graniteharbor85 said:In terms of performance, 😉 the R9 270 is basically just an R7 265, whereas that suggested XFX card actually trails behind the base Sapphire R9 280 because of its significantly higher clock speeds—so the difference is negligible, maybe even unnoticeable, since we're talking about just a few FPS. Plus, if he goes with the R9 280, he'd need an H81 or B85 chipset, which makes zero sense to me when the H97 offers better build quality, more features, and support for newer CPUs for roughly the same price.
He also mentioned he doesn't plan on overclocking, which is usually assumed with a GPU, but that’s exactly where the R9 280's true potential lies. Its only real edge is the 3GB of VRAM, but that won't matter much unless he's playing at higher than 1200p, and honestly, 2GB is still plenty for most current and upcoming titles.
If he's looking to cut costs, I'm on board with the FX 6300 route, but here's how I'd build it:
FX 6300 SPIRE KEPLER R2.0 GIGABYTE 970A-DS3P KINGSTON 2+4 GB 1600 MHZ (6GB) / 1X8 GB 1866 MHZ SEAGATE BARR. 3,5 1TB SATA 3 XFX R9 270X 2GB BLACK EDITION LITE ON DVD-RW SATA XFX PRO 450W 80+ BRONZE AEROCOOL GT BLACK MIDI ATX
= $45.20/$1532.
There's no reason to stretch the budget for an Asus board, especially the Le model that lacks heatsinks on the power phases, when the Gigabyte will be more than enough for an FX 6300 or even an FX 83xx with Turbo enabled. If he really wants the R9 280, he should switch to an AMD board and grab the Sapphire; though, in that case, the pricier XFX model would actually be the better pick due to its higher overclocking headroom and a more efficient, quieter cooler.
Look, the R9 270 and 270X are essentially the same card, just with one having a higher clock speed. 🤷Wouldn't it make more sense to just grab the cheaper 270, do a little overclocking, and save about $20 instead of $33 paying nearly as much for a 280 when he could achieve those same performance levels just by overclocking the cheaper model?
Intel Core i5-4440 ASRock H97 PRO4-M KINGSTON FURY 8GB 1866 MHz Seagate Barracuda, 1TB SATA 3, 3.5" drive. XFX R9 270X 2GB BLACK EDITION LITE ON DVD-RW SATA XFX Core edition 80... AEROCOOL GT BLACK MIDI ATX case.
= $1685 Futura it.
This is how you get a well-balanced build using an i5. Since you aren't interested in overclocking anyway, you should still aim for this direction—I’ve gone with the H97 chipset specifically to give you a much wider selection of CPUs if you decide to upgrade later, covering both the upcoming Broadwell and the current Haswell / Devil's Canyon options...
On top of that, I upgraded the power supply—it's a repackaged Seasonic that delivers more juice than the CX and comes with a 5-year warranty. I also tossed in a faster, higher-capacity HDD, along with what’s currently the best bang-for-your-buck X model, the R9 270, which features a quiet cooler and solid overclocking potential. Honestly, there's not much point in stretching the budget for more expensive models since they're priced so close to the R9 280 anyway.
Just throw in a 120 GB SSD later on and you'll be golden... 😉
If you're already bumping the budget up to $5,000, you might as well squeeze in a Sapphire R9 280. The guy originally asked for something closer to the $4,000 mark, so this $5,000 build doesn't really offer any significant performance gains... It’s just a slightly more balanced configuration, and that's about it.
1 x AMD FX-Series X6 6300 3.5GHz, 14MB, 95W, AM3+, FD6300WMHK 1 x ASUS M5A97 LE R2.0, AM3+, AMD 970/SB950, DDR3, 4 slots 2 x DDR3 4GB (1x4GB) Crucial, 1600MHz CL11 1 x SCYTHE Katana 3 SCKTN-3000A White Box, 754/939/AM2/AM2+/AM3 1 x XFX Core edition 80 + 450 w pas - EasyRail Technology 1 x Thermaltake Versa ii 1 x Thermaltake Versa II, Midi tower, ATX, mATX, 5.25" external bay 1 x TOSHIBA 500GB, 7200rpm, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB, DT01ACA050 1 x XFX R9-270A, R9-270A-CDFC, Double Dissipation Edition 925M Boost
$1430 adm.com
It’s cheaper than your option, but you'll still get the same performance in games. I kept the case you picked since I assume you actually liked it. You also get a higher quality, more powerful power supply. For a little $93 more, you could grab an AMD Radeon R9 280, which is an absolute best buy—it's actually cheaper than some R9 270X cards and performs better. You could save a bit on the PSU if you went with the one you chose, which is slightly weaker and lower quality than this XFX unit, or maybe on the motherboard, though I wouldn't recommend that. If you're up for it, I think you should go with the 280; it'll likely end up slightly cheaper than your current build, stay under $500, and give you a noticeably stronger gaming rig.😉
I recently upgraded my Verizon Home Depot plan, which came with a newer, more modern device. Everything works fine, but I’ve run into this small, annoying little issue. Every single time I reopen Google Chrome and try to visit a website, it takes forever to actually load the page. While it's loading, the bottom left corner says "Downloading proxy script." Once it finally finishes, the internet is perfectly fine and everything runs smoothly. It's just that initial connection that drags on—sometimes taking up to thirty seconds. If I close Google Chrome and restart it, the whole process repeats, though if I just leave the browser open, there's no problem at all. My ping is solid, and both download and upload speeds are great. It isn't a total dealbreaker, but it's irritating, and I'd love to fix it if possible. 🙂
Amy Vaughn12 said:If you can swing a Pentium instead of an i5 while staying within your budget, I guess there isn't much else to look for, IMO. Even if we're talking about a really solid unlocked version, maybe the i5 is still the smarter play. With an i5, you'll probably be set for years without any headaches, and it gives you enough breathing room to drop in a much beefier graphics card later on.
