Technology X Tomorrow's Technology Today!
Last week we brought you a gaming build for under $900, featuring Nvidia’s new GeForce GTX 960, which is a card best suited for playing games at resolutions up to 1080p. This week, we decided to one up ourselves, and bring you a gaming build capable of playing games at 1440p for under $900 USD.
Please note as prices are listed here as of the time of writing, they are subject to change.
CPU, COOLING, MOTHERBOARD, RAM
CPU: AMD FX-8320 8-Core 3.5GHz -$144
The AMD FX-8320 features eight CPU cores, 8MB of cache, and a clock speed of 3.5GHz which turbo boosts to 4.0GHz. It has a TDP of 125 watts and features AMD’s Piledriver architecture.
While the FX-8320 may be using AMD’s older, Piledriver architecture, it still delivers some of the best price-to-performance ratio, especially when it comes to gaming. Sure, you could argue that games do not fully utilize multi-core processors, but with new APIs such as Mantle and the fourth-coming DirectX 12, processors like the FX-8320 will only become even faster. Also, the cheaper price of the FX-8320 compared to the Intel Core i5 4690K allows us to spend more money on our graphics, which is what is most important when it comes to gaming.
CPU COOLER: Cooler Master Hyper 212 PLUS – $32
Cooler Master’s Hyper 212 is legendary for providing excellent cooling at an unbeatable price. It features 4 copper heat-pipes that are designed to directly contact the CPU for increased heat-dissipation, as well as a 120mm, 600 – 2000 RPM fan with a noise rating of 36 dB.
We chose this CPU cooler specifically because it will provide increased cooling capacity over our stock cooler while not adding too much to the cost of the build, allowing us to allocate more of our budget toward the GPU.
MOTHERBOARD: MSI 970 GAMING – $98
The MSI 970 GAMING is one of the latest AM3+ motherboards. It offers updated components compared to older 970 boards such as SATA 6Gbps, USB 3.0, Killer E2205 Gigabit LAN, Realtek AC1150 audio and even support for 2-way CrossFireX or SLI GPU configurations.
When it comes to ‘gaming’ motherboards, this one offers everything you could need or want for a very affordable price. It also brings a lot of the great features you’d expect in a newer motherboard to the admittedly aging AMD 970 platform. Plus it comes in this awesome red and black color scheme.
RAM: Kingston HyperX Savage 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3-1600 – $68
The latest in their beastly named HyperX series, Kingston’s Savage represents the latest and greatest in DDR3 memory. Featuring their all new asymmetrical heat-sink design, 1600MHz speeds and timings of 9-9-9
Usually when choosing RAM we for our builds we find the lowest price kit from a reputable brand in a capacity that suits our needs, and that’s it. In this case, not only is this the best price we could find on a quality set 8GB DDR3, but it is also one of the best looking, and the red styling matches our motherboard perfectly.