Steam Recommendations for the Day

Hey guys, I'm gonna do a few more Steam Recommendations, and might just do some everyday the Autumn sale is still going.

Deus Ex - $2.79
Deus Ex is a classic game that takes place in a dystopian future. The start can be a bit weird for newcomers, but you'll get the hang of the game and start to like it soon after. And at $2.79, what do you have to lose?

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive - $3.74
The latest entry in the Counter-Strike series pretty much doesn't change a thing except for the graphics and some maps. You should still check it out.

Stalker: Clear Sky - $4.99
The Stalker series is a really good open-world series of games that takes place in nuclear wasteland Russia/Ukraine. Clear Sky is the prequel to the original Stalker, and it's almost like a survival horror game when you really get into it.

Jet Set Radio - $2.49
An acid trip if there ever was one, Jet Set Radio is a semi-futuristic rollerblading game. It's Tony Hawk in a weird setting, and that's not a bad thing.

Hope you guys get a chance to play some of these games. They're all really good. If you have any other games, list them, or let me know. If you wanna get the best out of the Autumn sale, only go for items 66% off or higher. They give you the most bang for your buck at higher prices.

Happy Gaming.

Radeon R9 280X: A True Beast

The R9 280X. Man, that's a really nice card. Look at the card PRISM! Okay, here's the card. It's awesome. You get 3GB of RAM. It's better than anything in the next-gen consoles, and should not be used for budget building. But, for the next two days or so, screw budget, let's get a bit crazier.

GPU: HIS iPower IceQ X2 R9 280X - http://amzn.to/180lv8K
If you want absolute beastly power, but don't wanna blow half of a thousand dollar budget on a graphics card, get this. If you do wanna spend half a thousand dollars on a graphics card, nVidia has a bunch of options for that that offer similar power, or you can wait until tomorrow to see the true beast. This is still an amazing card for an enthusiast gamer, or even a video editor.

CPU: AMD FX-8350 - http://amzn.to/IvwAFR
This is, in my opinion, is the best AMD CPU you can buy that doesn't make you look like a power hungry PC crazy man. It's amazing for gaming, I know a lot of people who have it, too, and mix it with a 990FXA mobo (which we do), it really packs a nice punch.

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master TPC 812 - http://amzn.to/1iZCUms
One of the best air coolers you can get, the TPC 812 allows you to overclock your CPU decently without spending an arm and a leg. If you want true overclocking power, you obviously go with a water cooler, but that's for another build.

Mobo: Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 - http://amzn.to/18rGW5p
This Gigabyte Mobo is one of the most affordable 990FXA mobos you can get. It's fully featured, gives you everything you need, and helps punch the 8350 forward. Get this mobo at least if you plan on getting an 8000 series FX processor.

RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB 1600 - http://amzn.to/1fOj663
Ballistix RAM as always. Upgrade if you want with another 8GB.

HDD: Western Digital Blue 1TB - http://amzn.to/1b5J4dl
Using this one again. I highly recommend getting an SSD as well, but it would only be an optional extra.

PSU: Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 850W - http://amzn.to/1cQq5Gf
This Cooler Master PSU is an 80+ Silver PSU, so you're gonna get really good power efficiency under heavy load, and these components might push above 500W, as well as any case fans and Crossfiring your already beast of a card. Especially down the line in 5 years or so.

Case: Rosewill Galaxy-01 - http://amzn.to/1jQmRoT
The Rosewill Galaxy series is really, really good, and comes with some awesome features. You can put up to 4 fans in it, and comes with 3 already installed. It's a great case, but if you want something a little more minimal in look, go with a Fractal Design Define R4. They're really nice cases.

Total Cost: Approx. $1000 before taxes.

This build is not for someone who wants to play FTL. This is for the hardcore gamer that wants to break out in us all, but doesn't have the budget. If you want a beast gaming rig and have $1000 laying around or saved up. It's a great rig.

Happy gaming.

My game recommendation of the day is XCOM: Enemy Unknown. If you like sci-fi, you'll like this game. If you like strategy, you'll like this game. If you want to do something other than shoot everything that moves, you'll like this game. It's $10 too.

Best GPUs for the Money

Wanna know how to get the most bang for your buck? Well, since Black Friday is tomorrow, I decided you might as well let everyone know what you want for Christmas while at the dinner table. These are the best value graphics cards you can get.


Gigabyte Radeon 7770 - http://amzn.to/1evaTQq
This is a great GPU at $100, especially when coupled with a quad core CPU. It should be able to play most games at 1080p on medium settings if you want really good framerates, but you could push the details to high without AA if you were to go 720p. It's a nice card, and you should think about picking it up for a budget rig.

Asus Radeon 7850 - http://amzn.to/1caZtBA
This 7850 is $125, but it doesn't have a great cooler on it. However, this card will get you great framerates at 1080p in many games, and will run Battlefield 3/4 at really nice settings where it'll look as good as next-gen consoles. The prices will go down as the 7000 series cards get discontinued, so pick one up soon if you really want an upgrade.

Asus GTX 660 - http://amzn.to/1hlHoVh
The GTX 660 is a really good card when compared to some other cards, in my opinion. This Asus card is $70 less than their 660Ti, but it's only about 10% slower. The card is more than 10% cheaper, so the 660 is much better value than the 660Ti right now for your money.


These three cards will get you the most bang for your buck, in my humble opinion. The reason is because they're last generation cards, but the next generation cards are only about 50% faster for twice the price. You shouldn't pay twice the price for a card that's not twice as fast. So buy smart, and buy reasonable. Also, all these cards work with 450W PSUs, so you won't have to spend a bunch of money in that area, either.

Happy gaming.

Deals on Newegg.com

Hey, there are some awesome deals on Newegg.com for components, here are some you should check out.

Western Digital Black 2TB HDD - $110
http://tinyurl.com/kbw3rnx

G.SKILL Ares Series 8GB (2x4GB) RAM - $50
http://tinyurl.com/llwxgtt

Sapphire Radeon 7870 GHz Edition - $130 after rebate
http://tinyurl.com/m389fqy

Asus GTX670 - $200 after rebate
http://tinyurl.com/mqm26lh

ASUS M5A78L-M Mobo - $45 after rebate
http://tinyurl.com/ndpldsp

All these deals are really good, and they all come with free shipping. You could even get started on a really nice build if you pick a GPU and go from there.

