Advice for buying a gaming PC!

Dennis Carter3

That case is absolute garbage—Microsoft is way ahead of it. You can pretty much forget about running an FX 83 xx in there unless you swap out the case or the cooler. Honestly, even the Kepler barely keeps an FX 6300 from overheating in that chassis, let alone an FX 8320.

Also, why are you spreading bad info? The FM2+ socket is definitely upgradeable.

Upgrading to what, exactly? Some next-gen x4 processor that might squeeze out maybe a 10% performance bump? If AMD were actually planning to drop an x6 APU, then we’d have something worth talking about actually.

graniteharbor85 said:Dennis Carter3

That case is absolute garbage—Microsoft is leagues ahead of it. You can forget about running an FX 83 xx in there unless you swap out either the chassis or the cooler (even a Kepler barely manages to keep an FX 6300 from melting without going full turbo in that enclosure, let alone an FX 8320).

And why are you spreading misinformation? The FM2+ socket is definitely upgradeable.

I didn't actually use a Kepler; I went with the ThermalTake Contact 16. It was The New Guy who mentioned the Kepler earlier. As for the case, that's the least of my worries—I'll just swap it out later when I do a proper upgrade, and there are plenty of $83 great options out there. The priority right now is securing the foundation; everything else is just minor details.

Dennis Carter3 said:I didn't go with Kepler, I used ThermalTake Contact 16. The New Guy was the one who mentioned Kepler. The case isn't even an issue—I'll just swap it out during a proper upgrade later. There are plenty of $83 solid ones out there. Right now, I just need to secure the foundation. Everything else is just noise.

Just give him those $83 so he can actually finish the upgrade 👍

Robert Rodriguez2 said:then just give him those $83 so he can upgrade to 👍

Look, if we don't go with the FX 83 xx route, any future upgrades would force them into buying a whole new motherboard—which, let's be honest, will likely end up being way more expensive than just moving to a new case and processor in my specific situation. Besides, the budget is still pretty tight $47. Going with the Kepler option would be $37, plus you get a processor with two extra cores that’s significantly beefier, which should yield much better results in gaming.

Dennis Carter3 said:Look, if this doesn't fit the FX 83 xx later when he upgrades, he’ll be forced into buying a whole new motherboard. That's gonna end up being way more expensive than just grabbing a new case and a CPU in my book. Plus, the budget is pretty tight $47 using Kepler would be $37 and he gets a CPU with two extra cores that's actually decent, which helps gaming performance too.

That's not even the point right now. The point is the guy has $1000, so we should put whatever gives him the best bang for his buck within that $3,000 limit instead of blowing the budget by $67...

Robert Rodriguez2 said:Look, that’s really not the point—not even close. The actual point is that a person simply has... $1000Look, my take is simple—if you have $3,000 to work with, you should aim to squeeze every ounce of value out of that specific amount. It isn't about blowing past the limit just to say you did; it’s about optimization. You want to pack in the absolute best components possible within that $3,000 ceiling, rather than just overspending blindly. $67 ...

Where on earth are these coming from? $67 The budget has been blown—all over. $37 If you're looking at the Kepler setup—assuming we end up going with the Contact 16—then the situation becomes... well, let's just say things change. $47It’s really not that much of a difference compared to what you get with the FX—honestly, if we're talking about the total cost involved—so I don't think pulling that kind of cash together should be much of an issue at all.

Dennis Carter3 said:Where are you getting this idea that the $67 budget is blown for $37? If we're talking about Kepler, if the contact is 16 then it's $47, which isn't much compared to what you get with an FX-series setup. I don't think saving that much is a real issue...

The real issue is when you can't scrape the cash together at all, let alone deal with the extra costs if things go south.

The TT 16 isn't any better than the Kepler, and honestly, it’s more expensive. Plus, the Kepler is actually quieter since it runs at lower RPMs.

Also—if I can swing the extra $110, I might just grab the FX 6300. If that's not doable, does anyone have an $860 suggestion?

