Need help building a rig for $600

I am new to PC gaming and I need a new computer anyway. I am coming into some money and will have $600 max to spend next week. I am in desperate need of help as I have no idea what a good anything is when it comes to building a PC. I have asked around and this is one build that was suggested.

CPU: amd phenom ii x6 955 - $137

Motherboard: Biostar A780L3G - $50

Graphics card: Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 6850 - $150

RAM: G Skill Ripjaws 2x4GB DDR3 - $51

Tower: Half 912 - $50

All in all that has me at $438 and I still need a power supply, a hard drive and Windows 7 which means I'm likely to go over my budget with that build. Perhaps I should drop the RAM down to 4-6GB? I already have a DVD drive. Will I need a sound card, as well? Or will the CPU or something give me sound?

So if that is a good build, what power supply and hard drive (I have a 1.5TB external so I just need something cheap) would you all recommend?

I am in desperate need of help here. I have been stressing out trying to get a build that's good and in my price range and it's to the point where I'm ready to give up to be honest. I'm in over my head here. lol.

Thanks.

Wrong forum, but anyway...

Antec 600w power supply

http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Certified-Compatible-Platforms-CMPSU-600CXV2/dp/B004W2T2UQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1327981186&sr=8-1

Normal harddrive prices are stupid at the moment so you're probably better off with a 60gb SSD drive and use that external for storing games etc..

Oh, sorry. I saw a thread asking about a graphics card so I thought I could ask here.

That PSU is definitely in my price range. Is it a good product? And is the build I posted a good build or would you recommend something else?

What are some good brands for HDDs? I looked at seagate but only saw 250GB HDDs and up.

ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM

Rosewill CHALLENGER Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case, comes with Three Fans-1x Front Blue LED 120mm Fan, 1x Top 140mm ...

HITACHI HDS721050CLA362 (0F10381) 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

BIOSTAR A880G+ AM3 AMD 880G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

SAPPHIRE 100315L Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

*10% off ends today

Antec EarthWatts Green EA-380D Green 380W Continuous power ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power ...

Kingston 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory Model KVR1333D3N9/4G

AMD Phenom II X4 960T Zosma 3.0GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor HD96ZTWFGRBOX

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - OEM

AMD Phenom II X4 960T Processor, Black Edition, 3.0 4 Socket AM3 - HD96ZTWFGRBOX

Total: $650, cheapest you can get without getting into crappy territory

^ Thanks for the very detailed response. I appreciate the time you put into that post. A few questions.

The 2 Phenom's, are they both processors? Do I need both or were you just posting different options?

So going with your advice on the build, I can come to this (excluding windows for a moment)

AMD Phenom II X4 960T Zosma 3.0GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor - $125

Motherboard: Biostar A780L3G - $50

Graphics card: Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 6850 - $150

RAM: Kingston 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 - $21

Tower: Rosewill CHALLENGER Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower - $55

PSU: Antec EarthWatts Green EA-380D - $45

HITACHI HDS721050CLA362 (0F10381) 500GB - $80

Total: $526

Now, thing is I have a 1.5TB external so I don't need a 500GB hard drive. I need something small and cheap and I have a DVD drive already (and will mostly buy digital anyway). The previous build I had used a Phenom II x6 CPU and 8GB of RAM. So taking the DVD drive out of the equation and using a smaller harddrive, should I upgrade those 2 components to what I had previously?

You don't need 8GB of ram, 4GB is fine

Internal HDD is better, you want 7200rpm with SATA2 interface, it's faster than anything external

Don't go overboard on the processor, quad core is more than enough.

Splurge on power supply, bigger is better.

Buy the video card last, every bit of budget you have left, get the best you can afford.

^ Thanks for the very detailed response. I appreciate the time you put into that post. A few questions.

The 2 Phenom's, are they both processors? Do I need both or were you just posting different options?

