Building Another Budget Gaming PC...

[MilesOhToole]

...and I hope I don't embarrass myself as much as I did last time. 

A few years ago, with the great help of a bunch of people here, I built a quality i5 Sandy Bridge based PC that still rocks today.

Now, my brother wants me to build him a budget gaming PC and here's what I've got, so far:

AOC 27" monitor

Antec One case

Gigabyte H77 motherboard

i5 3570 CPU

Corsair Vengeance 8GB RAM

Radeon R7 260X GPU

Seagate Barracuda 2TB HDD

LG 24X DVD burner

Corsair 600W PSU

My brother has about a $1200 budget and this is what I've thrown together, so far.  One thing I am aware of is that the motherboard supports Crossfire but the video card doesn't appear to be Crossfire ready.  Is that a problem? 

Everyone feel free to critique, streamline or tell me to completely toss everything out and start completely over.

Thanks for the help.

[Target]

that's similar to what I've got (Z77 mobo, 16GB RAM, ATI 7870 video card, 256MB SSD) and it cost me close to 1400 sans display and case so I'd be surprised if you couldn't do better for the money.

that said, and FWIW, it's coming up 2 years old and it still does everything I want (though I'm nowhere near the bleeding edge game wise)

never quite understood the whole crossfire thing though.  Unless you've got money to burn the numbers just don't add up, especially for a 'budget' rig

[40hz]

I think your CPU spec is especially spot on. The i5 3570 is a great chip for the money. In fact, it's a great chip period. 

[tomos]

Antec One case

I'm always curious about cases - was there a reason you chose this one (used before, or was it just the reviews/price)?

[wraith808]

I just built one, if you want to compare...

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/wraith808/saved/VL648d

I put that into an antec 900 case with a corsair hx620 PSU.

The builds actually look pretty similar

I've just been doing the multi-drive thing as of late, especially for gaming.

As far as the 27", if he's doing anything up close on his desktop, you might want to check the 27". In my experience, it was just too much too close.

[mouser]

Looks pretty darn nice to me.  As for the crossfire, i wouldn't give it a second thought.
Does he need keyboard, mouse, printer, speakers?

[wraith808]

If you're really concerned about crossfire:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=8869861&csid=_61&rrpl=item_page.content1&rrstr=ClickCP&rrindex=1

But I wouldn't worry about it.  At one time, I was concerned... but I never ended up getting the second video card... and by the time I upgraded, the cards were always old and better served by just getting a better card.  And there are problems with crossfire support being in games, and concerns over the increased load of the additional card.  There are upsides, but I haven't missed it.

Not sure on the size of that Antec One case, but with my video card, there was barely clearance in my Antec 900 case, and I had to remove the HDD cage fan to get mine to fit.  Another thing to keep in mind.

[MilesOhToole]

I think your CPU spec is especially spot on. The i5 3570 is a great chip for the money. In fact, it's a great chip period. 

That's great to hear.  Thanks!

I'm always curious about cases - was there a reason you chose this one (used before, or was it just the reviews/price)?

When I built my PC, Carol suggested I use the Antec 300, which has turned out to be my all-time favorite case for the price.  I was able to find the One on sale for $50 so I opted for it.

Looks pretty darn nice to me.  As for the crossfire, i wouldn't give it a second thought.
Does he need keyboard, mouse, printer, speakers?

Hey mouser!  Yes, he will still need a keyboard and mouse and speakers.  I'm thinking of one of those wireless keyboard/mice combo's if anybody can let me know if they're worth it or not.  We don't want to spend hundreds on a fancy gaming keyboard and mouse.

If you're really concerned about crossfire:
http://www.tigerdirect.co...str=ClickCP&rrindex=1

But I wouldn't worry about it.  At one time, I was concerned... but I never ended up getting the second video card... and by the time I upgraded, the cards were always old and better served by just getting a better card.  And there are problems with crossfire support being in games, and concerns over the increased load of the additional card.  There are upsides, but I haven't missed it.

