$300 gaming PC

[Mattsoup]

I saw the potato masher on youtube (a $350 console killer) and my friend and I said we could probably do it for $300 and now we're competing to build a better $300 gaming pc.  We're going to use a few benchmarks and leftover cash as our scores, so maxxing the budget isn't going to help.  This is what I have so far. The graphics card on there is a placeholder that costs the same as the used MSI GTX 760 I found and I have an old case.  Does anyone else have any ideas to improve this?

 

PS.  I forgot to mention that I may be able to salvage a power supply from an old machine

[PlayStation 2]

If you're going used get a damn phenom or core 2 quad

A4s and A6s are borderline useless in gaming

[Samppa221]

No point getting a amd apu and go with a dedicated card. And even with a nvidia card...

[aeroencychris]

I saw the potato masher on youtube (a $350 console killer) and my friend and I said we could probably do it for $300 and now we're competing to build a better $300 gaming pc.  We're going to use a few benchmarks and leftover cash as our scores, so maxxing the budget isn't going to help.  This is what I have so far. The graphics card on there is a placeholder that cost the same as the used MSI GTX 760 I found and I have an old case.  Does anyone else have any ideas to improve this?

You changed your cpu I see

Not bad. You can always add the same model 760 to PCPartPicker and manually enter your own price to add clarity.

In all honesty if you're going to go all out and build a PC I would put in ~$500 but that's just me. If you're fine upgrading later then go for it.

[Mattsoup]

If you're going used get a damn phenom or core 2 quad

A4s and A6s are borderline useless in gaming

What makes the A4 useless?  I have an AMD chip in my normal machine and it's fine

[PlayStation 2]

What makes the A4 useless?  I have an AMD chip in my normal machine and it's fine

if you're gonna play GTA 5 or battlefront or really any recent game you're gonna want a quad core

[BlazingGunnerFTW]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/bXZqCJ

 

This will serve you better.

 

This has a better gpu, and a better cpu, (much better i may add)

[Mattsoup]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/bXZqCJ

 

This will serve you better.

 

This has a better gpu, and a better cpu, (much better i may add)

I already have a case, and I found a used MSI GTX 760 which has 4GB of VRAM for $80, and I can get a 500 GB drive really cheap from work

[BlazingGunnerFTW]

I already have a case, and I found a used MSI GTX 760 which has 4GB of VRAM for $80, and I can get a 500 GB drive really cheap from work

Ok. Here you go: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/YFqwLk

[stconquest]

I already have a case, and I found a used MSI GTX 760 which has 4GB of VRAM for $80, and I can get a 500 GB drive really cheap from work

 

If you are buying the CPU mobo and RAM new, this is what you are after:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($63.56 @ Amazon)

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A68HM-H Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard  ($43.05 @ Amazon)

Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($34.99 @ Newegg)

Total: $141.60

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-12-13 13:39 EST-0500

 

Sorry, have to go... maybe someone else will explain what IPC is and how the 860K is the go to CPU for sub $400 builds.