Please help me with first (and last) £500 Build

If I am doing lot of gaming, then i will go for intel cpu, however I am going for workstation. So I think I need more cores than better single thread cpus.

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler

While reading review, I saw that stock cooler is really bad.. Also I am planning OC so I spend extra with cooler.

Motherboard: MSI A78M-E35 Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard

This board has everything I need. built in USB port also for case. as well as 6GB/s sata data plug.

MEMORY: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory

I went with "trust-able Brand" and "cheapest" 8GB DDR3 Memory..

SSD: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive

Since I am already using SSD, I can't live with out SSD.. So there we go!

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive

Since I spend a lot of money for SSD.. So I went with cheapest 1TB Drive on the market.

Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R7 260X 2GB Video Card

I saw lot of good review (as well as Linus's) for this GPU.

CASE: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case

This also meet what i needed. USB 3.0Port. Big case. and 2.5" and 3.5" Drive Bay

Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply

Since I am not planning to do any upgrade, I have choosed (again) "Trust-able Brand" Also Enough power for my build.

Is there anything I can swap out? or give up? I want this build to stay at £500.

Thanks for reading..

Tedster · November 23, 2014

First things first, please give us the PCPP link.

Secondly, shouldn't you be getting Windows 8.1 over Windows 8?

OLLYBOP7LIVE · November 23, 2014

Try this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor (£53.83 @ Scan.co.uk)

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£23.54 @ CCL Computers)

Motherboard: MSI A88XM-E35 Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard (£37.80 @ Amazon UK)

Memory: Kingston Fury White Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1333 Memory (£54.99 @ Amazon UK)

Storage: Sandisk Solid State Drive 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£44.01 @ Ebuyer)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.59 @ Amazon UK)

Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 270 2GB Double Dissipation Video Card (£105.62 @ Scan.co.uk)

Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£28.98 @ Ebuyer)

Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£37.33 @ Amazon UK)

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£72.35 @ Aria PC)

Total: £498.04

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-23 20:04 GMT+0000

gidonyou · November 23, 2014

Pcpp link: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/gidonyou/saved/8pFYcf

Also I meant 8.1 dont know what happend

First things first, please give us the PCPP link.

Secondly, shouldn't you be getting Windows 8.1 over Windows 8?

Any reason why I should give up DDR-1600 RAM?

also why should I 860k instead?

Try this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor (£53.83 @ Scan.co.uk)

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£23.54 @ CCL Computers)

Motherboard: MSI A88XM-E35 Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard (£37.80 @ Amazon UK)

Memory: Kingston Fury White Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1333 Memory (£54.99 @ Amazon UK)

Storage: Sandisk Solid State Drive 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£44.01 @ Ebuyer)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.59 @ Amazon UK)

Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 270 2GB Double Dissipation Video Card (£105.62 @ Scan.co.uk)

Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£28.98 @ Ebuyer)

Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£37.33 @ Amazon UK)

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£72.35 @ Aria PC)

Total: £498.04

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-23 20:04 GMT+0000

Mistersprinkles · November 23, 2014

Pcpp link: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/gidonyou/saved/8pFYcf

Also I meant 8.1 dont know what happend

Any reason why I should give up DDR-1600 RAM?

also why should I 860k instead?

I feel you should go with 2X4GB of DDR3 1600 or above personally. It's not that expensive and won't put a major dent in your budget. That way you can run dual channel.

The 860K is newer and a little better than the 760 and I would advise that you get it as well.

The build right above this post is solid. Build it.

OLLYBOP7LIVE · November 23, 2014

Any reason why I should give up DDR-1600 RAM?

also why should I 860k instead?

1333Mhz and 1600Mhz don't peform that differently, so really you should go for what fits your budget.

The 860K is newer technology which generally is better than the older technology. It's also less than the 760K for some reason.

I feel you should go with 2X4GB of DDR3 1600 or above personally. It's not that expensive and won't put a major dent in your budget. That way you can run dual channel.

The 860K is newer and a little better than the 760 and I would advise that you get it as well.

The build right above this post is solid. Build it.

There are two reasons I chose 1x8GB over 2X4GB, the first being that since the motherboard only has two slots, future expansion will be possible without the need to ditch your working 2X4GB kit. The second is that it is cheaper than 2X4GB, making the £500 budget possible with the 270. The difference between dual channel and single channel is not big enough for a noticeable difference in day to day use either.

Mistersprinkles · November 23, 2014

1333Mhz and 1600Mhz don't peform that differently, so really you should go for what fits your budget.

The 860K is newer technology which generally is better than the older technology. It's also less than the 760K for some reason.

There are two reasons I chose 1x8GB over 2X4GB, the first being that since the motherboard only has two slots, future expansion will be possible without the need to ditch your working 2X4GB kit. The second is that it is cheaper than 2X4GB, making the £500 budget possible with the 270. The difference between dual channel and single channel is not big enough for a noticeable difference in day to day use either.

Your call. Go single channel if you like. A gamer won't need more than 8GB for a few years IMO.

I still advocate 1600Mhz. Not much price difference. What's $5?

gidonyou · November 23, 2014

I feel you should go with 2X4GB of DDR3 1600 or above personally. It's not that expensive and won't put a major dent in your budget. That way you can run dual channel.

The 860K is newer and a little better than the 760 and I would advise that you get it as well.

The build right above this post is solid. Build it.

I am confused what you mean by "above this post"

Also you have mentioned diffrent mini atx case, should I spend little bit more to get aftermarket fan for more stabilize and decrease the noise?

