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$700 Gaming Oriented Entry Build

UL_42L
By UL_42L
in New Builds and Planning
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Hello, everyone. After a long time away from the forums, I'm back for advice once again. I want to build a rig for myself. This time, however, I'm not guessing my budget; I have it already. Below is the information asked for.

 

1. Budget & Location

My budget has a firm limit of 712 USD. This does, of course, mean I'm in the US.

 

2. Aim

This system is meant purely for gaming, and I would prefer it to be optimized as such.

 

3. Monitors

I want this rig to be capable of running most games at 1080p, 60 Hz. Settings don't matter that much to me, but higher is still better. In the future, I would like to be able to add on a second monitor, but I would not use it for games, only for having things open on a desktop while I'm in a game.

 

4. Peripherals

I will not need anything but the system itself.

 

5. Why are you upgrading?

I'm upgrading because the computer I use currently is made only for web browsing and simple tasks, not gaming. It's designed to be in an office environment. I would like to finally get something I can game on without limitations.

 

Additional Information

I will not be re-using any parts, but I do already have peripherals and an OS.

 

EDIT: I do not want a SSD, it's not worth it at my price range. I'd also prefer an Intel processor due to their higher per-core performance because I play some old CPU intensive games. Thank you.

Thy hath sinneth, and in thy life thou hast fallen to an unholy, unspeakable level of humanity. Thou hast given into your basest needs. And suffered many years under thine Satan-box. However, if thine be willing, as thy hast show yourself to be, thy can ascendeth into thy glorious fold of the glorious church. Go well, my brother, may your temps be low and your frames high. ~ MrDynamicMan

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2 minutes ago, UL_42L said:

Hello, everyone. After a long time away from the forums, I'm back for advice once again. I want to build a rig for myself.

Either save up for a better display, or get a slightly nicer case/PSU, maybe an SSD too in the near future. but the SSD wouldn't be worth it now

 

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ydzw99
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ydzw99/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-6400 2.7GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($179.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H110M-S2HP Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($68.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill NT Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($31.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R9 380 4GB PCS+ Video Card  ($189.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($24.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $585.83
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-02-19 18:56 EST-0500

I edit my posts a lot, Twitter is @LordStreetguru just don't ask PC questions there mostly...
 

Spoiler

 

What is your budget/country for your new PC?

 

what monitor resolution/refresh rate?

 

What games or other software do you need to run?

 

 

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1 minute ago, Streetguru said:

-snip-

Thank you very much, but I'd like to worry about a display at a later time. I'll be focusing on the system only for now. By the way, you reminded me of some details I wanted to add. I'll edit my post.

Thy hath sinneth, and in thy life thou hast fallen to an unholy, unspeakable level of humanity. Thou hast given into your basest needs. And suffered many years under thine Satan-box. However, if thine be willing, as thy hast show yourself to be, thy can ascendeth into thy glorious fold of the glorious church. Go well, my brother, may your temps be low and your frames high. ~ MrDynamicMan

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What about this: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/tCJ46h

i7 4790k | MSI Z97S SLI Krait Edition | G.Skill Ripjaws X 16 GB | Samsung 850 EVO 500 GB | 2x Seagate Barracuda 2TB | MSI GTX 970 Twin Frozr V | Fractal Design R4 | EVGA 650W

A gaming PC for your budget: $800 - $1000 - $1500 - $1800 - $2600 - $9001

Remember to quote people if you want them to see your reply!

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1 minute ago, HPWebcamAble said:

What about this: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/tCJ46h

I like your inclusion of a CD R/W drive, I still believe in old media. These seem like good choices, but I'll still take as many recommendations as I'm given.

Thy hath sinneth, and in thy life thou hast fallen to an unholy, unspeakable level of humanity. Thou hast given into your basest needs. And suffered many years under thine Satan-box. However, if thine be willing, as thy hast show yourself to be, thy can ascendeth into thy glorious fold of the glorious church. Go well, my brother, may your temps be low and your frames high. ~ MrDynamicMan

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PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($199.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H110M-A Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($51.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill NT Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($31.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial BX200 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($59.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R9 390 8GB PCS+ Video Card  ($274.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($40.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $699.81
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-02-19 19:04 EST-0500

 

I skimp on the motherboard, which is fine since DDR4 is plenty fast in single channel and you won't be going dual GPU anyway. So long as you have something like an old HDD or don't mind re-installing games this would definitely be the best bang for the buck.

