end up using? Also, I was told that the Intel branded motherboards and cpu's tend to be (in general) more expensive than their AMD equivalents. Is that true?

Looking to source components for a gaming rig as cost-efficiently as possible. Have a low budget of about $400. Inspired by the PC Linus was able to put together with a low budget in the following video: Colored in BLUE are not yet finalized (not yet purchased), colored in RED is (finalized/purchased). These are the current deals I have: Build 1: GPU: EVGA Geforce GTX 670 FTW 2GB @ $100 CPU: AMD Phenom II 965 x4 Black Edition @ $40 Heatsink: AMD AV-Z7UH40Q001 @ $10 + Stock CPU Cooler (Included in the CPU cost) PSU: FirePower ModXStream Pro 700MXSP 700W 80Plus Semi-Modular (Included in the CPU cost) Case: Antex Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower @ $30 HDD: 1TB WD Blue @ $50 Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970-Gaming ATX AM3+ Motherboard @ $99 RAM: (As of yet unknown, looking for a cheap ddr3 solution) Current total: $330 (USD) How are the choices for a budget build? What are your thoughts on where I could make sacrifices/upgrades to fit within the budget limit? What are your preferences/suggestions? Update 1 Concerning Build 1: The concerns I am having: While I'm quite happy I'm getting a deal for a CPU and PSU for $45, the Phenom 965 x4 is an AM2+ which means I will have to find a motherboard that supports the socket, as well as DDR2 RAM. How's a motherboard that supports AM2 sockets for drastic upgradeability? Also, is DDR2 RAM okay for gaming (titles include BF4, The Witcher, Skyrim, CSGO)? All I know about the DDR2 is that it is slower than the DDR3 in terms of bandwidth and data rates, and that each card's maximum capacity is 4Gb. Theres absolutely going to be bottlenecking with this CPU, so I was thinking the 965 was just going to be temporary and leaving me some room to upgrade to a fx-8350/fx-8320 in the far future... But can I even, with a AM2 motherboard? Update 2: What do you guys think about purchasing used low to mid-tier motherboards online? Are they worth the risk of them failing on you during use - and subsequently having no warranty to cover for the loss? Currently looking at the "MSI 970 GAMING DDR3 2133 ATX AMD Motherboard" on Amazon, which totals to $80 USD for a used item. Can anyone speak from experience about the mATX build in a normal ATX casing? Are there any true benefits to the system, such as more air flow in the case to cool peripheral components, etc? Any downsides with this build, maybe more dust build-up in the interior?