Happy gaming, everyone.

R9 270X: A Conundrum

So, this is a weird card. It was originally supposed to be the better card between it and the regular 270, but when overclocked, the 270 is actually better. And overclocking is easy, trust me. MSI Afterburner, find the intervals, you're set. But let's see what we can do with the R9 270X.

Author's note: After this build, I'm going to classify any cards with similar names and performance as twins, and just make one blog post for the two cards. So the R9 290 and 290X will be in the same post. Saves time and energy.

Let's begin.


GPU: MSI R9 270X - http://amzn.to/1hjLVaI
This card is weird. When stock clocked, it does perform better than it's little brother, but when overclocked, it is actually a bit slower by a frame or two when playing games. It makes me scratch my head and think "Why would anyone buy the 290X when the 290 is $20 cheaper and just as, if not more, powerful?" It's a weird card, and I personally can't say I wholly recommend it. But, it's up to you. It is more powerful when run out of the box, and some people want that.

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz - http://amzn.to/17YqZmM
This time, we're going six core. Surprisingly, this one is cheaper on Amazon than the FX-6100. Weird. Might be a limited thing. Anyway, this CPU is really, really powerful. I think six physical cores will be a recommended setting for many AAA games in 2014, so start now.

Mobo: MSI M5A97 LE R2.0 - http://amzn.to/1esqEYa
MSI mobo, cause this is a good board to hold all our shizzzzzz. It's less than $100, and comes with everything we need for a good six core, mid-high range GPU build.

RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB 1600MHz - http://amzn.to/18p9v3i
Crucial Ballistix RAM. You know why. Good RAM, and it's a few cents cheaper to single channel than to dual channel, but you can always dual channel later.

HDD: Western Digital Blue 1TB - http://amzn.to/1b5J4dl
Another component. I would recommend upgrading to a 2TB HDD, or even putting your games on an external hard drive, cause games are gonna get big in 2014.

PSU: EVGA 500 B - http://amzn.to/1cxvJ0e
A 500 watt PSU to make sure all our shizzzzz gets good power. The card is a higher end card, so better safe than explosion, I mean sorry. Make sure everything is good with this PSU, and EVGA makes really nice power supplies.

Case: Fractal Arc Midi R2 - http://amzn.to/1hjNXrt
This is just a suggestion, and you can get similar functionality from a cheaper case, but the Arc Midi R2 from Fractal is really nice. A brushed steal outside, plenty of room inside, and a really minimalistic design make this a nice center piece. No, I was not paid to say that, though I wish I was. You can go with a cheaper case for $40-50, so we'll use whatever case you plan to get the sum of the build.

Cost: Approx. $650

If I could, I'd have this build. The GPU and the CPU would go together really well in this build, and the compliments from the RAM and the Mobo will help too.

If you have any suggestions, let me know.

Happy gaming.

My game recommendation of the day is Rogue Legacy. You play as a an adventurer who will inevitably die and have to be replaced by his descendants. However, all the descendants have randomly generated life disadvantages, such as long-sightedness, paranoia and dementia, dwarfism, etc. It's a really fun RPG, and you should check it out.

Amazon Game Deals!

Hey guys, I'm gonna take a little break from the building to give you all some Amazon game deals. These are some of the awesome deals I think you guys should pick up.

Civilization V Complete Bundle - http://amzn.to/1aX4xs8
So Civilization is one of my favourite series ever, and Civ V is the best of the series. The complete bundle on Amazon comes with the Civilization V Gold game which comes with a lot of DLC and also comes with the Brave New World expansion. Go and check this bundle out... Now!

Bioshock Triple Pack - http://amzn.to/1iQfWOG
If you haven't played Bioshock, what are you doing with your life? This triple pack is awesome, because it comes with three games for less than the price of one. Epic.

Borderlands Pack - http://amzn.to/IhsKzk
Be careful with this pack, cause if you get it, you will lose sleep and loved ones. The Borderlands pack comes with Borderlands Game of the Year and Borderlands 2 (base game). These games are addicting. Like, really addicting. Go pick them up.

Kingdoms of Amalur - http://amzn.to/1idDRtK
This game had the sad fate of being released in the same season as Skyrim. It's an insanely underrated RPG, and very reminiscent of Fable. If you liked Fable, or like a colourful, cartoon-y art style with your action RPG, get this. And it comes with all the DLC.

FTL: Faster Than Light - http://amzn.to/IrF5B0
FTL was featured as a recommendation on a previous build. I highly recommend this game, too. It's a fun little roguelike game, and you don't need a supercomputer to play it.


That's all the deals for now, but stay tuned for more as Black Friday Week goes on.

Happy Gaming.

Amazon Affiliation

Hey guys, I'm just letting you all know that I'm going to be changing the format a bit for my builds. I recently got into the Amazon Affiliate program, so you're going to start seeing Amazon links where the Newegg links were. No, I won't change the old links, don't worry. This is just to help monetize the site and to help give you guys better content, maybe even videos.

I hope you guys enjoy the links, and if they aren't received well, I'll put the Newegg links up as well.

Let me know what you think.

Happy Gaming.

R9 270: nVidia's Real Competition

I bet you're wondering about the title. Well, it's simple; at 1080p, this card is an absolute beast. The overclock benchmarks on the reference R9 270 actually make the R9 270x almost redundant, because this thing actually beats it a lot of the time. And at the sub $200 level, that means this thing is what should make nVidia a little scared, since the card that best performs against this from nVidia is $70 more! That's... just insane. Anyway, enough gushing, let's get started.

GPU: Asus R9 270 DirectCU II OC - $180

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121823

This card is really, really good for the price. For $80 more, you can get an nVidia GTX 760, which will give you about 3 more FPS on average in some games. That's not a reasonable trade-off at all, and that's when both cards are overclocked. This card will give you much better bang for your buck, and Mantle will improve it a lot, just like the R7 Series cards, except the 240.

CPU: AMD FX-4350 4.2GHz - $120

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113326

Once again, we're gonna go with the FX-4350. With this card, the processor will do great, and you shouldn't see any bottlenecking at all from the GPU or the CPU. Just make sure you've got some aftermarket cooling for overclocking.

