Tell me if I am buying the best pc at my budget of $530

[Connor Mcallister]

Hi guyz . I am buying a new pc for $530 and I cant exceed anymore. So I wanna know if I am buying the best pc at that price range. Specs are:

1.Cpu: Core i3 8100 $131

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Intel Core i3-8100 Desktop Processor 4 Cores up to 3.6 GHz Turbo Unlocked LGA1151 300 Series 95W

2.Mainboard: GIGABYTE B360M D2V $62

 

GIGABYTE B360M D2V Gigabyte B360M D2V Socket 1151/H370/DDR4/S-ATA Motherboard - Black

3.Ram: G.skill ripjawsV 8gb $75

 

G.SKILL 8GB (2 x 4GB) Ripjaws V Series 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2400 (PC4-19200) Intel Z170 Platform / Intel X99 

4.Gpu: Asus phoenix rx 550 $123

 

ASUS 4 GB Radeon RX 550 Phoenix Graphics Card - Black

5.HDD: Western digital 1tb $35

	WD Blue 1TB PC Hard Drive - 5400 RPM Class, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64 MB Cache, 3.5" - WD10EZRZ

6.PSU: Gigabyte PB500 $45 

 

GIGABYTE GP-PB500-UK 500 W 80+ Certified Bronze PSU ATX PC Power Supply - Black

7.Casing: thermeltake h17 $40

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Click image to open expanded view

 

Thermaltake Versa H17 Black Spcc Micro ATX Mini Tower Gaming Computer Case CA-1J1-00S1NN-00

 

 

[Livinloud]

I'd look for a used RX580. Where I am at I am seeing them around that price of $125 used. One of the few pc parts id buy used. Maybe look at an aftermarket heatsink as well. But for $530 I wouldn't complain.

[Cereal5]

I would look for an entirely used system. You can get some K-SKU Intel chips in a build for fairly cheap. Might be able to find a 4670/4690K or 6600K, plus maybe a GTX 970 or R9 card. It would put perform this system by a mile.

 

If you are stuck with buying new, go with a Ryzen 3 2200G. The entire platform should be cheaper, then you can either get a slightly better new GPU or a much better used GPU

 

edit: rough calculation puts a 200G system at $350-370, so then you’ll have ~$170 to spend on a GPU. I would get either a GTX 980 or an R9 Fury (crazy to think, a few years ago those were expensive ass parts).

[ATFink]

I'll be honest, you can do a lot better.

 

Don't go with Intel on a budget build. You will get a CPU that's about as good as what AMD offers but it will be much more expensive.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Ryzen 3 1200 3.1 GHz Quad-Core Processor	$89.99 @ Newegg Business
Motherboard	MSI - B450M MORTAR Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard	$89.99 @ B&H
Memory	G.Skill - Aegis 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$99.99 @ Newegg Business
Storage	Samsung - 860 Evo 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$72.99 @ Amazon
Video Card	Gigabyte - Radeon RX 570 4 GB Gaming 4G Video Card	$129.99 @ Newegg Business
Case	Rosewill - FBM-X1 MicroATX Mini Tower Case	$26.99 @ Amazon
Power Supply	Corsair - CX (2017) 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply	$22.98 @ Newegg
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$572.92
	Mail-in rebates	-$40.00
	Total	$532.92
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-12-02 00:08 EST-0500

I just made this list and it is what I suggest you use for your build.

 

I went with Ryzen and got a decent motherboard (for mATX b450). r3 1200 with an rx 570 absolutely smokes the heck out of an i3 8100 with an rx 550. It's honestly not even fair to compare the two. The Ryzen platform will win by a mile every time.

 

Upgraded the GPU to an RX570 (again, this is a HUGE improvement).

 

Upgraded to 16GB of RAM. Also its 3000 MHz RAM. Good speed.

 

500 GB SSD (Samsung at that, it doesn't get better for 2.5" drives).

 

Trustworthy PSU. Obviously there are better power supplies if you want to pay more, but this one is much cheaper than the one you listed and it's a decent PSU. I don't know anything about that Gigabyte unit in your list.

 

This build is over budget by $2.92. I hope you can stretch by three bucks, but if you can't, change the case to this (It has ok cooling):

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B005LIDU5S/?tag=pcpapi-20

Yeah, no window or USB 3.0. Sorry.

$2.92 over budget gets you a window and front panel USB 3.0.

 

I had to go with mATX since mini tower cases are cheaper than midsize towers that can accept ATX motherboards. I couldn't compromise elsewhere in the build in good faith. You probably don't want to change the motherboard without research. mATX motherboards usually have crappy VRMs so I chose a good motherboard for you. I did this because I'm trying to make it upgradeable so you can drop a 6 to 8 core cpu in the same motherboard in the future.

[ATFink]

32 minutes ago, Cereal5 said:

I would get either a GTX 980 or an R9 Fury

Wait WTF!? You can find a GTX 980 or R9 Fury for under $170 now?

