Budget gaming PC build for $750?

Good evening, everyone. I’m looking to put together a new PC capable of handling all the upcoming big releases, with a budget of about $1667 in cash. Since I’m not exactly an expert in this field, I figured I’d borrow a moment of your time to pick the brains of the enthusiasts here; I’m hoping to build something that stays relevant for at least the next three or four years.
I also have an old machine gathering dust, so I was wondering what its current resale value might be and whether it's possible to swap in some DDR3 memory.

ASUS Nvidia 9800gt ddr5
Intel e4300 soc 775
4gb ram
500w power supply
motherboard unknown
case is just some junk
LG optical drive
HDD 360 GB

Robin Brooks2 said:Good evening, everyone. I’m looking to put together a new PC capable of handling all the upcoming big releases, with a budget of about $1667 in cash. Since I’m not exactly an expert in this field, I figured I’d borrow a moment of your time to pick the brains of the enthusiasts here; I’m hoping to build something that stays relevant for at least the next three or four years.
I also have an old machine gathering dust, so I was wondering what its current resale value might be and whether it's possible to swap in some DDR3 memory.

ASUS Nvidia 9800gt ddr5
Intel e4300 soc 775
4gb ram
500w power supply
motherboard unknown
case is just some junk
LG optical drive
HDD 360 GB

Nah, maybe the hard drive if you need a secondary one, since it's ancient,
for $1667 you could put together a decent rig, and keep the drive

like this:
1 x Intel Core i5-4460 Processor (3.20GHz,1MB,6MB,84 W,1150) Box
1 x Sapphire R9 270 2GB, OC Boost, 2GB GDDR5 256bit
1 x Fortron 500W Power Supply, Hyper, PPA5005003, 12cm fan
1 x Zalman Z1 mid tower case. 199(W)x432(H)x457(D)mm. Standard MB
1 x TOSHIBA 500GB, 7200rpm, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB, DT01ACA050
1 x DDR3 8GB (1x8GB) Kingston, HyperX Fury, 1866MHz, CL10
1 x ASUS B85M-K, 1150, Intel ® B85 express chipset

$1678

or AMD

you'd get a way better GPU here🙂
1 x Fortron 500W Power Supply, Hyper, PPA5005003, 12cm fan
1 x Zalman Z1 mid tower case. 199(W)x432(H)x457(D)mm. Standard MB
1 x TOSHIBA 500GB, 7200rpm, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB, DT01ACA050
1 x DDR3 8GB (1x8GB) Kingston, HyperX Fury, 1866MHz, CL10
1 x Gigabyte Z97X, AM3+, AMD 970 SB950, 4x DDR3 2000(O.C.)/1866
1 x AMD FX-Series X6 6300 3.5GHz,14MB,95W,AM3+, FD6300WMHK
1 x Spire Kepler Rev.2 cooler, 1156/775/FM1, 96.5×51×125 mm, 92mm
1 x MSI R9 280 3GB GAMING 3GB GDDR5 384bit, R9 280 GAMING, TF4

$1666

@Robert Rodriguez2
1. So, just to clarify, the LGA 775 socket won't support DDR3 memory at all, right? It’s strictly limited to DDR2?
2. Could you give me a breakdown of what each of these individual components is worth on the used market? Thanks!

Regarding these two builds, I'm looking for some advice on which direction to take. Is it a better move to go with the stronger graphics card now—even if it means eventually swapping out the CPU and trekking down to a repair shop to pay for the service $67 though I have my doubts about anyone doing that for free—or should I stick with the i5 and just handle the GPU upgrade myself later on when I feel like it?

Robin Brooks2 said:@Robert Rodriguez2
1. So, just to clarify, the LGA 775 socket won't support DDR3 memory at all, right? It’s strictly limited to DDR2?
2. Could you give me a breakdown of what each of these individual components is worth on the used market? Thanks!

Regarding these two builds, I'm looking for some advice on which direction to take. Is it a better move to go with the stronger graphics card now—even if it means eventually swapping out the CPU and trekking down to a repair shop to pay for the service $67 though I have my doubts about anyone doing that for free—or should I stick with the i5 and just handle the GPU upgrade myself later on when I feel like it?

Some boards support DDR3, but you don't even know which board you've got. Assuming your RAM is DDR2, it's not going anywhere on a new platform.

As for starting out, the i5 build is the better move. You get a stronger processor, and upgrading a GPU later is a much less painful headache.

And that FX isn't a bad chip either... whatever you pick, you should be fine for a while, depending on how much of a graphics freak you are.

I honestly think it’s best to just save myself the headache right from the jump and go with this MSI R9 280, because if I don't, I’ll probably just spend the entire night overthinking it and driving myself crazy.

Robin Brooks2 said:I honestly think it’s best to just save myself the headache right from the jump and go with this MSI R9 280, because if I don't, I’ll probably just spend the entire night overthinking it and driving myself crazy.

that would put you at about ~ $1833

What's the point of a new build if you're still rocking an old CRT monitor? I don't see how much sense that even makes...

