# Budget Gaming PC



## wolar (Oct 21, 2014)

Hello , i was thinking on getting a new budget gaming pc below 900euro and i was thinking of getting this for now :

Cpu : AMD ATHLON X4 860K 
Motherboard : ASUS A88X-GAMER  (maybe change it to something cheaper)
GPU : XFX AMD RADEON R9 280
RAM : 2x4gb G.skill sniper(1866mhz , cl9)
PowerSupply : Coolermaster g750m
SSD : Crucial MX100 128gb (maybe go for 256gb or get 1tb HDD for that price)
CPU cooler : RAIJINTEK THEMIS
Case : RAIJINTEK AGOS
Monitor : BENQ GW2255

I've been thinking about AMD or INTEL but there is much price difference between them and i was wondering if the cpu i listed is gonna be good einaf for gaming and in general fast pc , also is 550w einaf to power the hungry r9 280 or leave it to 750w ?

Thanks for taking a look.


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## LaytonJnr (Oct 22, 2014)

Hello,

I would suggest looking for the Intel Pentium G3258 and see whether its cheaper than the AMD Athlon. In benchmarks, despite being a dual-core processor, this Pentium performs better and is one of the only budget-oriented Intel processors which have overclockability. I would pair it with a H97 motherboard (choose one that allows you to overclock the Pentium).

If you get a good quality 550W power supply from a reputable manufacturer, it could handle much higher end graphics cards than the R9 280. My personal favourites are the Seasonic G-550, XFX TS 550W, Corsair RM550 or Cooler Master V550. Getting a modular or semi-modular power supply would reduce cable clutter and allow for better airflow in theory.

I would definitely recommend getting both an SSD and a larger HDD if possible, and install your operating system and applications on the SSD. A larger SSD may be useful if you have a larger library of games, but ~120GB should be fine for a good number of games.

I hope this helps,

Layton


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## ne6togadno (Oct 22, 2014)

couldnt find gw2255 in the list so i've added isp monitor at reasonable price.

edit: thx @Jetster. i guess i need new glasses


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## Jetster (Oct 22, 2014)

You have a G3450 in there? change it to a G3258 some H97 will overclock


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## Fourstaff (Oct 22, 2014)

Pick 2 core vs 4 core carefully, some games like fast duals (RTS in particular), other prefer 4 (Battlefield 4 etc.)

List down the games you normally play (and genre in general), that will give us some idea where you should head.


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## zsolt_93 (Oct 22, 2014)

I would say wait out the maxwell generation if you don't want to impulse buy. Then buy an Intel+nvidia combo. Pentium or i3 would suffice for gaming and for FullHD a x50,x60 nvidia card would suffice.  You do not necessarily need a cooler if you are not intending to OC really soon, PSU could also go for lower wattage and more reliable brand like corsair/seasonic/fsp around 500W. Money saved on that should let you get an Intel CPU.  Maybe you could go for i5 and integrated graphics or your old gpu and then buy whatever is better and cheaper next year when both AMD and NV will have some new cards out. Depends on how much you want it to last. The Athlon or Pentium are fine now , but you cant say that they will still be in 2-3 years. i5 maybe will be powerful enough to hold on for a few years with not a lot of advances in core count for the typical desktop. Depends if you are on a budget in general or just for this PC. If you are on a budget better bu something better now and not upgrade in a year when current hardware gets EOL


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## wolar (Oct 22, 2014)

@ne6togadno The case is m-atx i wont be having problems with fixed cable power supply + i think that motherboard wont fit inside that case , i think its itx only in there ? Also i don't trust Seagate HDD's due to the high failure rate they have and past drives i had from them, prefer something like hitachi-WD.
@Fourstaff  I play only FPS games
@zsolt_93 So i should get i5 and wait on new AMD cards to come ?

Thanks for the replies guys .


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## wolar (Oct 22, 2014)

Also i saw some benchmarks that showed the g3258 with different GPU's and if you have something more powerfull than the r9 270-280 it will get bottleneck by the CPU . I can't get both i5 and 970 so i will go for lower GPU and CPU and the plan is to be able to play most games medium-high or ultra on 1080p for 3years, after that i will build a newer system , DDR4 is here + the new broadwell processors are coming so building a high end PC now is bad timing , thats why i will build something to last about 3years and then build a new PC.