Mobo: MSI 970A-G46 - $80

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130637

The MSI 970A-G46 is the big brother to the Mobo we used in the last build, the G43. It's a really good board for the price, and supports the latest technology, like 3TB HDDs, USB 3.0, and more. It'll work perfectly for this build, and is able to be used for Crossfire/SLI, so you can add another GPU in the future.

RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB 1600MHz - $55

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148540

We're going with a single stick of 8GB RAM this time so that you can upgrade in the future. The mobo supports up to 64GB of RAM, so if you need more, you can get more, especially since this is really good RAM at a really cheap price. The Ballistix RAM is some of my favourite, and it's really nice for gaming.

HDD: Western Digital Blue 1TB - $70

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236339

You probably know all about this HDD by now. Go read the other builds for a better look.

PSU: EVGA 500 B 80+ Bronze - $35 after Rebate

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438012

Since we're starting to get up in Graphics power, we're gonna need a bigger PSU. This 500W PSU will do the trick. When we go higher, I'm gonna start recommending 80+ Silver PSUs to give you better power efficiency.

Case: Rosewill Galaxy-02 - $50

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147184

The Galaxy series from Rosewill is a great case, and the Galaxy-02 comes with all the features I like in a case, such as front audio, USB 3.0, and comes with 3 fans installed for some good cooling. It's a really good case, especially at this price.

Total price: $590

With a budget of $600, you'll definitely be able to rock some great graphics in your games, especially if you overclock. The R9 270 will play anything at 1080p, and tweaking the graphics settings will allow you to easily get 60 frames, all in native 1080p.

Happy gaming.

My recommendation of the day is Bastion. This is a great top-down RPG with some really good narrative. If you haven't heard of this game, go look it up. It's only $15, too.

R7 260X: The Mantle Baby

Okay, so today, we have the R7 260X. I call this the Mantle Baby because I think when Mantle comes out, this will be the best card to get to give yourself a major boost in performance, especially in 1080p gaming. Let's get started.

Graphics Card: Club 3D R7 260X - $150
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814550005

I've never heard of this card manufacturer before, but I like trying something new. The card looks nice with the black shroud, and the dual fans will keep the card nice and cold. It's a small card, and looks like it'll fit in just about any case nicely. All you need is a 6-pin connector, and you'll be good to go. Did I mention you get 2 free games?

CPU: AMD FX-4350 4.2GHz - $120
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113326

The FX series processors are quite nice for the price. You get good power and performance for the price, and the L2 and L3 Caches are nice and big, with an 8MB L2 and 4MB L3. This means you'll go a lot faster when playing games, which, for us, is all that matters. The trade off is a bit more power consumption and when overclocking, it can get a little hot, so I recommending getting an aftermarket cooler if you want to overclock.

Mobo: MSI 970A-G43 - $60
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130679

The MSI 970A-G43 is one of the best mobos for under $80 you can find. It has a fast North Bridge, has an easy overclocking interface, and supports high speed RAM with some overclocking as well. It's a really nice mobo, especially if you aren't planning on going to the top of the line FX processors. This will work just fine.

RAM: Team Xtreem Dark Series 8GB 1600MHz - $52
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820313080

Team Xtreem RAM is by the same people who make the Team Vulcan RAM, which has been featured on this blog numerous times before. The Dark series RAM is pretty much the same, but less expensive, and with a different shroud. We don't need much more than 1600MHz, and this will do the trick.

HDD: Western Digital Blue 1TB - $70
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236339

We're going with the Western Digital Blue HDD again. Since this build will be able to do a lot faster, more intensive gaming, you can put a buttload of games on here.

(Optional!) SSD: SanDisk 64GB SATA III - $65
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820171645

For an optional SSD, this 64GB is a nice deal in the sweet spot for SSDs at a dollar per GB. It'll improve your OS load times a lot, and if you put a few games on here, it'll improve the speeds in load times there, too. Just make sure you don't go over the write limit.

PSU: Corsair CX430W - $45
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139026

As always, gonna go with an 80+ Bronze PSU, and the CX430 will do just fine for this build. Although the recommended PSU for the 260X is 500W, you never really need that much. On PCPartPicker, this build only has about 350W, so the 430W gives plenty of overhead. You should get a 500W PSU when the system wattage goes above 400W. Until then, you'll be fine.

Case: APEX PCV-588 - $30 after Rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811154110

Again, cases are completely subjective. I usually just post cases I like, giving you a little idea of what you might like too. I recommend you follow the parameters of front USB 3.0, front USB 2.0 and front audio/mic. That makes it so you aren't routing cables to your motherboard, and it's convenient.


Total price: $527 (592 with the SSD) before taxes and shipping

There, a really nice budget system for about the same as an Xbox One. Why would you ever buy an underpowered console?

I really like this system if you are making a first build. I would recommend the R7 250 build for a first build as well, because both will get you in the running for great gaming.

Happy gaming, everyone.

My game recommendation of the day is Chivalry: Medieval Warfare. A first person fighter, you play as a warrior in medieval times fighting others. The learning curve in this game is steep, and you will die A LOT, but it is a lot of fun. The weapons have impact, the arrows have drop, and the gameplay is solid. It's a great game, and should definitely be supported. You can pick it up at GreenManGaming.

R7 250: The Better Alternative For The Budget Conscious Gamer

Okay, so you saw the R7 240 yesterday. Honestly, I don't recommend building that rig at all. You can get a lot better for your graphics card for $10 more. The R7 240 shouldn't actually exist, and the R7 250 should be the true bottom of AMD's new line. Let's get started.


Graphics card: MSi R7 250 OC - $91
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127763

This should be the real bottom end card. It won't go through all the technical stuff, but this is a lot faster than the R7 240. This card is the replacement for the Radeon 7750, which was a great budget performer. This will let you play a lot of games at good graphics at 720p, but it's not exceptional at 1080p gaming because it doesn't have GDDR5 RAM. It will be able to use AMD's Mantle API (which I will discuss later), which means it's performance will go up with supported games, like Battlefield 4 and Thief.

CPU: AMD Ahtlon X4 750k - $80
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113328

The Athlon 750k is a great budget CPU at less than $100. You could get the 760k for less than $100, too, but this will work just as well. Think of the 750k as an A10-5800k without the GPU on the chip. It's really fast, and will work well with this GPU.

