Super cheap Gaming Build for $400

[Aaron11]

This build is for a friend. He's looking to do some gaming. Not necessarily too demanding, League of Legends, Starcraft 2, WoW
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming, web browsing
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$400 including tax and shipping
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
Fresno, California
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
CPU, RAM GPU (I'm looking at the A-series cpu, so this may be optional), Mobo, Case, PSU, hard drive, dvd burner
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
None
6) Will you be overclocking?
Maybe
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
19in I'm going to guess that its around 1024x768
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
within a month
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
I'm hoping for sata 3 and usb 3.0
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Yes, Windows 7 64-bit

 

[Dangman]

You're gonna need a DVD burner as well?

 

[Eiolon]

That's pretty tight for needing all components. I vote for a pre-built with decent on-board graphics, then invest in a video card when extra funds come in. Either that or wait until you can up the budget a little.

I used to play WoW on an Acer laptop with integrated graphics at 1024x768 a few years ago so I know that game is at least playable ha ha.

 

[Aaron11]

You're gonna need a DVD burner as well?

Oh yea. forgot that

That's pretty tight for needing all components. I vote for a pre-built with decent on-board graphics, then invest in a video card when extra funds come in. Either that or wait until you can up the budget a little.

I used to play WoW on an Acer laptop with integrated graphics at 1024x768 a few years ago so I know that game is at least playable ha ha.

Can't I build a A-3850-based build with $400?

 

[Dangman]

Oh yea. forgot that

Can't I build a A-3850-based build with $400?

You can but it's not a good choice for the money considering the planned usage IMO. I recommend this setup:
$85 - Intel Pentium G850 CPU
$50 - Biostar H61MGC LGA 1155 Intel H61 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
$21 - Kingston ValueRAM 4GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$70 - HIS H667FS1G Radeon HD 6670 1GB PCI-E Video Card
$65 - Western Digital WD5000AAKX 500GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$17 - Asus DVD Burner
$45 - Antec Earthwatts Green EA380D 380W PSU
$50 - NZXT Source 210 Elite Black ATX Case
----
Total; $403 shipped

I went with Amazon.com as much as possible as they do not charge CA residents tax. With the possible exception of WOW, the two games you mentioned only scale up to two cores. As such, the higher clock for clock performance increase of the Pentium G850 will benefit you more. Hell, even with games that scale well with quad-cores, the Pentium G850 would still outperform the A8-3850 in games In addition, the HD 6670 outperforms the HD 6550D that's part of that A8-3850.

 

[Aaron11]

You can but it's not a good choice for the money considering the planned usage IMO. I recommend this setup:
$85 - Intel Pentium G850 CPU
$50 - Biostar H61MGC LGA 1155 Intel H61 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
$21 - Kingston ValueRAM 4GB DDR3 1333 RAM
$70 - HIS H667FS1G Radeon HD 6670 1GB PCI-E Video Card
$65 - Western Digital WD5000AAKX 500GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$17 - Asus DVD Burner
$45 - Antec Earthwatts Green EA380D 380W PSU
$50 - NZXT Source 210 Elite Black ATX Case
----
Total; $403 shipped

I went with Amazon.com as much as possible as they do not charge CA residents tax. With the possible exception of WOW, the two games you mentioned only scale up to two cores. As such, the higher clock for clock performance increase of the Pentium G850 will benefit you more. Hell, even with games that scale well with quad-cores, the Pentium G850 would still outperform the A8-3850 in games In addition, the HD 6670 outperforms the HD 6550D that's part of that A8-3850.

Thanks for that. As far as general use goes, would the G850 still make the most sense? The reason why I say that is because I don't really think he plans on upgrading for a while. Would the A8-3850 outperform it in general use? Also, can't the APU pretty much tear through anything @ 1024*768?

 

[colinstu]

Thanks for that. As far as general use goes, would the G850 still make the most sense? The reason why I say that is because I don't really think he plans on upgrading for a while.

What's not upgradable about the H61 platform? A i7-2600 could be stuck in there w/o a problem and is one heck of a strong chip. I'm not sure where Socket FM1 will be going in the future.

Would the A8-3850 outperform it in general use?

Performance is around the same and the two chips probably trade blows depending on the task at hand.

Also, can't the APU pretty much tear through anything @ 1024*768?

That APU doesn't tear through "everything" at that resolution. Plus, for the $400 build price you can be getting an even stronger discrete GPU.

I don't know why you'd want to peg yourself back in GPU power and possibly CPU power. Go with Danny Bui's build.

I've used the non-elite ($10 cheaper) version of his suggested case in a friend's build and it's real awesome for the money. Newegg had it for $32 shipped ($40 - $8 w/ code, free shipping) a few days ago, but that deal was probably gone. Only difference is you get one less 120mm fan and have two USB2 front ports instead of 1 USB2 and 1 USB3.

Have fun building!

 

[Aaron11]

What's not upgradable about the H61 platform? A i7-2600 could be stuck in there w/o a problem and is one heck of a strong chip. I'm not sure where Socket FM1 will be going in the future.