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## zsolt_93 (Oct 22, 2014)

You are wasting your money going by this belief. Buying two shitty components is worse than buying one shitty and one good one as you need to discard both and lose a lot of money in the process as they will be worth like half in a year. The Pentium K maybe an exception because it is an unlocked CPU. The 280 will be bottlenecked by the Athlon no matter what people say, same about the Pentium, just depends if you play multithreaded games or not, pentium bottlenecks in heavy multithread, the athlon in single and in multi might be better than the pentium.  So it depends on what you plan playing. Every year a new arch/refresh comes out be it GPU or CPU. So you really can't say when it is a bad time to buy as the past 3 gens have been letdowns on each side, with Sandybridge and Kepler being the last nice new products. Broadwell is not much of an improvement CPU wise, the iGPU is overhauled, maybe Skylake will be more powerful but noone can be sure until it releases. DDR4 will not be cheap anytime soon until all manufacturers adopt it. You might go with the Pentium +GTX970 now and save some components from an old PC such as case and storage and do a cpu upgrade when people change from haswell to broadwell/skylake and sell their 4770/4790 i7s next year. That will last you a good few years around 5-6, considering the market evolution if you do not plan to go 4k anytime soon.


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## Jetster (Oct 22, 2014)

Sure it will bottleneck the Pentium as well as the Athlon. But the Athlon is a dead end. In a year or so he can buy an i5


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## Fourstaff (Oct 22, 2014)

Get the Athlon then. I can't think of a fps where the Athlon will struggle under 1080p conditions. Don't bother with upgradability, you are just wasting money changing components. Get it right the first time round.


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## ne6togadno (Oct 22, 2014)

wolar said:


> @ne6togadno The case is m-atx i wont be having problems with fixed cable power supply + i think that motherboard wont fit inside that case , i think its itx only in there ? Also i don't trust Seagate HDD's due to the high failure rate they have and past drives i had from them, prefer something like hitachi-WD.
> @Fourstaff  I play only FPS games
> @zsolt_93 So i should get i5 and wait on new AMD cards to come ?
> 
> Thanks for the replies guys .


ya case is marked wrongly as matx in shop. cheapest matx tower or cube is about 60€. cables will fit w/o problems, how they will look depends on efforts you will put.

edit:


Fourstaff said:


> Get the Athlon then. I can't think of a fps where the Athlon will struggle under 1080p conditions. Don't bother with upgradability, you are just wasting money changing components. *Get it right the first time round.*


+1 on this.
you can save from case (use old one) or amount of ram or cpu cooler bud dont save from gpu and never go cheap with psu.

athlon build



if you go with g3258 you can use case from this list.
you should also consider if you can use case from your old pc for few months and tv as monitor and invest saved money in i5 (k is not mandatory games will run fine on locked cpu with b81 board)

edit2:
here is what you can have if you skip for now case, monitor and cpu cooler:


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## wolar (Oct 22, 2014)

Thanks for the replies. I think i will go for this build :

G.SKILL 2x4gb
AMD ATHLON X4 860K
GIGABYTE GA-F2A88X-D3H
CRUCIAL  MX100 256GB
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo
BenQ GL2460HM
Cooler Master V Semi-Modular Series V550
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970
Fractal Design Core 3500 ( maybe give 15eur more to get ARC MIDI R2)

From computeruniverse they are about 936euro , from the place i will be buying they are abit more expensive.
Do you guys think this build is good ?


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## Toothless (Oct 22, 2014)

I'd say go for a slightly cheaper GPU as this IS a budget unless you can get a 970 for uber cheap.


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## zsolt_93 (Oct 22, 2014)

So you have no old pc you can salvage parts from? I see you selected new hard drive(ssd) and case. And  you could really skip the cooler on a budget, the one you get with the CPU will suffice. And buy a PSU from a reputable brand if you can, although this one should run the above system just fine.


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## wolar (Oct 22, 2014)

Nop , i dont have any parts from last PC to reuse as the last one housed dualduo-ddr2 and crappy case-psu.
@Lightbulbie What is your suggestion then ? i will be playing on 1080p.
@zsolt_93 i thought the v series from CM is a good power supply , suggestions on other ones if you have please. (i can't find the G-series from seasonic here btw).

Thanks for the replies.


