Welcome back to all who read the first article. Today we go for a PC that comes in just under $400. Some of you might be wondering a few things like why the cut back from eight gigs of RAM to only four gigs of RAM. Simply put, these articles are about PC builds that come in under a certain price range. Not upgrading.
With the increased budget and a few cuts this build is a complete step up in almost every way. Baring the RAM decrease and using the same power supply from the last build. The reason I chose not to go with a larger power supply is because the 430 watts is still enough to power our system.
- Case: Thermaltake V3 Black Edition — $39.99
- Motherboard: Asus M5A78L-M LX Micro ATX — $50.79
- Power Supply: Corsair CX 430 — $44.99
- RAM: Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3 1600MHz(2x4gig) — $52.99
- Hard Drive: Western Digital 500GB — $59.99
- Processor: AMD FX-4300 3.8Ghz — $109.99
- GPU: EVGA GeForce GT 610 — $39.99
Total: $398.74
With the graphics boost your range of 3D gaming goes up a bit. From personal experience with this card I was able to run FarCry 3 on medium at just under 30fps. Any game you enjoyed from the last generation of console should be playable with most looking a lot better than their console counterpart.
The case is another thing to notice when buying on a budget. For only $10 the case we were able to purchase was a significantly better case. One of the biggest jumps for this build is the processor. I was going to go with the Intel i3 3220 but it pushed the budget over by a few dollars. None the less the FX 4300 does have some perks over the i3 3220, with its reduced price makes it perfect for a budget. Last but not least was the hard drive upgrade from 250 GB to 500 GB. If you are willing to delete games after beating them then you won’t feel the impact as much as someone who doesn't. Still a nice boost to have the upgraded space.
As always hope you enjoyed the article. Next obviously is the under $500 build. Please leave any feedback or questions in the comments below. Until next time, game on!