New budget build for a non-believer of budget builds

XGC Forsakend

Student & Lover of Games
Messages
1,412
Location
USA
Hey guys,
It's been a while. Still lurking but haven't posted much.

Anywho, have a friend who believes you need to spend a minimum $1300+ for a gaming PC and her boyfriend was putting stuff together for her and showed her that price range. She is settling for a gaming laptop roughly about $850, but I figured I could come up with a build with everything she needs for a bit more and have much more power.

Her absolute budget is $1000 and to include everything such as monitor, keyboard, mouse and case. It will be primarily for gaming.

This is the part picker list her BF sent her:
Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core, GeForce GTX 970 4GB WINDFORCE 3X, Core 2300 ATX Mid Tower - System Build - PCPartPicker

These are my modifications thus far:
Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core, GeForce GTX 960 2GB SuperSC ACX 2.0+, 200R ATX Mid Tower - System Build - PCPartPicker

I managed to do some changes where I saw as excessive or unnecessary due to budget limits. Was hoping I could have someone else take a look and see if we can shave off any more fat from it yet still keep it at a point where she won't have to worry if certain games will run on her rig for a bit.

I considered dropping to an i3 but unsure how much that would affect performance. Didn't think it would be much difference but would the price difference to performance be worth dropping down?

I know the 1060 is out and for $60-100 more, it definitely wouldn't be a worry... but need help making cuts somewhere for that. Also the challenge of finding one without having to pay with your first born.

Thanks for any assistance =)

(This is the laptop she was settling on just for reference)
https://www.amazon.com/Dell-Inspiro...=1469028442&ref=plSrch&ref_=mp_s_a_1_1&sr=8-1
 
Well both builds are a lot better than the laptop and the monitor particularly being crap helps too lol.

Your build is fine, but I don't suggest purchasing a 960 or a 970 with Pascal out. Is used hardware out of the question? I've seen used 980s as low as 200 bucks. Another option is the RX480 which is better than a 960 for sure.

Last but not least about 50 bucks can be saved by ditching the gamer board and getting an H110.
 
Back
Top Bottom