So going with your advice on the build, I can come to this (excluding windows for a moment)

AMD Phenom II X4 960T Zosma 3.0GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor - $125

Motherboard: Biostar A780L3G - $50

Graphics card: Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 6850 - $150

RAM: Kingston 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 - $21

Tower: Rosewill CHALLENGER Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower - $55

PSU: Antec EarthWatts Green EA-380D - $45

HITACHI HDS721050CLA362 (0F10381) 500GB - $80

Total: $526

Now, thing is I have a 1.5TB external so I don't need a 500GB hard drive. I need something small and cheap and I have a DVD drive already (and will mostly buy digital anyway). The previous build I had used a Phenom II x6 CPU and 8GB of RAM. So taking the DVD drive out of the equation and using a smaller harddrive, should I upgrade those 2 components to what I had previously?

LandfillAO

1. What you do with your HDD is up to you; I don't know what kind of files/programs you're going to use.

2. My motherboard is better.

3. If you do have some money left and you're not jumping on that $135 6850 deal:

-Get aSapphire6870 for $170.

-Upgrade the PSU to a Seasonic 620W.

-Also get the Antec 300 Illusion.

4. What you do with the CPU is up to you; there's not much difference between the two yet the same can be said for the price. Just keep in mind my 960Thas a high chance of beingunlocked into six cores.

OK, I'll hang onto the HDD. so is this a good final build? I would add a bigger PSU and the case but the cheaper I can get this thing, the better. Still have to pay shipping for all this stuff, too. Speaking of which, Newegg is a reliable site, right?

Motherboard: BIOSTAR A880G+ AM3 AMD 880G HDMI Micro ATX AMD - $60

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 960T Zosma 3.0GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor - $125

GPU: Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 6850 - $150

RAM: Kingston 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 - $21

Tower: Rosewill CHALLENGER Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower - $55

PSU: Antec EarthWatts Green EA-380D - $45

HITACHI HDS721050CLA362 (0F10381) 500GB - $80

Total = $536

That is a reasonable price for my budget. Anything more may be overkill. And how well will that build run some of the more demanding games such as Crysis, BF3 and The Witcher 2?

That build is basically mine. I run Crysis 2 / Crysis with everything maxed @ 1080p (no AA) at like 32 fps. I don't have BF3 but you should get around the same performance. The Witcher 2 you can run everything maxed (uber sampling off of course) with 40 fps.

By the way, Amazon sells the 960T for $10 less.

That build is basically mine. I run Crysis 2 / Crysis with everything maxed @ 1080p (no AA) at like 32 fps. I don't have BF3 but you should get around the same performance. The Witcher 2 you can run everything maxed (uber sampling off of course) with 40 fps.

By the way, Amazon sells the 960T for $10 less.

kaitanuvax

Awesome. Thanks for the response. 2 more questions if you don't mind.

Are you running Crysis 2/The Witcher 2 in DX11? And is it possible to run the RealLife Crysis mod with this set up?

The Witcher 2 is does not support DX11

Yes I am running Crysis 2 at DX11

I don't know about mods but they decrease your fps

Didn't know TW2 didn't have DX11. I'm under the impression that using mods and messing with the settings (lowering the resolution etc) will help the framerate. Do you know if that's the case?

And thanks for the replies. Helps out a lot.

You should check out http://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc if you want some very in-depth help. I'm going to assume you're unfamiliar with Reddit. You will unfortunately need a Reddit acount, but signing up for the site is very simple and you don't even have to confirm your email address. Basically you can visit the link http://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc and scroll down until you see the "Submit a link" button(if you can't find it, try ctrl + f "Submit a link" and it will show you.) Then you would click on the tab to submit a text post, and you can share your PC information, submit your thread, and wait for users to respond. /r/buildapc is a very active community, one which I used to find out the best parts for my budget(which, like yours, was around the $600 dollar area.) Also, I highly reccomend this website, http://pcpartpicker.com/ where you can type in the part you're looking for and it will show you where the lowest price for the part you're looking for is available. I hope this helps!atfaris

Give me an idea of how good your community is. What did your $600 PC consist of?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115078

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150521

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371030

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139046

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138332

and a case of your choice. Just a little over 600.