Steam Summer Sale: How to Get The Most From It

In GabeN we trust

So, the Steam Summer is inevitably going to happen soon (Maybe even today). So, I have a few tips on how to get the most bang for your buck and still being able to afford food for your gaming marathons.

1. Budget yourself
In my opinion, the easiest way to budget yourself during a Steam sale is to go out and buy a prepaid card. Go to an EBgames, a Gamestop, etc., and buy whatever is the most affordable for you. You can also put money right onto your Steam wallet as well. This way, you never spend money you don't already have, and you have to choose wisely and be patient for games you want. Even $20 can go a long way during the summer sale.

2. Only Buy Games You Want
This one is simple. Don't buy games that don't interest you. You don't need a game just because it's 80% off. You should only buy games that you know you would play, or have been waiting to go on sale for a while. Then buy them.

3. 66% or higher
Another good way to keep yourself on budget is to go after games only when they are 66% off or higher. AAA titles that have been out for a year or two (Bioshock, Tomb Raider, etc.) usually get that high, and Indie titles can go for 80% some times. From my experience, huge games like Call of Duty and such don't go above 25%, so unless you are desperate for the latest Call of Duty, it's not recommended.

4. Watch the Flash Sales
You need to look at the flash sales every 8 hours. These games can give you amazing deals, but remember rule 2.

5. Don't waste your entire budget in the first three days
This sale is going to last 12 days. Do not think that a game won't get a greater discount later in the sale.

I hope you guys use these tips and get as much for your money as possible. Steam Sales are crazy times, so hopefully the Valve servers can handle the massive surge of users.

Happy gaming, and happy spending.

Mini ITX Gaming Build $600

Tiny Powerhouse.

Hey guys, today I'm going to bring you what I think is the most affordable mITX build that doesn't compromise anywhere. For those who don't know, mITX is a very small form factor, designed to have as small of a footprint as possible. Mini ITX cases come in many different appearances, but they are all supposed to save as much room as possible without having to remove major components. So let's get to the components and check it out.

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 760k
The AMD Athlon line is actually a really affordable line of CPUs. Everyone knows the APU line from them. The Athlon X line is the same CPUs from the APU line, but without the GPU on the dye. This allows the cores to be unlocked and overclockable, which is a really good thing with the mobo and CPU cooler we're using.

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Seidon 120V
The Cooler Master case we're using is designed to be optimally configured with an all in one water cooling loop. So, why not use the loop from the same company? This 120mm heatsink loop will help keep the CPU cool under load and will increase the overclocking ability by reducing the temperatures. With this loop, we should easily be able to get an overclock of around 4.2-4.5GHz per core without much worry.

Mobo: MSI A88XI AC
This MSI mobo comes with all the fixings. It has the best FM2+ chipset available right now, supports 16GB of RAM, onboard WiFi adapter, and a PCIe 3.0 x16 slot for full GPU capability. It is a really good case, and even saves some money since you don't need to buy another wireless adapter or anything for the system. It even supports USB 3.0.

GPU: XFX R9 270 DD
Surprisingly, this small form factor case can hold full length graphics cards, even long ones such as the Radeon 7990 which is one of the biggest cards on the market would fit in this case. So for our build, we're going to use an XFX R9 270 DD (Double Dissipation. Not... you know). I love R9 270s, so you can easily swap the manufacturer around if you wanted, but the XFX card with two fans is just ten dollars more than the Club3D card with one fan. If it costs $10 for better cooling for your graphics card, buy it. You don't see a huge difference between two fan designs, though, so keep that in mind. With this card, you'll be running games at 1080p with no problem on high settings, including Battlefield 4, Titanfall, and Bioshock.

RAM: Team Elite 8GB
We'll go with the cheapest 8GB of RAM we can get. RAM doesn't really change depending on the manufacturer, so one stick of 8GB will allow us to upgrade to 16GB when needed.

HDD/SSD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB and/or Crucial M500 120GB
Since this is a small case, there are two choices; you can put a HDD for storage capacity, or you can put in an SSD for boot speed and faster loading times. If you go with the latter, it's highly recommend that you get an external HDD or go with a cheaper SSD and get an internal HDD as well. SSDs have limited amounts of writes, so saving a lot of files will cause it to die after a year, or possibly sooner. Both are great choices depending on your needs.

PSU: Fractal Design Integra R2 500W
Fractal makes some great stuff, so for this build, we'll use their lower end line of PSUs. This will power your build completely as well as keep quiet. If you want modular, I recommend the CX500M from Corsair. It's in my system and makes cable management a cinch, but the Integra is a great product for this build.

Case: Cooler Master Elite 130
Here's the case that is the main talking point for this build. While there are other cases that have the same functionality from Fractal and Bitfenix, Cooler Master might be ahead of them in terms of one major thing for us budget builders: cost. This case is just $50, which is a major hit to it's biggest rival, the Node 804 from Fractal, which comes in at $89. This is definitely my go-to case for mITX, and it should suit anyone well for a space conscious PC build.


Total cost (PCPP): $619.39

For $620, you get a small form factor build with a full gaming graphics card and simple watercooling. This makes for a perfect console replacement or living room gaming machine, and should be quiet and versatile for it's use.

Happy gaming.