August 2016 $600 Budget Gaming PC Build of the Month

$600 August 2016 PC Build (Excellent 1080p Performance)

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August 2016 $600 Budget Gaming PC Build of the Month

Introducing the Gaming PC Builds of the Month for August 2016

This month will look a tad different for the gaming pc builds of the month as I have been doing a little vacationing and I have not had a ton of time to dedicate to an early month release. These August builds will be coming out in chunks and here we have the first one for anyone looking for a reliable gaming pc to rock those standard high definition resolutions. This is a solid budget $600 gaming pc build and included are some hardware upgrades for this who want to spend a little more for a tad more performance.

This build is for those primarily focussed on gaming at standard high definition resolutions of 1920×1080 and it will do so gracefully with high fps in most games at high settings – this is especially so this month with a) the inclusion of the AMD 380x graphics card (previously in the upgrades) and especially so if you go with a brand new AMD RX 470 graphics card (now in the upgrades section). This RX 470 is in the upgrades section this month, because it was just released and the supply is low and cost is at a premium; so if you see the price go down (say around $150 – $200 (4GB) + a little more for the 8GB version) then snap it up!

Entry Level 2016 Gaming PC Build

August 2016 PC Build (1080p) – $600

Capability: Game at Smoothly with High settings and FPS at 1920X1080 resolutions in most games.

Hardware Link Price Image
Estimated Price: $615.95 (August 2016)
Processor $115.95
Motherboard Gigabyte SDRAM NA Motherboards (GA-H170-D3H) $99.99
Graphics Card Gigabyte Gaming Graphics Card GV-R938XG1 GAMING-4GD – R9 380x $189.99
RAM Kingston HyperX FURY Black 8GB Kit (2x4GB) 2133MHz DDR4 Non-ECC CL14 DIMM Desktop Memory (HX421C14FBK2/8) $39.99
SSD ADATA Premier SP550 240GB 2.5 Inch SATA III Superior Read & Write up to560MB/s & 510MB/s Solid State Drive (ASP550SS3-240GM-C) $62.01
Power Supply CORSAIR CXM series CX550M 550W 80 PLUS BRONZE Haswell Ready ATX12V & EPS12V Modular Power Supply $55.99
Computer Case Rosewill Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case Challenger S $49.99
Optical Drive No optical drive included in base build cost – *This should be considered optional

Overview: $600 Gaming PC Build

For our gaming CPU in this $600 pc build, we have a Intel i3 6100. This is a dual core cpu clocked in at 3.7 GHz and paired with that we have a Gigabyte R9 380X graphics card, and as stated above this was the previous card in the upgrades section of the $600 build, so definitely a plus.

For the motherboard we have the Gigabyte SDRAM NA Motherboards (GA-H170-D3H) board, which is both affordable and comes with more than the standard entry level gamer needs and as stated by Gigabyte themselves:

  • Supports 6th Generation Intel® Core™ Processor
  • Dual Channel DDR4, 4 DIMMs
  • 2-Way Graphics with Premium PCIe Lane
  • PCIe Gen3 x4 M.2 Connector with up to 32Gb/s Data Transfer (PCIe NVMe & SATA SSD support)
  • 2 SATA Express Connectors for up to 16Gb/s Data Transfer
  • 115dB SNR HD Audio with Built-in Rear Audio Amplifier
  • High Quality Audio Capacitors and Audio Noise Guard with Ambient LED Trace Path Lighting
  • Intel® GbE LAN with cFosSpeed Internet Accelerator Software
  • APP Center Including EasyTune™ and Cloud Station™ Utilities
  • GIGABYTE UEFI DualBIOS™ Technology
  • Support Intel® Small Business Advantage

For RAM we have a kit of Kingston HyperX FURY Black 8GB (two 4GB sticks of DDR4 and for storage we have a ADATA Premier SP550 240GB solid state drive, which is a decent SSD for the cost.

The power supply has been switched up this month so a slightly higher quality (albeit lower wattage) one, which is the CORSAIR CXM series CX550M.

And again this month we have a budget Rosewill pc case included. This the Rosewill Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case Challenger S pc case. This case features stylistic design with tool less design all at a budget cost. For a full overview of the Challenger S please visit rosewill.com.

