Budget gaming build ideas?

Helping a buddy out with a budget of $933 something like this:

1x Crucial 4GB CL11
1x Toshiba 500GB 3.5" 7.2k SATA III 32MB
1x Intel Pentium G3220 processor
1x EVGA Pro-926B Juggernaut X
1x MSI H81M-P33
1x Palit GeForce GTX 750 Ti StormX OC 2GB
1x be quiet! system Power 7 300W total $500 at Newegg

Totaling 2 $286 at Newegg

With the discount applied, it hits exactly $280. That 750Ti is way too good of a deal to pass up, so I tried to squeeze it in. I suggested an APU instead for a more balanced build, but he's set on getting the most raw power possible right now. The power supply looks a bit weak to me; I don't think this setup will pull more than 200W, and since this unit pulls at least 300W, it should be fine. Any thoughts?

If they plan on getting into serious gaming later, they'll swap the CPU anyway, so I guess it makes more sense to just stick with an Intel Celeron G1840 for now. There isn't a massive performance gap between that and a Pentium, and you definitely feel the savings in your wallet.

Then you could toss in some extra cash $13 for a slightly faster Barracuda, maybe grab a better power supply or whatever. Newegg's case selection is pretty weak, and honestly, I wouldn't want to blow $93 on that LC Power unit. Maybe think about picking up a decent case for $33 in Chicago instead and build it in there. That way, you might even have enough left over for an extra 4GB of RAM or a bigger HDD.

fadedorca66 said:If they plan on getting into serious gaming later, they'll swap the CPU anyway, so I guess it makes more sense to just stick with an Intel Celeron G1840 for now. There isn't a massive performance gap between that and a Pentium, and you definitely feel the savings in your wallet.

Then you could toss in some extra cash $13 for a slightly faster Barracuda, maybe grab a better power supply or whatever. Newegg's case selection is pretty weak, and honestly, I wouldn't want to blow $93 on that LC Power unit. Maybe think about picking up a decent case for $33 in Chicago instead and build it in there. That way, you might even have enough left over for an extra 4GB of RAM or a bigger HDD.

True, but the Pentium still holds the edge here. He’s looking to squeeze out every bit of performance possible for his budget right now. The Pentium actually packs a higher clock speed and a larger L3 cache. Honestly, I was pretty surprised by that offer from Newegg—usually, I don't agree with their pricing, but this 750Ti is such an incredible steal that you just can't pass it up. You won't find anything even close to that value for the money, not even that noisy XFX 260X unit. Just throw in the cheapest case available... $87 And you're losing the case for that much money? 🕺

Honestly, better to just save up a bit more $167 and grab a decent quad-core instead. Why even bother with a dual-core? It doesn't have hyperthreading, so it’s going to be a massive bottleneck in games since everything is moving toward requiring four cores anyway.

It makes zero sense to have such a tight budget and blow a third of it on a GPU, leaving you struggling to put together anything that actually runs properly.
Plus, when you want to upgrade later, you'll end up replacing half the rig...
this is from Micro Center
1 x ASUS A58M-K, FM2+, AMD A58 FCH (Bolton D2), DDR3, 2 slots
1 x AMD Kaveri Athlon ii x4 840 3.10GHz processor
1 x DDR3 4GB (1x4GB) Kingston, 1866MHz, CL10, HyperX Fury, HX318C10F
1 x MS ARMOR midi tower case without PSU
1 x Toshiba 500GB, 7200rpm, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB, DT01ACA050
1 x FORTRON 400W, HEXA Plus 400, 12cm fan

$639

this one is from Newegg

total: $939 and honestly, it won't perform any better than this

If you're in the NYC area, just go to Micro Center and buy it in person... shipping from Newegg will cost you a few bucks anyway.

