Could Somebody look over my ~$600US build?

CEO of Monsters Inc · July 30, 2015

Hello! I got my first job a while ago and I have been saving up money to build a better PC. I posted my build on reddit a couple of times but only got one response.

Budget:

I'm going to be spending ~$600US on a gaming PC, but I can go a little over (by $50) if needed, but I'd prefer to stay around $600.

Aim:

I want to play the following games on medium-max settings at 60fps @1080p on one monitor: Dragon Age: Inquisition, Dota 2, Witcher 3, BioShock Infinite, GTA V, Fallout 3 & NV, & Skyrim (with a few visual mods or ENB). I'm going to be doing a lot of MS Office stuff as well as general internet browsing and YouTube watching. I will not be doing any overclocking or SLI in the future.

Extra:

I currently have an older gaming PC in my possession, but it's going to be given to a family member so I'm going to be starting from scratch.

I'm going to purchase a Corsair Strafe keyboard and Corsair Vengence M65 in the future so I'd really like to stick with a Corsair case to match. Also, peripherals and OS will not be included in the price.

I'd appreciate if you guys would look over my build list and give me some feedback on it! Thanks in advance!

Build:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($176.95 @ SuperBiiz)

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($41.98 @ Newegg)

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($51.98 @ NCIX US)

Storage: Sandisk Solid State Drive 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Purchased For $0.00)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($51.99 @ NCIX US)

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 2GB SuperSC ACX 2.0+ Video Card ($160.00 @ EVGA B-Stock)

Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Micro Center)

Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ Amazon)

Optical Drive: LG GH24NSC0B DVD/CD Writer ($12.99 @ Newegg)

Total: $605.87

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-30 15:20 EDT-0400

mata-pombos · July 30, 2015

pretty good build IMO. Maybe you can get the msi 960 armor oc for the same price? It has a better cooler. Dunno if you can realy mod skyrim with only 2 gb of vram...

Knaj · July 30, 2015

Change your Power supply ASAP! Those power supplies are NOTORIOUS for destroying computers and even starting fires!

Get a Seasonic or XFX power supply instead.

Also, know that you are putting a tiny motherboard into a large case, so it would make sense to get a smaller case or get a larger motherboard.

And as for the graphics card, get an R9 380. They will perform MUCH better with modded skyrim, as they have 4gb of VRAM and also have much more recent technology. Get either this one or this one. I know is is $20 more, but it is WELL worth it.

Knaj · July 30, 2015

*Snip*

Also, make sure to follow your own topic so you can get notifications of posts!

brob · July 30, 2015

Not many reviews for the CX-500M. http://www.eteknix.com/corsair-cx500m-semi-modular-power-supply/10/ is fairly detailed.

The CXM psu are not great, but they are pretty decent for the price.

CEO of Monsters Inc · July 30, 2015

Change your Power supply ASAP! Those power supplies are NOTORIOUS for destroying computers and even starting fires!

Get a Seasonic or XFX power supply instead.

Also, know that you are putting a tiny motherboard into a large case, so it would make sense to get a smaller case or get a larger motherboard.

And as for the graphics card, get an R9 380. They will perform MUCH better with modded skyrim, as they have 4gb of VRAM and also have much more recent technology. Get either this one or this one. I know is is $20 more, but it is WELL worth it.

First, would the EVGA GTX 960 4gb be comparable to the R9 390? It's a bit cheaper and typically the Nvidia cards run cooler with less power consumption. But if the 390 is a lot better, I could probably stretch the budget to include it.

Otherwise, would you say that this build is better:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($176.95 @ SuperBiiz)

Motherboard: Asus Z87-A ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($72.99 @ NCIX US)

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($52.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Sandisk Solid State Drive 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Purchased For $0.00)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($51.99 @ NCIX US)

Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 380 4GB Nitro Video Card ($223.98 @ Newegg)

Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Micro Center)

Power Supply: Thermaltake SMART 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($55.98 @ Newegg)

Optical Drive: LG GH24NSC0B DVD/CD Writer ($12.99 @ Newegg)

Total: $689.86

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-30 16:12 EDT-0400

BigDay · July 30, 2015

First, would the EVGA GTX 960 4gb be comparable to the R9 390? It's a bit cheaper and typically the Nvidia cards run cooler with less power consumption. But if the 390 is a lot better, I could probably stretch the budget to include it.

here is the gpu hierarchy from lowest performance to highest performance

960

380

970

390

390x

to answer your question, the 390 is much better than the 960

BigDay · July 30, 2015

where are you getting the 960 for 160 bucks?
you need to get a new psu. the cx series is really bad. you should get this psu instead: EVGA 100-B1-0500-KR
if you can afford to get the 380 with 4gb of vram that would be good, but it's not necessary

this is what i think you should consider:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($176.95 @ SuperBiiz)

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H97M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($79.89 @ OutletPC)

Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Blue 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($42.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Storage: Sandisk Solid State Drive 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Purchased For $0.00)

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($46.89 @ OutletPC)

Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 380 2GB Video Card ($199.98 @ SuperBiiz)

Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ Micro Center)

Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($44.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Total: $651.68

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-30 16:36 EDT-0400

CEO of Monsters Inc · July 30, 2015

pretty good build IMO. Maybe you can get the msi 960 armor oc for the same price? It has a better cooler. Dunno if you can realy mod skyrim with only 2 gb of vram...

