Budget Gaming PC Build Powerhouse for $500

GamersNexus: "Today’s $500 gaming PC build uses an i3-6100 running at 3.7GHz, along with a 2GB EVGA GTX 960 with a noteable factory overclock. Together, these parts offer solid gaming performance at 1080p, while also being budget friendly. The build will readily play Call of Duty: Black Ops III, Rocket League, DOTA2, CSGO, and even heavier titles like GTA V."

[Riseer]

Sorry but nothing less than a 970/390. Need to have a Pc that can actually do 60fps/1080p on most games. Having a 960 hurts when is uses a 128bit bus bandwidth starved.

[awi5951]

970 and 390 is way overkill unless you want to do VR. 280x will run everything at 60fps at 1080P on ultra for $180. And a gtx 750 ti will run most games on high and thats 100 bucks.

[sarlucic]

That is not entirely true, a good 280x can get over 60 fps in bf 3, but falls under 60 fps in multiple games like hitman absolution, far cry 3 and so on, it is in no way good enough for the newest games if you want ultra and 60 fps. 960 is a better alternative, but you wont be maxing games like witcher 3 on 60 fps, but you will get graphic noticeable better than consoles with higher fps. There are so many benchmarks to read if you want the exact numbers.

[FlyingFoxy]

970 and 390 are not overkill for 1080p at all, having strong hardware ensures that the FPS will stay up when a lot of stuff is happening on screen, with weaker mid/lower end cards it will bog down quite a bit. It's pretty much essential if you have a 120/144hz screen as well to keep things smooth.

[awi5951]

Dont need benchmarks they are paid off. BF4 is 70fps+_ on ultra with one 280x and i have two. Metro is the only game that is a pain and i have hit man ill check those weird facts of yours.
UPdate:
If you run the hitman benchmark it runs at a average of 51 fps on ultra with a max of 120fps your frames will never drop that low in game because that is a stress test it tries the break the hardware. And hitman doesnt look that good so its the game not the hardware.

[awi5951]

@FlyingFoxy

Ijust broke out crysis 3 with the very high graphics pack download. 1 280x runs at 45 to 50 fps on the very high settings @ 1080P with x4 aa Lets see a console do anywhere near that for 180 dollars.

[dreadz74]

2gb card is not gunna cut it for great Pc gaming .

[sarlucic]

Well for a budget pc where you are willing to turn down some settings, it is enough. Here you can see that it add a couple of fps in some games, while some have very slight changes in fps. If you want a pc that can play current games on high/ultra with some lowering of aa/shadow quality it will do fine. http://www.eurogamer.net/ar...

[Utalkin2me]

Going to have to be more then "some" lowering on a 960.

[awi5951]

The only game ive seen that uses more than 2 is battlefield 4 at 1080p

[Utalkin2me]

This is far from a powerhouse build...And OS is not optional, you have to have it in order to use your hardware.

[Eonjay]

*Buys $500 PC*
*Realizes that I need an Operating system*
*Installs Windows*
*Runs VR ready tools*
*Throws 'Powerhouse' PC out the window*

[yomfweeee]

There are free OS and also a lot of people already have an OS that they can transfer.

That is their logic.

[Utalkin2me]

@yomfweeee

This is supposed to be a budget PC to be comparable in price to a console. This build is not toward the Hardcore PC gamer that would already have a OS disc. So to someone that wants to start PC gaming they would need to get a OS.

While there is free OS, those free ones limit your support.

[awi5951]

No one buys a OS again and again you use the one you have when you upgrade your pc. Also windows 10 is free and you can buy a oem copy of windows 8 and 7 and 10 for $20 dollars. Its just console people just trying to pump up the price of a gaming pc. Everyone leaves out the never ending price for online play for console.

[Shinuz]

Whre do you find an oem copy for 20$? I've never seen that.

[awi5951]

@ Shinuz

Here you go man. http://www.kinguin.net/cata...

[FlyingFoxy]

I only paid about £55 for my Win7 retail disc when it was a pre-order.. the license carries over to Win10, so it's able to be installed on new hardware all the time and doesn't have the restrictions of oem where it's tied to your hardware/mobo. But if you can get oem for cheap then yeah it's a good deal.

[hennessey86]

but where are the nachos

[Bobafret]

This build sucks. You cannot get a decent machine for this price. End of story.

[awi5951]

Youtube has 100 videos on gaming pc for 350 to 500 and they beat consoles 1080P gaming performance at higher fps and graphics quality of consoles. Youtube are covered with these builds you're just being butthurt.

[FlyingFoxy]

You can to a certain extent build a fairly decent one for cheap.. Digital Foundry has shown this before, though i myself always go for the higher end stuff before diminishing returns kicks in, i don't bother going to extremes spending silly money, for instance 980Ti makes much more sense over a Titan x.

[ninjahunter]

its like a good enough build, Its like a ps4 that runs at 60 instead of 30 in real world application. Buuut there are some technical advances such as vr that will make this not good enough very quickly, if you want to do everything. If you are fine with 1080p/60 on high out of ultra on all the new games, this seems like an alright build. All the parts seem reliable so its not like some cut corners build thats gonna break in a couple years.

[Ysmir6723]

Replace i3 with i5 4460,960 with 380x.

[dreadz74]

yes that would be a decent build.