Okay, I just turned 16 August 31 and I got some money and I already had a previous $150 saved up. So currently I have at most about $380. So I am planning on buying everything but the graphics card now and then buying the graphics card once I get a job hopefully soon. So here is what I am thinking to get, and there are two different options.
Option 1:
LOGISYS Computer Area 51 CS51WBK Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 480W Power Supply – $35
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive $70
ASRock A55 PRO3 FM1 AMD A55 (Hudson D2) SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard – $75
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL10S-8GBXL – $40(planning on upgrading to 16gb eventually since I do video editing.)
I was thinking about doing this and just using the APU graphics till I can get my better graphics card. Or I was gonna switch the motherboard and CPU and get get
Option 2:
AMD FX-6200 Zambezi 3.8GHz (4.1GHz Turbo) -$150
ASRock 970 PRO3 AM3+ -$75
For a total of $370
I was planning on maybe getting those instead so it might be a little more future proof with the six-core processor that's 3.8ghz. And for graphics I was just gonna use my old HD 5450 512mb till I can afford a better graphics card. I was thinking for the better card I would buy could be the SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition OC 1GB 128-bit with the 1150ghz clock speed. Also I got all of these prices from newegg. Could you please help. And I am sorry if this is in the wrong thread I am new to these forums.
Right now in my opinion APU's are good if you need something that will run games at excellent settings at a low budget. Problem is if you buy a Zambezi or an i3 you'll be stuck with subpar intigrated graphics until you can get an upgrade. I would go the APU route if you can't wait for your budget to increase. I'll let the rest of the forum give their input, see what others have to say before you make any decision.
The APU build will serve you better than the FX series. The performance per core ratio for all of the FX series CPUs are really low, and seeing how youre an entry level PC, the onboard GFX in the CPU will out perform the 5450. If i remember correctly, the A8 has a 6550D GPU. Should serve you well for the time being. After that, start saving up for a $800+ build that you can go a little bit crazier on and sell this one to a friend for a decent deal.
Okay, so I'm thinking of going with the APU and getting a Powercolor 6670 to run in crossfire mode with the 6550D. It pretty much doubles the performance for $65, and I can wait a little bit longer till I can afford the 7770 GHz.
^I'd get the CPU used because the likelihood of it being faulty is extremely low, plus it has a locked multiplier so I doubt very much anyone has overclocked it. You should be able to get it for at least 2/3 of its retail price. If you're using ebay, make sure that returns are accepted and use paypal to cover yourself.
GPU-wise, if you're on a very low budget, I couldn't recommend the 4870 1GB more enough. It still packs a punch sub 1680x1050 resolution and is a capable dx10.1 card. A lot of people have been unloading these en masse on ebay for dx11 cards.
If you're only gaming and want to give up 4 thread counts (useful for rendering), integrated graphics but still want the sandybridge architecture, then look at the Pentium G830. It's clocked a bit lower but should be half the price of the i3 2100
The GPU should be fine
I've noticed you're skimping on your psu, don't. Avoid PSU's that come with cases for decent builds. I'd only recommend using these for an office PC. For a gaming PC, an 80plus PSU is a must. Look into a Corsair CX430 v2 (make sure it's a v2, the original CX430 wasn't an 80plus PSU), it's pretty cheap and will do your build fine,
that should run fairly well, but don't expect to be able to run everything on max settings, but you can upgrade to a 2500k and better gpu later on, otherwise the rest looks good, if you dont already have a PSU, look at getting a seasonic or corsair
also, if you get the chance, a SSD is highly recommended, updraging to a SSD for your primary drive will give a better improvement in daily experience than anything else hardware wise atm