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## zsolt_93 (Oct 22, 2014)

I don't say it is bad, if its gold rated in cannot be bad and if you cannot get Seasonic or seasonic based in that price range then it is a good choice. Even the crappy case can fit the same hardware and the psu u will exchange anyways. Most likely you have a SATA hdd in that one and can back to a 128SSD if you want to save cash and use the harddrive as secondary. That would probably get you into the 900 you mentioned.


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## wolar (Oct 22, 2014)

I'm not entirely sure what HDD i got inside there but i think its not worth it as its 2x80gb or something like that. I won't be using the old case with 80mm fans and no dust filters with new components , i prefer to spend 50euro more to get a 10x times better one.
I don't know if its worth to go for 970 as i will be gaming on 1080p and i think its overkill to get that one - with r9 280 i can go for i5 and probably be good einaf for games and better allaround , whats your opinion on going for something like that ?
Thanks.


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## ne6togadno (Oct 22, 2014)

wolar said:


> Thanks for the replies. I think i will go for this build :
> 
> G.SKILL 2x4gb
> AMD ATHLON X4 860K
> ...


looks fine. i would go with ocz arc but mx100 will do it good too. get case and monitor from local shop. you will skip possible headache with "damaged during transport"



wolar said:


> I'm not entirely sure what HDD i got inside there but i think its not worth it as its 2x80gb or something like that. I won't be using the old case with 80mm fans and no dust filters with new components , i prefer to spend 50euro more to get a 10x times better one.
> I don't know if its worth to go for 970 as i will be gaming on 1080p and i think its overkill to get that one - with r9 280 i can go for i5 and probably be good einaf for games and better allaround , whats your opinion on going for something like that ?
> Thanks.


if you play gpu heavy games (like fps) always go for best price/performance gpu you can buy (gtx970 atm). it may look like overkill now but in 1 year it wont be. in 3-5 years it still will be fine.
what is cheaper to pay one per 5 year 350-400 euro for gpu or to pay every 2 years 200-250 for gpu upgrade.
i also play at 1080p with my 290x and i dont sorry for any cent i paid for it.


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## XSI (Oct 22, 2014)

i would go pentium g3258 route. and if possible 970. all you need to change in some time is cpu to i5 or smthg. in that case cheap but reliable z97. i guess 970 will be good for 4 years or so.


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## Toothless (Oct 22, 2014)

My two cents.

Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor
ASRock H81M-HDS Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
MSI Radeon R9 270X 2GB TWIN FROZR Video Card
Rosewill CHALLENGER ATX Mid Tower Case
SeaSonic G 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply
Acer G236HLBbd 60Hz 23.0" Monitor

Ends up at slightly under 600 euros. (I'm not good with international stuff so sorry if I goof'd up. I should probably learn my prices and locations better.)

My GTX660 runs on par with a AMD 265 and runs most of my 1080p games maxed. Again, this is a budget and if I was building a budget. It would be what is needed to play the game, not to max the game.


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## wolar (Oct 23, 2014)

Thanks all for the help i will decide the final build and let you know when its finished


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## Durvelle27 (Oct 23, 2014)

ne6togadno said:


> looks fine. i would go with ocz arc but mx100 will do it good too. get case and monitor from local shop. you will skip possible headache with "damaged during transport"
> 
> 
> if you play gpu heavy games (like fps) always go for best price/performance gpu you can buy (gtx970 atm). it may look like overkill now but in 1 year it wont be. in 3-5 years it still will be fine.
> ...


I agree with this

Having used a A10-7850K with a R9 290X a stronger GPU in newer and FPS games is the better route and the 4 Cores overclocked will really benefit over 2


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## wolar (Nov 6, 2014)

i've been thinking of a different build and i wanted to ask which you think is better please ,


CPU: i3-4150
Mobo: MSI H97 gaming 3
RAM: G.skill ripjawsX ( 2x4gb 1600mhz cl9)
PSU: Evga supernova 750 g2
GPU: XFX AMD RADEON R9 280
CPU cooler : RAIJINTEK THEMIS
Case: NZXT source 340
HDD: WD black 1tb
Monitor : DELL P2314H

They are around 900euro , same as the build above , please take a look
Thanks 



Edit: The way the market is going i dont want to spend alot on GPU or CPU just einaf to get me through 2 maybe 3 years as then it will be completly different and whatever i put inside now i will need to upgare (ddr4, 10nm chips(if intel continues with that rate ,and propably powerfull cards to run 4k for 200eur) . So i think this build is a good all around one with einaf power to get me 3 maybe more years.


