$600 and below Gaming PC suggestions Guide(AMD CPU focused)

Streetguru · December 16, 2015

Function Before Form Always

For builds from $500 and up I would recommend this in regards to pure gaming PCs(yox SSDs) AMD sadly doesn't stand much of a chance here and above this price point.

~$530 i3 + 380/960(4GB) $30 could be saved with a 380 2GB
(maybe save up and get the i5 at this point)
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/CzJp7P

~$600 i5 + 380/960(4GB)
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/R7tL8d

Around $800 i5 + 390/970 OR Xeon 1231v3 + 380/960 if you do some productivity work as well, no builds provided as this can start to get specific with use cases

I will make a small note that I wouldn't necessarily recommend you buy a K series part as that also would necessitate a higher end Z chipset board when really unless you have a 144hz display the added CPU performance doesn't matter much for gaming.

And before you mention the G3258, yes at times it can be faster once under a heavy overclock compared to an 860K, however it's only a dual core with no hyperthreading, certain games like GTAV and Far Cry 4 for now, simply don't run well on pure dual core CPUs, and that will probably end up truer in the future.

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Table of Contents:

AM1
Facebook/Email machine | ~$200 http://pcpartpicker.com/p/TrdGpg

FM2+

Very Entry level 720p Gaming PC | ~$280 http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ZhW7t6

1080p Entry level 860K + 380 2GB($30 more for 4GB) | ~$440 http://pcpartpicker.com/p/jfHp7P

no GPU Ultra ITX PC | ~$450 http://pcpartpicker.com/p/NYgZVn

AM3+

The Donkey | ~$330 http://pcpartpicker.com/p/7PJBXL

Productivity and Gaming PC | ~$600 http://pcpartpicker.com/p/QKh2vK

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I'm writing this to lend some suggestions to where current AMD CPUs make sense to purchase, as it's getting increasingly difficult to recommend them due to lower prices from intel's offerings, and many people seem to just brush AMD aside when looking at CPUs despite them really being a pretty good value right now. Although it is mostly true that AMD can't compete in the high end right now. This guide will be budget focused at the $600 and under club.

PRICES AND AVALIBILITY SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE

Just look for similar parts as to what was posted here, the builds should be good for a while, and always check for less expensive versions of hardware as prices change all the time.

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No OS will be included as it's assumed that you already have one ready to go that you may or may not have picked up from a back alley or discount key selling website(I'd really just go to the back alley in that case). Or maybe you're going to run GNU/Linux.

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As far as displays go I'd suggest finding the lowest cost relative to reviews 1080p IPS display you can, currently $109 for this ViewSonic display it'll work well

https://pcpartpicker.com/part/viewsonic-monitor-va2249s

Should you need to save money on your display as much as possible, look around craigslist for old CRTs, preferably 1600x1200 75Hz models, if working properly they still provide great color reproduction and viewing angles compared to TN displays and have virtually no latency, just be sure you have a strong desk to put one on.

I'd only recommend you find used TN displays as a last resort, TN displays will make your eyes melt man.

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As for peripherals I would either recommend getting a cheap chinese gaming mouse such as the Red Dragon M601 which I've been using for a few months, and picking up a keyboard used at a flea market or at a thift store, maybe you'll be lucky enough to find a model M in this day and age.

http://www.amazon.com/Redragon-CENTROPHORUS-2000-Gaming-Buttons-Weight-Switches/dp/B00HTK1NCS/ref=sr_1_4?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1449984918&sr=1-4&keywords=Gaming+Mouse

Or getting the coolermaster devastator bundle which is $30 for a solid keyboard which I'm using now

BUT BEWARE, the mouse has an optical sensor which will track from very high up due to the opening around it, it makes it really hard to play games out of the box like first person shooters, however if you use a piece of tape to slightly obscure the sensor to lower the lift off distance to an acceptable amount. It may affect tracking in one way or another if too much is covered

http://www.overclock.net/t/1211083/tape-trick-for-lower-liftoff-distance-lod-with-optical-mice

http://www.amazon.com/CM-Storm-Devastator-Gaming-Keyboard/dp/B00DKXXAAQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1449985018&sr=1-1&keywords=devastator+bundle

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and finally general tid bits, don't worry so much about an after market heatsink, a hyper 212 EVO is cheap yes, so if you have the money pick one up with most of the builds $300 and up. Otherwise just hold off, stock coolers can sometimes be on the noisy side but they'll function fine.

