My price budget is $600. I found this article showing the perfect configuration except that
Isnt the motherboard which is a micro atx motherboard incompatible withthe Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case. I thought you couldnt put a micro atx motherboard in a atx case? If this is the case can anyone recommend a great motherboard for gaming thats no more than a $100 and is compatible with all these components?
Quote: $600 budget
My personal choice for parts
1. CPU - Well, sad to say AMD has lost the lead in value here. The i5 2400 is a solid chip at $190, a little on the expensive end but it beats out the majority of AMD's CPUs. TBH past the $600 budget, Intel is probably king.
2. Motherboard - I recommend the Asrock H61M/U3S3 @ $75. It's fairly decent performing board and has USB 3 as well as SATA III. It'll future proof you for a long time.
3. Ram or Memory - PNY Optima DDR3 1333 8gb (2x4gb) $32 Well 8GB is so cheap now, you might as well get it. It'll prepare you for the future, if you ever need that much RAM. But the common misconception with ram speeds (1333/1600/1866/xxxx) is that it makes a huge difference, from 1333 to 1600 it actually isn't even noticeable at all in performance.
4. GPU or Graphics Card - I'd recommend the 6870, sitting at just about $160 it's a great bang for the buck. Solid performance in games at 1680x1050 and pretty decent at 1920x1080. Nvidia really doesn't have good options around the $150 mark for cards. The GTX 560 no Ti, sits at about $180, that's a bit steep for a small performance gain.
5. PSU - Power Supply
The PSU I recommend is the Antec NEO ECO 520w 80+ Certified from Antec. Great PSU for a budget builder cheap and one of the better PSU's at the price of $60
6. Hard Drive
With HDD prices inflated, check out NCIX, they have the Western Digital Blue 500GB for only $44. I'd strongly recommend it.
7. Case
I recommend the Antec 300 or Antec 300 Illusion mainly because of the sturdiness of the case and how nice it is. The Illusion is a bit more expensive but comes with more fans and blue lit LED fans. So if your into the blue lighting that is the case for you. 70$ for the Illusion and 60$ for the normal 300. You could also go for the Rosewill Destroyer which I hear to be a pretty good case, has a blue LED fan in the front and offers fairly decent stock air flow. The Destroyer is cheaper at 50$. So take your pick.
You can put a mATX board in an ATX case, it's just that ATX cases are big enough to fit either type. Generally speaking mATX boards are pretty weak, so I'm not sure I agree with the article's recommendation, but it will fit.