Not sure on the size of that Antec One case, but with my video card, there was barely clearance in my Antec 900 case, and I had to remove the HDD cage fan to get mine to fit.  Another thing to keep in mind.

You know, after reading your post, I started considering just buying 2 of the same GPU as yours and Crossfire them.  However, I'd have to then spend more on a 1000+ watt PSU and I don't really want to have any overheating problems or trouble with software not wanting to work right with Crossfire, so I think I'll just stick with what I've got.  I'm by brother's tech-support and I sure don't want to make my job any harder.    And I can understand what you mean about upgrading later.  I'm in the same position with the PC I built for myself--my single GPU is doing just fine for me and the system just turned 2-years-old in April.

[mouser]

There's nothing really "budget" about your build, except to the extent that it doesn't include an SSD -- that's the only thing that many non-budget pcs are shipping with these days.  It's definitely not needed, but the speed improvement would be noticed.  If you got one, you'd want to get one in ADDITION to your 2tb hard drive, not instead of.  Might be something worth considering.  You could get a 128gb SSD for under $100, and just put the OS files on it -- making sure to install programs on the 2tb drive.  Again, not needed, but would be noticed.

As for keyboard and mouse, I'm a bit fan of wireless mice and I wouldn't let any of the corded mouse lovers on this forum convince you to buy a corded mouse  

Corded keyboard and cordless mouse (with a long-living and easy to change battery) is the way i would go.  Just make sure they have good reviews and you'll be fine.

[40hz]

Corded keyboard and cordless mouse (with a long-living and easy to change battery) is the way i would go.

+1 x 100.

[MilesOhToole]

There's nothing really "budget" about your build, except to the extent that it doesn't include an SSD -- that's the only thing that many non-budget pcs are shipping with these days.  It's definitely not needed, but the speed improvement would be noticed.  If you got one, you'd want to get one in ADDITION to your 2tb hard drive, not instead of.  Might be something worth considering.

As for keyboard and mouse, I'm a bit fan of wireless mice and I wouldn't let any of the corded mouse lovers on this forum convince you to buy a corded mouse 

Corded keyboard and cordless mouse (with a long-living and easy to change battery) is the way i would go.  Just make sure they have good reviews and you'll be fine.

Yeah, I didn't mention that he had already bought a SSD a while back, in anticipation for the build, so it'll be the boot drive and the HDD will be there for general storage.

A corded keyboard and cordless mouse setup makes sense.  Thanks, mouser!

[mouser]

Well then, you can stop calling this a "budget" build -- it's a proper gaming rig.

[MilesOhToole]

Well then, you can stop calling this a "budget" build -- it's a proper gaming rig.

You see?  I knew I'd end up embarrassing myself.

[wraith808]

Well then, you can stop calling this a "budget" build -- it's a proper gaming rig.

I think the budget part comes in the video card realm.

[mouser]

I suppose it would be nice to spend a little more of the budget on the video card..

[wraith808]

I suppose it would be nice to spend a little more of the budget on the video card..

From what I've found, there are three price points to look at: the lower $100s are definitely bargain.  You get into a standard gaming PC that can handle most things at high frame rates at $200 (which is my usual price point).  And over that, you're looking at $400+.  I spent that once, and while it was nice, I didn't think that the price for performance was worth it.  Sometimes things dip into other price points... but this is in general where the tiers stand from my experience.

[mouser]

Yeah, if you could add another $100 to the budget, and get yourself a $200-$250 graphics card, you'd probably notice the difference.  Especially since you plan to be gaming with this..

[Carol Haynes]

When I built my PC, Carol suggested I use the Antec 300, which has turned out to be my all-time favorite case for the price.  I was able to find the One on sale for $50 so I opted for it.

Glad you liked it ;-)

My last build used one of these and I am a convert - huge fans, huge fun and really flexible case for the price and cracking build quality (and it comes with a 3.5 inch cradle and internal 2.5 inch cradles for SSDs).

http://gaming.coolermaster.com/en/products/cases/enforcer/

Built a couple of machines with these for customers too and they were pleased.