Need help building a new budget rig!

My cousin wants me to build a new(ish) budget gaming PC for him. Budget is $400 sans the case, monitor, PSU and HDD. There is some wiggle room, basically the price of a new PS4 which he won't be getting.

I figured the best option would be to go AMD in this build. However, I have not kept up to date on PC hardware in a few years so I am at a loss. I was looking at AMD FX series but am not sure what is the best price-performance chip, I assume he would just need Quad Core, but how much more of an advantage would it be to get a 6 or 8 core? I figure he will just play some MMO's like ESO on it but some future proofing would be nice.

Not sure on GPU's either, I hear the R9 series are nice, but he has a 5770 OC that could hold him over for a bit. RAM is easy.

tl;dr I need recommendations on a budget CPU, MOBO and GPU

Thanks guys. Now I want to build a new rig for myself haha. Oh, and will he be able to reuse his HDD when adding a new CPU+Mobo or will he have to use a new OS. Right now it is just Windows 7 OEM.

Hello.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/MpM97P

Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/MpM97P/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($109.99 @ NCIX US)

Motherboard: MSI 970A-G43 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($59.99 @ Newegg)

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($72.00 @ Newegg)

Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 270 2GB Double Dissipation Video Card ($164.99 @ NCIX US)

Total: $406.97

(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-29 04:20 EDT-0400)

He might not have to reinstall Windows, I'd say put all the parts together, see if Windows starts up, if not then format and install it again.

FX-6300 is the best cheap CPU, if he's gonna keep it on stock then MSI G43 board should be fine, but for OC you should choose Asus or Gygabyte, GA-970A-UD3P being the best choice. And Hyper 212 Evo cooler - totally worth it.

Thanks guys. Those are parts that I was looking at myself. Just wanted to be sure since I have been out of the game for a few years.

I hope he still has the install disc. He is upgrading/replacing parts because his PC just does not want to turn on. I think it is a mobo issue, but since I am here I might as well ask. What happens is: He presses the power button and the fans spin and the case and disc drive lights turn on. However, his monitor behaves as if it is in standby and his keyboard/mouse do not power on. I don't believe this is a PSU issue as the fans spin and certain parts light up (it is an OCZ Fatality 550w, I think he should replace it eventually, as my OCZ burnt up and I replaced it with a Corsair) but I am not sure. It's been a long time since I have built a PC with dead RAM so I can't remember what happens there.

If anyone can shed a light on this issue please chime in! That could help save some time and money even though he needs an upgrade from his Athlon X2, 4gb DDR2 rig. Actually that is why I am looking at these particular parts since I figure that the mobo is the issue. If that is not the case please tell me what needs to be done. It is some random Foxxconn mobo so idk how reliable it is in the long run.

Try clearing the CMOS

Try running with a single stick of ram

If it has integrated graphics try them (remove graphics card)

You guys are the best! Thanks for the quick response, I'll tell him to do that first thing

Ok, so my cousin tried clearing his CMOS and then tried starting with each RAM stick and still nothing. Is the mobo dead for good then?

Does the kobo give any beep signals? Sometimes that can help determine the problem.

@Arthas045:

He sent me an audio clip. I don't hear the typical mobo beep sound. He says it makes a "machine" sound, but I think that is the PSU and fans turning on.

@killerbasa: I actually do think it's his PSU if that's his issue. What's most likely happening is the PSU can no longer handle the load being put down the rails so it shuts itself off before it does any damage to parts. My brand new psu did this very thing. Fans started up on everything and lights flashed but then everything stopped besides the LED's. It's a bad PSU I'd replace it or test another one before doing anything else. But for the sake of building a new one check out my link.

Tom's hardware budget build Toms hardware just did a budget build for $450 and if you don't need a PSU and a HDD then you'll fit bellow your budget. Seems to be a decent machine for the price and runs games on ultra.

I think there is normally a single LED on mobos sometimes does it light up?

No the mobo light does not light up.

Ok so here is his issue. Apparently, before the pc decided to completely break, he was having issues with it booting up from restarts and shut downs. He would have to press the power button multiple times in order for it to display the boot screen and power the peripherals. It would do what it is doing now, some components would light up, but he would have to turn it on and repeat the process multiple times to get the boot screen, it wouldn't have an issue if he put it in sleep mode, there it would turn on without issue. It just doesn't play nice from restarts and shut downs.

He was patching some games when it completely died on him, and is now in it's current state. If it is a PSU issue that is very easy to fix.