+1. While it's definitely an interesting option, let's be real: if you're working with a tight budget, a Pentium just doesn't offer much to work with $1167 unless you're pairing it with a dedicated GPU.
I think they released a ton of different versions of that m18x, just like they did with pretty much all their laptops. They don't even bother changing the model name; they just swap out the guts for newer tech. Like THIS !!! AMD Radeon R9 NVIDIA SLI... ☕
Jamie Hall said:Can someone put together a solid gaming build for me? I need it to include a monitor, keyboard, and mouse too. The goal is to run Battlefield 3 on high settings...
Shipping should be possible.
Please count on it being... $1333 most And I don't even have the chance to head up north to grab some cash...
Thanks in advance for all the effort and time you're putting into this. 😁
Robert Ortiz58 said:Total: 4030,94 Free assembly and delivery at Futura IT.
Keith Wright2 said:It feels like some people need to hear the same things repeated a hundred times before they finally get it. The power supply was chosen specifically to handle future upgrades so he doesn't have to go out and buy a new one when he eventually grabs a better graphics card. He went slightly lighter on the GPU for now because everything else in this build is top-tier; once he swaps that card out later, he’ll have a true powerhouse. For what he's playing right now, this setup is plenty good, and once he drops in a GTX 770, he'll be set for a long time!
Put whatever you want in there, an EVGA 450 w can handle it. 🙂 By your logic, I should have just dumped my $2,500 or $2,700 on some basic Intel Core i5, a 500W power supply, and played on integrated graphics until I could afford a "real" GPU? $667 🤔
Keith Wright2 said:I simply don't have the energy to argue with narrow-minded people like you. In your opinion, the best move is to dump everything into a GPU and just cobble together whatever leftovers you find in a bargain bin? 🙂 Those cases are pure nonsense; I would never buy them myself when for $67 I can get a decent, high-quality case with great airflow. As for the power supplies, they are perfectly average. The only thing in my build that is weaker than the rest is the graphics card, but even with it, you can play anything—not to mention, as I mentioned above, it's the easiest part to swap out, along with RAM which you just plug into a slot and it costs $93. However, you aren't going to be swapping the CPU, motherboard, or case anytime soon; you'll always be limited by them if they aren't strong enough from the start. This PC Build is excellently structured for a future upgrade to a more powerful GPU, and every single component is high quality. But please, feel free to sink all your money into a single GPU, kill any possibility of a future upgrade, and play for a year before you're forced to replace the entire system because it can't run games the way it's supposed to 🙂.
Realistically speaking, your build is totally unbalanced. You can't just slap in an overkill power supply, a $433 processor, blow past your budget, and grab a GPU that's already in MY build from $833, especially since this guy is spending his money on a computer meant to serve him best for gaming. An AMD FX 6300 is perfect here—it's the sweet spot. It's plenty powerful enough to run pretty much anything you throw at it, it's cheaper, it can handle almost any card you plug into it, and you can even overclock it decently. Within this budget, you might even be able to fit a Radeon R9 280X, which is obviously a significant step up from a 260X. ☕
Timothy Kim60 said:Check it from an angle—it should have less color washout and dispersion. If you’re bored, just Google "TN vs IPS" or check out some YouTube reviews to learn more.
Besides, that VA panel costs him almost the same as the one you suggested, plus the DVI connection.
Since you brought up DVI being an advantage... what's the actual difference? My monitor has both DVI and VGA ports, but it didn't come with a DVI cable (I think those only come with Dell monitors), so I just used the VGA cable instead. I didn't feel like dropping $5 on something that's supposedly "better"... and honestly, I don't even know why. ☕