Budget Gaming Computer - Help with suggestions please

Just a friendly reminder that people tend to skimp on the PSU. Don't. It's the heart of the PC, its lifeblood.
It is sad to end up having a fairly potent and intelligent beast cursed with a degenerative heart disease.

Make the budget saving somewhere else for example: a secondhand GPU, secondhand processor, a no-frills non-fancy casing, a single piece of RAM (8gig) instead of (2x4gig), etc.

 

Yup, hence why the build I posted has the SeaSonic Bronze. Another thing of note is that you should always check the tier lists and get the best bang for buck. Just "Gold" means just as much as just "a good brand", neither is a necessarily good or even something to consider! Tier list here: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html.

Also @keanex and @Xen this tier list is of importance for CPU choices: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-hierarchy,4312.html, i3s are tier 2! Only a handful of games will actually benefit from an i5 over an i3 in real world gaming performance. Though ironically both GTA 5 and Witcher 3 did for example. Just something of note when choosing budget hardware, an i3 can get you pretty much all the way to top tier GPUs without any noticeable bottlenecks. Thankfully most games today won't rely on the CPU and anything 4 cores (even mimicking with hyper threading) will get you very far.

@bixby here's two options for you to consider, one contains the higher end i5 with a fantastic GPU, the other one has a higher end GPU with the i3. Both have pretty much all you need for about $650. Further money saving? Use the i3 + the 960 or the R9 380 and you will be sitting comfortably at sub $600 with exceptional price/performance. Hope this helps with narrowing down the purchase.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($174.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-DS3H-A Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($50.88 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial BX200 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($64.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($45.88 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 960 4GB Video Card ($189.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Enermax Thorex ATX Mid Tower Case ($27.00 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 620W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($64.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $648.71
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-12-21 04:46 EST-0500


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor ($104.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-DS3H-A Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($50.88 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial BX200 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($64.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($45.88 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R9 390 8GB PCS+ Video Card ($269.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Enermax Thorex ATX Mid Tower Case ($27.00 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 620W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($64.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $658.71
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-12-21 04:45 EST-0500

 

Just to add to the other posts about the importance of the PSU, most the of PCs you see on sale for consumers like HP, Dell, etc will cheap out on components like PSU. The HP PC my parents originally bought from Costco but returned came with a PSU that was pushing <200W. What's funny is that it came with a GT730, when it doesn't have the power to properly run it. If you go the route of buying a cheap $400-500 PC and getting an aftermarket GPU, you would probably have to switch out the PSU as well which in the end might cost just as much as building one yourself from scratch.

 

Those old monitors just can't handle the high refreshes of newer LED-based monitors (or color consistency), but they can easily match the resolution (in 4:3 ratio). Even a 17" can do 1600 x 1200.

 

A desktop will be your best bet for value for money, though there are some very nice multimedia laptops (generally with a Nvidia GTX 950M graphics) in the $700 price bracket. For casual gaming I really think such a laptop would suffice. They are also versatile and easier to move about compared to a desktop. If you get a laptop look at a SSD hybrid drive with a capacity of at least 1TB. It's not quite as fast as a dedicated SSD drive, but it combines some of the typical responsiveness of a SSD with the flexibility and storage capacity benefits of a spinning disk. Game installations nowadays take up quite a bit of storage space so it's tricky to get away with a low capacity SSD. A desktop will force you into less compromises, but requires a decent monitor and more space.

Generally I'd consider at least:
An Intel Core i5 processor
At least 8GB of RAM
Nvidia GTX950M or higher graphics capability
At least a SSD hybrid drive or SSD only
Full HD screen
A good keyboard and trackpad
Product backed by a comprehensive warranty

 

Again, so much good info. Curious that Windows O/S has to be added for another $100 on most of these.

 

I'm busy migrating my stuff to Arch Linux. It's been a difficult, but very interesting experience so far. I might resort to running Windows virtualized in the future.

 

You can try to transfer the OS from the computer your son is using. It may require an activation phone call to Microsoft. This will require that you don't run Windows on that machine anymore. You can repurpose it to run Linux as a media server or something if you don't need it as Windows computer anymore.

 

Well all that work you guys did and his Mom says, NO Gaming Computer, grades not good enough.

So, worked out a deal with his Mom for a regular laptop (probably will play Dota2 reasonably) and she can monitor usage. He really did need a newer computer since his old Dell laptop for homework and music is so slow, had to put Pinguy (sp) Linux on it to get it moving. The big old HP workstation box that he used to play games on will find a new home on ebay.

I got him an HP 8740W 17in laptop with i7 2.67ghz, 4GB ram, 320 GB hard drive, and Nvidia Quadro FX-2800M with 1GB mem and 1080p screen and Windows 7.

I hope it works well. These sold for over $1500 new figured $360 shipped is a fair price.

Many, many thanks for the ideas and if this does not work so well or he gets a reprieve and better grades, there is always his birthday next Sept.

 

Was that the one being sold here? I would have bought that if I had the money.

 

no, was there a 8740w being sold here?