Building a PC

[std1997]

Hey everyone,

So after recently doing numerous odds and ends repair jobs for different people, I've been able to get around $500 and I'm hoping to be able to putting it towards a newer PC due to my laptop slowly deteriorating in quality. The new PC I'm dreaming of would be a desktop instead of a laptop mainly because I'm would like a case I can buy that will allow me somewhat easy access to the components to allow me to upgrade components whenever I can.

The real purpose though of this computer would be more towards gaming, for example Witcher 2, Skyrim, and others and so I was hoping with the help of anyone who wishes to give some advice or any type of help to find something that would work for me.

Thanks guys for any help or advice you can give.

 

[Mooglie]

Wimali

 

[Lee_scar]

I know you said 500$ but if you can squeeze just a litttttle more you can build these.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/48KrXL 550
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/FkJcP6 improved above for a little more

Aside from that here is one that is actually around $400 given parts are to taste.

Intel options

• Intel Pentium G3258 for only: $69
• Intel Core i3-4130 (not much faster than the Pentium G3258 in most games): $119
• Motherboard - ASUS H81:$55

AMD FM2

• AMD Athlon 760K: $89
• Gigabyte GA-F2A58M-HD2: $65

AMD FX

• AMD Fx-4200 Quad-core Zambezi Processor 3.3Ghz $60
• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3: $63

Optional cooling

• Average - Enermax ETS-N30-HE: 24
• Better: Thermalright True Spirit 120: 33

The rest of the rig

• ADATA RAM: 100
• Zotac Nvidia GeForce GTX 750 ti: 142
• Western Digital 320 GB HDD: 25
• Fractal Design Core 1100 Case: 40
• EVGA 500W 80+ PSU: 50

Keep in mind prices fluctuate, rebates and shopping around helps.
Also keep in mind these builds are all without monitors, keyboards and mice!!

 

[Iguana]

i saw you mentioned witcher 2, but with $500 you probably won't be able to run witcher 3

 

[Velzerat]

Keep in mind monitors aren't cheap, if you want a good one. This is the cheapest 1080p monitor on pcpartpicker, and it's $100:
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/acer-monitor-umwg6aab01
Specifications

SCREEN SIZE
21.5"

RECOMMENDED RESOLUTION
1920 x 1080

WIDESCREEN
Yes

ASPECT RATIO
16:9

DISPLAY COLORS
16700000

BRIGHTNESS
200 cd/m²

CONTRAST RATIO
ACM 100,000,000:1 (600:1)

RESPONSE TIME
5 ms

REFRESH RATE
60Hz

IPS
No

LED
Yes

BUILT-IN SPEAKERS
No

DVI
1

VGA
1

 

[std1997]

Keep in mind monitors aren't cheap, if you want a good one. This is the cheapest 1080p monitor on pcpartpicker, and it's $100:
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/acer-monitor-umwg6aab01
Specifications

SCREEN SIZE
21.5"

RECOMMENDED RESOLUTION
1920 x 1080

WIDESCREEN
Yes

ASPECT RATIO
16:9

DISPLAY COLORS
16700000

BRIGHTNESS
200 cd/m²

CONTRAST RATIO
ACM 100,000,000:1 (600:1)

RESPONSE TIME
5 ms

REFRESH RATE
60Hz

IPS
No

LED
Yes

BUILT-IN SPEAKERS
No

DVI
1

VGA
1

I currently have a TV that I was planning on using in place of a monitor until such a time that I was able to purchase one unless there's a problem with using a TV as a monitor then I'll take some out of my budget for a monitor.

Also keep in mind these builds are all without monitors, keyboards and mice!!

I have a wireless keyboard and mouse that I plan on using until I can get a Razer or something else.

I also wanted to thank you guys for the current suggestions. It's highly appreciated also since many of you mentioned a higher raise in budget could provide more for the PC then I think I can pull another $200 out of savings if that could improve the rig at all. So with this new budget of around $700-800 in sight possibly. What would I be able to buy? I apologize for changing the budget so suddenly after you guys did all that but I want to be able to get the maximum bang for my buck that I can.

Thanks once again guys.

 

[Iguana]

if you guys are linking him monitors for gaming, why are you linking 5ms response time instead of 1ms????????

 

[Marlem]

if you guys are linking him monitors for gaming, why are you linking 5ms response time instead of 1ms????????

because prices.

Anywho, here's what I'd pick out with an 800$ budget

Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor (65)
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (30)
ASRock Z97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (90)
G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (65)
Western Digital Caviar Blue 750GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (60)
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB WINDFORCE Video Card (120)
Corsair 300R ATX Mid Tower Case (70)
EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (85)
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (90)
Acer G226HQLBbd 60Hz 21.5" Monitor (100)

(Note there are only approximate prices)

 

[Lee_scar]

Oh Right I forgot to mention if your willing to short yourself in one place or another you can get an SSD disc drive instead of a HDD
HDD is the market standard and you will find cheep ones up to 1tb
While SSD is expensive but read/write times are waaay faster.

Edit: Another thing too is that if your really wanting to like shop for parts from an actual store, know what you want before going in, do your research if you really want that build. Wouldn't want to fall victim to an up-sale.
"Oh well for only 20$ more I can give you this gpu which is newer but I wont tell you its prone to overheating so you have to buy another cooling device for more money"

Know the ups and downs of the parts, which is a bit of work, but is mostly opinion and situational based.

 

[heartgamingmufin]

I guess OverheatedLaptop is going away :s

 

[Iguana]

at your current price point, i would 100% recommend you to not invest in a PC yet and build up a bit more cash before buying your parts

there's a lot of new parts coming out in the summer and winter of this year which will lower the prices of the older parts, so saving up a bit more cash before those higher end parts goes lower will enable you to pick up some parts that are more bang for your buck

at this price point it's pretty hard to make a machine that won't be rendered obsolete in a year, so just save up a bit more is what i'd tell you

 

[Rune]

Oh Right I forgot to mention if your willing to short yourself in one place or another you can get an SSD disc drive instead of a HDD
HDD is the market standard and you will find cheep ones up to 1tb
While SSD is expensive but read/write times are waaay faster.

I would think HDD's are much better for storage as you have more room. Trust me, you wouldn't want a 160gb storage device because its gonna fill up really quickly.

I recommend having a hybrid setup instead. Have a SSD to keep your OS so you can boot up really quickly because SSD's have really fast read times and then use HDD's for storage.

I have also heard of an issue in which SSD's degrade in performance after some time (in heavy use I think)

 

[CaptainCake]

A helpful resource for building a PC is r/buildapc. I suggest reading the sidebar and more specifically The Beginners Guide. Good luck!