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PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6400 2.7GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($179.99 @ Newegg) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H110M-A Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($55.38 @ Newegg) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($34.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.89 @ OutletPC) 
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 390 8GB Nitro Video Card  ($309.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Case: DIYPC MA08-BK MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($25.99 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: EVGA 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($63.98 @ Newegg) 
Total: $710.21
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-02-19 19:09 EST-0500

 

This is what i could get for strictly gaming.

Fast Processor (equivalent to a Haswell 4590)

GPU is plenty for now and near-future titles @1080p 60fps 

Quality PSU

and

1TB of storage

"If you ain't first, you're last"

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2 minutes ago, Lotus said:

-snip-

I am certainly impressed with this parts list, thank you for your contribution. Sadly, I will not be able to use my current hard drive again. However, the SSD you chose, while I'm not sure if it's worth it, is still 20 GB larger than it. Do you still think it's worth the purchase?

Thy hath sinneth, and in thy life thou hast fallen to an unholy, unspeakable level of humanity. Thou hast given into your basest needs. And suffered many years under thine Satan-box. However, if thine be willing, as thy hast show yourself to be, thy can ascendeth into thy glorious fold of the glorious church. Go well, my brother, may your temps be low and your frames high. ~ MrDynamicMan

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If you won't run out of space on that SSD, it's definitely worth it. Boot/load times will be MUCH faster with it. The only problem with an SSD is capacity. Also, that's not an expensive SSD, but a great budget one that's on sale.

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Just now, Lotus said:

If you won't run out of space on that SSD, it's definitely worth it. Boot/load times will be MUCH faster with it. The only problem with an SSD is capacity. Also, that's not an expensive SSD, but a great budget one that's on sale.

Thank you very much for your contribution to my cause, I'll consider all the options with my friends (and anyone else that replies here) and see what it comes to. I'll mark this as 'answered' when I've chosen a rig.

Thy hath sinneth, and in thy life thou hast fallen to an unholy, unspeakable level of humanity. Thou hast given into your basest needs. And suffered many years under thine Satan-box. However, if thine be willing, as thy hast show yourself to be, thy can ascendeth into thy glorious fold of the glorious church. Go well, my brother, may your temps be low and your frames high. ~ MrDynamicMan

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9 minutes ago, Lotus said:

 

 

6 minutes ago, Memories4K said:

 



The motherboards in those builds have no USB 3.1 which is a major reason to get skylake, the low end board in my build above has USB 3.1, both full size and Type C

 

 

6 minutes ago, UL_42L said:

 

Better off adding the SSD later and getting a more reliable PSU/motherboard ect now, an SSD really isn't a necessity.

I edit my posts a lot, Twitter is @LordStreetguru just don't ask PC questions there mostly...
 

Spoiler

 

What is your budget/country for your new PC?

 

what monitor resolution/refresh rate?

 

What games or other software do you need to run?

 

 

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11 minutes ago, Memories4K said:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6400 2.7GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($179.99 @ Newegg) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H110M-A Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($55.38 @ Newegg) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($34.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.89 @ OutletPC) 
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 390 8GB Nitro Video Card  ($309.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Case: DIYPC MA08-BK MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($25.99 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: EVGA 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($63.98 @ Newegg) 
Total: $710.21
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-02-19 19:09 EST-0500

 

This is what i could get for strictly gaming.

Fast Processor (equivalent to a Haswell 4590)

GPU is plenty for now and near-future titles @1080p 60fps 

Quality PSU

and

1TB of storage

Some thoughts: the i5-6400 isn't considered a fast processor. It's also not comparable to the i5-4590, more like the i5-4460. Plus in most benchmarks the 6400 even loses to the 4460 in single and multi-threaded performance. The chip is average, and the current cheapest CPU I'd consider adequate for AAA gaming. You really want that faster clock speed for gaming, and the i5-6500 is only $20 more.