Performance is around the same and the two chips probably trade blows depending on the task at hand.



That APU doesn't tear through "everything" at that resolution. Plus, for the $400 build price you can be getting an even stronger discrete GPU.

I don't know why you'd want to peg yourself back in GPU power and possibly CPU power. Go with Danny Bui's build.

I've used the non-elite ($10 cheaper) version of his suggested case in a friend's build and it's real awesome for the money. Newegg had it for $32 shipped ($40 - $8 w/ code, free shipping) a few days ago, but that deal was probably gone. Only difference is you get one less 120mm fan and have two USB2 front ports instead of 1 USB2 and 1 USB3.

Have fun building!

K thanks. I think I will look at messing with Danny
s build. I was thinking of putting one together like his on Amazon except with a b75 mobo that has Sata 3 and USB 3.0 and 8GB of ram. It turned out to be $423 with tax and shipping. I will post it later if u want to see it. I'm in a hurry right now

 

[E4g1e]

What's not upgradable about the H61 platform? A i7-2600 could be stuck in there w/o a problem and is one heck of a strong chip.

The H61 chipset has its limitations:

1) It can only address four lines of memory - total. This limits the maximum total number of double-ranked DIMMs to only two maximum. Higher-end chipsets can address up to eight lines of memory, and thus can support up to four DIMMs.

2) It requires a third-party controller (either onboard or via an add-in card) just to add SATA 6.0 Gbps support (as the H61's native SATA controller is limited to SATA 3.0 Gbps).

3) Only four SATA devices total are natively supported by the H61 chipset. Higher-end chipsets can support up to six SATA devices natively.

4) The H61 chipset does not officially support even AHCI, and does not support RAID at all. Although the BIOSes of many H61 motherboards have an AHCI mode, the official lack of AHCI support makes that chipset less suitable for use with an SSD.

5) Finally, like all other 6-series chipsets, the H61 requires a third-party controller to add USB 3.0 capability.

 

[colinstu]

The H61 chipset has its limitations:

1) It can only address four lines of memory - total. This limits the maximum total number of double-ranked DIMMs to only two maximum. Higher-end chipsets can address up to eight lines of memory, and thus can support up to four DIMMs.

This isn't a highend budget though. It's a $400 budget. With $40-60 of that going to a mobo. Quad channel isn't going to be seen until the $200 price range. On the same token, X79 doesn't appear to be going much further if Haswell won't be able to work on it. Seriously, currently only 3 chips for this chipset and possibly 3 more w/ IB-E shrinks. The i7-3820 is comparable to the speed to the 2600, and quad channel isn't even going to help a gaming build anyways. I don't see where you're going with this "limitations" thing right now, they're just NOT applicable in this case. Consumer AMD chipsets don't even support more than 2 memory channels either.

2) It requires a third-party controller (either onboard or via an add-in card) just to add SATA 6.0 Gbps support (as the H61's native SATA controller is limited to SATA 3.0 Gbps).

He won't be using an SSD yet, so this problem is less-so. And even then, SATA 3Gbps is still pretty strong for an SSD. But yeah AMD has some cheap mobo options with SATA 6G, but B75 Intel mobos present some fairly cheap options too. The OP is even saying he's looking into B75 mobos in order to get this feature.

3) Only four SATA devices total are natively supported by the H61 chipset. Higher-end chipsets can support up to six SATA devices natively.

Yeah no crap, higher-end chipsets also cost more money. It's a $400 budget, not $600, not $800. The OP currently only has two SATA devices planned to be plugged into this, with probably a SSD and/or larger storage drive in the future. 4 ports is workable, especially for the price point like already mentioned. If he's REALLY that hard up for ports, can always get PCIe cards for that.

4) The H61 chipset does not officially support even AHCI, and does not support RAID at all. Although the BIOSes of many H61 motherboards have an AHCI mode, the official lack of AHCI support makes that chipset less suitable for use with an SSD.

I didn't know about this, but if most BIOSes have the AHCI option... less of a thing to worry about. I'm not sure about B75 mobos and this feature, but again it's only important if he has an SSD (so he can use the TRIM command).

5) Finally, like all other 6-series chipsets, the H61 requires a third-party controller to add USB 3.0 capability.

Yep. Third party controllers DO work though, and were the only option at the time since Intel didn't have it built-in. Plus, he'd need USB 3.0 compliant external drives / devices / thumb drives to actually use the extra speed of this standard. With a $400 budget, having such things is probably a lower priority. But like the OP said again, he's looking into B75 boards that do have this feature also.

 

[Aaron11]

Here's something I came up with after messing with Danny's build.
$85.24 Pentium G850
$64.34 Biostar B75MU3+ Mobo
$43.99 Patriot G2 DDR3 1600 8GB
$69.99 Gigabyte 6670 (it has a $20 MIR too, making it 50 IF the MIR goes through anyway)
$64.99 Western Digital WD5000AAKX 500GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$16.99 Asus 24X DVD burner
$43.99 Corsair 430CXV2
$35.99 Gamma Classic Series mid-tower ATX case
Final price after tax and shipping is $425.52. Plus IF the $20 MIR for the GPU went through, that would bring it down to $405.52. What do you guys think of this build?

