Building a mid spec rig for my Dad

[sirkelly55]

Hello, I'm wondering what changes you would suggest/recommend to this budget ($650~$700. I can go higher but would prefer not to unless there's a good reason) Gaming PC for my Dad. It just needs to handle middle of the road games like World of Tanks, War Thunder when Ground forces is released, and probably some FPS games.

These are my thoughts... any cash saving and performance enhancing changes are great.
Zalman ZM-T1 Plus MATX Tower
AMD FX-4300 x4 Vishera 3.8GHz up to 4.0Ghz Turbo 8MB
Gigabyte AMD Radeon R7 250 OC 1GB GDDR5
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 64MB 1TB
G.Skill Ripjaws X 8GB (8GB X1) Gaming DDR3-1600 Desktop ram
ASUS M5A78L-M LX AMD 760G MATX
FSP RA-550S 550W Continuous Power 80 Plus Silver

Is that video card alright for MMOs and mid spec games? is it worth getting the R7 260X instead or would a Nvidia card be better value (I have no experience with Nvidia)
Is it worth getting the i3-4130 instead? (or suggest another)

Cheers!

P.S. No peripherals, monitor, or OS is needed in this cost thanks

 

[PP Mguire]

I personally suggest an i3 4130 and a cheap H61 or B85 board with the cheapest 8GB 1600MHz RAM set you can muster. Then add a GTX 760 or R9 270x if possible.
The i3 (and all Intel 2nd-4th gen for that matter) has faster single threaded performance for better gaming performance. This will also give you more headroom for upgrades in the future as well as a more advanced platform to make a stand on.

As always though, remember that 90% of gaming is GPU so the better the GPU you can is the best.

The only other thing I raise an eyebrow on is the FSP power supply. Not the best of choices IMO, but as long as you keep the rig low key like this it'll do fine.

 

[Dauntae]

Put together a cheap system that should meet or exceed what your describing with good parts for $480 plus shipping, PP I'm sure will have other suggestions also.
Newegg.com - Intel Core i3-4130 Haswell 3.4GHz LGA 1150 54W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4400 BX80646I34130
Newegg.com - ASRock H81M-DGS R2.0 LGA 1150 Intel H81 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
Newegg.com - Team Zeus Blue 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model TZBD38G1600HC9DC01
SeaSonic S12II 520 Bronze 520W ATX12V V2.3 / EPS 12V V2.91 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply - Newegg.com
NZXT Source 210 S210-001 Black “Aluminum Brush / Plastic” ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Newegg.com
Newegg.com - EVGA 02G-P4-3751-KR GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB 128-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 Video Card

 

[PP Mguire]

OP is located in New Zealand