 

 

 

Picsoritsfake                                                                                       jk

[Cereal5]

6 hours ago, ATFink said:

Wait WTF!? You can find a GTX 980 or R9 Fury for under $170 now?

 

 

 

Picsoritsfake                                                                                       jk

Furies have been around or under $175 for a long time, you can find them as low as $125ish these days. 980s on the other hand are still kind of expensive. They're probably like $160-175, depending on the day.

[AngryBeaver]

In my phone atm so cant give good link examples.

 

Basically pick up a gen 3 or 4 it or i7 dell workstation. They can be found for 100-150 on ebay with 8-16 GB of ram 320-1tb hard-drives. You can use an SFF version but you will need a low profile gpu which reduces your options. 

 

Anyways I would get something with a 3770 or 4770 cpu if possible then toss in a cheap 250-500gb ssd for 40-70 bucks then purchase a 1050ti (low profile if you got an sff)

 

 

The below is how the system would look this way. The purchase stuff is just to imitate what comes in the prebuilt dell machine. These are the changes I would make to this system, but the only real requirement would be the GPU.

 

 

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/8jpjKB
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/8jpjKB/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel - Core i7-3770 3.4 GHz Quad-Core Processor  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Motherboard: Intel - DH67CL ATX LGA1155 Motherboard  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Memory: G.Skill - Value 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Memory: G.Skill - Value 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($39.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Patriot - Burst 480 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($59.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Toshiba - Product Series:DT01ACA 500 GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4 GB OC Low Profile Video Card  ($163.97 @ SuperBiiz) 
Case: DIYPC - P48-W ATX Mid Tower Case  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Power Supply: Thermaltake - 500 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit  (Purchased For $0.00) 
Other: Used Dell 9010.  (Purchased For $160.00)
Total: $423.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-12-02 12:27 EST-0500

[ATFink]

4 hours ago, Cereal5 said:

Furies have been around or under $175 for a long time, you can find them as low as $125ish these days. 980s on the other hand are still kind of expensive. They're probably like $160-175, depending on the day.

Just looked it up on eBay found r9 Fury postings for $130 and free shipping. Holy crap. If OP goes with one of those he will need better circulation in his case and a beefier PSU.

 

Now I'm seriously considering selling my RX 580 4GB and crossfiring some r9 Furies.

[AngryBeaver]

If you are wanting to build new, then this would be my recommended parts list.

 

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/j99jKB
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/j99jKB/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 3 2200G 3.5 GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($97.62 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: MSI - B450M PRO-VDH Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($69.99 @ B&H) 
Memory: Team - Vulcan 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($70.98 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Patriot - Burst 240 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($35.89 @ OutletPC) 
Storage: Toshiba - 3 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($79.00 @ Other World Computing) 
Case: Thermaltake - Versa H15 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($43.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: Corsair - CX (2017) 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($22.98 @ Newegg) 
Case Fan: Cooler Master - SickleFlow 69.69 CFM 120mm Fan  ($5.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Other: Used GTX 970 (this price reflects buy it now and best offers from ebay) ($85.00)
Total: $511.44
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-12-02 12:12 EST-0500

[eshamp]

I actually have a christmas build for my little brother in progress right now (waiting on the adapter to ship) that's right in this price range but I went used:

Dell optiplex 9020

I7-4790

8gb ddr3

1tb hdd

$225 free shipping on ebay

Zotac GTX 1070 mini $242.50 free shipping on ebay

Evga 600w psu got it free from a friend (but they are $30 at best buy

And an adapter to hook the new psu to the dell mobo $12.99

$510.50 all said and done but it is very much an all go no show millennium falcon "don't worry kid she's got it where it counts" kind of build. And I figure he can grab an ssd and more ram later if he thinks it's necessary. 

[RaiderzNation]

12 hours ago, ATFink said:

I'll be honest, you can do a lot better.

 

Don't go with Intel on a budget build. You will get a CPU that's about as good as what AMD offers but it will be much more expensive.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Ryzen 3 1200 3.1 GHz Quad-Core Processor	$89.99 @ Newegg Business
Motherboard	MSI - B450M MORTAR Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard	$89.99 @ B&H
Memory	G.Skill - Aegis 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$99.99 @ Newegg Business
Storage	Samsung - 860 Evo 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$72.99 @ Amazon
Video Card	Gigabyte - Radeon RX 570 4 GB Gaming 4G Video Card	$129.99 @ Newegg Business
Case	Rosewill - FBM-X1 MicroATX Mini Tower Case	$26.99 @ Amazon
Power Supply	Corsair - CX (2017) 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply	$22.98 @ Newegg
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$572.92
	Mail-in rebates	-$40.00
	Total	$532.92
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-12-02 00:08 EST-0500

I just made this list and it is what I suggest you use for your build.

