Guideline: Gaming-PC for your budget!

[Hitman]

A lot of people were already asking me what hardware to buy, so I simply decided to post here a few gaming-pc hardware configurations for each budget. Ofcourse I'll keep this updated. I hope it helps a few people .


Gaming PC 395€

-CPU:Athlon II X4 631 Boxed (4x 2.6 GHz)
-Mainboard: ASUS F1A75-M LE (FM1)
-RAM: 4GB Corsair 1333MHz CL8
-Videocard: AMD  HD 7770 1024MB 
-PSU: Corsair CX 430W
-DVD: LG GH24
-HDD: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB
-Case: CoolerMaster Elite 33x


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Gaming PC 550€

-CPU: AMD FX-Series FX-4170 (4x  4.20 GHz)
-Mainboard:  Gigabyte GA-880GMA-USB3
-RAM: 4GB GeIL 1600MHz CL8
-Videocard: AMD HD 6870 (1GB)
-PSU: Enermax PRO82+ II 525W
-DVD: LG GH24
-HDD: Western Digital 640GB (WD6400AAKS)
-Case: Cooler Master CM 690 (II)


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Gaming PC 750€

-CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K Boxed (4x 3.40 GHz)
-Mainboard: MSI Z77A-G43
-RAM: 8GB G.Skill 1333MHz CL7
-Videocard: AMD  HD 7850 2GB
-PSU: Seasonic M12II 620W
-DVD: LG GH24
-HDD: Western Digital 640GB (WD6400AAKS)
-Case: Cooler Master CM 690 (II)


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Gaming PC 1050€

-CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K Boxed (4x 3.40 GHz)
-Mainboard:  MSI Z77A-G43
-RAM: 8GB GeIL 1600MHz CL8
-Videocard: nVidia GeForce GTX 670 (2GB)
-PSU: Seasonic M12II 620W
-DVD: LG GH22
-HDD: Western Digital 640GB (WD6400AAKS) + SSD: Samsung SSD 830 128GB
-Case: CoolerMaster CM690 / Antec Nine Hundred II

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Additional Information + Definitions

** Boxed: You can buy Intel processors Boxed or Tray. Boxed simply means that the Intel default CPU-fan is cooling the CPU, and Tray is the single CPU without the default CPU-fan. Thats why Tray is usually a few euros cheaper, but I'd strongly recommend you to buy Boxed, even if you plan on throwing the default fan away and getting a better one, because Tray CPUs only have 1 year warranty while Boxed CPUs have 3.

** Black Edition: You sometimes see AMD CPUs called "Black Edition". This means they got a free multiplicator, which is only interesting for people that plan on overclocking. I won't go into details here, because it doesnt really affect the "normal" pc user. If you however still are curious, PM me.

** RAM: If you wondered why I only recommended DDR2-800 RAM for the Intel Core2 CPU, notice that RAM on higher clocks doesn't give you a performance boost unless you overclock your system. Intel CPUs (including the Core2 generation) have their bandwith limited with their FSB. Unless you aren't overclocking your CPU the higher RAM clocks wont increase your bandwidth (and therefore won't give you an performance boost), simply because the FSB is limiting it.


Took quite a long time to write this all, but I really hope you find it helpful. I wrote this because a lot of people came to me with PC questions, and this might help you if you are planning on buying a new rig.

As you can clearly see, it doesn't need an 1500€ rig to play the newest games - even a PC for 600€ is good enough to run Crysis without any trouble (in medium settings ofcourse).


If you got any other questions, just PM me. If you want something changed/added or have any other ideas or simply want to comment it, please post here.


- Hitman

Last Update: 6th Sep '10 8th Mar '11 22th Jun '12