Quite possibly the best $400 gaming pc you can build (Possibly)

I don't know how this build will actually perform but the parts inside should do just fine. The build itself came out to just about $400 which I found surprising for what I could fit into it. Without rambling on too much I'm just gonna finish up the build guide and go through the reasoning and such.

• For the cpu I went with the x4 860k. In a budget build most people go with the Pentium g3258 or whatever the model is but it’s only a dual core and no hyper threading. However, going with the x4 860k you have 4 cores and should not run into any problems handling games. To be brief there have been some occurrences where games do not run on a dual core processor.

• For the motherboard I went with the ASRock FM2A68M-DG3+. It looks like a great budget board and supports everything needed. On the downside though it does not have a usb 3.0 but to compensate it has a flexible usb 2.0 which is compatible with usb 3.0 so the usb 3.0 port on the case can be utilized. Besides that is supports all the hardware and should work just fine.

• The ram kinda killed me when making this build but it will work nonetheless. The ram is a simple 1 8gb stick and doesn’t hold any special features. It is just ram and will get the job done. I wish I would have gotten 2 4gb sticks but it would have raised the price a little bit and I wanted to keep it to as close as $400.

• The storage was an easy choice. Simply a 1tb hard drive to store files and such. I went with this one so a few dollars could be saved instead of going with the Western Digital. Its 7200rpm and will be good for the build. Essentially this is a slightly cheaper 1tb hard drive and will give great performance.

• Now the important part the video card. For this build I was able to fit in a gtx 950 which is a fairly strong video card and rivals the AMD r7 370 and in most cases beats it. It will handle 1080p just fine and can play most if not all games at or higher than medium settings. I say medium settings as some games are really demanding and can’t be pushed that far. However, I can say that the gtx 950 is a good card for about $150 versus the r7 370 which is less but you will gain more performance in games with the Nvidia counterpart. Also the Zotac gtx 950 was the lowest price at the time. The cooler is good and if there is enough room in the psu an overclock might be possible but I highly doubt it. Overclock or not this card will do the job. Word of warning though, sometimes take my words with a grain of salt because their could be other option that you could find better or more favorable. Check the latest prices of these things because they change frequently. In the case of video card brand does not matter that much so the general rule of thumb is unless you are going for a certain theme get the cheapest one that still features the same chipset. In this case the gtx 950 

• The case was not too much of a hard choice as much of a choice I just had to accept. The Fractal Design Core 1000 and is okay except for cable management. Besides that, though this case will be just fine. It can house all the components and looks like it has decent airflow because there are no drive cages and the storage drives are mounted on the side. I can’t speak for how easy it is to work in but it’s a budget case and it made the budget of this build work so that’s at the bare minimum that’s good.

• For the psu there was nothing special about this. I wanted to get a good enough psu that had at least an 80+ rating and a decent wattage. So the EVGA 430W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply fit the description. It really is not anything special. However, it is a good value though for being only $30. On the downside no modular cables but that’s where cable management will come in. You are going need some decent cable management skills for this so be prepared.

Thanks for checking out my build.

Please share with others and leave some constructive criticism to tell me what I can do to improve. I am going to be uploading at least another build today so check back later.

Here is the link to the build I made using pcpartpicker which is use for all of my builds.: https://pcpartpicker.com/guide/jdv6Mp/quite-possibly-the-best-400-gaming-pc-you-can-build-possibly