Hi all,

This is my first PC build. I'm going for a budget build of roughly $500 (less is better of course). I'm not looking for bells and whistles, but a solid frame rate at near 1080P for middle of the road games on medium settings (Fallout, Skyrim, some FPS, maybe Shadow of Mordor). No video editing or recording or overclocking or anything other than regular gaming and browsing. I'm reading on forums and watching videos, but I could royally screw this up so I'd like some advice.

Processor: i3-6100 $120

RAM: G Skill Ripjaw V Series 8 GB $32.99

GPU: GTX 750ti $109.99

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-110M-A DDR4 $104.99

Storage: PNY CS1311 120 GB SSD $39.99

Case: Fractal Design Core 1100 $54.02

Power: EVGA 430W 80+PSU $29.99 ($15 after mail in rebate)

I also have to get an inexpensive monitor and copy of windows 10. My old laptop had 7 installed and went to 10 after the upgrade and it died, so I'll have to suck it up and get a new 10 key I suppose. I found one on ebay for around $35 that seemed legit.

Questions:

What's the least expensive monitor I could get that isn't garbage?

What would you switch to save some $?

Could I use my old HDD and the SSD (install OS on SSD) and fit them both in the case? How would that work? I've read that a lot of people have one SSD for the OS and use a HDD for storing everything else. Sounds confusing to manually install.

How would an internet signal get to the system? Do I need a wireless adapter?

Is a quad core necessary? Reviews say the i3-6100 has the equivalent power or a quad core with hyperthreading, but I don't want to install something that will be obsolete very soon.

Thank you for the advice!

You should be able to install more than one drive, i would install the os on your ssd before you even put the other drive in to avoid conflicts if it has an os on it. The motherboard will have an ethernet port, but if you need wireless you need a wireless usb adapter.

Copy the OS installer on a USB and set the bios to boot to the USB while the SSD is plugged in. Of course I have no idea if that key is legit or not, but anyway...After the OS is installed on the SSD, plug the HDD in and go back to your bios and look for something along the lines of 'boot device priority'. Make sure the SSD is first and the HDD is second. Then on Steam or where ever make sure the drive you choose to install games is the HDD.

Keep in mind, if you want to install Windows 10, you can't do so without a key or Windows 7 or 8.1 installed until the 29th of this month. So you don't have much time. My advice, get a Windows 7 disk and a DVD drive and install the OS that way and download Windows 10 before July 29th. $35 for a Windows 10 key that may not work or a bit more expensive option with a guaranteed upgrade, for me the choice is easy, but I dunno.

Also for a monitor, I usually go with ASUS and a cheap one with 1080p capability would be: this

Looking into a monitor for you, but I was curious what will you be doing for sound? Will you need built-in speakers for the monitor, OR do you have headphones/speakers that you will be using?

First, the only time a computer is "obsolete" is when it is no longer providing for you the performance you need for daily use AND is no longer upgradable so as long as it's doing what you want it to at speeds you are satisfied with don't worry about the "obsolete" thing.

While I always try to have two or three separate hard drives in my builds, one for OS and one or two for other stuff when we are dealing with a budget as small as yours you may be better off just getting a single 2 or 3TB drive and worry about a secondary drive later.

Your build seems pretty solid for such a low budget machine but you may be able to save a few bucks and gain a bit of performance by going with the previous generation Intel chipset.

I know this is always annoying to hear when you're on a strict budget but I'm going to say it anyway. If you can be patient and save another hundred or so dollars I think that will make things much easier and give you much better performance options because as they are now you're spending money on new components that will barely get you above low settings with current games.

I'm going to part some stuff out to see if I can put together a slightly higher performing machine for you. If I can I'll post the links here.

I think you are spending too much on the case, I buy fairly nice coolermaster cases for work that are $50 and they come with a decent 430w power supply.

I'd skip on the SSD, just get a 7200 rpm 500gb, 120gb alone isn't enough room for anything.

OK, I really think going with an i3 will hinder you in the long run. If you add $75 to your budget and don't minding using a Haswell cpu as opposed to Skylake you can go from an i3 dual core to an i5 quad core and a GTX 950 instead of the GTX 750. These upgrades should net you a solid 60fps at medium settings or 30fps with high settings on most games.

If there is no way you can go above $500 then you can drop the i5 to an i3 but it will hurt you on games that are CPU intensive.

Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811352039&ignorebbr=1

Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130700&ignorebbr=1

CPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117302&ignorebbr=1

RAM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231477&ignorebbr=1

Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125810&ignorebbr=1

Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236339&ignorebbr=1

Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438016&ignorebbr=1

Thanks. With the i5 and GTX 950 that puts me a little over budget. The GTX is on sale at newegg for 136.99 after $30 mail in rebate and there's an instant 10% off the card with a promo code, so that knocks it down by $16.70 to $120.29 after all is said and done. And recommendations for an OS? Is 10 pretty much the standard now?

@spartica: I've had good luck with this: http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?itemnumber=9SIAAZU4431824

@ballsleon:

My cousin has an extra 1080p monitor that he's letting me have. Not sure it it has sound. If it doesn't what do you recommend? Just basic stuff I'm looking for. I'm no sound engineer and it appears I'm over budget.

I use an external wireless adapter so I can move it around if need be and it works really well. I'm not home at the moment but when I get back I'll post the model info.

Instead of looking for a new lcd monitor you could try looking for a second hand full HD television. I recently bought a new 50 inch lcd television and decided to use my old 32 inch lcd television as a pc monitor. The only downside is that I can see a little ghosting when I'm typing or scrolling text. But playing games is great, they are really immersive compared to the 22 inch lcd monitor I was using before. While I couldn't find a cheap second hand pc monitor with an HD resolution, there are plenty of 32 inch televisions on offer. Most graphic cards nowadays have HDMI output and even if yours hasn't, most television also have a VGA or DVI input that you can use.

With future upgrades in mind, you also might want to consider spending a few more bucks on a power supply of at least 500 watt. Most mid-range to high-range graphic cards require at least 500 watt and it's really annoying if you only have 400 or 450 watt in your build. It's not an expensive upgrade, but power supplies are a pain to have to replace with the two dozen connectors you have to plug in correctly.

When you install the SSD and HDD, plug in the SSD on the first SATA plug of the mother board. Then make sure that it's the primary disc using the BIOS (check the boot sequence). And use a usb stick to install Windows instead of a DVD. It'll save you a lot of time. There is a program available on the Microsoft website for creating a bootable usb stick. Just Google for a guide, it's not very complicated. Just be sure to set the boot sequence so that your pc first checks the USB and then the SSD.

@spartica

The wireless adapter I use is the TP-Link TL-WN822N.

@spartica: If you're already at your budget I'd just use some existing headphones. Can worry about that down the road.