New PC build + peripherals for ~$500

Hey,

A buddy of mine needs a full setup—PC and all the gear—for about $1167. He’s basically just using it for League of Legends.
I mean, seriously, we're talking Steam, Skype, and nothing else but League.

What kind of specs should I be looking at?

Dell UltraSharp 22'' LED Monitor, 5ms, 250cd/m2, 12000000:1, D-Sub, DVI-D,
GENIUS NetScroll 200 Laser Mouse, black, USB
GENIUS KB-110X Keyboard, black, USB
NVIDIA GeForce GTX PCI-E XFX AMD RADEON R7 360 Core edition, 2GB DDR5, DP, HDMI, DL-DVI-D, DL-DVI-I
400W Power Supply, HP LaserJet Office Series LC500-12, ATX v2.31, 120mm fan, PFC
LC POWER 3001B Executor Case, MINI, black, USB 3.0, no PSU included
MSI H81M-DG4 Motherboard, Intel H81, DDR3, audio, G-LAN, SATA, PCI-E, D-SUB, DVI, USB 3.0, mATX, LGA 1150
PC-12800 Memory, 4GB, G.SKILL Value Series, F3-1600C11S-4GNS, DDR3 1600MHz
120.0 GB KINGSTON HyperX FURY SSD
INTEL Celeron G1840 box Processor, LGA 1150, 2.8GHz, 2MB cache, DualCore, GPU

Total: $1202 Best Buy

Do you need speakers or headphones?

I guess this setup could be improved. For example, $33 is a Dell with a VA panel (better picture quality), and maybe $33 would be better for the same graphics card since it's an EVGA model, which I think runs quieter and cooler.

thanks, I'll hit you up later when I need more gear,

as long as he knows which case and monitor to grab, the rest is just whatever he feels like buying--he'll pick what he likes.

League of Legends should run just fine even on a much weaker, budget-friendly graphics card. An AMD APU would probably be a solid choice here. Personally, I think you're better off putting that money toward a higher quality monitor instead.

APU solution:

1 x Gigabyte GA-F2A68HM-DS2, AMD A68H, 2 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM
1 x AMD Kaveri A8-Series X4 7650K Processor (3.3GHz, 4MB, 95W, FM2+) BE
2 x 4GB DDR3 (1x4GB) Kingston, 1866MHz, CL10, HyperX Fury, HX318C10F
1 x TOSHIBA 1TB, 7200rpm, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB, DT01ACA100
1 x LC Power Cosmo Cool, 92 mm, Hydraulic bearing, 800-2200 rpm,
1 x EVGA 400W power supply, 12cm fan
1 x MS KNIGHT midi tower case without PSU
1 x AOC i2276VW, 21.5" IPS 16:9, 1920x1080, 250 cd/m2, 50,000,000:1

$1146 admin.com

IPS monitor, pretty strong integrated graphics paired with dual channel 1866 MHz memory. It'll crush League of Legends without any issues.

That motherboard only features a VGA output.

To’s true, I hadn't even considered that. OVA has a DVI port, though I suspect they'll need to pick up a DVI cable too—AOC never includes those with their monitors. It'll run about $12 more with this motherboard.

1 x Gigabyte GA-F2A68HM-DS2, AMD A68H, 2 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM
1 x AMD Kaveri A8-Series X4 7650K Processor (3.3GHz,4MB,95W,FM2+) BE
1 x EVGA 400W Power Supply, 12cm fan
1 x MS ARMOR midi tower case, no PSU included
1 x 8GB DDR3 (2x4GB) Kingston Fury, 1866MHz, CL10, HyperX
1 x TOSHIBA 1TB, 7200rpm, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB, DT01ACA100
1 x LC Power Cosmo Cool, 92 mm, Hydraulic bearing, 800-2200 rpm,
1 x LG 22MP47D-P IPS, 21.5", 16:9, 1920x1080, 250 cd/m2, 5.000.000:1
$1172

Thanks for all the input, guys,

looks like most of you think that 7650k can actually handle League of Legends, even at 1080p
I’m assuming we're talking at least medium settings here—don't lie

now it's up to my buddy to make the final call,

thanks again for the help

LP

1600x900, full details during all that absolute chaos



The only catch is that 2133MHz RAM. It would be a smart move to overclock them; according to reviews, those Kingston Fury sticks can hit 2133MHz pretty easily. Or you could just swap in this instead. Generally speaking, games will run much better with a Celeron paired with a dedicated GPU, but since League of Legends is quite CPU-intensive, a Quad Athlon might actually be the better play. You can always pop a dedicated GPU in later down the road.

Can the 7650K run faster than 2133 MHz? The specs say the memory controller maxes out at 2133 MHz CLICK

It says the same thing regarding the 7850K, so sticking with 2400MHz is the better move here.

http://www.eteknix.com/memory-scalin...0-7850k-apu/7/
http://www.pcekspert.com/clanak/amd-...e-stigao/?pg=4

We conducted our testing on an A88X-PRO motherboard using an updated BIOS to support the newer APUs. We utilized Corsair memory clocked at 2400MHz, which also allowed us to benchmark GPU performance across various memory speeds.

link

Besides, you can't find any 2133MHz RAM that's actually cheaper anyway.

You could always just overclock that HyperX : Quote : The Kingston HyperX Fury:

The Kingston HyperX Fury overclocked very well, after upping the voltage to 1.65 volts we were able to get it to 2400MHz with CL11 timings. The kit did very well to get that far so we weren’t too surprised when the system wouldn’t boot at 2600MHz, even 2400MHz was more than I expected given the fairly “mid-range” nature of these modules.

link

Overclocking

By doing nothing more than raising the voltage to 1.65 V, the Kingston HyperX Fury kit ran happily at 2200 MHz, it doesn’t get much easier than that! It easily passed a run of HyperPi 32M at this setting… perhaps we have a DDR3-2200 MHz kit in disguise? Could be.

link