Mobo: Asus A88XM-A - $85
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132045

Going with an Asus board again, cause they're very consistent. This board will again let you upgrade the CPU in the future, and supports a lot of RAM speeds. It'll go well with this system, and even supports up to 64GB of RAM.

RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws 8GB 1600MHz - $79
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231314

The Ripjaws series has been featured on this site a lot, so we might as well use it again. It's fast, looks good, and is very affordable. I highly recommend it.

HDD: Seagate Barracude 1TB - $70
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148840

Finally, we've got a build with a Terabyte. I never put Terabyte drives because budget gamers aren't gonna be installing a lot of high capacity games, but this drive has a good deal on and can save $10 on your final purchase. It's a great deal, and Seagate makes some awesome HDDs.

PSU: Corsair CX430 - $45
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139026

Always get 80+ Bronze, and this is a really good one. This system won't be sucking too much power under a heavy load, and should even let us upgrade the GPU if we wanted to down the line, maybe to an R7 260X or even an R9 270.

Case: COUGAR MG100 - $30
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811553015

As always, this is the subjective component. This one just comes with the requirements. USB 3.0, Audio in the front, fan area for air flow. Looks like a nice product.

Total price: $469


So there we go. A better rig than the R7 250 build with about $100 more before tax and shipping. Honestly, I'll probably build a similar rig and sell it, just because it's a good budget gaming rig.

If you have an comments or suggestions, let me know.

Happy Gaming.

Oh, and my video game recommendation of the build is Red Orchestra 2/Rising Storm. The Red Orchestra series is one of my favourite FPS series of all time, and Red Orchestra 2 looks great and plays great. If you're sick of the Call of Duty style games, and don't want something as vehicle oriented as Battlefield, Red Orchestra 2 and Rising Storm, the Japanese expansion, may give you your FPS fix. They're on sale on Steam a lot, and they're also available on the Humble Store and GreenManGaming.

Radeon R7 240 - You Could Do Better

Okay, so this build is all about the Radeon R7 240. This is AMD's lowest range card available, and ranges from $70 to $90, and if you pay more than $90, you're just silly. Let's get started, shall we?


Graphics Card: Gigabyte Radeon R7 240 - $80
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125482

So, let's talk about the main thing we're building this rig around. The R7 240 is as low end as you can get from AMD's modern line of cards. It had 2 GB of RAM... DDR3 RAM. This card really isn't suitable for 1080p gaming, and maybe not even 720p gaming. You could probably play Battlefield 3 on low settings on low resolution, so I wouldn't expect much from this card. And at $80, believe it or not, we can find something better. But that's another day and another build.

CPU: AMD Athlon X2 340 3.2 GHz - $45
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113330

As dual core CPUs go, this one is pretty good. It's the dual core version of the Trinity 740, using pretty much the same architecture but only two cores instead of four. It gives a nice 3.2GHz, with the Trinity architecture, which is a really good architecture (not just because I use a Trinity APU). This will do some good framerates with a better card.

Mobo: Asus A55BM-A FM2+/FM2 - $70
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132050

I really like a few things about this mobo. The look is nice, as if that matters, it's FM2+, which means it will work with future APUs until AMD scraps it, which doesn't look like it'll happen soon, and it appears to allow 2133MHz RAM. That means a lot, because if you are going to upgrade the CPU in the future to an APU, high speed RAM is a definite must. This will definitely hold everything nice and snug, and at a really good price point.

RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB - $33
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148539

I use this RAM in a lot of my builds, because it's inexpensive, effective, and Crucial. This RAM is 1600MHz RAM, so if you upgrade to an APU, you won't have to upgrade this RAM right away, unless you want to add another 4GB of RAM. It's on sale now, too, so if you're building a different rig right now, I highly recommend it.

HDD: Western Digital Blue 500GB - $50
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136769

This is adequate storage for your system. I doubt you'll be playing 20GB games with this rig, so this will definitely be enough until an upgrade. There are great indie games that you could stuff your Steam library with.

PSU: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze - $35 after rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438012

I want to give you guys a lot of headroom to upgrade. This is a good power supply for that, and you could go all out if you wanted to. Always get an 80+ certified PSU, and if you can, get 80+ Bronze. I don't recommend going 80+ Silver or higher until you start really going crazy with your graphics card and processor.

Case: SilverStone PS08B Black - $30 after rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163223

This is a case that fits all the regular criteria; 3.0 USB, audio, fan in the front for cooling. Cases are subjective as always and you can go with what you want if you don't need 3.0 USB. It's up to you.

Final Price: $343 before tax

There you have it. A nice build for the R7 240. It's not a beast gaming rig, but it'll play Quake amazingly. Stay tuned for when we check out the 240's bigger brother, the R7 250.

Also, I'm going to start doing game recommendations each build at the bottom in this area. My recommendation for this week is Papers Please. Set in a Cold War-era country, you play a border inspector who lets people go through the country. Never has paperwork been so fun. I highly recommend it, and it is a seriously addicting game.

Happy gaming, everyone.

Build Schedule and GoG Sale

Hey everyone, sorry I haven't posted in a few days. I came down with a bad flu, so I've been more bed ridden than usual.

Anyway, for the next couple of weeks, I'm going to be doing builds centered around AMD's new graphics cards, the R7 and R9 series cards. Yes, every one of them, from the R7 240 to the R9 290X. This will hopefully give all of you price ranges for each card, and give you a little bit of where you should expect to pay for each system.

So, here's the schedule for the next few days:

Tuesday, 19 November 2013 - R7 240 super budget build

Wednesday, 20 November 2013 - R7 250 build

Friday, 22 November 2013 - R7 260X build

Sunday, 24 November 2013 - R9 270 build

Tuesday, 26 November 2013 - R9 270X build

Wednesday, 27 November 2013 - R9 280X build

Thursday, 28 November 2013 - R9 290 build

Black Friday, 29 November 2013 - R9 290X build


That's what you can expect from this blog over the next 2 weeks or so. Schedule may change depending on work and illness and if I want to change the dates. Don't worry, I will let you guys know.

