Recommendations for selecting parts for a budget gaming PC?

[Keystone Nyan Cat]

1. Budget
Around 900$

2. Aim
Playing games [ok if not on max] on 768p

3. Monitors
1x 768x1440

4. Peripherals
I do not need the following as I already have one-

1) Keyboard, mouse, mousepad
2) Case

3) Speakers

5. My selection

 

I have provided the prices of parts in the brackets [they retail for a bit higher value than what they do elsewhere]

 

CPU- i5 3570k [300$] or FX 8350 [240$]

Motherboard- Can someone recommend a cheap motherboard for either under 100-125$

Graphic card- Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 or Gainward NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 [both 2GB] [300$]

HDD- Western Digital WD5003ABYX HDD [100$]

PSU- Corsair Builder Series CX600 V2 [80$]

RAM- Gskill 8GB DDR3 RAM F3-1600C11S-8GNT [65$]

 

Is this an ok combination, and which parts should I choose over which? Thanks!

[Reconciliasion]

the

Gigabyte GA-78LMT

is a solid USB 3 motherboard that looks good and performs great.

 

although this sounds like an advert I assure you im going off expierience :)

[Mrcrysis2000]

the

Gigabyte GA-78LMT

is a solid USB 3 motherboard that looks good and performs great.

 

although this sounds like an advert I assure you im going off expierience :)

 

I  would agree with the Gigabyte  great brand and good quality plus it has USB 3.0 wouldn't recommend overclocking on it.

[Oliver S.]

get the seagate barracuda 7200rpm hdd instead, it has 1TB and its cheaper than the one you chose, i myself will buy that one. i would go for the i5 3750k, even though it might be a bit more expensive it's definetely worth it for gaming :). instead of the GTX 660 you should get the MSI 670 power edition, it might be a bit more expensive but worth it. maybe go for the gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H motherboard :)

 

also you should look into another monitor with 1920x1080 or you might just regret that you bought one with lower resolution (i regret that I did), if you wanna put a bit more money into it take a look at this one, with 144hz it's just plain awesome :) http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-monitor-vg248qe

[Keystone Nyan Cat]

@Oliver S.- Thats going way over my budget, so I guess I won't be able to go that route :P Also, my friend who has a 1080p monitor has told me its not worth investing in a setup like that, as the horsepower required to smoothly push frames at that resolution is not worth the cost.

@Mrcrysis2000 and @Reconciliasion- Thanks! That is practially 3/5th of what an i5+mobo will cost me, so I'll go that route. However, can you please help me with the GPU and tell me if the PSU will be enough. I would really appreciate it. Thanks! :)

[Lukiose]

Scrap the 660 and grab a 7870! It performs much better and at a lower price, plus you get the never settle bundle along with it, netting you Bioshock Infinite, Far Cry 3 and Tomb Raider for ~$250! (At that res with a 7870 you can max everything)

For your hard drive, at the same price, you can grab a Seagate Barracuda 2TB. It is a reliable drive and performs just as well if not better than the model you listed.

Your PSU is enough to handle your rig even with overclocking, i can't comment on the PSU though so... wait for someone more experienced in that department :P

Edit: Listed wrong bundle just now.

[Keystone Nyan Cat]

@Lukiose- Thanks! I'll go with that Baracuda you mentioned, but am slightly confused about the GPU. Won't the 7870 be bottlenecked by the 8350? If not, then I will probably go with it, but if I have to choose between the 660 and 7850, which one do I go for?

[iSuzak]

@Lukiose- Thanks! I'll go with that Baracuda you mentioned, but am slightly confused about the GPU. Won't the 7870 be bottlenecked by the 8350? If not, then I will probably go with it, but if I have to choose between the 660 and 7850, which one do I go for?

 

No you won't be bottlenecked at all by the 8350, you can even go crossfire, also between the 660 and the 7850 the GTX 660 is a better choice, it performs closer to the 7870.

[Nort]

Scrap the 660 and grab a 7870! It performs much better and at a lower price, plus you get the never settle bundle along with it, netting you Bioshock Infinite, Far Cry 3 and Tomb Raider for ~$250! (At that res with a 7870 you can max everything)

For your hard drive, at the same price, you can grab a Seagate Barracuda 2TB. It is a reliable drive and performs just as well if not better than the model you listed.

Your PSU is enough to handle your rig even with overclocking, i can't comment on the PSU though so... wait for someone more experienced in that department :P

Edit: Listed wrong bundle just now.

 

I agree with getting a 7870, just wanted to point out the the 660 is actually cheaper than a 7870. A 660 is $175 for the cheapest model and the 7870 starts at $210. That's unless you include the games in the price.

[needmorewood]

ok first of all no offence but the 1080p monitor is a must. scrap what your friend said 7870/50 has really good 1080p performance, even so i would take 1080p low settings over max settings at your resolution. personally i like AMD when it comes to my builds so i would personally go for the 8350 and 7870/50 but you wont be dissapointed either way so why not save money? the savings from getting the 8350 instead of the 3570k can get you a nice 7870 with a nice cooler. i dont know where you are getting your parts from right now but 1tb hard drives tend to be not much more expensive than 500gb hard drives so i would recommmend one of those and make sure its 7200rpm, otherwise it doesnt matter much.

 

can we know what country you are buying these parts form? we could all help save money that way as well!

[physX]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/UweX

The best option by me <,,, or get a hd7850 and go wih a SSD

[Keystone Nyan Cat]

@iSuzak- Thanks! :)

@Nort- Down here its not :( The 7870 is around 70$ more than the 660, but since I am going with the 8350, the 7870 now fits in my budget

@needmorewood- I am buying them from India. Since I am going with the 8350, the 7870 fits in the budget perfectly! :D Regarding the monitor, I'll perhaps upgrade it later.

Thanks for your inputs everyone! I really appreciate it! So my final configuration is-
 

CPU- FX 8350

Motherboard- Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3

Graphic card- Gigabyte GV-R7870OC-2GD

HDD- Seagate Barracuda 2TB

PSU- Corsair Builder Series CX600 V2

RAM- Gskill 8GB DDR3 RAM F3-1600C11S-8GNT

 

 I'll start buying and assembling the parts after 2-3 weeks. Thanks for helping me to reach this far, you guys rock! B) :D

[Lukiose]

@iSuzak- Thanks! :)

@Nort- Down here its not :( The 7870 is around 70$ more than the 660, but since I am going with the 8350, the 7870 now fits in my budget

@needmorewood- I am buying them from India. Since I am going with the 8350, the 7870 fits in the budget perfectly! :D Regarding the monitor, I'll perhaps upgrade it later.

Thanks for your inputs everyone! I really appreciate it! So my final configuration is-

 

CPU- FX 8350

Motherboard- Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3

Graphic card- Gigabyte GV-R7870OC-2GD

HDD- Seagate Barracuda 2TB

PSU- Corsair Builder Series CX600 V2

RAM- Gskill 8GB DDR3 RAM F3-1600C11S-8GNT

 

 I'll start buying and assembling the parts after 2-3 weeks. Thanks for helping me to reach this far, you guys rock! B) :D

Looks pretty good to me! You can even overclock it and achieve excellent 1080p performance should you upgrade later on