Dennis Carter3 said:NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti Graphics Card, 1GB GDDR5, VGA, DVI, HDMI

Intel Core i5-3570K Processor

ASUS M5A97 Motherboard, LGA 1155, B75, D3, SATA, USB 3.0, A

Raijintek CPU Cooler Rhea - 92mm P/N: CPRT-008

Patriot Signature DDR3 1600Mhz, 4GB, HS

EVGA 400 W Power Supply, 80+, active, 12 cm

Seagate Barracuda 500 500GB 3.5''

MIDI ATX Case Akyga AKY921BL w/o PSU

Total:$1046 Best Buy
I think you're overspending slightly. It would be much smarter to go for a six-core Intel Core i5-3470 instead. You'll have a great foundation if you want to upgrade to those beefier eight-core Intel Core i7-3770 processors later on. With your current choice, you'll hit a dead end immediately!

Thanks for the help,
I was actually aiming for 8GB of RAM, but this setup only has 4GB!
Is there any way I can save some cash elsewhere to afford more memory?

So, what kind of budget are we actually looking at here?

Honestly, there’s no point in trying to penny-pinch—you can only really save up through those specialized accounts anyway, and even then, you'll probably end up blowing past your current target number sooner than you think.

Roger Mitchell4 said:thanks for the help,
I was actually planning on grabbing 8 GB of RAM, but this setup only has 4 GB!
Is there any way to cut costs elsewhere so I can afford more memory?

To be perfectly honest, there isn't much room to shave off costs on the RAM—it’s such an easy upgrade once you’ve saved up a little extra cash. It's not exactly rocket science.$92 You could grab something like this and just pop it right into the slot; it’s that simple. Honestly, even with 4 GB, your games should run just fine, so don't lose too much sleep over it.
Also, instead of using that Corsair Rhea 92mm CPU Cooler, you could swap in this one and that would pretty much wrap things up. That leaves you with $1037

Is this guy just copying his own build? Again.

graniteharbor85 said:So, what kind of budget are we actually working with here?

There's really no point in trying to cut corners. You can try to save on the small stuff, but you'll just end up overspending anyway.

$1085. Oh, plenty! $1000 Give or take $200.

Drew Sanchez82 said:Is this clone just picking his own configuration again? Seriously.

Does anyone actually care what you think, man?

Here’s the breakdown without any extra fluff:

1 x MSI R7 260 OC 1GD5, 1GB DDR5, DVI-I, DVI, DP, HDMI, R7 260 1GD5
1 x Seagate 1TB HDD, SATA III, 7200 rpm, ST1000DM003
1 x CORSAIR 430W Power Supply, CX Series 80+ Bronze, EPS12V v2.3, 80+
1 x Intel Core i3-4160 Processor (3.60GHz, 512KB, 3MB, 54 W, 1150) Box
1 x Asrock H81M-HDS, s1150, Intel H81, M-ATX, dual Channel 2 xDDR3
1 x Zalman ZM-T1 PLUS micro tower case, 189(W) x 427.5(H) x 364(D)mm
1 x Crucial 4GB DDR3 (1x4GB), 1600MHz CL11

$1083 You can also check this out at Best Buy.

If you are looking to shave some money off the total, consider swapping in an MS Phenix case, a Fortron Hexa 400W unit, a cheaper i3 4xxx model, a 500GB hard drive, or a more budget-friendly H81 motherboard from Asus or Gigabyte. However, if you want a case with USB 3.0 ports (like the Zalman listed here), stick with the H81M-HDS so you have the necessary USB 3.0 header.

Roger Mitchell4 said:Man, does anyone even care about that?

Honestly, the best part about an online chat is just being able to let people act however they want. No rules, no pressure, just pure chaos.

Roger Mitchell4 said:Man, does anyone even care what he thinks?

If I were in charge, I’d have banned him already.

He’s really not that much of a monster, if you ask me (Alexander Moore67/geforcegtx or whatever his handle is)

I’m looking to put together a gaming rig with a budget of around $1000, anyone out there actually know how to build a decent setup