Also, if you're looking for some great deals on games, check out http://www.gog.com/'s Fall Insomnia Sale. I got The Witcher 2 for $5 from this sale, and the quantities are limited because the keys are limited. It's a great sale, too. GreenManGaming is also having a good Indie game, Sonic, and Telltale sale, with a 25% off voucher for select games. Check it out: http://www.greenmangaming.com/?gmgr=vewitufe

Happy Gaming.

Potential Fallout 4 Tease?

So there's a really strange site called Thesurvivor2299.com. Now, the weird this about this site is that it is playing Morse code, and the Morse code translates to 11/12/13 or 11 December 2013 for the Americans who don't understand how messed up their number system is for almost everything. It's only a suspicion and the source is from Reddit, and the site isn't related to any Zenimax source code or domains, and isn't on Zenimax's DNS server, but Zenimax and Bethesda both denied to comment on the claims.

This is right at the beginning of a console launch too, and Bethesda/Zenimax also have The Elder Scrolls Online and Wolfenstein to pay attention to, but it would be pretty awesome if they did have something to say on 11/12/13 about a new Fallout, whether it be Fallout 4 or a Fallout MMO.

Happy Gaming.

Speaking of gaming, have you heard of GreenManGaming? They've got great sales on, allow you to install games onto Steam, and even allow you to trade games in if they're on your GMG account.

http://www.greenmangaming.com/?gmgr=vewitufe

Sign up and have a blast, especially with upcoming sales.

Why 1152000 Pixels Doesn't Matter

Xbox One owners shouldn't feel inadequate because their console has fewer native 1080p games than the PS4 does. Not at all. Mainly because both have fewer native 1080p games than PC, but that's beside the point.

The difference between 720p and 1080p is 1152000 pixels. That's a lot of pure numbers. But can the average gamer see the difference? Not really.

I've done a few tests to see if anyone notices the difference between the two. My brother, his friends, and a few of my own only play video games a couple hours a day. I play them pretty much all day. In between blog posts, I'm either playing games or playing music. I know the difference between 720p and 1080p.

But did they? Well, I decided that I was going to change the TV in my basement with an Xbox 360 from 1080p to 720p over the course of a week. Not my brother nor our friends complained about the change in resolution until I told them I changed it. Why didn't they notice? Because to the average gamer, much less the average person, the difference is barely noticeable. I can tell when someone's touched my resolution. My Field of View gets messed up from it, I notice how the detail changed, and I notice jaggys a lot more. I know when my resolution gets messed about at 60 FPS.

"Resolutiongate" is the stupidest thing ever. People are making it seem like the biggest thing ever because Call of Duty Ghosts is 1080p on PS4 and upscaled 1080p on Xbox One. For one, neither of the consoles have BF4 at 1080p. Yea, next gen my butt. Secondly, what if Ghosts has some framerate issues? Would you rather have smooth gameplay at 720p, or choppy gameplay at 1080p?

Shuhei Yoshida, the big boss in charge of PS4, said "1080p makes you a better gamer." No it doesn't. If it did, how come everyone I know who played Ka-boom addictively at one point is a super gamer now? How come the people who grew up on Mario at 240p can kick the asses of people who started on Call of Duty? 1080p doesn't make a better gamer. Experience makes you a better gamer.

Whatever console you buy (BUILD A PC FOR TRUE NEXT GEN), I'm happy for you.

Happy Gaming.

Why Building Between now and March is smart

A lot of people are asking me "When is the best time to build a computer for gaming?" I always tell them to build between now and March. Why? A few reasons.

1. Sales and price drops.

There is a lot of new technology coming out from the two major competitors in computer gaming: nVidia and AMD. Both of these are going to, or have, release new graphics cards in the coming months, so they are going to be dropping their "older" graphics cards by anywhere between $20 and $200, depending on the card. Also, computer retailers are going to be having their own sales, trying to get rid of some stock before Christmas and when the new GPUs are released.

2. Steam

Steam is a gaming community and retailer that will also be having a lot of sales, but I seperate it cause they aren't hardware. Computer gaming, in my opinion, would be virtually dead if it weren't for Steam, and Steam has sales on literally every week, as well as huge sales whenever there's a festive event, such as Christmas or Halloween. Steam make it very cheap to buy PC games.

3. Get your Christmas gift early

If you build now, you still have some time to get a few paychecks in before the holiday season. And again, it's very cheap to build right now because retailers are getting rid of their stock by having sales.

4. The new tech won't replace the old immediately

The R9 280X won't be replacing the Radeon 7950. In fact, they're pretty much an identical card. Nvidia's next line might replace their previous one, but they won't give you a huge performance boost. You could even go a few generations back if you wanted performance, and open yourself up for some upgradeability in the future.

5. CPUs are not the most important part

Despite what some people think, for gaming, the CPU is not the thing that makes gaming performance increase a lot. An AMD quad core is more than enough for gaming at high resolutions, and they can be picked up for $100 if you know where to look and what to look for. If you are gonna look for a cheap quad core, get an AMD 750k. Best quad core for the price.


If you are thinking of building a new computer, now is definitely a great time to do so. You could even look for barebones kits that give you good discounts.

Happy gaming, everyone.

Come Hang at a Live Stream

So I hang out a place called Tek Syndicate. They're a bunch pf really cool techie, nerdy people, and they've got a live stream going. They've also got a youtube channel, and a nice, juicy website.

http://www.twitch.tv/beergamesbeer

That's the Live stream happening at the moment. (2:36 AM EST), and it's being done by a dudebro named Qain. He's cool, as are Logan and Pistol, the other two live streamers.

I highly recommend checking Tek Syndicate out if you're interested in new technology and computers and such.

Happy Gaming, and watching.


http://www.greenmangaming.com/?gmgr=vewitufe

Looking for some great deals on games, but Steam ain't got nothing for ya? Check out Greenmangaming. They're a nice site with loads of games, most redeemable on Steam. Check them out.

A Plan for the Blog

So just a little update for the blog, I'm planning on using referral links to websites such as Greenmangaming, Newegg, and Amazon to hopefully generate some revenue for the site to give you guys a better experience. The GMG referrals would be used so I can do giveaways and such so you guys have a chance to win some games that I think are really cool. The Newegg and Amazon links will hopefully help me generate some revenue for the blog, maybe allow me to do videos of builds, news videos, etc.

