What is the best bang for the Buck PC I can build for $250.

[Neil96]

Hi guys, I'm a novice coming to the pc building world. I want to know what is the best pc I can build for around $250? I will be reusing a case, power supply and hard drive. So that just leaves motherboard( my case fits a micro ATX motherboard), a cpu, ram, and if I can a graphics card( even if I have to spend $50 to $75 more).Thank you in advance.

[darealsoulless]

Try this:

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/vyDpdC

[DrM]

Spoiler

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

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor  ($98.95 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard  ($48.74 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($28.98 @ Amazon)
Other: PowerColor R7 360 ($99.00 @ Newegg)
Total: $275.67
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-16 23:03 EDT-0400

You can swap out the 360 for a 950 for better price to performace if you can stretch the budget.

 

14 minutes ago, GR1MES said:

Try this:

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/vyDpdC

The one thing about that build is the pentium. It offers great performance, but a few games these days are only playable on quad cores, such as Farcry 4 and gta 5 off the top of my head.

[givegomezthegun]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($111.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H110M-A Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($53.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($27.99 @ Newegg) 
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 950 2GB Video Card  ($124.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $318.96
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-16 23:07 EDT-0400

 

This is what I would go with, given the budget information you provided.. 

[darealsoulless]

1 minute ago, DrM said:

  Hide contents

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

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor  ($98.95 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard  ($48.74 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($28.98 @ Amazon)
Other: PowerColor R7 360 ($99.00 @ Newegg)
Total: $275.67
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-16 23:03 EDT-0400

You can swap out the 360 for a 950 for better price to performace if you can stretch the budget.

 

The one thing about that build is the pentium. It offers great performance, but a few games these days are only playable on quad cores (as in locked out of the game, not bottlenecked), such as Farcry 4 and gta 5 off the top of my head.

I know it offers good performance, but I don't recommend the FX platform anymore as it is about 5 years old.

[Energycore]

This version uses an overclockable CPU:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($71.98 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-E34 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($53.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($26.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card  ($104.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $257.94

 

You can overclock it through the bios and if i remember correctly this board has a button that overclocks it with just a press.

[manikyath]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/92KCBm

 

kinda based this off of @GR1MES 's build, but ended up changing... everything

 

haswell i3 VS skylake pentium, its a slight loss on the single threaded, but you get an extra 20ish % on multicore. (which is what games are rapidly heading towards)

 

there was a cheaper motherboard, but it literally looked like it was made by fisher price, so for $2 more i put in the gigabyte motherboard listed.

 

DDR3 is still cheaper, which came quite to my advantage with these crucial sticks (that are frikkin everywhere btw, i pulled some out an OEM prebuilt befrore)

 

and yeah..  GTX950 will be your best bet GPU wise.

[manikyath]

 

3 minutes ago, DrM said:

  Hide contents

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

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor  ($98.95 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard  ($48.74 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($28.98 @ Amazon)
Other: PowerColor R7 360 ($99.00 @ Newegg)
Total: $275.67
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-16 23:03 EDT-0400

You can swap out the 360 for a 950 for better price to performace if you can stretch the budget.

 

The one thing about that build is the pentium. It offers great performance, but a few games these days are only playable on quad cores (as in locked out of the game, not bottlenecked), such as Farcry 4 and gta 5 off the top of my head.

i'm really not sure how to feel about the FX-6300, the i3 i mentioned actually outperforms it in quad core speed.

[DrM]

2 minutes ago, GR1MES said:

I know it offers good performance, but I don't recommend the FX platform anymore as it is about 5 years old.

I was actually refering to the pentium, which can probably match or beat an FX. the only reason i went with the FX is game compatibility (as mentioned, FC4 and gta 5 are horribly optimized for dualcores)

[darealsoulless]

Just now, DrM said:

I was actually refering to the pentium, which can probably match or beat an FX. the only reason i went with the FX is game compatibility (as mentioned, FC4 and gta 5 are horribly optimized for dualcores)

I'm aware of this, but the FX CPU's are kind of a waste, seeing as hopefully new ones will come from team red within the next year or so. However, you could spring secondhand and get a better Core i3/i5.

[Clyne]

Check local PC Recycle stores, Goodwill, local classfieds...you'll get a better deal when going used..or get something better than a dual core and some mediocre GPU.

[Neil96]

Thank you everybody. This is really helpful. Which ever one I choose, it will definitely be a nice upgrade.

[Stefan1024]

1 hour ago, Neil96 said:

Thank you everybody. This is really helpful. Which ever one I choose, it will definitely be a nice upgrade.

Have a look if you can get an old / used LGA2011 (not the LGA2011-V3) mainboard and pair it with a E5-2570 as they cost only about 70$ in Ebay.