 

[colinstu]

*Nice lookin mobo.
*Not sure about the ram... I'd stick with Corsair for a few bucks more, but that's just me.
*Rest looks pretty good for the money!

I say go for it!

 

[Aaron11]

*Nice lookin mobo.
*Not sure about the ram... I'd stick with Corsair for a few bucks more, but that's just me.
*Rest looks pretty good for the money!

I say go for it!

thanks for the help. i talked to the guy who wants it and says that he wouldnt mind paying five bucks for the corsair vengeance kit

 

[colinstu]

thanks for the help. i talked to the guy who wants it and says that he wouldnt mind paying five bucks for the corsair vengeance kit

Even better! Have fun you two.

 

[Dangman]

$43.99 Patriot G2 DDR3 1600 8GB

Definitely do not go with this RAM since its rated at 1.65V which means that it has a high chance of killing the CPU. You want RAM rated at 1.5V. I recommend this similar priced set if you really need 8GB of RAM:
$42 - Corsair CMV8GX3M2A1333C9 2 x 4GB DDR3 1333 RAM

$43.99 Corsair 430CXV2

While a good PSU, I still would recommend the Earthwatts EA380. Despite having more wattage, that Corsair CX430 only has 28A on the +12V rail, 1A more than the EA380 380W. The EA380D is of slightly higher quality and has better efficiency. As such, since you're only losing 1A on the +12V rail, I'd recommend the Antec EA380.

$35.99 Gamma Classic Series mid-tower ATX case

Not a fan of this case since I think it's still tad overpriced. The NZXT Source 210 Elite case is a better choice than the Gigabyte due to the extra 140mm fan, slightly better cable management, slightly more space, and a single front panel USB 3.0 port (your motherboard choice has front panel USB 3.0 BTW). Also when you do get the Source 210 Elite, move the front fan to the side of the case as it'll provide significantly better GPU/CPU cooling that way. As such, the Source 210 Elite is well worth the extra $14 IMO.

thanks for the help. i talked to the guy who wants it and says that he wouldnt mind paying five bucks for the corsair vengeance kit

Which Corsair Vengence set?

 

[Aaron11]

I was looking for 1.5v kits. I can't believe I overlooked that. Anyway, we were looking into this Corsair Vengeance kit.
www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B004CRSM4I/r...ronics&keywords=8g ram&qid=1341693575&sr=1-14
As for the Corsair, i figured the extra 50 watts would be better if he ever decides to upgrade th gpu. Like you said, they're both quality PSUs anyway.
I will see if he is interested in putting out an extra $14 for the other case. I think he liked the look of that case though. It looked decent for the price. There doesn't seem to be many decent cases under $40

 

[Dangman]

I was looking for 1.5v kits. I can't believe I overlooked that. Anyway, we were looking into this Corsair Vengeance kit.
www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B004CRSM4I/r...ronics&keywords=8g ram&qid=1341693575&sr=1-14

Just as long as you don't plan on putting 3rd party HSF, that RAM will be fine. Otherwise, try to find more low-profile RAM as the heatsink on that RAM will interfere with most decent 3rd party HSF.

As for the Corsair, i figured the extra 50 watts would be better if he ever decides to upgrade th gpu. Like you said, they're both quality PSUs anyway.

Like I said, only a 1A difference on the 12V. So basically that Corsair only has an extra 12W of usable power over that Earthwatts since most PC parts these days draw from the +12V rail. The rest of that 50W power increase is really only usuable you're using really old PC parts or 20+ hard drives.

I will see if he is interested in putting out an extra $14 for the other case. I think he liked the look of that case though. It looked decent for the price. There doesn't seem to be many decent cases under $40

There really aren't any good cases for under $40 for obvious reasonis. It's at the $50 mark where you start seeing decent cases.

 

[Aaron11]

Like I said, only a 1A difference on the 12V. So basically that Corsair only has an extra 12W of usable power over that Earthwatts since most PC parts these days draw from the +12V rail. The rest of that 50W power increase is really only usuable you're using really old PC parts or 20+ hard drives.

OK, thanks. That's good to know. I guess it's not the same quality as the 400CX that preceded it. I was looking at forums and they said just to get which ever is cheaper. Amazon prices seem to fluctuate a lot, and I'm not sure when exactly he's going to shell out the money to buy it. The HD already went up from $64.99 to $69.99. Oh well. I guess the only thing I really like about the 430CX is that it has more sleeved cables than the EA380D.

 

[mitcity22]

you really need to shop used on the forums with a budget like that, especially if you don't want to upgrade for awhile.

 

[lombasto]

you really need to shop used on the forums with a budget like that, especially if you don't want to upgrade for awhile.

Yep