Hey duders. So, it's finally happening. I'm setting aside some money to build myself a PC, which will mainly be used for gaming. I just wanted to get some input on the current build I've put together.

First, I should probably lay down some things. One, I'm cheap. I'm not looking to spend over $900 to build a complete 1080p 60FPS Ultra settings console murderer. My ideal budget right now is just over $500, which probably seems low, but I think it'll do what I want it to do.

And what I want it to do is...

• Run games from last gen at 1080p 60 fps while running most modern games at 1080p. 30fps is fine, as long as it's stable and the textures are comparable if not better than the current gen consoles.
• I want to use Dolphin and have most games run at 720p 60 fps.
• ... and I think those are really the main things.

I don't care about streaming, heavy video editing, or Photoshop or anything, so don't stress that.

As for my build...

CPU: This is one I'm having trouble with. I know I should avoid AMD like the plague here and go with Intel. The Dolphin FAQ pretty much states i5 is the best processor line to use for it, but I can't figure which one is the best one to go for. I'd ideally like to spend under $200 on it. (If i3's are still somewhat good I'd take that, but I'm pretty sure everyone would just suggest I fork over the extra cash for the i5 lol.)

Motherboard: Asus P8H61 - M LE/CSM R2.0 Micro ATX LGA1155 - Would kinda like to know if this would suffice for the build. I know next to shit when it comes to motherboards. (I know what they do and what they're for, but that's about it. The spec stuff is gibberish to me.)

Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8 GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3- 1600 Memory - The reviews were mostly positive and I've heard 8GB is the amount I should be going for. Could have sworn Ram was cheaper, though. (This set is almost $80)

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200 RPM - Nothing fancy. Seems like more than enough storage to house the OS and all my stuff. Reviews seem generally favorable and it's only $50.

Graphics Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Superclocked Video Card - This card seems too good to be true for the pricepoint. $115 after rebate on Newegg and videos show this game running Battlefield 4 and Crysis 3 at Ultra settings with decent frame rates. I'm pretty sold on this card, but if you have one and have some feedback on it I'd love to hear it anyway!

Case: Don't have one. Need you duders to help me with this. Ideally I'd like to spend between $30 - $40 on this. It just needs to house all my parts while giving decent airflow and whatever other important things cases need to do.

Power Supply: Don't have one of these either. PCPartPicker seems to think I only need 159 watts to power it. (when I put a processor in it was about 254) Not sure how accurate that is. I should note I don't plan on upgrading much, so don't suggest something crazy like 600-700 watts. Ideally I'd like to spend less than $50 on this, I think.

So yeah, I think that's everything. Don't worry about the OS or accessories or anything. I guess I should probably ask if a CPU cooler is really necessary. I think I've got a good one picked out for $20... but like I said I'm really cheap and don't want to spend any money I don't have to.

Thanks a lot in advance duders.

Hell yeah! I was gonna make a thread for my build but I was worried the duders would be all over me for "another one of these?" threads lol Think I'll start a thread to keep a build log!

As far as PSU goes, I would suggest using one of the sites with a detailed PSU calculator. Can't think of them off the top of my head, but they allow you to spec every aspect of your build out and it'll give you estimated minimum and average, something like that. Then check out JohnnyGuru's website. He reviews a ton of PSUs, and every aspect of them, including build quality. Very easy to follow reviews. From what I've read, take your estimated minimum, and that should be like 60% of the PSU wattage; am I in the ball park there duders? Leaves a little bit of headroom for upgrades down the road without being overkill.

Heard this calculator is a great one: http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

I have a I5-4670k but don't worry about the k version unless u plan to tinker with overclocking. Stock cooler will be no issue at all unless u plan to overclock. I have some noctua cooler just for kicks it keeps it cooler but it's not like u see any performace gain so again unless u want to overclock or heat becomes an issue down the line don't bother. Personally I wouldn't get an i3 the price differences are so minimal but the benefits are certainly better on i5. Try squeeze an SSD into the budget trust me and I'm sure many will back me up its a serious game changer in boot up time and general snappiness. Memory is fine I run a similar setup and the 750ti is a decent card from what I remember. I run 2x 660's which I think equals out to about the 750 and I run bf4 at around 70-80fps

@turtlebird95: If you're really unwilling to spend much more than $500, you might want to consider buying a half-decent Dell from their outlet store and tossing an entry level card like the 750ti in there.

If you want to build a halfway decent PC, this is what I would recommend at a minimum (and it isn't that far from $500):

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/yKbcNG

Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/yKbcNG/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ NCIX US)

Motherboard: ASRock H97M Anniversary Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($69.98 @ SuperBiiz)

Memory: Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($67.96 @ Amazon)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.98 @ OutletPC)

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Superclocked Video Card ($114.99 @ Newegg)

Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ NCIX US)

Power Supply: SeaSonic 450W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply ($69.99 @ Mwave)

Total: $607.88

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-11 16:30 EST-0500

This also has the benefit of being far more upgradeable than a pre-built. To give a quick reasoning for these choices: I would actually recommend an i3 if you didn't seem so intent on running Dolphin. Emulation is pretty CPU intensive, and modern i5s are pretty much the first chips that can handle something like dolphin without setting your PC on fire. You may want to think about installing a Hyper Evo 212 though, seeing as it can still be pretty demanding.

RAM is RAM at this point, it's pretty much all fine. Prices have went up significantly since a couple of years ago, since a lot of manufacturers have climbed aboard the mobile memory gravy train and aren't making DIMMs any more.

Seagate drives are quite a bit more prone to failure than WD drives, ~$10 isn't much to pay for peace of mind.

You are right, that 750ti is pretty damn great. You can get an R7 265 for slightly more cash, which will marginally outperform it, but at the cost of a significantly greater power consumption. I'd stick with the 750ti.

That's just a decent case. Very decent for the price. It's mATX, like the motherboard, since most people really don't need the extended functionality of a full or even mid size case any more.

And that's a gold rated Seasonic PSU which provides more than enough power for your system and leaving you with room to upgrade, you can't really go wrong there.

Hope this has been useful.