Budget PC build under $700 (already have the GPU)

Hi everyone, I’m looking for some guidance on putting together a new build with a budget of about $1500. I already have a graphics card from roughly a year ago—it's an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 (1GB GDDR5)—so I'll be working with that. I need a completely new setup, including the case itself. When it comes to storage, I value speed over sheer capacity; somewhere in the 500-600 GB range would be perfectly sufficient. My primary uses will be gaming and 3D modeling/rendering within AutoCAD 2015. Any and all advice is more than welcome... I am also weighing my options against getting a laptop. I'd love to know what kind of specs I could expect for the same price, along with the general pros and cons regarding gaming performance and other practical considerations one should keep in mind before pulling the trigger. Thanks in advance to all you kind souls 🙂

You really can't compare a laptop and a desktop when they're sitting at the same price point. In terms of raw performance, a desktop is easily going to be 2-3x more powerful than a laptop. Honestly, you should only be looking at a laptop if portability is your main priority...

Maybe some Corsair DDR3 1600 would work here. It’s an 8GB stick, CL11, model KVR16N11/8.
The EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB GDDR5, model INO-N75T-1SDV-E5CWX.
The Zalman mini tower case in black, specifically the ZAL-A1.
The Intel Core i5 4460.
The EVGA 400W Power Supply is an 80+ rated unit with active PFC and a 12 cm fan.
ASUS H81M-K motherboard
Patriot Blast R560/W530, 240GB, 7mm, 2.5" SSD

All in all: $1500 I guess it’s just the center. Maybe?

Is 240GB enough space? 😬

Sell that old GPU... you can grab a whole new rig for $4,500 here:

1 x Gigabyte 970A-DS3P, AM3+, AMD 970 SB950, 4x DDR3 2000(O.C.)/1866
1 x AMD FX-Series X8 8300 Processor 3.3GHz, 16MB, 125W, AM3+, FD8300WMHK
1 x Corsair DDR3 1600 4GB (1x4GB), CL11, Value
1 x TOSHIBA 500GB, 7200rpm, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB, DT01ACA050
1 x Fortron 500W Power Supply, Hyper, PPA5005003, 12cm fan
1 x Zalman Z1 mid tower case. 199(W)x432(H)x457(D)mm. MB standard
1 x SCYTHE Katana 4 SCKTN-4000, socket 754/940/939/AM2/AM2+/AM3+/FM1
1 x PowerColor R9 270, R9-270A-CDFC, Double Dissipation Edition 925M Boost

$1497

1 x Gigabyte 970A-DS3P, AM3+, AMD 970 SB950, 4x DDR3 2000(O.C.)/1866
1 x AMD FX-Series X8 8300 Processor 3.3GHz, 16MB, 125W, AM3+, FD8300WMHK
1 x TOSHIBA 500GB, 7200rpm, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB, DT01ACA050
1 x Fortron 500W Power Supply, Hyper, PPA5005003, 12cm fan
1 x PowerColor R9 270, R9-270A-CDFC, Double Dissipation Edition 925M Boost
1 x Kingston Fury DDR3 8GB (1x8GB), 1866MHz, CL10
1 x SCYTHE Katana 3 SCKTN-3000A White Box, 754/939/AM2/AM2+/AM3
1 x MS PHOENIX case without power supply, Midi tower MBO: ATX, mATX

$1514
with 8gb RAM

www.newegg.com

Check the hardware acceleration settings in your AutoCAD updates and whatever other design software you're running. See which GPUs are actually on the supported list so you can toggle them on and get some actual speed out of your calculations...

Honestly, that graphics card is pretty much bottom-tier junk, I’ve only got it because it came with my ASUS rig... but if you’ve got $1500 bucks, you could actually put together a total beast of a PC with a brand-new GPU