[Build log] The KAVERI-PC: Replacement for a prebuilt

[Speedbird]

Hi

 

I made a mistake a few years ago and bought a prebuilt Acer desktop. Since I got interested in PCs, and wanted them to be easily accessible and upgradeable for me, I decided to build this. It's a cheap AMD APU budget gaming rig, which cost 610 euros at the time of building.

Alright, here's the part list.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD A10-7850K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($149.97 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A88X-D3H ATX FM2+ Motherboard  ($67.49 @ Newegg)
Memory: A-Data XPG V1.0 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory  ($77.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($53.98 @ OutletPC)
Case: Corsair 230T Windowed-BLUE ATX Mid Tower Case  ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer  ($19.98 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit)  ($87.98 @ OutletPC)
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WN781ND 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter  ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $582.36
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-09-05 15:30 EDT-0400

 

First, let's have a look though the window

 

And here you can see the lack of a graphics card and the use of a stock cooler. As I will only play TF2 most of the time, I didn't buy a graphics card yet.

 

A close-up of the CPU fan... nothing special, just a stock cooler.

 

Here's the front 120mm fan with orange LEDs which look pretty nice.

 

I chose a CX500M for the PSU, because it's from a good brand, provides good enough wattage and doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

 

And the back side. This is my first build, but was my cable management really that bad? What's that second hard drive, you may ask. No, I'm not running RAID, I'm just copying my stuff from that old drive.

 

And that's it! Thanks for taking a look at this build log, if you have any suggestions feel free to tell me....

 

What? Ah yes, right. @antoainb asked me to tag him, so there you go. Thanks for reading.

 

Now the benchmarks.

 

I got 2409 on 3DMark 11 performance, 280 on Cinebench R15, and 23.7 FPS on Valley (Basic).

[ERSCreeper]

Nice little build

 

How is the CPU cooler like noise wise?

[Speedbird]

Nice little build

 

How is the CPU cooler like noise wise?

Pretty quiet when idle, actually. Whn I throw Prime95 it starts getting a little noisy, but it's still pretty quiet.

[Manny Calavera]

Not bad. Have you tried overclocking APU allready?

[Yummychickenblue]

Thats way better than my build.

[ERSCreeper]

Pretty quiet when idle, actually. Whn I throw Prime95 it starts getting a little noisy, but it's still pretty quiet.

What screen res are you running at? Think of replacing my dead media pc.

[Speedbird]

Not bad. Have you tried overclocking APU allready?

Nope, not with the stock cooler. I might actually buy an NH-U12S for it.

[Speedbird]

What screen res are you running at? Think of replacing my dead media pc.

1080p

[ERSCreeper]

1080p

Awesome

[Speedbird]

Nice i've always wanted to try an APU system, how does it perform?

I'm running 3DMark11 right now and I will add the results into the first post. I'll try more benchmarks tomorrow.

[CATSLUVER420]

I dont get why people buy this shit.....Just save up money for an AMD Athlon X4 760K 75€ and Nvidia geforce gtx 650 80€....it runs all games in 1080p...

[Manny Calavera]

Nope, not with the stock cooler. I might actually buy an NH-U12S for it.

On stock voltage i mean, gpu portion. You will see HUGE boost!

I dont get why people buy this shit.....Just save up money for an AMD Athlon X4 760K 75€ and Nvidia geforce gtx 650 80€....it runs all games in 1080p...

 

Well he allready bought so we cant do much. 

But i agree, at least you can buy better nvidia gpu and use this as dedicated physx card. Or just sell it. You cant sell  iGPU

[Speedbird]

On stock voltage i mean, gpu portion. You will see HUGE boost!

Will try that, thanks.

[antoainb]

Nice! I'll be looking foward for the benchmarks.

[Jade]

Nice! Enjoy it :>

[babbaj]

You should see my horrible cable management...

[strawberrymaker]

I dont get why people buy this shit.....Just save up money for an AMD Athlon X4 760K 75€ and Nvidia geforce gtx 650 80€....it runs all games in 1080p...

in small form factor (REALLY small form factor) you cant fit a dedicated gpu. for example streacom stf1ws . its nice and small, and has no space for a gpu

 

but yeah, it would be better

~Straw

[LarsReviews]

Looks great. That motherboard cpu cutout is huge!

[CATSLUVER420]

in small form factor (REALLY small form factor) you cant fit a dedicated gpu. for example streacom stf1ws . its nice and small, and has no space for a gpu

 

but yeah, it would be better

~Straw

msi gtx 650 is very small

[Speedbird]

Gah... Not another one of these discussions...

[ChillKyle]

As a suggestion next time. You could of gotten windows 8.1 from G2A.com for around 35$

[Speedbird]

As a suggestion next time. You could of gotten windows 8.1 from G2A.com for around 35$

These keys are not legal.

[ChillKyle]

These keys are not legal.

Never knew

[strawberrymaker]

msi gtx 650 is very small

still wouldnt fit in this small case . and i personally like them because you can hide them easily

 

~Straw

 

EDIT: There are also other small cards like (nearly) the complete 750ti or the asus gtx 760 mini

[CATSLUVER420]

still wouldnt fit in this small case . and i personally like them because you can hide them easily

 

~Straw

 

EDIT: There are also other small cards like (nearly) the complete 750ti or the asus gtx 760 mini

the 760 costs much more