If you want some added cooling on the cheap, I'd suggest you pick up a 120mm fan 4 pack, preferably looking for one that has fans with 3 pin to molex adapters like these

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835200072

We're going to start at the low end for these builds.

AM1&FM2+

Facebook/Email machine | ~$200 http://pcpartpicker.com/p/TrdGpg

For the PC that basically only needs to turn on, The motherboard is lacking USB 3.0 front headers, but the Asrock board at the same price didn't have as many good reviews.

AMD kind of has this market in the bag with their low power/cost AM1 CPUs, these chips may not be fast, but they are upgradable should AMD ever release anything new for the AM1 platform, though that's doubtful.

I had a secondary PC running the 3850 for a while and it could to my surprise it could handle a source 1 game like portal as well as minecraft for the 6 year old that kept begging to let him use the PC for it.

And I really would not recommend you buy one of those cases that come with a power supply, they usually aren't the highest quality, aren't 80+ certified, and could potentially become quiet literal fire hazards.

AM1 can also potentially be used for a NAS build with ECC memory, more on that at the bottom

Very Entry level 720p Gaming PC | ~$280 http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ZhW7t6
I have a certain affinity for APUs as they was in the first system I built for myself some few years ago with an A6 5400K, they're pretty solid chips for the money, and with a slight OC that chip could even do some PS2 emulation, but mostly it ran games well on my 900p display(I made the mistake of not researching displays).

But moving on from nostalgia the APUs continue their dominance in the low end gaming market able to do around 45/60fps@720p, lowest settings mind you, in the average newer/older AAA game respectively, though it fairs much better for multiplayer games like Dota 2/CS:GO where high frame rate is key.

Now I've included that set of RAM due to it being rated for 2400mhz operation, memory scaling is fairly important when building a system with an APU as the iGPU has to use system memory for itself, so the faster the better, overall though unless 2400mhz RAM is pretty close in price(within $5/$10) to 2133mhz/1866mhz get those.

And you could in theory really cut corners and get like a 750ti/360 that will beat it in gaming, but overall it's pretty solid without cutting too many corners, and with the 500W PSU you can throw in a mid range GPU down the line after saving up, this mostly lets you game while you save for the mid range GPU rather then waiting for a spare $150

1080p Entry level 860K + 380 2GB($30 more for 4GB) | ~$440 http://pcpartpicker.com/p/jfHp7P

Boring old standard 380 build at that budget, an 860k won't hold you back in all but the most CPU intensive titles

Though I suggest you maybe save up a bit more and spring for a haswell i3 given how low their prices are at times.

no GPU Ultra ITX PC | ~$450 http://pcpartpicker.com/p/NYgZVn

More of a fun build really with an A10 7800 running at 65W in a case that's VESA mountable, I know I said cases that come with PSUs are generally crap, but in this case, pun not intended, there's really no other option aside from like a Mini-box External PSU, if you were really worried about stressing it you could run the APU at 45W with minimal performance loss. But hey where else are you going to get a DIY gaming PC you could almost fit in your pocket. If I had a spare 500 bucks this is what I would replace my current set up with, maybe Zen APUs with HBM on die will truly replace dedicated GPUs for small form factor builds.

Various Benchmarks/info for the above systems

Memory scaling test with the A10 7850k
http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Memory/Ultra-Speed-DDR3-Revisited-AMD-APU-Memory-Scaling/Graphics-Benchmarks

A8 7650K | CS:GO/Dota 2/SC2 benchmarks Tested With 1866Mhz RAM
http://www.technologyx.com/featured/amd-a8-7650k-apu-review-the-little-apu-that-could/4/

A8 7650K | Various AAA titles Tested with 2133Mhz RAM
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9217/the-amd-a8-7650k-apu-review-also-new-testing-methodology/7