I'd very much like to get the blog on a private domain, but unfortunately, I'm not a coder, can't afford the monthly fees of domains, and all the other stuff. However, if anyone knows anyone who can do all this stuff, or if you want to do it, I'd happily pay you in some way when I really get my feet off the ground.

So far, in the 20 days this blog has been up, I've had a good amount of views, thanks to the Facebook pages I am a part of. In fact, I'd very much like to thank Justin Akers for putting up with my crap and pretty much helping me get a lot of views. So thank you very much Justin and the people who come from that Facebook page.

If you think trying to get some money from here is a good thing, let me know, if you think it's a bad thing, let me know. I'm open to suggestion.

Happy gaming, everyone.

Humble Bundle... Store?!

So, I got an email today, and it is an awesome email. Humble Bundle, the people who give you deals on great games for whatever price you want and proceeds can go to charity, have opened a storefront. You won't be able to set your own price, but the deals so far are very, very good.

https://www.humblebundle.com/store

I picked up Chivalry: Medieval Warfare for $6.25, but there seems to be everything for everyone. I highly recommend checking them out.

Did I mention 10% of all earnings go to charity? Pretty freaking awesome.

Happy Gaming.

My Future Rig

Hey everyone. Today, I'm going to show you what I'm saving up for, to give you an example of how I like my system. This can also double as a 6-core build. However, the prices will be from the Canadian Newegg site, so I'm sorry about that. Anyway, let's get started.

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz - $120
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113286

I really want six cores. I think games are going to NEED six cores in the future, within the next year or two. I think Watchdogs, Titanfall, and many other games will need six cores for the recommended settings, and I like to stay on top of the technology. The AMD FX-6300 can be a little hot at times because of the 32nm build, but I think it will be good for me in the long run.

Motherboard: Biostar TA970 - $86
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138372

This is pretty much what I need. It's within my price range, it's got a good rating, it supports Crossfire, has SATA 6.0GB/s, and supports the CPU. It also has 4 RAM slots, so I can upgrade later if I need it. It looks like a very future-safe board, which is what I like.

RAM: G. Skill Ripjaws 8GB DDR3 1866MHz - $70
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231455

I know I can get RAM with lower clock speeds, but again, this is about future proofing to me. This is nice, inexpensive gaming quality RAM, and will get any job done that's thrown at it.

Graphics Card: ASUS Radeon HD 7850 - $150
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121704

The 7850 is one of the best mid-range level cards you can buy. It isn't easily bottlenecked, it doesn't bottleneck CPUs easily, and it's affordable. And unlike the R7 260x, it comes with 2 free games. So it'll be perfect for me.

PSU: Raidmax Cobra 500W 80+ Bronze - $55
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817152053

I'm taking a pretty big chance with this one, and I may change it later, but I'll give it a try. A 500W 80+ Bronze is a must for future proofing, and will help me in the long run, especially if I choose to use Crossfire.

Case: Rosewill Galaxy-03 - $40
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147185

I like the look of the Galaxy series from Rosewill. They've all got what I'm looking for, a front fan, USB 3.0 in the front, and a lot of room, so I'll definitely enjoy this chassis.

Total Price: $622

Wait a minute? Where's my hard drive?

My hard drive right now is inside my current computer. I'm going to back up all my files, games, etc., onto an external hard drive I have and just format my current HDD. Wipe it clean, install either Windows 7 or SteamOS, which I'm very excited for, and go from there.

I hope you enjoyed reading what I plan on building in the coming months, and I hope this inspires you to come up with a build, too. Leave any comments, suggestions, or questions, and I'll be sure to reply.

Happy Gaming.

Call of Duty: Ghosts Review

Maybe on PC it looks this good.

I want to get one thing out as fast as possible; I haven’t been a fan of the Call of Duty franchise in 3 years. Well, at least I haven’t been a fan of the multiplayer. I did enjoy the story in Black Ops and Black Ops 2, but other than that, they've had a falling out with me. Battlefield and Halo took over my life for a bit. But now, with a new CoD out and a new console generation hopping up, I can say this: I am intrigued.

When it comes to Ghosts, it feels a bit like a return to form for Infinity Ward. Yea, they've still got the big budgets, the over-the-top gameplay, and the often corny dialog, but Ghosts seems to be a return to what made people enjoy the franchise back in the days of the first Modern Warfare.

The story follows two brothers, Logan and Hesh, their dad Elias, and their dog Riley as they end up in a Red Dawn-esque dystopia. The Federation, made up of ALL of South America, has taken over the Home of the Whopper and caused some wreckage. What most people will notice is that you’re once again fighting the good fight as a one man (well, two man and a dog) army, running and gunning all over the American continent*. You fight through city streets, forests, factories, underwater, space; the usual. There’s even a CoD must-have, the flashback mission, which shines some light as to why the main villain wants a team of elite fighters dead. Like all of them. Though, there aren't that many to begin with.

I played on an Xbox, and although the graphics in game look dated because of the console, I will say that the between mission cutscenes are some of the most well put together and stylized I've ever seen, not only from Call of Duty, but from a video game in general. Instead of the seemingly strange black room with objective list we saw in the Modern Warfare games, it's more like the visuals from World At War, but very dark and crystal-y. I really enjoyed this part, and it’s a great way to break the tension between killing baddies.

The campaign lasted as long as a regular campaign in this day and age would for a shooter, clocking in for me at 5-8 hours. I was playing on Regular difficulty, because I don’t feel like putting myself through torture just to play a game. The game would definitely hit the 10 hour mark on Veteran, even for the best CoD players.

But, I know none of you are playing the game for the single player. Multiplayer is CoD’s bread and butter, and the Infinity Ward/Raven Software/Neversoft (three companies and one made Tony Hawk (that’s not good)) have taken some ideas from their best buddies over at Treyarch for the multiplayer.  The multiplayer sports a nifty variation on the pick 10 system from Black Ops 2, allowing you to fully customize the loadout. It can be kind of scary for newcomers when they open the perks page and see well over forty different things to choose from, but it does add a lot of depth, and you won’t know what the best combinations are for you until you try them, or just look them up online.

