Need help purchasing new low end gaming PC. About $600 Budget.

[axe714]

Hey everyone, so I'm looking to upgrade from this super crappy laptop of mine that I bought 2-3 years ago.. I play on the lowest possible settings on League of Legends with around 40 fps and ridiculous lag.

So this Christmas I received around $600 in money and am looking to possibly invest in a new low end Gaming PC that can atleast run on medium/high settings.. Looking to play games such as Total War Series (Rome 2, Shogun 2), League of Legends, Left 4 Dead 2, Path of Exile, and possibly World of Warcraft.. games that aren't too demanding out of a computer.

As of right now my choices are as follows:

1. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883227509

2. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883229285

3. http://www.amazon.com/CyberpowerPC-...PDKIKX0DER&s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1388101892&sr=1-1

4. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/desktop...87600050002_categoryid$abcat0501000&cp=1&lp=8 This one is $629, so a bit more expensive than my other 3 choices, but would it worth it?

Which one of these 4 would the best choice considering the games that I listed? All I will most likely be doing on this computer is playing games , watching streams off of Twitch, and surfing the internet. If you have any other suggestions please put your input in. Thank you very much

 

[Swan]

I would recommend building your own PC if you have the knowhow. Package deals are often a waste.

And here's why: See the processor on your "more expensive" one?
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+FX-4200+Quad-Core&id=2118

I'd go for at least an AMD FX-6300 if you wanted something cheap; you can find them for under AU$150 if you look properly and they have a better benchmark and a high value rating (CPUMark Score / Cost):
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+FX-6300+Six-Core

For graphics you can pick up an nVidia GeForce 650Ti 2GB OC edition for about the same price, which would bring you up to roughly AU$300.

For a case and PSU, fact of the matter is you won't be looking at the case half the time so just go for the cheaper ones. You could get a decent case and PSU for about AU$50. So far the total is $350.

Next, you need a motherboard. You need to make sure the CPU fits the socket on the motherboard. The AMD FX-6300 for example is an AM3+ CPU, and you can get an AM3+ motherboard for between $50-100, so on average AU$75, which will get you USB 3, 1xPCI-Express, a couple of PCI slots, 2xDDR3 slots, HDMI out etc. Brings the total to about AU$425

Next, RAM. I'd go with 4GB DDR3 1600MHz for starters and if you really need it upgrade to 8GB from there. Chances are 4GB will do just fine for a budget gaming PC, any more would just be over-speccing IMO. That's another AU$45 or so. Total AU$470 so far.

Add wireless card: AU$30 - Total: $500
Add DVD Drive: AU$30 - Total: $530
Edit: Forgot, Add 1TB HDD: AU$64 - total: AU $594


That makes, in US Dollars, $528, for something with quite a bit of grunt to it. Add any additional components and shipping and you should still be well under your budget.

Edit

 

[axe714]

Thanks for the reply Swan

As of right now I literally have no idea how to assemble computers although I've read that's its almost identical to putting Lego blocks together.. But to be honest I'm pretty lazy when it comes down to assembling things that's why I'm more keen into buying a pure built one..

I'm almost positive that I'm going to buy the first the first choice I put up there and maybe buying a better video card (GTX650 ti 1gb video card) somewhere in the near future. So overall what are your thoughts on the first computer that I listed?

 

[Swan]

Thanks for the reply Swan

As of right now I literally have no idea how to assemble computers although I've read that's its almost identical to putting Lego blocks together.. But to be honest I'm pretty lazy when it comes down to assembling things that's why I'm more keen into buying a pure built one..

I'm almost positive that I'm going to buy the first the first choice I put up there and maybe buying a better video card (GTX650 ti 1gb video card) somewhere in the near future. So overall what are your thoughts on the first computer that I listed?

Not too bad actually, although I'd replace the graphics card as well; never been a fan of Radeons.

I'd probably go for a 2GB GTX650Ti or something similar though. Graphics memory isn't as swappable as regular RAM, and the price difference between the 1GB and 2GB cards isn't much. the additional gig could be the deciding factor for some games.

There are websites that you can build custom PCs on and they'll put it together for you for a fee, but I don't know of any in the USA.

Edit: Just keep in mind that from my experience AMD processors are better at multi-threaded tasks (CAD for example) but games more oft than not don't make use of more than a couple of processor cores. From that perspective, Intel has the gaming advantage because each core in Intel processors tends to be a bit better than their AMD counterparts. AMD is definitely cheaper though. The issue is once you buy a socket AM3+ motherboard, you can't put in an Intel CPU (e.g. socket LGA1150, such as a 3rd gen core i7); you have to stick to AM3+ CPUs lest you replace the entire motherboard.

 

[SuF]

Thanks for the reply Swan

As of right now I literally have no idea how to assemble computers although I've read that's its almost identical to putting Lego blocks together.. But to be honest I'm pretty lazy when it comes down to assembling things that's why I'm more keen into buying a pure built one..

I'm almost positive that I'm going to buy the first the first choice I put up there and maybe buying a better video card (GTX650 ti 1gb video card) somewhere in the near future. So overall what are your thoughts on the first computer that I listed?

Building it yourself is actually very easy and would only take you a couple hours. There are plenty of tutorials online.

As to the first computer, you may need to upgrade the PSU if you get a more powerful card. 300W is quite low.

 

[axe714]

I just bought the computer yesterday that I've been planning to buy. If I decided to upgrade to PSU to this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817152028 will this suffice?

 

[SuF]

I just bought the computer yesterday that I've been planning to buy. If I decided to upgrade to PSU to this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817152028 will this suffice?

You might not even need to. When you upgrade the GPU, if it works then don't bother. If it doesn't, you might need to upgrade. 500-600 watts will be more than enough.

 

[axe714]

I just bought the computer that I mentioned that I was going to buy.. Bought it 2 days ago and finally received it today. Was really hyped, took the foam out and got it all set-up. I turned it on, and I can hear the fan going and the computer light is turned on but there is no display on my monitor.. I've tried 2 different monitors, and I know for a fact they work because we use them on the other computers in the house.. The monitor doesn't even work.

Please help.. what could be wrong? It seems like there are some loose connections but I have no idea where they go, and the hard-drive when I received it seemed loose and there was a connection in the back that was connected to the Hard-drive but not anywhere else

 

Maybe try a different display port? If you have a PC with integrated graphics and a dedicated graphics card, try the integrated graphics port first; and if that doesn't work try the dedicated graphics port. Also you may need to change the input selection on the monitor.

 

[Swan]

If the motherboard has a dedicated graphics card try using that, then install the drivers for the ATI or nVidia card that you have, then try again.

I guess perhaps try a VGA cable instead of HDMI as well (if you're using HDMI), but I don't think it'd do much.

 

[axe714]

Jesus Christ I'm a fucking moron hahaha. I was connecting the VGA cable on the wrong spot, thought it was right because it was connecting.. But soon figured where to connect it when I used an HDMI cable and hooked it up to my TV with no problems.. Thanks everyone for the help, god damn am I stupid. Hahahahaha.

 

[Swan]

Jesus Christ I'm a fucking moron hahaha. I was connecting the VGA cable on the wrong spot, thought it was right because it was connecting.. But soon figured where to connect it when I used an HDMI cable and hooked it up to my TV with no problems.. Thanks everyone for the help, god damn am I stupid. Hahahahaha.

In technical terms you might call that an operator to computer interface error. Good to see you got it working.