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## Jetster (Nov 6, 2014)

Its fine. I would go with a GTX760 though. And a Seasonic G550


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## wolar (Nov 6, 2014)

I though the gtx 760 is worse than r9 280 ? also it cost around 40eur more ..

Edit : i chose 750w due to the high consumption of r9 280 , cant find better value than the evga's , If i go for 550w i can get alot of different ones like coolermaster v550 (65e) , seasonic g550(90e) and xfx ones.


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## Jetster (Nov 6, 2014)

550w is plenty as long as its a quality unit. Your correct the R9 260 may beat the GTX780 in benchmarks, I just prefer NVidia,


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## marmiteonpizza (Nov 6, 2014)

All I would say is that you should dedicate most of your budget towards the processor and graphics card.
I personally would recommend the AMD FX8350 which is around the 150-170 euros. It has 8 (logical, 4 physical) cores and as standard runs at 4GHz but of course, can be overclocked.


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## Tonduluboy (Nov 6, 2014)

My only 2 cents opinion...
If u wanna build a pc for gaming purpose only with STRICT budget, INVEST more on GPU+CPU. GTX970 is very good!
Remove the SSD. SSD dont increase your FPS, its only make you feel good for having it (beside loading windows faster). You can always add SSD later... when u have the extra money.

OR 

Search around for a good 2nd hand PC... I'm sure somebody is selling a latest PC at 2nd hand price online. 
Last June,  I bought my 2nd hand full SET PC from a university student at $429 with i5-4670k  inside without GPU. 
If i buy the GTX970, this 2nd hand pc is way better than your brand new one PC


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## BarbaricSoul (Nov 6, 2014)

What am I missing here? I haven't seen anything that mentions where the Op is buying from, just that he/she has a budget of about 900 euros. So I go to UK PC Partpicker and come up with this build (which blows away every other build I've seen in this thread. Come on @ne6togadno , you're better than that) for £914.11

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/Ld28zy


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## GeForce Junky (Nov 6, 2014)

£915 = 1165 euros, a bit over budget but a much better build


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## BarbaricSoul (Nov 6, 2014)

GeForce Junky said:


> £915 = 1165 euros, a bit over budget but a much better build



Ok, so that's what I was missing, try this one- http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/KKmDhM

710.52 British Pound Sterling = 906.01 Euro


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## wolar (Nov 6, 2014)

That one is similar to the one im building its just that i invested more on the psu+monitor than the cpu, but thanks alot for the replies guys ! 
So after all you think i should get i5+970 if i can despite the new releases coming ?


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## 64K (Nov 6, 2014)

wolar said:


> That one is similar to the one im building its just that i invested more on the psu+monitor than the cpu, but thanks alot for the replies guys !
> So after all you think i should get i5+970 if i can despite the new releases coming ?



Yes. The GTX 970 is plenty for 1080p at 60 Hz. You will be set for a few years imo.


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## GhostRyder (Nov 7, 2014)

wolar said:


> Hello , i was thinking on getting a new budget gaming pc below 900euro and i was thinking of getting this for now :
> 
> Cpu : AMD ATHLON X4 860K
> Motherboard : ASUS A88X-GAMER  (maybe change it to something cheaper)
> ...


Let me see for 900 Euro I would do the following based on prices I see (Ill keep it below):

i5 4690K
http://www.amazon.co_uk/dp/B00KPRWB9G/?tag=tec053-21

Cooler Master Hyper212 CPU Cooler
http://www.amazon.co_uk/dp/B0068OI7T8/?tag=tec053-21

MSI Z97-G55
http://www.amazon.co_uk/dp/B00K8KOR74/?tag=tec053-21

Sapphire R9 290 TRIX
http://www.amazon.co_uk/dp/B00HFA44YQ/?tag=tec053-21

2x4gb Gskill Ripjaws 1866 CL9
http://www.amazon.co_uk/dp/B004JM1ZG8/?tag=tec053-21

Corsair Builder Bronze 600Watt
Bronze http://www.amazon.co_uk/dp/B00ALYOTTI/?tag=tec053-21

