Help wanted! Another first-time builder.

Young741 · February 12, 2016

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?

Benergy · February 12, 2016

14 minutes ago, Young741 said:

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:

GPU: EVGA Geforce GTX 670 FTW 2GB @ $100

CPU: AMD Phenom 965 x4 @ $45

PSU: 700W (Included in the CPU cost)

Case: Antex Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower @ $30

HDD: 2TB Seagate/WD/Hitachi @ $50

Motherboard: ???

RAM: ???

Heatsink: CM Hyper 212 Evo @ $30 (Simply from newegg)

Current total:

$255 (USD)

Update 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?

You can't use an AM3 CPU with an AM2 board. For a good upgrade path, consider getting an anniversary pentium G3258 and overclock it. This uses the 1150 socket and so can be easily upgraded to a 4690k/4790k later on.

DDR2 RAM will make a noticeable performance difference, though it may not be the bottleneck in this build.

Check craigslist etc for cheap used parts, you can get higher end used parts for cheaper than lower end ones new.

If you're using Craigslist, remember to offer low to begin with - to see how flexible they are and how far you can haggle.

Young741 · February 12, 2016

17 minutes ago, Benergy said:

You can't use an AM3 CPU with an AM2 board. For a good upgrade path, consider getting an anniversary pentium G3258 and overclock it. This uses the 1150 socket and so can be easily upgraded to a 4690k/4790k later on.

DDR2 RAM will make a noticeable performance difference, though it may not be the bottleneck in this build.

Check craigslist etc for cheap used parts, you can get higher end used parts for cheaper than lower end ones new

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?

Edited February 12, 2016 by Young741

Benergy · February 12, 2016

9 minutes ago, Young741 said:

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?

700w is overkill for one GPU, so probably go with 500W and the better CPU.

Unless you're particularly concerned about HDD space, I'd recommend getting a 1TB WD Blue since you're using it as your boot drive and it'd be slow as hell with a 'green' drive or an equivalent low RPM one. If you're willing to sacrifice a lot of space, you could actually get a low capacity SSD which would dramatically improve overall system performance.