Glade to know there is better and cheap version of cpu.

If I am only aiming for workstation, do you think I should get better/more ram.. or better graphic like you mentioned? how do you think?

Thanks for recommendation

Mistersprinkles · November 23, 2014

Get whatever GPU you can afford. Look at benchmarks and pick the one that fits your needs the best.

If you only have 2 ram slots and you want to go from 8 to 16 later on get a single 8GB stck now. If you will be going for 8GB permanently get 2x4GB kit.

The 860K is a good CPU get the cooler master hyper 212 cooler so you can overclock it.

gidonyou · November 29, 2014

Get whatever GPU you can afford. Look at benchmarks and pick the one that fits your needs the best.

If you only have 2 ram slots and you want to go from 8 to 16 later on get a single 8GB stck now. If you will be going for 8GB permanently get 2x4GB kit.

The 860K is a good CPU get the cooler master hyper 212 cooler so you can overclock it.

I have little more budget to upgrade CPU or GPU..

Should I rather upgrade..

AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core (+21 euro) and motherboard support CPU, USB 3.0, least 2 SATA 6.0/s port...

or

Sapphire Radeon R9 270X 2GB Dual-X (+15 euro) for better graphic card?

I am going to use my bulid for editing/rendering and small amount of light gaming..

-----

Also to go to AMD based system, I have switched my ram to: AMD 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600

Is it worth it or should I just use Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600

?

Thanks for helping me..

Mistersprinkles · November 29, 2014

Either RAM will work. I suggest going with the FX 6300 on a Ga970aud3p gigabyte board with the Hyper 212 cooler. Get a better GPU later. The good CPU gives you better upgrade options in the future like an 8 core cpu. And the FX is more powerful than the Athlon.

Rebelattack · November 29, 2014

Either RAM will work. I suggest going with the FX 6300 on a Ga970aud3p gigabyte board with the Hyper 212 cooler. Get a better GPU later. The good CPU gives you better upgrade options in the future like an 8 core cpu. And the FX is more powerful than the Athlon.

Plus the fact that he won't really feel the difference in a 15 euro more expensive GPU. I am with Mistersprinkles get a FX-6300. the CPU difference is way bigger then the GPU, you won't see much difference between a 270 or a 270x on a 15 euro lvl. Much bigger differences between 270-280-290 etc.

gidonyou · November 30, 2014

Plus the fact that he won't really feel the difference in a 15 euro more expensive GPU. I am with Mistersprinkles get a FX-6300. the CPU difference is way bigger then the GPU, you won't see much difference between a 270 or a 270x on a 15 euro lvl. Much bigger differences between 270-280-290 etc.

Either RAM will work. I suggest going with the FX 6300 on a Ga970aud3p gigabyte board with the Hyper 212 cooler. Get a better GPU later. The good CPU gives you better upgrade options in the future like an 8 core cpu. And the FX is more powerful than the Athlon.

Thanks for recommendation.. so is this build solid enough?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor (£74.34 @ Aria PC)

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£23.38 @ CCL Computers)

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£63.54 @ Aria PC)

Memory: AMD 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£65.16 @ Ebuyer)

Storage: Sandisk Solid State Drive 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£42.98 @ Ebuyer)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.99 @ Amazon UK)

Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 270 2GB Double Dissipation Video Card (£105.98 @ Scan.co.uk)

Case: Cooler Master N300 ATX Mid Tower Case (£31.56 @ Scan.co.uk)

Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£38.30 @ Amazon UK)

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£72.35 @ Aria PC)

Case Fan: Corsair Air Series AF120 White 52.2 CFM 120mm Fan (£7.98 @ Amazon UK)

Total: £565.56

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-30 13:50 GMT+0000

Also Can I save few dollar using MSI 760GMA-P34(FX) or is it bad choice?

gidonyou · November 30, 2014

I might use EVGA 100-B1-0500-KR cause it is little bit more cheaper and give more power.. (Watts).. also it is trust-able brand.. any-thought?

Mistersprinkles · November 30, 2014

Definitely go for the 500W PSU. Yes I think it is a solid build unless you feel you can afford to upgrade the GPU to maybe a 270X.

In the USA right now R9 290 is $199 this weekend only, for example. Just sayin. Otherwise that is a nice machine.

Rebelattack · November 30, 2014

I might use EVGA 100-B1-0500-KR cause it is little bit more cheaper and give more power.. (Watts).. also it is trust-able brand.. any-thought?

Good PSU and again just as sprinkles said if there is anyway you can add 99 dollars to your budget to go get a 290 now it will be a difference of night and day. Like the 290 can do high res textures on newer games and play solid FPS where the 270(X) can do this at med textures.

gidonyou · December 1, 2014

Definitely go for the 500W PSU. Yes I think it is a solid build unless you feel you can afford to upgrade the GPU to maybe a 270X.

In the USA right now R9 290 is $199 this weekend only, for example. Just sayin. Otherwise that is a nice machine.

Recap:

Basic Build:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor (£53.83 @ Scan.co.uk)

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£23.38 @ CCL Computers)

Motherboard: MSI A88XM-E35 Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard (£39.53 @ Scan.co.uk)

Memory: AMD 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£65.16 @ Ebuyer)

Storage: Sandisk Solid State Drive 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£42.98 @ Ebuyer)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.99 @ Amazon UK)

Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 270 2GB Double Dissipation Video Card (£109.80 @ Scan.co.uk)

Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£28.98 @ Ebuyer)

Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£35.99 @ Amazon UK)