Kingston 240gb SSD and WD 1tb 7200RPM Blue
http://www.amazon.co_uk/dp/B00A1ZTZNM/?tag=tec053-21
http://www.amazon.co_uk/dp/B0088PUEPK/?tag=tec053-21

Corsair Carbide Spec-01 (Any case is fine overall so long as it supports your motherboard, I just
picked one I like)
http://www.amazon.co_uk/dp/B00I6BJATW/?tag=tec053-21

BenQ GW2255 (There are others that you could choose from but I went with the one you picked)
http://www.amazon.co_uk/dp/B00BQ8E8E4/?tag=tec053-21
Total 845

Edit: Ok I do not know whats wrong with the link system but copy the link into a browser and change the _ between co and UK to a . and that should fix the link.

If you need to go lower there are ways it can but honestly with your budget you can really get an awesome machine that will last you at least 4+ years.  My advice to you for 1080p is to focus on getting a pretty decent motherboard and processor and then getting a medium GPU because even something as low as a GTX 760 or R9 270X can 1080p Ultra game pretty easily.

Hopefully this can help you see what you can do!


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## 64K (Nov 7, 2014)

GhostRyder said:


> Let me see for 900 Euro I would do the following based on prices I see (Ill keep it below):
> 
> i5 4690K
> Cooler Master Hyper212 CPU Cooler
> ...



I think your links are broken.


OP, I don't know if you're aware of this but you also get 4 free games with the R9 290 Trix. If they are games you would want then that's a factor to consider. With the GTX 970 you get 1 free game. I missed out on the deal because I ordered early but anyway I love my MSI GTX 970 Gaming.

Edit: The free games may not be in European stores. I'm not sure.


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## GhostRyder (Nov 7, 2014)

64K said:


> I think your links are broken.
> 
> 
> OP, I don't know if you're aware of this but you also get 4 free games with the R9 290 Trix. If they are games you would want then that's a factor to consider. With the GTX 970 you get 1 free game. I missed out on the deal because I ordered early but anyway I love my MSI GTX 970 Gaming.
> ...


Thanks for catching that, the links keep glitching when I post them for some reason, ill fix it this way.

...even manually putting the links in is not fixing it what is wrong with this thing...


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## wolar (Nov 12, 2014)

Thanks for the replies guys i'll let you know what i will be getting .


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## wolar (Jan 15, 2015)

Hey guys , i got some more money and this is the build i gone with, still waiting for some parts to come though ,

CPU : i5-4590
MOBO : Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 7
SSD : Crucial MX100 256gb
GPU : Gigabyte GTX-970
RAM : G.Skill 2x4gb 1866Mhz cl9
Cooler : Raijintek Themis
Case : Be Quiet! 
PSU : SuperFlower Leadex Gold 650w

Price @ ~1150eu

I'll post some pic's when i finish the build ~ if you guys want of course 

Thanks all for their help.


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## peche (Jan 15, 2015)

wolar said:


> .....
> 
> I'll post some pic's when i finish the build ~ if you guys want of course
> 
> Thanks all for their help.


Post your pics here... when you finish ...
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/your-pc-atm.65012/page-1073#post-3222464

Regards,


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## Toothless (Jan 15, 2015)

Good build! Was the Gaming 7 cheaper than the Gaming 5?


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## wolar (Jan 15, 2015)

The gaming 7 was about 20euro more expensive, not sure if it was worth though..

@peche : I will , Thanks


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## peche (Jan 15, 2015)

wolar said:


> @peche : I will , Thanks


We hope so, i have to make some custom cuts to my case, as soon as i finish i would upload pics...!
Regards,


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## wolar (Jan 19, 2015)

Ehm , i just realized that the gtx 970 edition i got from gigabyte is the windforce and not the g1  . Difference is no backplate and 2heatpipes instead of 4, i dont care much about the heatpipes as i saw OC on the WF edition going up to 1500mhz on the core but i'm afraid of the 31cm long card to sag . 
Any suggestions how to prevent that from happening ? 
Thanks.


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## BarbaricSoul (Jan 19, 2015)

using monofilament (6 or 8lb test fishing line), tie one end to somewhere on card and the other end to somewhere in the top of your case. Make sure that the line is tight enough to support to weight of the video card, but not so tight that it is pulling the card up. Easiest, least expensive fix.


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