I have one more question regarding my brother's PC. As we touched on yesterday, I’m looking at picking up a brand-new rig for myself, but since he actually has a pretty decent setup already, he’s decided he wants to tag along to Micro Center with me to grab a new graphics card. His main concern right now is whether his current power supply can handle an AMD R9 290, especially since he’s aiming to push some overclocking to around the 4.5-4.6GHz range. To be honest, I don't really grasp the technical side of this stuff; he just asked me to post the specs here so you experts could weigh in. We're sitting here together waiting to see what you think, so feel free to ask any follow-up questions—he's right here and ready to answer.

Here are the specs for his build:

Intel Core i5-4690k
Gigabyte Z97X gaming 3
thermaltake frio extreme
8gb ram HyperX
550w XFX core pro
Fractal define r4

Nah, if it were 650W, you’d be totally fine. An XFX unit could probably handle it, but it would be working way too hard—we're talking higher temps, the fans spinning like crazy, and just a ton of noise. Plus, pushing it that hard long-term is a recipe for blowing out the power supply. Honestly, just check out a Fortron Hyper 700 w or maybe a Raider 650 w—those would handle an AMD R9 290 without breaking a sweat.

graniteharbor85 said:Nah, if it were 650W, you’d be totally fine. An XFX unit could probably handle it, but it would be working way too hard—we're talking higher temps, the fans spinning like crazy, and just a ton of noise. Plus, pushing it that hard long-term is a recipe for blowing out the power supply. Honestly, just check out a Fortron Hyper 700 w or maybe a Raider 650 w—those would handle an AMD R9 290 without breaking a sweat.

And if he isn't planning on overclocking anything, would that change the math enough to make it sufficient?

Edit: Out of curiosity, what’s the actual power draw difference for an i5 when you bump it from roughly 4.2GHz up to 4.5GHz?

If they go with a GTX 970, I’d feel pretty relaxed about using that power supply. 😉 After all, that card pulls almost half the power that an AMD R9 290 does.

Larry Ortiz5 As if I hadn't heard it all before, someone mentioned:
If he decides to go with the GTX 970, he’ll definitely have some peace of mind regarding that power supply. 😉

He's certainly aware of that, but he tends to lean more toward AMD anyway. $200 I was looking into getting a cheaper R9 290, but I wasn't sure if I should pull the trigger. Could you help me out with that? It looks like graniteharbor85 doesn't have much to say on the matter.

Even if you're overclocking, you're still gonna need a beefier power supply.

graniteharbor85 said:Even if you're overclocking, you're still gonna need a beefier power supply.

Could you give me a rough idea of what the power draw will look like for those upcoming AMD cards? For instance, if I went with an R9 390, would it pull at least 50-70W less than current models? If that were the case, would this power supply be sufficient—and if so, would I have any breathing room to overclock, or would I be stuck strictly with stock settings on my i5?

There's still no official word on the actual power draw for the new AMD series, so you won't find a straight answer to that just yet.

graniteharbor85 said:There's still no official word on the actual power draw for the new AMD series, so you won't find a straight answer to that just yet.

But let's play hypothetical for a second—if we assume the draw hits somewhere around 250W, would this power supply actually hold up?

From what I can gather, my PSU provides 44A on the 12V rail, which works out to about 528W based on my math. If we take a GPU pulling roughly 250W and a processor overclocked to 4.5GHz taking maybe 150W, plus another 60W for everything else, we’re looking at a total load of approximately 460W. In my view, this unit should handle that without breaking a sweat, even if the card ends up drawing closer to 270W. I came across some discussion on an American tech forum suggesting that staying within 80 percent of a power supply's capacity is perfectly safe. What's your take on that logic?

The power supply might hold up for a bit, but the real issue is that once you're under a constant load, it’s going to struggle—it won't last very long at all. Honestly, the only real fix here is to just pick up a beefier PSU.

I’m running a Seasonic unit myself that puts out 40A and 480W on the 12V rail. It handles my GTX 970 and i5 4670k without breaking a sweat. But then again, I have to remember that a GTX 970 pulls way, way less juice than what you're looking at. If I wanted to swap in an AMD card that actually matched the power draw of my current setup, I'd definitely have to upgrade my power supply too.

So, which GTX 970 are you running?

Robin Brooks2 said:But let's play hypothetical for a second—if we assume the draw hits somewhere around 250W, would this power supply actually hold up?

From what I can gather, my PSU provides 44A on the 12V rail, which works out to about 528W based on my math. If we take a GPU pulling roughly 250W and a processor overclocked to 4.5GHz taking maybe 150W, plus another 60W for everything else, we’re looking at a total load of approximately 460W. In my view, this unit should handle that without breaking a sweat, even if the card ends up drawing closer to 270W. I came across some discussion on an American tech forum suggesting that staying within 80 percent of a power supply's capacity is perfectly safe. What's your take on that logic?

Suddenly you're the expert, huh? 😬 🍿

crimsonstag84 said:Suddenly you're the expert, huh? 😬 🍿

troll, I can smell a troll from here 🙂