I need advice please

I am planning on building a little gaming pc for my 10 year old son for Christmas.  He will mainly be playing games like Minecraft, and Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare, recording/uploading his gameplay, very light websurfing (Minecraft forums, YouTube tutorials, etc...)  I want it to last a few years, and be able to run the "Mature", or more advanced/demanding games in the future when he gets older. I hope to keep the total price (including Windows 8) at under $600.00 US. We have a few peripherals, so we have no need for monitor/keyboard/mouse or graphics card... and I have 2 extra ASUS R7-260X's already.

I have built 2 PC's before using AMD products, my son and I have become familiar with the brand... so I will continue to use their products.  I have put together a couple parts lists that I am having a hard time choosing between... any advice/suggestions as to which will be a better choice would be appreciated.  Thanks.



http://pcpartpicker....EW/saved/Ykcypg



http://pcpartpicker....EW/saved/2FJBD3          

I would like to keep the case as small/minimal as possible... will the motherboards in the lists I provided be compatible with Micro-ATX cases?

Nice... I had no idea there were those options.  Thanks, that will save me some money and deskspace.  Now... I need to find a cool little case.  I appreciate it.

Dude, you will be the cool dad on the block this year!

of those  ... the 8320

erm... since when are we recommending 8320's on micro-ATX mobos? last I heard, the Asus M5A990X EVO R2.0 was more or less the bare minimum as a recommendation for the AMD 8 cores... some people say the Gigabyte GA-970A-D3P would be the bare minimum because the power-phase supports it... but I, personally, disagree...

I don't recall ever seeing any micro-ATX mobos that were deemed suitable for an AMD 8-core

Not trying to call you out or anything, just saying that IMO it's poor recommendation...