A $500 kill your Xbone build

Community Blog
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So you're a console gamer and you have seen the next gen consoles, but aren't that impressed by them. Well welcome to the world of PC gaming the first thing you'll need is a PC to run the games. So instead of buy the Xbone you now have $500 here's what to buy.

First off we have the CPU. For this build i went with a AMD Athlon II X4 750K Quad-Core Processor.

      I went with that because it's overclock able, it's cheap, and it's GOOD.

Secondly is the motherboard. The motherboard i chose is Asus A55BM-E Micro ATX FM2+. 

      Yes it is a M-ATX but this makes it cheaper and you can replace it whenever you feel like.

Ok so now for the GPU (video card). I picked this video card because at this price you'll be hard pressed to find something that beats it. So i chose the EVGA GeForce GTX 660.

      This card is just wonderful, at about $160 this card will eat a GTX 650 TI for breakfast, lunch, and dinner on the same day.

Next up is the RAM (memory). This one i went with the cheapest 8GB's of RAM I could find. So i found the A-Data XPG V1.0 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600.

      This RAM is cheap (as of today's prices) and is from a well known company making it a good buy.

Now for the thing to put your games on. Since the Xbone has a 500GB hard drive i felt the need to 1UP it, so I did for the hard drive i found a Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM

      The hard drive that i found is about $50 so for that price it would have been hard to say no.

OK so now for the thing that your going to cram this thing into. I picked out the Cooler Master Elite 350 ATX Mid Tower Case w/500W Power Supply.

      This case come with a 500 watt power supply and is only $50 so it allows us to get a better GPU

The final price of this build comes out to $501.19 USD and that make this build great but at the same time easy on your wallet, so a win win for all of us.

WAIT!!!!!! what about Windows???

      Well we don't need windows to play games any more thanks to Valves new OS. This OS is made for gaming and that's what this PC is make to do.

 

Links below.

Parts 

Steam OS

Thanks for reading guys and feel free to leave ideas and thoughts in the comments below.

 

 

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I think you're pretty close to what I would do. Here are some changes for your consideration:

Grab the 760k. It is a higher binned, more "efficient" version of the 750k, and only costs a few cents extra.

Grab an A75 motherboard. This will have 6GB sata (for SSDs) and USB3.0

You only need 4GB of RAM for gaming. I have never seen a game use more than that. You can add the second stick of 4GB later. This will help with cashflow, allowing you to allocate to a faster GPU.

Personally, I think AMD GPUs offer more bang for buck at each and every price. You should be able to pick up a 7870, 270, or 270x, which is much closer to the 660ti's performance. Often beating the 660ti, too.

 

When console gamers complain about Windows OS, I often state that the cost of the OS is not much more than the annual online subscription fee. A recurring cost, I might add. So ultimately, PC gaming is cheaper.

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A dam i for got about the 760k. I was trying to cut costs in all areas to get a higher end GPU then i forgot to put the 760k back in. And for the AMD GPU I do agree that in some things they can be better (ie bitcoin mining) they are often sold out and run hotter (and they use more power doing so). And for 8GB or ram it's much better to have 8GB instead of 4 because of background things like chrome or firefox (they love ram) So much so I'm using 4 out of my 8 right now just from chrome and that stuff. 

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I'm sick of editing for when i want to add something so NEW COMMENT!! The reason i put the Steam OS is because its for gaming 100% gaming no windows BS (and free XP)

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SteamOS doesn't support all available games. There's a lot of work to come. I'm sure people can work out how to pirate Windows anyway. I really would recommend an A75 motherboard, or higher. Should only cost $5-10 extra. Drop one of the 4gb sticks if you want to keep the base total close to $500

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No it's doesnt support "all" games but it will be growing fast and getting to be part of the start group seems like something worth saving $100 for. And never will i condone or support piracy in any way shape and/or form. And a single 4GB stick will do much worse than 2x2gb sticks of ram and still cost about $50. And for USB 3.0 nothing really main stream supports it yet meaning its still fairly pointless for a budget build.

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I agree and disagree. Many people need the vast number of functions offered by Windows. And yes, I own every copy of Windows on each of my systems.

Grabbing a 4gb stick with the intention of upgrading to 8gb at a later time is a much better consideration when you're on a budget. Therefore, allowing you to use dual channel at a later time. Saving money for more important things.

A75 will allow you to use 6gb sata, which you absolutely need for an SSD. While an SSD might cost too much to be considered for a budget build. It's only right that someone gets the option to add one later. The price of a decent 120GB is half the price they could be found at several months ago. Pairing an SSD with a half decent FM2 build isn't as absurd as it sounds.

I'll make no "strong" argument for USB3, as I recognise that people don't use it. But a computer should last you a good number of years, and USB3 will certainly become mainstream. Everything is moving fast, and you do recognise this.

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Everything in this build is made to be upgrade able, so if some one feels the need to get an SSD they can get a A75 motherboard or if someone needs USB3 for a HDD then those are things that they can get that motherboard for. But this build is 100% budget and isn't thinking about any high end parts later on, this is just a guide line not 100% what you MUST get.

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Oh wow. We have a rude one here.

This is a budget build, but you've still put 8GB of RAM in. Which I fail to see why that would be necessary in a "budget" build is what you MUST get.

If you can't take ideas and criticism, then don't put your arse up for a kicking LOL

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I think I'm doing something very wrong then if you can do that.

http://imgur.com/cPcDrCW

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I'm sorry if i came off as rude not my intent so, sorry about that. I'm just simply stating that people can adapt this as they see fit. So if they feel like they don't need 8GB of ram they can change that. Thats what makes PC's so great.

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Ok. Well I owe you an apology too. I am sorry, and I could definitely sense you getting wound up. But I tried to offer my thoughts without being too argumentative.

While your CPU usage above happens to be low, and the RAM usage is high in the piture above. I would assume that is on the desktop? The OS does chew quite a bit of RAM, but that falls away when you perform other tasks. Quite an easy test for you to do, if you just take some RAM out of your current build and boot up a game, it is enough. But obviously 2x4GB is highly preferable.

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I have had only 4gb of ram in this PC (not really this one it was an I3 not the 8320) but it was very annoying having to close my browser windows to clear ram so thats why i got an extra 4gb stick and it was quite a bit slower.

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I put the 8gb and the GTX 660 and those things in because i have either used them my self (the ram and GTX 660) or because I trust the brand in making a good part. 

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For an extra $10 i think this is a better option.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2ySpy

These are basically the parts Berserker was talking about but i changed out the case and psu combo for a decent case and decent psu that might not blow up the second you look at it. 

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the 760k arnt binned higher. 

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why so much power you dont need that much power to fuel the pc unless you have upgrading in mind also for those parts i think a bitphinex prdigey would be fine 

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Only game I can think of that really stresses out your ram is BF4

 

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http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2A3vT

$530

760k

8gb ddr3

7870

1tb hdd

700w psu

source 210

gigabyte a75 mobo 

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I would switch out the case and get the PSU seperately. I don't trust PSUs you get with a case.