Gaming PC Under $600 (US) – Our Build of The Week

This week we will be providing a Custom PC for a bit cheaper than last week, getting a Gaming PC under $600 is a bit more difficult then $800 but it should perform very closely with this AMD system. This build will be focused mostly on gaming performance, with some room to upgrade in the future and overclockability out the door.

GAMING PC UNDER $600 – BUILD SPECIFICATIONS

CPU: AMD FX 6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor $99.99

The AMD FX 6300 sports six Piledriver based processing cores at 3.5 GHz with turbo boost up to 4.1 GHz, 8MB of L3 cache and a fully unlocked core multiplier making this a very overclockable CPU.

We chose this CPU because it offers an immense value and great performance per dollar. While lacking in performance compared to most Intel CPUs it is also much cheaper, at less then half the cost of an i5, once overclocked the line between the i5 and the FX 6300 begins to blur, and most games are not as limited by the CPU as they are by the GPU. The drop in performance is made up in money that can be put towards a better GPU or other components. Hitting 4GHz on this chip has in my experience helped get past most CPU bottlenecks in games.

CPU COOLER: Xigmatek Prime SD1484 $30

The Xigmatek Prime SD1484 is a solid CPU Cooler for the Price of $30 USD, and should allow you to get to 4.0 GHz base clock on this CPU with out much trouble probably more depending on the kind of voltages you can get the CPU run stable at.

MOTHERBOARD: Gigabyte GA-970A-D3P $76

The Gigabyte GA-970A-D3P comes equipped with Gigabyte’s Digital PWM delivers precise and stable power to all of your most important components. It also comes with Dual UEFI BIOS Technology and 4+1 phase power design for solid overclocking support.

While lacking SLI and real dual graphics support, it offers a ton of features for the price, while lacking SLI and real dual graphics support it makes up for it with overclockability, 10 USB ports, 3 USB2.0 headers and a single USB3.0 header and is a very solid and stable board.

MOTHERBOARD HONORABLE MENTION: MSI 970 Gaming $100

Those with a little more room left in their budget can upgrade to the MSI 970 Gaming, It is just as solid of a overclocker as the Gigabyte and has most of the same features but allows dual X16 Graphics for SLI capibility and has better intigrated sound and much better LAN with Killer Killer E2205 Gigabit LAN controller, if you can afford a slightly better board and would like it to match nicely with the GPU this is a wonderful board to go with.

RAM: Kingston Fury 8GB (1X8GB) 1600MHz $70

 

The Kingston HyperX Fury blue is their mid-ranged Gaming  RAM, providing acceptable overclocking, with ease as it runs at the standard 1.5V, with a 1600MHz clock speed and a CAS latency of 10-10-10 which is all about what you would expect for performance RAM at this price.

We selected this RAM for our build because of Kingston’s reputation for reliability and the relatively low pricing when you consider the performance and overall quality of this kit. This is very similar to the RAM we picked last week, though it is only a single stick as the budget got very tight, for a few bucks more the kit we recommended last week is still available.  Also, we chose to go with an 8GB kit as we feel that it provides a good balance of both gaming performance and general multitasking, while not breaking the bank. It’s worth noting that most games use a max of about 3.5GB of RAM. – So while gaming you’ll have plenty leftover for additional background tasks like Skype or TeamSpeak, or recording applications like OBS.

GPU: AMD R9 280 MSI Gaming OC (3GB) $180

 

The MSI R9 280 Gaming 3G features an AMD R9 280 GPU core With MSI’s non reference PCB and Twin Frozer IV Cooler, which is one of the best in the industry. Overclocked at 933MHz  with a Boost clock up to 1000MHz and Memory clock of 5000Mhz. It provides HDMI DVI-Dual Link and dual Display ports.

As this is a build tailored to gaming we move what funds we could around to get the best GPU that we could fit in this budget with out crippling the rest of the system, as such we ended up with a slightly better GPU than last week and it’s even cheaper then the Powercolor one we used in the last build. This one is overclocked, and can handle gaming at 1440P and maxing out most games at 1080P. The non referance cooler and PCB will allow solid overclocking and MSI is known for making solid graphics cards.

STORAGE: Western Digital Blue 1TB – $54

The Western Digital Blue features 1TB of capacity along with 64MB of cache, 7200 RPM disk speeds and SATA 6GBps interface. WD Blue sets the baseline for everyday storage by consistently delivering improved performance over previous generations while successfully maintaining WD’s quality and reliability for over six generations.

For storage we chose to go with the WD Blue 1TB because it offers consistent performance, outstanding reliability while providing sufficient  capacity for a large library of games. We’d considered going with an SSD but that would have raised the price and given us vastly decreased capacity. We think for the purpose of gaming, this drive will meet the users overall performance and capacity needs until they add-in an SSD later on.

PSU: EVGA 500B – 500 watt  – $48

EVGA has recently made quite the reputation for themselves when it comes to power supplies. Providing top-notch quality, performance and features for very affordable prices. The 500B features 80+ Bronze efficiency, a single 12v rail, and 2x 6+2 pin PCI-E connectors making it able to power virtually any single GPU on the market.

We chose this power supply because it offers great build quality, sufficient wattage for our system and fantastic reliability. EVGA also has great customer service and a 3-year warranty in case something ever does go wrong. However, users wanting to install multiple graphics cards may want to consider going with one of their higher wattage models, which should not be a problem since the motherboard we went with only supports single Crossfire at x16 and x4 which is really not worth doing. This Power Supply is solid for overclocking though and can handle almost any video card out there today.

CASE: NXZT Source 210 (Black) $40

The NZXT Source 210 is a great entry-level case for gamers and enthusiasts. It features all black (or white) internals for a clean and premium look. It includes 1x 120mm exhaust fan as well as space for additional 2x front 120mm, 2x top 120/140mm and 1x bottom 120mm, providing plenty of airflow and cooling potential for future upgrades.

We decided to go with this case because it’s a very solid case for its price and comes with most of the features you would need in a case, although it does not come with a USB 3.0 header most cases at this price don’t come with one, the case is very solidly built the only problem that you might encounter as a builder is some of the drive cages need to be removed to fit the R9 280 outside of that this case is a joy to build in and is quite sturdy.