A8 7650K(860K substitute) vs i5 with a 290x, it actually ties it in a few of places
http://www.technologyx.com/featured/amd-a8-7650k-apu-review-the-little-apu-that-could/5/

750K vs i5, fps would be a bit higher

And a fun article running the A10 7850K Overclocked with 2400mhz RAM, it can almost catch up to the current $100 GPUs of the 360/750ti, though this is an unrealistic set up due to the high motherboard cost for stable overclocking

http://www.eteknix.com/amd-kaveri-a10-7850k-overclocking-unleashing-gcns-potential/6/

AM3+
Oh AM3+ don't ever leave us, even if you require higher end motherboards just to function well with your 8 core CPUs and don't have native video output. Really that's the main thing holding this platform back as of now, the power delivery needed for stable operation means you're going to want a higher end and thus more expensive board, but with recent chips that have a lower TDP, and with one motherboard in particular AM3+ may yet have some use.

The Donkey | ~$330 http://pcpartpicker.com/p/7PJBXL

This build based around an 8320E and Asrock 970M motherboard(probably the best cheap AM3+ board) is going to just be an all around solid workhorse PC if you just want a secondary PC to off load rendering to, or you want to run a lot of virtual machines for whatever reason, perhaps you want to build a compute cluster on the cheap, this build is for you. Another shortcoming of AM3+ is the lack of an iGPU or video out on most motherboards, so a low end dedicated card is required to get a video output.

Productivity and Gaming PC | ~$600 http://pcpartpicker.com/p/QKh2vK
Based around an 8320E again but with a slightly higher end ASUS M5A99X board that can handle some overclocking, this build is focused more for the guy doing a little more than just gaming, maybe you do a little video editing on the side or some streaming. The 8 cores you get here may yet give you a better experience, though you do get an upgrade path of sorts with the i5.

Yes an i5 build at the same price is going to beat out this CPU in games, but really like with the 860K it's only CPU heavy games that you'll notice the difference with a 60hz display in games like total war, CoH, or ARMA multiplayer. Otherwise an FX 8 core more so with an OC is going to be very capable for gaming.

Overclocking Guide
http://www.overclock.net/t/1348623/amd-bulldozer-and-piledriver-overclocking-guide-asus-motherboard

8320E Gaming Benchmarks
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8864/amd-fx-8320e-cpu-review-the-other-95w-vishera/5

Various Benchmarks, these chips like to overclock it seems
http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/amd-fx-8320e-processor-review,19.html
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I've included AMD's GPUs in the builds mostly because they tend to be a bit faster overall in the benchmarks I've seen for their mid range cards(the 980ti still owns the high end), though with a bit higher power consumption. In addition since Mantle is being used in Direct X12 and the upcoming Vulkan APIs it stands to reason that AMD's GPUs will have better support as opposed to Nvidia's Maxwell architecture which has landed itself in a bit of a kerfuffle concerning their DX12 support for asynchronous compute though Nvidia seems to have remedied this in drivers since early DX12 benchmarks where they sometimes saw a loss in performance, only time will tell how much it will really matter.

A-sync info
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/213519-asynchronous-shading-amd-nvidia-and-dx12-what-we-know-so-far

http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/213202-ashes-dev-dishes-on-dx12-amd-vs-nvidia-and-asynchronous-compute

http://wccftech.com/asynchronous-compute-investigated-in-fable-legends-dx12-benchmark/

Another point of note for GPU recommendations is an adaptive sync display, free-sync Vs G-sync, where both effectively do the same job, though G-sync comes at a premium usually in the vain of 100 dollars or so at the low end, although G-sync does have a few features free-sync is yet to have and current G-sync high end displays are unmatched for now in the battle of technologies, however in terms of performance per dollar, Free-sync is the better choice.

In regards to ECC support for AM1:

With the ASUS AM1M-A apparently adding Unbuffered ECC support the AM1 platform might just make a great low power NAS, though sata slots are limited to 2 without an add in card. Now ECC memory isn't a requirement for a NAS exactly, but it's highly recommended depending on how much you care about your data.

Some AM3+ boards also provide ECC aparently.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1821403

http://forums.nas4free.org/viewtopic.php?t=9201

https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/kabini-next-step-up-from-n40l-microserver.22782/