August 2016 (1080p) PC Build Upgrade Suggestions – $800

These are the upgrade suggestions for specific hardware included in the above $600 / 1080p pc build. You can choose to upgrade one of all of the hardware and each will provide a performance boost for this build. If you choose to upgrade using all of the below hardware, the build becomes more like an $800 gaming pc build.

Should you want to upgrade the stock cooler already included with the i3 6100 Corsair then the Hydro Series H55 liquid cpu cooler could be a solution. Corsair describes this cooler as a being able to run your PC cooler when compared to a cpu’s stock cooler. This liquid cooler is ideal since it can easily fit into even the more cramped of pc cases. Read more at corsair.com.

One of the more important upgrade solutions could be the brand new AMD RX 470 graphics card – I had hoped to include this in the base build, but due to current availability and cost this just isn’t possible yet so keep an eye out as this card will boost your FPS capabilities at 1080p even further (Read: Toms Hardware’s benchmarks on the RX 470).

You can increase your storage space by going with an affordable 480GB ADATA SSD (same version just higher capacity) as seen below, which is a great price for a large storage solution SSD.

Finally,  included is a better performing gaming CPU, the Intel i5 6500, which may be a worthy investment to solidify performance in those higher cpu demanding games.

BUILD COST WITH ALL BELOW UPGRADES: $800

CPU COOLER UPGRADE

Better CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO ($29.99)

GRAPHICS CARD UPGRADE *When available

The new RX 470 RX 470 *linked to Amazon search ($200 (4GB to $240 8Gb)

CPU UPGRADE

Higher performing Processor – Intel Core i5-6500 3.20Ghz Processor  (Price: $204.99)

STORAGE UPGRADE

ADATA SP550 480GB SSD – Looking for a larger budget SSD – try this 480B Adata card ($109.99)


Gaming PC Build Peripheral Considerations

The above $600 August 2016 gaming pc build does not include peripherals such as monitors, mice or keyboards. So please check out the gaming pc peripherals section should you need to purchase a monitor, mouse or keyboard for your new gaming pc build. There are many suggestions generally split into three categories of higher-end, mid-range and basic suggestions. If you have any questions or want a suggestion feel free to leave a comment.

Operating System Options

If you don’t already have an operating system for your new gaming pc build, then you’re going to have to either invest in purchasing a standard OS such as Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10. Otherwise, there are some free alternatives that you could consider below as well. Keep in mind that you will need an optical drive should you decide to purchase the install discs, however you can also purchase Windows online or as a USB stick and install it that way – this would be the process for installing your OS without an optical drive (which isn’t included in each of the base builds above).

The following are some operating systems you can consider installing upon putting your Gaming PC build together. The first three will cost you and are either Windows 7 or 8.1, or 10 – I have no opinions here so I’ll leave the purchase of these up to the discretion of yourself, but do keep in mind that either way you do have the option of upgrading to Windows 10 for now. I have also included two other operating systems that are both currently free. Ubuntu is a Linux based operating system. The last OS is SteamOS, which is also a Linux OS being developed by Valve Corporation and is being made to be used for a Steam Machine game console.

OS Link Price Image
Windows 8.1 Windows 8.1 System Builder OEM DVD 64-Bit $99.95  
Windows 7 Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64bit, System Builder OEM DVD 1 Pack (New Packaging) $104.99  
Windows 10 Upgrade Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64 Bit System Builder OEM | PC Disc $99.99
Ubuntu Ubuntu – Desktop Free Ubuntu Logo
SteamOS SteamOS Beta “Build your own Steam Machine” Free Steam Operating System OS

 

Comments 4

  1. Hey Corey,

    I have a question about your $1000 build from last month. With the RX 480 is there a big difference between each company’s graphics card? For example is there a big difference between the MSI or the Sapphire version?

    Thanks

    1. Post
      Author

      Hi Harrison,

      There’s not much difference in terms of performance, but there is in terms of cooling mechanisms, ports design etc. Some do overclock a little so that you don’t have to, but overall there aren’t huge differences. Take a look at the ports and dimensions (so that it fits in the case / cases list the max length of cards they are compatible with) and you should be good to go with most of any. Hope this helps!

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