Hey guys, my friend's laptop recently died, and now he needs a new gaming machine. Just to play SC2/LoL/whatever, and he says he doesn't want to have to upgrade any time soon, which shouldn't be a problem given his budget.

His budget is 1000-1200 dollars. He doesn't need an optical drive and will be wanting an SSD. He also needs a monitor and keyboard, so it would be good to have room for that after the other stuff.

http://www.staredit.net/348063/
- minus monitor and optical
- plus LG Electronics IPS234V-PN 23 inch
Should go for just over $1200. Ask rockz to find some deals.

He still needs a keyboard and money for an OS. Plus I don't like to recommend thing to friends that go over their budget by 100 dollars from the get-go.....

I'll modify/update this build from Ex then:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD A8-3870K 3.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($86.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Biostar TA75A+ ATX FM1 Motherboard ($79.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($57.99 @ Microcenter)
Storage: Samsung 840 Pro Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($124.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($64.98 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card ($249.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($72.98 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.94 @ Outlet PC)
Monitor: LG IPS231B-BN 23.0" Monitor ($194.99 @ NCIX US)
Keyboard: Lite-On SK-1788/BS Wired Standard Keyboard ($12.98 @ Newegg)
Mouse: Logitech B100 Wired Optical Mouse ($5.49 @ Mac Mall)
Total: $1166.29
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-06-05 15:37 EDT-0400)

Using an AMD build and some lesser (but still good) components you can have everything and stay under the budget, even. You can probably save some more bucks if you get Win 7 from somewhere else.

Note that the monitor I recommended earlier apparently has 14ms grey-to-grey which is unacceptable. It didn't say that on the sites I was checking reviews for it but it does say it on the us shop pages, so I went the safe route and picked a similar model.

Anyways the last 4 parts (monitor, OS, mouse, keyboard) aren't set in stone and should be chosen by preference, reviews and discounts.

just a few notes on nude's build:

look at the price history on each component. You'll notice that the PSU has a sale price of $50, which is what you should try to beat.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171037
This is a better PSU and comes with a $40 MIR, which makes it cheaper.

If you're going to buy a keyboard and not get one for free somewhere, you may as well get something good:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823109191
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823129002

It's really a waste of $10 when you could get a mechanical for an incredibly cheap price, or an anti-ghosting gaming keyboard with excellent drivers/macros. The x4 IMO is the best rubber dome membrane keyboard out there, and at $40 it's not a bad price.

And of course, if you're not afraid of rebates, 16 GB of RAM for $75 is pretty damn good.

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Jun 6 2013, 12:41 am by rockz.

Actually, I mostly used ex's build from the other new comp thread here, except without the ridiculous 400 dollar monitor haha. Made a few small modifications such as case and no optical drive, and wound up being good on the budget, with more power than that AMD build.

That's what I recommended initially (take Ex's build and replace monitor) but you wanted it cheaper. -.-