Some of the MSI gpus (specifically this one) look really attractive with their black/white or black/red color schemes.

I suppose I should expand on what I'm looking for when modding skyrim. I currently have a GTX 260 (with 896 MB Vram) and it runs Skyrim at a medium-high ("medium-high" to me is 2 samples of AA, no anisotropic filtering, distant object sliders at around 50%-75%, and medium water quality and high texture settings) averaging at about 45-50 fps. I usually play it with a few texture mods (specifically the "Lite" version), lighting and depth of field mods, and a few house/gameplay mods. What I'm looking for is max settings on skyrim with those same mods or a nice ENB @60fps. I'm absolutely not trying to argue with you or anything, but after reviewing different game benchmarks comparing 2gb to 4gb vram, Skyrim seems to be the only game that I play that having more vram would actually make a huge difference to me right now.

I guess what I'm getting at is would it be worth it to spend the extra $30-40 on getting a 4gb card? Would any of the games that I want to play excluding Skyrim and Fallout benefit from the 4gb?

CEO of Monsters Inc · July 30, 2015

where are you getting the 960 for 160 bucks?

you need to get a new psu. the cx series is really bad. you should get this psu instead: EVGA 100-B1-0500-KR

if you can afford to get the 380 with 4gb of vram that would be good, but it's not necessary

this is what i think you should consider:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($176.95 @ SuperBiiz)

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H97M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($79.89 @ OutletPC)

Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Blue 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($42.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Storage: Sandisk Solid State Drive 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Purchased For $0.00)

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($46.89 @ OutletPC)

Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 380 2GB Video Card ($199.98 @ SuperBiiz)

Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ Micro Center)

Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($44.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Total: $651.68

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-30 16:36 EDT-0400

1. I'm getting all of my 960 prices from EVGA's B-stock products

I really like that part list that you assembled. The savings from the hard drive, RAM, DVD drive, and power supply go into a better GPU which I really appreciate.

BigDay · July 30, 2015

Some of the MSI gpus (specifically this one) look really attractive with their black/white or black/red color schemes.

I suppose I should expand on what I'm looking for when modding skyrim. I currently have a GTX 260 (with 896 MB Vram) and it runs Skyrim at a medium-high ("medium-high" to me is 2 samples of AA, no anisotropic filtering, distant object sliders at around 50%-75%, and medium water quality and high texture settings) averaging at about 45-50 fps. I usually play it with a few texture mods (specifically the "Lite" version), lighting and depth of field mods, and a few house/gameplay mods. What I'm looking for is max settings on skyrim with those same mods or a nice ENB @60fps. I'm absolutely not trying to argue with you or anything, but after reviewing different game benchmarks comparing 2gb to 4gb vram, Skyrim seems to be the only game that I play that having more vram would actually make a huge difference to me right now.

I guess what I'm getting at is would it be worth it to spend the extra $30-40 on getting a 4gb card? Would any of the games that I want to play excluding Skyrim and Fallout benefit from the 4gb?

yes, from what i've read, the 4gb 380 would be more beneficial to you. if you can afford it, i would get it. the 960 doesn't have enough vram for what you're looking for and the 380 outperforms it.

BigDay · July 30, 2015

1. I'm getting all of my 960 prices from EVGA's B-stock products

I really like that part list that you assembled. The savings from the hard drive, RAM, DVD drive, and power supply go into a better GPU which I really appreciate.

i also added a better motherboard to that build in the Gigabyte GA-H97M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard

mata-pombos · July 30, 2015

Some of the MSI gpus (specifically this one) look really attractive with their black/white or black/red color schemes.

I suppose I should expand on what I'm looking for when modding skyrim. I currently have a GTX 260 (with 896 MB Vram) and it runs Skyrim at a medium-high ("medium-high" to me is 2 samples of AA, no anisotropic filtering, distant object sliders at around 50%-75%, and medium water quality and high texture settings) averaging at about 45-50 fps. I usually play it with a few texture mods (specifically the "Lite" version), lighting and depth of field mods, and a few house/gameplay mods. What I'm looking for is max settings on skyrim with those same mods or a nice ENB @60fps. I'm absolutely not trying to argue with you or anything, but after reviewing different game benchmarks comparing 2gb to 4gb vram, Skyrim seems to be the only game that I play that having more vram would actually make a huge difference to me right now.