The thing that kind of disappointed me was the weapon selection. Every Infinity Ward Call of Duty seems to have a declining weapon count. I don’t know if this is because of the huge amount of perks, but it’s still kind of crappy. Another thing that makes a nice return is a currency system. This time, you have Squad points (I’ll talk about squads soon) that go between all your characters, and allow you to purchase weapons and upgrades. No more “higher level = better guns” nonsense. Everyone is at an even playing field as long as you’ve got the right amount of currency, you know, like real life.

Furthermore, the biggest addition to the game may be Squads. Squads is like create-a-class… but multiplied by 10, literally. Every time you unlock a character, they get their own set of classes, and you can pick what type of soldier they are when you unlock them. Your first guy could be an assault, second a recon, third a support, etc. You use these squads to select before matches, but the main thing they’re used for is computer controlled matches where you fight with or against a squad made up of your own teammates. And the AI in multiplayer isn’t as cheap as the AI in Black Ops 2 where they would snipe you from across the map when they had their back turned. These ones act a bit more like humans, but until we get “Soldiertars”, they’re still a little cheap at times.

And finally, we have the big baddy of them all: Extinction. You think Zombies was fun? Well, put it on crack, have it run for mayor of Toronto, and you have Extinction. And add aliens. This game mode is some of the most hectic action I've had in a while, and I will gladly welcome it to the CoD party mode team alongside Zombies. Similar to Modern Warfare’s Survival mode, you and your friends have to hunker down and eliminate an enemy threat. Each wave gets tougher, but you get money to buy new weapons, perks, upgrades and more, and you continue to use your Squad members in this mode as well. It can get very hectic, because the enemies move quickly and take a few rounds to kill. If they ever released a standalone game of Extinction and Zombies, I’d be in line on day one.

But, there are some gripes. It’s not all praise, as this is a Call of Duty game. In the single player campaign, there are far too many “’Merica!” moments, and your badassery gets to stupid levels, and can even stop being fun at times. Also, this is a game where South America is rising up and fighting the United States. Where are the other countries?! Where’s England? Where’s Russia? Where’s Germany? Where’s China, who make most of their money from the US? Where is Canada, the United States’ most treasured ally, and their secondary source for fuel? I may not always like the US, but I would defend them since I know my ass would be next with some of the biggest oil reserves in the world. Also, how did South America get such power and control? Would the US just blow them to hell if they tried attacking them or their allies? Despite what the campaign wants you to think, Political America is turned into a giant wimp and asks Military America to solve all their problems. If I were to look at this in a deeper meaning, it might be “Hey, America, stop being so dependent on oil, or you’re going to get your asses kicked when your main supply runs out and your new one is held above your head.” Maybe this is the first time I’ve looked at a Call of Duty game like it has something to say, but that possible message is overshadowed by the “’Merica’s a badass!” theme, which is sad, and I definitely think Infinity Ward should continue to build on this, cause there’s an obvious sequel coming to this game.

On the multiplayer end, things aren't as bleak… so far. The game seems well balanced, with no weapon having a huge favour over another, but the main problem for me, like it always has been, is the way people play the game. Instead of the fast paced run and gun shooting you see in the single player, people sit in corners and pop shot people running through doors, even when the game mode tells the player that’s not how the mode should be played. The game is still looted with campers, and some game modes don’t work well on some of the 15 maps that come with the game. It’s fun, but once you get into a match where people are 20+ levels higher than you, you know you’re at a disadvantage. Infinity Ward should have taken a page from Bungie and 343i’s book and figured out how to properly skill match.

However, I can’t say I’m not having fun with the game. The single player is interesting, and I think I may even play it again. The multiplayer is still a bit like modern Warfare 2 and 3, but that’s mainly because of the community and the size of some maps.

Overall, I’m going to give this game 8.5 out of 10. It has enjoyable gameplay, great animation in the cutscenes, a fun campaign, decently balanced multiplayer, some fun maps, and a great party type mode, too. However, the dialog can be irritatingly bad, the consoles show their age, the multiplayer community is still too camp-y, and some modes don’t work with some maps. It can be improved, and hopefully it will be in the obvious sequel, Ghosts 2.

Humble Warner Bundle

There's a new Humble Bundle out, and boy is it awesome.

WB Games has partnered with Humble Bundle to pump out 6 games for the low price of $5, or however much money you want to give. The games include Batman Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, FEAR2 and FEAR 3, Scribblenauts Unlimited, and The Lord of the Rings: War in the North.

All these games are excellent, and a couple are vastly underrated. Even if you're a fan of one of these games, you can still buy the bundle for $5 and give the rest of the games to friends.

The money goes to We Can Be Heroes charity, which helps relieve famine and poverty all around the world.

So go do something for charity and get a good deal out of it, too.

Happy gaming.

P.S. For a laugh, read some of the Top Contributor names.

The "Halo" Rig

So, you wanted me to build a crappy $300 computer, so here it is. I'm calling this the "Halo" rig because that's about all you'll be able to play on it.

CPU: AMD A4-3300 Llano 2.5GHz - $40
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819106013

For the price of a medium cup of coffee at Starbucks, you can get this processor. At least it's Dual Core, right?

Motherboard: ASRock A55M-VS - $43
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157361

This motherboard really shouldn't be here. In fact, it's one of the motherboards you can't do anything with, because AMD moved onto the FM2 socket so quickly it would make your headspin.

RAM: Kingston 4GB DDR3 1600 MHz - $40
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820239312

Probably the only part of this build you would want in a gaming computer. 4GB of DDR3, 1600MHz all on one stick. The best part of this build, honestly.

GPU: MSI Radeon HD 6450 1GB DDR3 - $40
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127584

This card is sad, but it is only $40 so it'll be fine for out Halo rig. Look at that fan. That's a badass fan.

Storage: Kingspec 32GB SSD - $41
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811353006

It'll hold your operating system... and Halo.

PSU: Diablotek DA Series 350W - $12
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817822007

It's literally one of the cheapest PSUs out there. If you're serious about this build, get something else.

Case: DIYPC 5823BK - $16
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811353006

It's a case with USB3.0 support. Too bad the Motherboard doesn't support it.



Total price: $232 before taxes

This is a great budget build for grandma. The SSD will probably allow for fast booting, and you probably slap an external HDD on it if she needs more space. Despite the terrible specs, this would be able to do low-end gaming, playing Red Faction 2, Halo CE on PC, and maybe even CoD 4 on low resolutions. The GPU is actually decent, despite the price, and the CPU is more than enough for browsing the web.

