Intel Build for under $550?

[Joyal]

Hello,

 

I can't currently afford it due to college tuition and stuff but can you guys do a cheap build for me that can run BF4 in medium+ without any frame drops?

 

Thanks

[aricleather]

Location?

[WoodenMarker]

What kind of dollars are you using? Is a copy of Windows or any peripherals needed?

Why Intel?

[DIV1D3]

Do you need to go with Intel, AMD APUs can be more beneficial in low budget scenarios. Also where are you and do you need peripherals/OS???

[gundershot]

Any other uses apart from gaming?

[Deddie]

I came up with this:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($69.99 @ NCIX US)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI Z97 PC MATE ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Mushkin Redline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2400 Memory  ($72.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Hitachi Ultrastar 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($46.24 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 270 2GB Dual-X Video Card  ($147.98 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($65.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $543.15
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

 

This is a good build if you overclock the CPU and if the most demanding thing you do is gaming.

[EMENCII]

As said over, amd's APUs are better for low-end builds, because the most powerful pratically dont need another gpu for gaming purposes.

[EMENCII]

Anyway i would recommend Deddie's build, maybe with some changes.

[Ren]

The biggest issue is fitting a monitor into the budget.

 

This build is roughly the best you can do for ~$500-$550 within the chassis itself unless you are able to use a cheaper/free OS.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Pentium G3220 3.0GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($59.99 @ Newegg) 

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H81M-H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($49.38 @ Newegg) 

Memory: Kingston Fury Black Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($72.99 @ Amazon) 

Storage: Hitachi Ultrastar 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($46.24 @ Amazon) 

Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 270 2GB Double Dissipation Video Card  ($149.99 @ Newegg) 

Case: NZXT Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($29.99 @ Newegg) 

Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($19.99 @ Newegg) 

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)  ($84.99 @ NCIX US) 

Total: $513.56

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

 

I'm not entirely sure how demanding Battlefield 4 is on the CPU side, nor do I know if more cores mean more power, so Intel may not be the way to go. The singlethreaded performance on a G3220 isn't exactly a ton better than an Athlon X4 740 for example, but the X4 740 has twice the number of cores. However, a $110-$120 i3 will not be much better than a G3220, yet you're spending so much more on the CPU. G3220/X4 760k overclocked a bit/FX-6300 are the 3 CPUs I recommend, in that order with mobo price taken into consideration. This is where any extra money should be spent, but regarding graphics cards, the R9 270 is just too good of a deal to pass up. You're wasting money by dropping down to a 750/750Ti/R7265 (they're like $10-$20 usually).

 

As for a monitor, this would be perfectly fine on 1080p if the CPU is ok. That graphics card should be able to pick up the slack where it needs to in terms of quality but I can't guarantee 60fps since I really don't know/care about BF4 all that much (hence the CPU-bound questions I have). The RAM is nice, stable and a perfect amount for you as well. So yeah, a cheap $80-$110 Asus or ViewSonic 1080p TN panel will be perfectly fine with this graphics card.

 

This build will be +/- $20 including sales/rebates on almost any given day, so no worries of price changes.

 

Edit: I will say Mantle is not available on an R9 270/GCN 1.0 graphics cards, so don't bother taking that into consideration until AMD starts pumping out new GPUs. The new Tonga GPUs that are coming out soon from AMD should be replacing the R7 260X iirc and will be GCN1.1+, supporting Mantle. So if you see AMD release something like an R9 260, it might be worth picking up. It will be as cheap or cheaper than a current R7 260X if I'm right about which card it is replacing/succeeding.