 

I went with Ryzen and got a decent motherboard (for mATX b450). r3 1200 with an rx 570 absolutely smokes the heck out of an i3 8100 with an rx 550. It's honestly not even fair to compare the two. The Ryzen platform will win by a mile every time.

 

Upgraded the GPU to an RX570 (again, this is a HUGE improvement).

 

Upgraded to 16GB of RAM. Also its 3000 MHz RAM. Good speed.

 

500 GB SSD (Samsung at that, it doesn't get better for 2.5" drives).

 

Trustworthy PSU. Obviously there are better power supplies if you want to pay more, but this one is much cheaper than the one you listed and it's a decent PSU. I don't know anything about that Gigabyte unit in your list.

 

This build is over budget by $2.92. I hope you can stretch by three bucks, but if you can't, change the case to this (It has ok cooling):

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B005LIDU5S/?tag=pcpapi-20

Yeah, no window or USB 3.0. Sorry.

$2.92 over budget gets you a window and front panel USB 3.0.

 

I had to go with mATX since mini tower cases are cheaper than midsize towers that can accept ATX motherboards. I couldn't compromise elsewhere in the build in good faith. You probably don't want to change the motherboard without research. mATX motherboards usually have crappy VRMs so I chose a good motherboard for you. I did this because I'm trying to make it upgradeable so you can drop a 6 to 8 core cpu in the same motherboard in the future.

https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i3-8100-vs-AMD-Ryzen-3-1200/3942vs3931 Personally I would still go with intel just because of the higher clock speed.

[ATFink]

1 hour ago, RaiderzNation said:

https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i3-8100-vs-AMD-Ryzen-3-1200/3942vs3931 Personally I would still go with intel just because of the higher clock speed.

How does clockspeed help you?

 

Seriously, clockspeed alone means nothing. Have you ever heard of the old FX processors? I'm not saying this to belittle you, I'm just trying to understand how it will help you.

 

Either way you can overclock an r3 1200 to 3.6 GHz or past 3.6 GHz very easily. The i3 8100 is locked and can't overclock.

 

The GPU upgrade is one you should absolutely go with however. The rx 550 is weak. The rx 570 (same price) is MUCH MUCH MUCH faster.

[ATFink]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Ryzen 3 2200G 3.5 GHz Quad-Core Processor	$97.62 @ Amazon
Motherboard	MSI - B450M MORTAR Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard	$94.99 @ B&H
Memory	ADATA - XPG GAMMIX D10 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$104.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Samsung - 860 Evo 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$72.99 @ Amazon
Case	Rosewill - FBM-X1 MicroATX Mini Tower Case	$26.99 @ Amazon
Power Supply	Corsair - CX (2017) 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply	$22.98 @ Newegg
Other	Sapphire NITRO+ RX 570	$113.65
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$554.21
	Mail-in rebates	-$20.00
	Total	$534.21
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-12-02 15:41 EST-0500

Now I advise you go with this list, but wait on buying the memory until you can find a 2x8GB 3000 MHz or 3200 MHz kit that costs ~$100. That'll get you under $530.

 

Here is a userbench of the 2200G and 8100:

https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i3-8100-vs-AMD-Ryzen-3-2200G/3942vsm441832

[RaiderzNation]

On 12/2/2018 at 3:06 PM, ATFink said:

How does clockspeed help you?

 

Seriously, clockspeed alone means nothing. Have you ever heard of the old FX processors? I'm not saying this to belittle you, I'm just trying to understand how it will help you.

 

Either way you can overclock an r3 1200 to 3.6 GHz or past 3.6 GHz very easily. The i3 8100 is locked and can't overclock.

 

The GPU upgrade is one you should absolutely go with however. The rx 550 is weak. The rx 570 (same price) is MUCH MUCH MUCH faster.

Sorry had to respond, clock speed does indeed help but that isnt the only thing that makes it better. A 1.5ghz processor would not run the same as a processor running at 4.9 ghz.

[ATFink]

23 minutes ago, RaiderzNation said:

Sorry had to respond, clock speed does indeed help but that isnt the only thing that makes it better. A 1.5ghz processor would not run the same as a processor running at 4.9 ghz.

I know clockspeed does matter when comparing CPUs of similar architecture, but there are TONS of other factors that influence CPU performance other than clockspeed. My point was comparing a 3.6 GHz Intel CPU to a 3.2 base/3.5 GHz turbo AMD CPU is a bunk comparison.

[RaiderzNation]

On 12/7/2018 at 8:03 PM, ATFink said:

I know clockspeed does matter when comparing CPUs of similar architecture, but there are TONS of other factors that influence CPU performance other than clockspeed. My point was comparing a 3.6 GHz Intel CPU to a 3.2 base/3.5 GHz turbo AMD CPU is a bunk comparison.

It is still a good way to compare you just have to factor in other ways to compare as well for it to be a legitimate comparison for example heat management or cpu cache.