I guess what I'm getting at is would it be worth it to spend the extra $30-40 on getting a 4gb card? Would any of the games that I want to play excluding Skyrim and Fallout benefit from the 4gb?

problem is the 960 has a 128 bit bus so it really doesnt have the power to make use of 4 gb of vram. I think you should buy the 2gb version and remove the filters...

ThE_MarD · July 30, 2015

Heyyo,

Thermaltake is currently having a sale on their PSUs... around the same price as the Corsair CX 500W?

Thermaltake 750W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/thermaltake-power-supply-pstpd0750mpcgus1

Thermaltake Smart M 850W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/thermaltake-power-supply-sp850m

FIVE year mfr warranty on them too btw. The only thing I found a little annoying with my Thermaltake PSU is the cables are plastic coated so ya gotta bend them a bunch to flex them how you want them to fit. Otherwise? They're awesome.

Not quite as good of a deal? But EVGA's fantastic PSU's have a mini sale too

EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-power-supply-110b10750vr

EVGA also carry a five year mfr warranty.

Knaj · July 30, 2015

where are you getting the 960 for 160 bucks?

you need to get a new psu. the cx series is really bad. you should get this psu instead: EVGA 100-B1-0500-KR

if you can afford to get the 380 with 4gb of vram that would be good, but it's not necessary

this is what i think you should consider:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($176.95 @ SuperBiiz)

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H97M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($79.89 @ OutletPC)

Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Blue 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($42.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Storage: Sandisk Solid State Drive 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (Purchased For $0.00)

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($46.89 @ OutletPC)

Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 380 2GB Video Card ($199.98 @ SuperBiiz)

Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ Micro Center)

Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($44.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Total: $651.68

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-30 16:36 EDT-0400

He's doing skyrim with visual mods, it would be best for the extra 4gb, as modded skyrim uses quite a bit of vram

Starelementpoke · July 30, 2015

Heyyo,

Thermaltake is currently having a sale on their PSUs... around the same price as the Corsair CX 500W?

Thermaltake 750W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/thermaltake-power-supply-pstpd0750mpcgus1

Thermaltake Smart M 850W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/thermaltake-power-supply-sp850m

FIVE year mfr warranty on them too btw. The only thing I found a little annoying with my Thermaltake PSU is the cables are plastic coated so ya gotta bend them a bunch to flex them how you want them to fit. Otherwise? They're awesome.

Not quite as good of a deal? But EVGA's fantastic PSU's have a mini sale too

EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-power-supply-110b10750vr

EVGA also carry a five year mfr warranty.

The B1 series psu's don't have a very good reputation.

BigDay · July 30, 2015

He's doing skyrim with visual mods, it would be best for the extra 4gb, as modded skyrim uses quite a bit of vram

agreed. 4gb is best for him

BigDay · July 30, 2015

The B1 series psu's don't have a very good reputation.

there not bad

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=351

that's about as good as he's going to get at that price point. he could be doing worse

Knaj · July 30, 2015

there not bad

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=351

that's about as good as he's going to get at that price point. he could be doing worse

Like a CX power supply...

never ever ever ever ever EVER get a CX power supply

Starelementpoke · July 30, 2015

IK,

there not bad

http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=351

that's about as good as he's going to get at that price point. he could be doing worse

Ik, but if he can afford something else, go for that.

gavin.970 · July 30, 2015

Hold off on the cooler to bring you back in budget(640 without), or get the mobo and cpu at microcenter and save 25 on the bundle and get the cooler for overclocking.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-8320E 3.2GHz 8-Core Processor ($128.98 @ NCIX US)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($25.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-D3P ATX AM3+/AM3 Motherboard ($61.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($45.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial BX100 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($59.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 290 4GB WINDFORCE Video Card ($242.98 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($34.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($64.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $665.88
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-30 18:41 EDT-0400

MrSpeed · July 30, 2015

Hold off on the cooler to bring you back in budget(640 without), or get the mobo and cpu at microcenter and save 25 on the bundle and get the cooler for overclocking.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-8320E 3.2GHz 8-Core Processor ($128.98 @ NCIX US)

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($25.98 @ OutletPC)

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-D3P ATX AM3+/AM3 Motherboard ($61.98 @ Newegg)

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($45.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Crucial BX100 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($59.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 290 4GB WINDFORCE Video Card ($242.98 @ Newegg)

Case: NZXT Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($34.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($64.99 @ NCIX US)

Total: $665.88

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-30 18:41 EDT-0400