Happy... browsing?

$650 Intel Build

So, today we're gonna make an Intel build for around $650. So, enough jibber jabber, let's get started.

Motherboard: ASRock H61MV-ITX LGA 1155 - $55
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157367

This ASRock mobo will do a very good job with the CPU you'll be putting in this. It's also future proof, so you can upgrade it with another LGA1155 CPU if you want, or use a different LGA1155 chip if you wanna save some money.

CPU: Intel Core i5 3570k Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz - $220
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116504

The i5-3570k is apparently the best CPU you can buy for gaming. Or so I've heard. It's overclockable, has 3.4GHz stock speed and runs at a really low 77W of power. Much lower power consumption, but the difference between the i5 and the FX-4300 in the other build barely makes a difference, because you're spending less on the FX-4300 up front. So either one is fine.

RAM: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB DDR3 1600MHz - $75
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148544

I used the Crucial RAM in another build, and for the price, there's not much that can beat it. You could use the Team Vulcan RAM from the AMD build, but it won't make too much of a difference while gaming.

Graphics Card: MSI Radeon HD 7850OC 2GB GDDR5 - $130, $110 after rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127727

This GPU is amazing right now, especially for this build. At the normal sale price alone, it's a steal, and you even get two free games with it. You could go for an nVidia GTX 660 if you have some more money, but this game will get you going on your budget gaming.

Hard Drive: Kingston HyperX 120GB SSD - $90
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820239045

This was also in the AMD build, and just like that, it will make your boot times faster and load times speedy. You can always find a normal HDD for cheaper and with more space, or just use an old hard drive for the normal space and the SSD for your booting and a few games.

Power Supply: Seasonic 400W PSU 80+ Bronze - $45
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151076

This PSU doesn't look like much, but you don't need a 500W PSU for this build, despite what people say. After some looking around, I found out that a rig with the similar specs won't go above 400W even with some overclocking on the CPU. This will do us just fine.

Case: SilverStone PS08B - $35
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163223

Once again, buy a case you like, it's all preference, but I like the look of this. Looks like it has nice air flow, has all the prerequisites I like, and will be plenty for this build.


Now, the total price for this build is $650. If that's your budget, build this, or build the AMD build. I like both of these rigs, and they'll both do great playing games.

Happy gaming guys and gals.

New Steam Sale. When? LATER THIS MONTH!

So, it's been leaked that Valve may be having another Steam sale, sooner than I expected. The leaked dates will run from November 27th to December 3rd. So it appears Steam is either asking you to get your Christmas shopping out of the way early, or trying to completely drain your wallet and make it cry.

And let's not forget that a month later, Valve will be having their winter sale, which usually runs from December 21st to January 2nd or so. So be prepared, and remember, there are only 4-8 paychecks until Christmas, depending how your job pays.

http://ca.ign.com/articles/2013/11/04/steam-autumn-sale-2013-dates-allegedly-leaked

Happy gaming, everyone.

Why I Don't Include Disc Drives

Why don't I include disc drives and DVD drives in my builds? There's a really good answer for this.

They're old and useless and aren't needed. Flash is the future, and I'll bet you dollars to donuts that Windows 9 or whatever will be available on flash drives from your store. If not, they're dumb.

A short build - $600

Hey everyone, this is gonna be a much shorter build. Not as in depth, but I'll still give my opinions on the components. Have a read if you wish, hope you enjoy it.

Motherboard: Asus M5A78L-M LX3 - $42
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131935

Asus motherboards are very high quality, and although this is a cheaper motherboard, it doesn't skimp on details, and supports a wide variety of AMD processors. Smart fan control, CPU unlocker for overclocking, and a fast FSB make this an ideal mobo for gaming.

CPU: AMD FX 4300 Vishera @ 3.8-4.0GHz - $110
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113287

This is a highly recommended CPU from a lot of people. It's part of AMD's FX line, and has insanely fast cores. In fact, with some intense overclocking and cooling, you can get this CPU to pump out 5.0, yes, FIVE, gigahertz on each core. That's massively fast, and perfect for gaming.

RAM: Team Vulcan DDR3 2 x 4GB 1866MHz - $69 (hot)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820313396

I like Team Vulcan RAM, and you should too. It's not as well known as Corsair or Crucial or Kingston, but it's making a name for itself in the "low price, high value" area. Totally ideal for budget computing and gaming. For $70 at 8GB, you can't go wrong.

Graphics Card: Powercolour Radeon HD 7850 2GB - $185 (open box for the link makes it $125)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131473R

This graphics card is a very modest performer, but combined with the CPU and fast RAM, you'll be powering through a lot of games on this beauty. And the open box price is really nice, so be careful I don't pick it up before you. Even at $185, this card's price:performance ratio is hard to beat.

Hard Drive: Kingston HyperX 120GB SATA3 - $90
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820239045

Now for this build, I decided to go for an SSD instead of a normal HDD. This gives you a lot more speed on startup, and makes loading times fast as hell. You don't get a lot of space, but you can usually find either an external hard drive or older HDD for cheap, or recycle one from your old computer to give you space for all your games and other nasty things.

Case: Rosewill Galaxy-03 - $40 on sale now, $50 regular
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147185

I love the look of this case. There have been a problem or two I've heard, like the door not opening, but most people say it's an awesome case. I like how the power supply area is on the bottom, pushing the hot exhaust from the PSU out of the case. I highly recommend you pick this case up.

Power: Cooler Master i500 500W - $50
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171082

This power supply is perfect for this build, and should give you some extra juice if you want to upgrade the CPU to a six core or upgrade the GPU a bit. It's cheap now, and again, if you're gonna get a PSU, get something 80+ Certified Bronze. Yes, you can go cheaper, but don't cry when your computer blows up in three months cause you built it with the electronic equivalent of paperclips and elastic.

Total price: $585 ($525 if you buy the open box GPU and everything on sale) before taxes

That looks like a nice build. You'll definitely get a long lifespan out of it too, and it is very upgradeable for the upcoming gaming generation. You won't max anything out, but you'll be playing at 1080p, which is more than the Xbox One can say.

Happy Gaming, everyone.

-BennyK