Recommendations: Budget Build
Non-Gamer Budget Build *updated 2/18/13*
Case Corsair Carbide Series 200R
PSU Corsair Builder Series CX430M
Motherboard GIGABYTE GA-H77-DS3H
CPU Intel Core i3-3225 Ivy Bridge 3.3GHz LGA 1155 55W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000
Ram G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
Hard Drive Seagate Barracuda ST31000524AS 1TB
Optical Drive ASUS Black DVD Burner
Total is about $475 on 02/18/13 from Newegg, but this does not include the Operating System. This puts us into a dual core processor, 4gb of DDR3 memory, and USB3.0.
The only things missing are the OS, mouse, keyboard, and monitor.
Budget Build for the Casual Gamer *updated 2/18/13*
Case Corsair Carbide Series 200R
PSU Corsair Builder Series CX430M
Motherboard ASRock Z77 Extreme4 LGA 1155 Intel Z77
CPU Intel Core i3-3220 Ivy Bridge 3.3GHz LGA 1155 55W Dual-Core Desktop Processor
Ram G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
GPU MSI R7770-2PMD1GD5/OC Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition 1GB
Hard Drive Seagate Barracuda ST31000524AS 1TB
Optical Drive ASUS Black DVD Burner
Total is about $630 on 02/18/13 from Newegg. Remember this does NOT include the Operating System.
The only other things missing are the mouse, keyboard, and monitor.
Plenty of room for upgrades. All prices came from Newegg on 02/18/13.
A STEP ABOVE *updated 2/18/13*
Case intentionally left off. Expect to spend between $70 and $150 for a basic case. To see a list of my personal favorite cases, go here.
PSU CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650M 650W
Motherboard ASUS P8Z77-V LK LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0
CPU Intel Core i5-3470 Ivy Bridge 3.2GHz
Ram G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
GPU ZOTAC ZT-60902-10M GeForce GTX 660 AMP! Edition 2GB
Hard Drive Seagate Barracuda ST31000524AS 1TB
Optical Drive ASUS Black DVD Burner
Total $825 which does not include the Operating System. This system was formerly called the BUDGET BUILD PLUS+, but it's definitely a big "step above" a budget build.
In order to complete these builds, you'll also need a case, OS, mouse, keyboard, and monitor.