Adam Moore3 said:True, but the Pentium still holds the edge here. He’s looking to squeeze out every bit of performance possible for his budget right now. The Pentium actually packs a higher clock speed and a larger L3 cache. Honestly, I was pretty surprised by that offer from Newegg—usually, I don't agree with their pricing, but this 750Ti is such an incredible steal that you just can't pass it up. You won't find anything even close to that value for the money, not even that noisy XFX 260X unit. Just throw in the cheapest case available... $87 And you're losing the case for that much money? 🕺

It's worth it even if it turns out to be a mistake and it's just the non-Ti 2GB version, because even those usually end up being $33 more expensive
.

GPU - MSI R7 260 OC - $283.
CPU - G1820 - $90.
Motherboard - MSI H81 - $107.
PSU - XFX TS 430W - $100.
RAM - Kingston Hyper x Fury DDR3 4GB - $67.
HDD - Toshiba 1TB -$167.
Case - Zalman R1 - $117.

Robert Rodriguez2 said:Honestly, better to just save up a bit more $167 and grab a decent quad-core instead. Why even bother with a dual-core? It doesn't have hyperthreading, so it’s going to be a massive bottleneck in games since everything is moving toward requiring four cores anyway.

It makes zero sense to have such a tight budget and blow a third of it on a GPU, leaving you struggling to put together anything that actually runs properly.
Plus, when you want to upgrade later, you'll end up replacing half the rig...
this is from Micro Center
1 x ASUS A58M-K, FM2+, AMD A58 FCH (Bolton D2), DDR3, 2 slots
1 x AMD Kaveri Athlon ii x4 840 3.10GHz processor
1 x DDR3 4GB (1x4GB) Kingston, 1866MHz, CL10, HyperX Fury, HX318C10F
1 x MS ARMOR midi tower case without PSU
1 x Toshiba 500GB, 7200rpm, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB, DT01ACA050
1 x FORTRON 400W, HEXA Plus 400, 12cm fan

$639

this one is from Newegg

total: $939 and honestly, it won't perform any better than this

If you're in the NYC area, just go to Micro Center and buy it in person... shipping from Newegg will cost you a few bucks anyway.

Hmm, yeah, true. What you suggested actually makes sense. For practically the same money, you get a quad-core and a 750Ti. And since the 750Ti dropped in price, it was only $304 yesterday. 😲 I'll talk it over with him, definitely a good call. 👍

Kimberly Gomez34 said:It's worth it even if it turns out to be a mistake and it's just the non-Ti 2GB version, because even those usually end up being $33 more expensive
.

For sure, besides, the only thing available from AMD is that noisy XFX 260X for the same price.

Chris Robinson25 said:GPU - MSI R7 260 OC - $283.
CPU - G1820 - $90.
Motherboard - MSI H81 - $107.
PSU - XFX TS 430W - $100.
RAM - Kingston Hyper x Fury DDR3 4GB - $67.
HDD - Toshiba 1TB -$167.
Case - Zalman R1 - $117.

I don't see the point of this? A weak CPU, a weak GPU, a power supply that has an 80% chance of having coil whine, and an overpriced case for $117 in a budget gaming build? 🤔

Adam Moore3 said:True, but the Pentium still holds the edge here. He’s looking to squeeze out every bit of performance possible for his budget right now. The Pentium actually packs a higher clock speed and a larger L3 cache. Honestly, I was pretty surprised by that offer from Newegg—usually, I don't agree with their pricing, but this 750Ti is such an incredible steal that you just can't pass it up. You won't find anything even close to that value for the money, not even that noisy XFX 260X unit. Just throw in the cheapest case available... $87 And you're losing the case for that much money? 🕺

Sure, on paper maybe, but how much better is it actually? Is it even noticeable? I couldn't find a direct comparison between an LGA 1150 Celeron and a Pentium, but it's basically the same deal as comparing a Sandy Bridge i3 to a Pentium:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu..._10.html#sect0

There’s zero difference, and you're just $100$50 poorer for it. Plus, if they keep gaming on newer titles, they'll probably be forced to upgrade to an i3 or i5 in a year anyway...

EDIT:

Here's a test—they're equal in some spots and one's maybe 5 fps higher in others. I guess it'd be interesting to see if that gap holds up with a weaker GPU:

http://www.techspot.com/article/1039...red/page5.html