Hey everyone! I need some help with building a PC for my first time. Normally, I'm a console gamer. However, I think that I'm ready to make the switch over to PC gaming. The only problem is, I need it to be $450 or under. I've been a little discouraged, hearing some people tell me it isn't possible to build a gaming PC that cheap, but I still have some hope. I don't plan on using it for heavy gaming, just some lighter stuff, you know, like MMO's, MineCraft, Left for Dead, TF2, and maybe CoD. Other than that, it needs to be able to surf the web, and that's about it. Just so it's easier to understand, I'll post this here:
Budget: $450, and not too much higher.
Where do you live: U.S.A
Is there a retailer you prefer: No.
Do you need or already have peripherals: No.
What will you be using your future computer for: Light gaming and internet surfing
Do you overclock or want to get into overclocking: It would be nice to be able to overclock, but if it can't be fit into the budget, don't worry.
Do you plan on going for custom watercooling now, or in the future: Probably not
OS. Do you need a new one: No, I plan on using Linux until I can get more money for Windows.
Do you plan on Mining BTC either for yourself or Tek Syndicate: No.
What kind of settings do you like or what FPS do you want to play at: Of course I like playing on higher FPS, and I don't mind playing on some lower settings if it means higher FPS
What resolution will you be playing at: 1920 x 1080
What kind of games do you like to play: MMOs, Valve games, MineCraft, CoD.
What specific game will you be playing: WoW, LOL, Minecraft, TF2, L4D2, CoD and some other first person shooters (maybe).
I really hope you guys can help me on this, as I still have some hope! If you need more information from me, just ask, and I'll be happy to provide it. Thank you guys so much in advance!
made a build for you i got it almost exactly at $450 at the end, i put an a10 6800k in there with 16gb of high speed ram for intergrated grapics. The case and power supply were just the right price. I put a small ssd in there as the boot drive. could changed ssd out for a better cpu cooler. http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1xRGs
The integrated graphics are suprisingly good in that CPU, check out Tek Syndicate's recent video on it. I'd be swapping that RAM that mercstealth suggested for 8GB of 2133MHz memory though.
Yes you can do that. For the most part, the APU will be able to play all those games you mentioned in your first post just fine @ 1080p. Overclock the Integrated GPU to 1GHz from 844MHz and you'll see a good performance increase straight away.
The only FPS drop I can see would be in raids for WoW and probably in Cities like Orgrimmar and SW - it may drop to around 20FPS but for the price, it's great.
I do agree, with going to higher speed ram, I still think 16gb in this case would be more benificial then 8gb, what it came down to it, it was either 8gb with a small ssd and a upgraded cpu cooler or 16gb and over all i think the performance would be better with the 16gb I went and changed the build to put a higher speed ram in there http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1xVUt I kept it with in the $450 budget but for around $30 more then this build you could get a good cpu cooler that would allow better overclocking.
I'm not really familiar with overclocking, but I guess it's nice to learn how. Is it hard to do? Also, I'm guessing that this should be able to run MineCraft fine, right?
Good to know. I guess I'll go with this build. I was really hoping to get a dedicated GPU but I guess that isn't possible in my price range. I also realized, will I need a network adapter to connect to wifi?
Another option would be to just go on newegg amd order an excessively long ethernet cable for cheap. Idk if thats an option for you or not but I think itd be quite a bit cheaper than a network card. Just a thought.
It probably won't work, as I will be playing on the second floor of myn house, so a wired connection would be hard. Now that I think about it, could I just use the adapter from my old Xbox 360 and use that?