Gaming Computer Help - Starting from Scratch

[Skotos B]

Looking to build my GF a very low end (gaming? can it even be called that?) PC to play MMOs with me on, if she can run WoW on med, GW2/TESO low-mid that would be fantastic.

The budget would be 400$ MOST, and we would like to stay under 300$. Can it be done? Thanks in advance! (As long as it can run WoW on med its fine, the 2 newer titles can be ignored and we will upgrade later, just something for her to play on now would be great)

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. Gaming, mainly MMOs

2. What YOUR budget is. 300-400$

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from. United States

4. IF you're buying parts OUTSIDE the US, please post a link to the vendor you'll be buying from.

5. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc. Whatever is more bang for the buck

6. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are. None

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
Whatever would make it run better

8. What resolution, not monitor size, will you be using?
1920x1080

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
Few months at most

 

[Essence_of_War]

It's tough to give useful buying advice months in advance of a build-date. We can give you some suggestions, but it might be more prudent to keep them in mind, and then come back when you're ready or close to ready to build.

A couple of questions:

1) Does your budget need to be spent on software? Specifically do you need/want a windows license?

2) I assume you already have a 1080 monitor, and a KB/mouse?

Here's a reasonable first pass, includes a quad-core cpu, and a discrete gpu. It's right up to your budgetary wire, but you really get good value for every carefully spent dollar spent under ~1k.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Athlon II X4 750K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($79.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI FM2-A55M-E33 Micro ATX FM2 Motherboard ($48.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Kingston Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($58.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.04 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7750 1GB Video Card ($87.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Rosewill FBM-02 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($21.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($29.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NS95 DVD/CD Writer ($17.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $399.96
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-08-01 10:03 EDT-0400)

It has a number of opportunities to upgrade later if you'd like. You could consider dropping the RAM to 4 GB and taking the savings towards a non-stock HSF like the Arctic Freezing or the CM 212 EVO to get more performance out of the CPU.

It's possible you could get further down into your budget w/ a trinity APU...but the athlon is comparable to the A10's CPU, and a discrete 7750 is at least 5 tiers above the A10's integrated gpu.

 

[Skotos B]

We could start grabbing the parts as early as next week, I just won't be able to 'complete' it until a few months. Get about a hundred spending dollars a week.

We have a http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131568 laying around I just found, so if its possible to work with that, that would be great.

Yes , we have all of the software / mouse / keyboard etc taken care of.

 

[Essence_of_War]

It might be possible to work with that, but I wouldn't recommend it. You'll be paying more for memory w/ much less performance, and you'll take a major hit on the type of CPUs you can use.

I think it's worth your time/money to upgrade to FM2 and a cheap quadcore like I suggested.

 

[Seba]

We could start grabbing the parts as early as next week, I just won't be able to 'complete' it until a few months. Get about a hundred spending dollars a week.

Do not do that. Wait until you have the money for all the parts required to build a PC (or the money to buy a complete PC). Excluding some kind of cataclysm (floods, earthquakes) in the manufacturing areas, the prices should be lower in a few months (or you will get better parts for the same price).

You could even wait for Black Friday sales if you are waiting a few months anyway.

 

[Essence_of_War]

Agreed. You really don't want to have parts running out their warranty w/o knowing if they actually work or not.

If you can, save the spending money for 4 weeks until you can buy, come back here and we can help you find some relevant deals to come in under budget 🙂

 

[mfenn]

Also, add $100 to Essence's build to account for a cheap monitor.

 

[Essence_of_War]

Yeah...I don't think OP explicitly said they had a monitor, but their answer to the questions made it sound like they did.

I hope they do, or my build is sort of way out of their stated budget range.