Gaming PC for €500,-

[BFighter]

I'm helping my friend build a gaming PC for €500,-

What will it be used for?
Gaming primarily, encoding videos.

What is my budget?
€500,-

What country will I buy my parts from?
The Netherlands

Brand preference?
No.
Are you using any spare parts?
Not any.

What have I come up with so far?
I don't have a solid build yet. So far I'm thinking about a Phenom X4 965 BE, HD7850 1GB. 8GB DDR3-1600 RAM. Western Digital WD10EZRX as HDD (1TB, SATA III, 7200RPM).
The rest I have no idea yet.
Don't know whether to get motherboard chipset 760G, 880G, 970.

EDIT:
CPU
AMD Phenom II X4 965 € 86,90

GPU
GIGABYTE GV-R7850OC-1GD € 159,90

MOBO
ASRock 970 Extreme3 € 74,90

Case
Cooler Master Elite 342 € 29,49
Edit: oops not this one, wrong format, editting..

PSU
Corsair CX430M € 49,99

HDD
Western Digital WD10EALX € 66,90

RAM
Crucial Ballistix 8 GB DDR3-1600 Kit € 29,99

DVD rom
LG GH24NS70 € 16,99

Total € 515,06

Overclocking?
No.

When?
As soon as possible.

Resolution?
Now 1366x768. Later upgrading to 1920x1080

Specific technologies?
USB 3.0, SATA III, HDMI.

Desktop best buy guide: editie januari 2013 | Best Buy Guide | Tweakers

They put an Athlon II X4 640 in the system, but that's trinity. Isn't trinity's CPU perfomance very poor compared to the Phenom X4?
How big should the PSU be for 965/HD7850 combo?

[Dzzope]

500 watt should be plenty for that build. XFX corsair seasonic 550W bronze would be what I would be looking at.. it may put you a but more over budget but is definitely worth it IMO.

Considering the budget that build should be a pretty damn solid gaming rig.. SSD in the future will give him a nice performance boost.

[TheWildRose]

I agree with Dzzope, A slightly bigger (500-550w) PSU would be a good idea, the 430 will easily get you by, but a 500-550 would give you room for later upgrades.

Other than that I really think your build looks nice.
If it isn't too much more though, since you're going with an AM3+ motherboard you might be interested in looking into an FX-4300 vs the phenom, Where I get parts from it's a $10 difference (€7.58) and the 4300 would be better than the phenom, but again. This is where I live and the price may not be as low where you're buying parts from.

Good luck on the build!

If you have any questions about y recommendations or my opinions, Or want advice on anything feel free to ask in a reply or PM me!

~Ryan

[BFighter]

Unfortunately there's a €40,- price difference between the phenom x4 and the fx-4300. But in reviews I have seen the piledriver CPUs lacking compared to the Deneb.

Can go with a higher psu, yes. Maybe a second 7850 later.

And what about intel in this build?

[CMetaphor]

You simply dont buy intel on a tight budget. haha...

Ill second the FX-4300 or similar since the OC headroom will more than make up the difference between it and an old Deneb. even if youre not planning on OCing for a while, youll have the option to boost up the performance easily and cheaply (just need a simply tower heatsink, check it out when ready).

What kind of gaming is this guy going for? I ask because he might be happier with an APU at 1366x768 and can add a PCIE gpu later on in asymetrical xfire. You'd also probably save some money that way, since you wont need to buy the 7850. Almost enough extra cash for a small 60gb SSD then.

[BFighter]

He wants to play Vindictus, GW2, Far Cry 3 as far as I know. Don't know if Battlefield 3 or not.

Still the FX-4300 is way too expensive (40 euros more than the deneb).

I don't think an APU will suffice.

[Bond007]

I would go for an i3 as the basis (no overclocking, but better power consumption, and better fps with no need to oc). AM3 isn't really going anywhere for an upgrade path either, whereas with 1155 (intel) you could always throw an i5 or i7 in down the road if required.

This is from an older review, but it has an i3 2100 substantially better than an x4 955.

[YukonTrooper]

+1 for the i3 in a budget gaming system. If Intel isn't an option the X4 will do (definitely don't go Athlon), but a hot-rod dual-core like the i3 is still better in the majority of games compared to a slower quad like the Phenom II X4.

What kind of VAT will you have to pay on top of that? I'm just asking for curiosity's sake.

[BFighter]

We have 21% VAT here.

[whitewolf23000]

The Intel i3 is definitely a better choice plus if your gaming you don't really need more than 2 cores.