That case has really poor air flow. Probably not enough to really matter, but it's something I'd still probably change considering only a few bucks more makes a huge difference here. Cable management also sucks.

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3 minutes ago, Streetguru said:

-snip-

I'm very sorry to sound lazy, but do you have a suggestion? I'm not experienced with parts, so I don't really know what's more reliable than what, what fits more for my usage case, and so on. Should I also post a list of some of the common games I'll play? Keep in mind I'd want you to focus all of my budget on the system itself, and I'll save for better peripherals later.

Thy hath sinneth, and in thy life thou hast fallen to an unholy, unspeakable level of humanity. Thou hast given into your basest needs. And suffered many years under thine Satan-box. However, if thine be willing, as thy hast show yourself to be, thy can ascendeth into thy glorious fold of the glorious church. Go well, my brother, may your temps be low and your frames high. ~ MrDynamicMan

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11 minutes ago, Streetguru said:

 



The motherboards in those builds have no USB 3.1 which is a major reason to get skylake, the low end board in my build above has USB 3.1, both full size and Type C

 

 

Better off adding the SSD later and getting a more reliable PSU/motherboard ect now, an SSD really isn't a necessity.

Wait, what? In what way is a 3.1 connector relevant for gaming? I can see a point on something like a laptop, but hell I'd be happy with pure 2.0 USB connectors on a gaming rig. A mouse and keyboard don't use that kind of bandwidth. It doesn't matter here, and certainly not worth the $30. As for PSUs, you put an even worse one in your build in order to fit that mobo, and you have a poor case to go with it. The only advantage of the HDD over an SSD is capacity, and apparently an SSD's capacity is not a problem. You can always throw in a $50 HDD later if you fill up the SSD. The PSU in my build is also very reliable in that sense, even though it doesn't have the greatest voltage regulation. It's fine for everything but going nuts on overclocking. I'd only really worry about stepping up from it if you had a K series CPU and wanted to overclock everything. Hell, corners have to be cut somewhere and I'd rather not cut components that actually affect performance such as CPU/GPU, or even an SSD.

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6 minutes ago, Lotus said:

Wait, what? In what way is a type-C connector relevant for gaming? I can see a point on something like a laptop, but hell I

USB 3.1 is the main draw of the platform, it's easily worth 20 bucks to get it there's no reason now to skimp out on it it'll be more important in the future as USB 3.1 devices become available

, as for the PSU, my build has a 380, not a 390, so the PSU is fine overall. Although I guess the price has changed since I made the build, be better off going with the one you have.

 

for the SSD, It's nice to have one at times, but a higher end PSU. or case would be money better spent.

I edit my posts a lot, Twitter is @LordStreetguru just don't ask PC questions there mostly...
 

Spoiler

 

What is your budget/country for your new PC?

 

what monitor resolution/refresh rate?

 

What games or other software do you need to run?

 

 

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7 minutes ago, mpsparrow said:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/TGcnZL

 

Get that CX PSU out of here

i7 4790k | MSI Z97S SLI Krait Edition | G.Skill Ripjaws X 16 GB | Samsung 850 EVO 500 GB | 2x Seagate Barracuda 2TB | MSI GTX 970 Twin Frozr V | Fractal Design R4 | EVGA 650W

A gaming PC for your budget: $800 - $1000 - $1500 - $1800 - $2600 - $9001

Remember to quote people if you want them to see your reply!

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Thanks to everyone for their help, it's just a bit hard for me to decide who's right or wrong and what to get. Still, the help is appreciated.

Thy hath sinneth, and in thy life thou hast fallen to an unholy, unspeakable level of humanity. Thou hast given into your basest needs. And suffered many years under thine Satan-box. However, if thine be willing, as thy hast show yourself to be, thy can ascendeth into thy glorious fold of the glorious church. Go well, my brother, may your temps be low and your frames high. ~ MrDynamicMan

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