Budget PC build: $300 - $375 range

Greetings!

I am reaching out to request some hardware recommendations for a new PC build with a budget of roughly $667... Just looking for the tower itself.

To give you some context on what I'm already holding onto—I have an NVIDIA GTX 1060 x 2 2GB card and an Intel Core i5 128 SSD... So, essentially, I need everything else except for the GPU and the drive, provided we can keep the total cost between $200 and $833!

I would truly appreciate any suggestions you might have!

1 x LC POWER LC-CC-97, socket 775/1155/1156/AMD
1 x Crucial Module 8GB, 240-pin DIMM, DDR3 PC3-12800, CL=11, Buffered, NON-ECC
1 x Procesor AMD FX X6 6300 3.5Ghz (4.1GHz) box
1 x GIGABYTE GA-970A-DS3P, AM3+
1 x Fortron Hexa+ 400W, 80+, active, 12 cm
1 x MS PHOENIX case without power supply
1 x Xilence case cooler 80×80×25mm, black (3-pin Molex + 4-pin)

Total: $833 Futura-IT - free shipping. I could probably put this whole thing together for you, then you’d just have to pop in an SSD and a GPU, assuming you let me know 😉

Does anyone happen to have any solid recommendations on this?

Well, you might want to consider this even more extreme—and slightly pricier—option.

1 x Gigabyte 970A-DS3P, AM3+, AMD 970 SB950, 4x DDR3 2000(O.C.)/1866
1 x AMD FX-Series X8 8320 3.5GHz Processor, 16MB, 125W, AM3+, FD8320FRHK
1 x Crucial 4GB DDR3 (1x4GB), 1600MHz CL11
1 x Spire Kepler Rev.2 Cooler, 1156/775/FM1, 96.5×51×125 mm, 92mm
1 x XFX 430W P1-430S-XXB9 PSU, TS series
1 x MS PHOENIX Case (no PSU included), Midi Tower, MBO: ATX, mATX

$850techforum.com

You get a much more powerful eight-core processor here, essentially trading 4 GB of RAM for that extra muscle. It’s going to run a bit hot inside the case, though, so I’d highly recommend adding an extra fan, just like crimsonstag84 did with his build.🙂

I’m looking over both sets of recommendations and noticing the power supply is hovering right around 400W... Isn't that cutting it a little bit close? 🙂

Nah, I'd say the build will pull about 250W at full tilt, so you should have plenty of headroom to overclock the CPU or even swap in a beefier GPU.

So, would it be a smarter move to go with that second option—the one featuring a slightly better processor—and then just pick up another 4GB of RAM down the road? And if I do that, will they actually be able to run in dual channel mode?

I’ve been looking at these two offers from the links provided...

What’s everyone's take on this?

Douglas Cruz2 said:So, would it be better to go with the second option since it has a slightly better CPU, then just pick up another 4GB of RAM later? And would they run in dual channel if I do that?

That’s your call to make. It isn't just a "slightly" better processor—it’s significantly better. You're getting two extra cores and a lot more raw power. Adding 4GB of RAM down the road is easy; honestly, it's not even that critical for you right now. You just pop it into a slot and you're done. But you won't be swapping out that CPU anytime soon, so my opinion is you should grab the better one right from the jump. And yes, they'll definitely work in dual channel.

Douglas Cruz2 said:



These are the two deals from Best Buy...

What do you guys think?

Both of those deals are way worse than the two we suggested... One of them gives you an i3, which makes zero sense compared to the other two processors, plus you get some junk "600W" power supply in the case that's three times lower quality than the ones we recommended (talking about the PSU). They don't even include 8GB of RAM in the i3 option. The second option is even more nonsensical, if that's even possible. They paired an overclockable processor with a cheap-ass power supply and no aftermarket cooler, all on a BioStar motherboard which isn't exactly known for being high-end. And again, only 4GB of RAM. It couldn't be more pointless if they tried 🙂 The builds we recommended really should be your only two options here; there's no reason to head to Best Buy and let them sell you this garbage they've put together...