Hardware does this seem like a good steam machine build?

[Xenon Hacks]

I'm just going to spend my summer saving up after highschool so its only a matter of time really...

Even a rough estimate would be nice

 

[Yami_Industries]

I'm trying to keep between a $400-$600 range

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Even a rough estimate would be nice

sorry about that lol

 

[Xenon Hacks]

I'm trying to keep between a $400-$600 range

Thats tough give me a bit you're gonna just game right? No graphics design or photoshop stuff right?

 

[Yami_Industries]

I want to game and have plex to hold all my movies and pictures and etc. but, I might think about adding photoshop or premier as a future upgrade..

 

[Edgarska]

For what it's worth, I'm using an FX 6300 and GTX 960, and it does fine as a mid-range PC. The problem with the FX CPUs is that, while they overclock well, they require a lot of voltage in order to reach speeds that will let them get any decent performance in newer games, while the pro is that they're comparatively cheap and, at least in my case, don't heat up much with a cheap aftermarket air cooler.

"Which is better. AMD or intel?" can't be objectively answered, because it should be looked at on a per-case basis. If you have the money and want the best performance, you can't beat intel, but if you want a budget system, AMD can be a good choice. Of course, there are also cheap intel CPUs, but at the $100-120 range, I personally think AMD gives you better performance for your money.
That said, as you get to the FX 8XXX series, intel starts being a better investment.

Edit: This depends on each individual chip, but it's not uncommon to reach 4.2GHz speeds on an FX 6300 without raising voltage, which means it wouldn't need an aftermarket cooler, but in my case I had to bump it a bit.

Edit electric boogaloo: Plex and Photoshop aren't a concern, if your computer can run newer games decently then it can handle those, though some Photoshop filters will obviously take longer to apply with weaker CPUs.

 

[Xenon Hacks]

600 is pushing it, this is what im at so far http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Q3RhsY the power supply and board are bad (not bad bad just there a far better options for a little more) but is trusted and the case is meh but im still missing a CPU that I would try to buy used but theres almost no way around the price point scratching my head a bit.

 

[Yami_Industries]

600 is pushing it, this is what im at so far http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Q3RhsY the power supply and board are bad (not bad bad just there a far better options for a little more) but is trusted and the case is meh but im still missing a CPU that I would try to buy used but theres almost no way around the price point scratching my head a bit.

I'm doing an edited build of @TotalInsanity4 's build

 

[Xenon Hacks]

I'm doing an edited build of @TotalInsanity4 's build

If your gonna do gaming I would stay away from AMD but thats just my opinion

 

[Deboog]

It doesn't really work that way.

And I just checked your SSD, god damn. $200? You should get a small SSD for your OS and your frequently used programs/games and get a HDD for other stuff. Check these out: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236339
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA6BM3572949

Naw. I have a 500gb SSD and I love it. Trying to keep track of which programs are where, having programs autoinstall to the wrong drive, it's all a pain in the ass.

 

[Xenon Hacks]

Naw. I have a 500gb SSD and I love it. Trying to keep track of which programs are where, having programs autoinstall to the wrong drive, it's all a pain in the ass.

Unless you have a raid 0 setup having a single SSD is a waste but whatever floats your boat ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Yami_Industries]

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/YamiRioru/saved/#view=rtGrxr

 

[Pedeadstrian]

Naw. I have a 500gb SSD and I love it. Trying to keep track of which programs are where, having programs autoinstall to the wrong drive, it's all a pain in the ass.

When you're on a tight budget (in this case, we are) there's no point in spending $200 on a big SSD. 500GB by itself is nothing, and a cheap 1TB or bigger HDD would be rather useful.

 

[Xenon Hacks]

Honestly id save up the 600 and ask to borrow 200+ to finish a good Intel build with a GTX 970 but thats just me

 

[Edgarska]

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/YamiRioru/saved/#view=rtGrxr

Now you've got 2 HDD. Either change the small one for a small SDD or just remove it. To be honest, at that budget, having an SSD won't give much advantage, pretty much just slightly faster boot times, so you could just make do with the 1TB HDD. And if you're going to go Radeon for the GPU, that one performs a bit worse than the GTX 960, so keep that in mind.

 

[Xenon Hacks]

He said a bit worse

 

[Edgarska]

I'm half asleep, I didn't realize it was a 370. Yeah, that's significantly worse.

 

[Xenon Hacks]

@DarkRiolu264 Don't settle for anything less than a GTX 960. 960 ok, 970 good, 980 great, 980ti best.
You want to put the console peasants to shame not play in the mud with them.

 

[Yami_Industries]

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/YamiRioru/saved/Q96kcf

check out this case with a full sized gtx 960 in a compact case for a price below $700

 

[Xenon Hacks]

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/YamiRioru/saved/Q96kcf

check out this case with a full sized gtx 960 in a compact case for a price below $700

The CPU will bottleneck
8GB is probably not enough for gaming though it is "the minimum" for most games 16GB is the sweet spot
Seagate Drives die fast try to get Kingston,Samsung,Sandisk, or Western Digital also you only need one 2TB 7200 RPM drive

 

[Yami_Industries]

hey @Edgarska I made my own custom build, would it run: TES: V skyrim, Garry's mod, Assassains creed, GTA V, CSGO, Street fighter V, dolphin emulator, and a ps1 or ps2 emulator with 40-60 fps? http://pcpartpicker.com/p/JXrXXL