Budget build

karl0508 · February 28, 2015

Hey guys

Just a quick one

I have £400 for a pc, no OS or peripherals only the tower.

I plan to use this PC for gaming, a little 3d modeling and video editing, plus all my uni work.

Could you guys help me come up with the best build possible???

I would like to note that i don't want the G3258, i need 4 threads for my modeling software.

SImoHayha · February 28, 2015

Hey guys

Just a quick one

I have £400 for a pc, no OS or peripherals only the tower.

I plan to use this PC for gaming, a little 3d modeling and video editing, plus all my uni work.

Could you guys help me come up with the best build possible???

I would like to note that i don't want the G3258, i need 4 threads for my modeling software.

Here is the best I did ^~^

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4150 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor (£84.16 @ Scan.co.uk)

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H97M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£64.74 @ Aria PC)

Memory: Crucial 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£24.25 @ Amazon UK)

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£37.99 @ Aria PC)

Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 270 2GB Double Dissipation Video Card (£110.72 @ Scan.co.uk)

Case: NZXT Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£33.85 @ Scan.co.uk)

Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply (£33.59 @ Aria PC)

Total: £413.55

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-28 08:49 GMT+0000

i3 has hyperthreading so it has four threads

karl0508 · February 28, 2015

Here is the best I did ^~^

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4150 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor (£84.16 @ Scan.co.uk)

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H97M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£64.74 @ Aria PC)

Memory: Crucial 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£24.25 @ Amazon UK)

Memory: Crucial 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£24.25 @ Amazon UK)

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£37.99 @ Aria PC)

Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 270 2GB Double Dissipation Video Card (£110.72 @ Scan.co.uk)

Case: NZXT Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£33.85 @ Scan.co.uk)

Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply (£33.59 @ Aria PC)

Total: £413.55

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-28 08:49 GMT+0000

i3 has hyperthreading so it has four threads

Will gaming on dual core be ok in 2015?

SImoHayha · February 28, 2015

Will gaming on dual core be ok in 2015?

yea it has hyperthreading...which means it has four threads, it mimics a quad core pretty much.. you just have to watch out for dual cores which don't have hyperthreading then you got a problem.

karl0508 · February 28, 2015

yea it has hyperthreading...which means it has four threads, it mimics a quad core pretty much.. you just have to watch out for dual cores which don't have hyperthreading then you got a problem.

Ahh so worth it

Would going for a z97 for £65 be better?

SImoHayha · February 28, 2015

Ahh so worth it

Would going for a z97 for £65 be better?

sure why not....if you want to upgrade latter on and overclock I would get it.

karl0508 · February 28, 2015

sure why not....if you want to upgrade latter on and overclock I would get it.

I would like to upgrade but so tempted to go xeon lol

D2ultima · February 28, 2015

yea it has hyperthreading...which means it has four threads, it mimics a quad core pretty much.. you just have to watch out for dual cores which don't have hyperthreading then you got a problem.

If a game doesn't like hyperthreading on an i7, then it won't like it on that i3. That i3 is going to be exactly like a Pentium G3258 at the same speed.

It'll still be for the most part better than AMD chips in single- or dual-threaded games, but anything that'd use a quadcore or more would do better on an AMD 8 core if they can find it.

karl0508 · February 28, 2015

If a game doesn't like hyperthreading on an i7, then it won't like it on that i3. That i3 is going to be exactly like a Pentium G3258 at the same speed.

It'll still be for the most part better than AMD chips in single- or dual-threaded games, but anything that'd use a quadcore or more would do better on an AMD 8 core if they can find it.

I could swap the fx 6300 and push to a 8320e

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/TvtnFT

Would this make it the best???

It would push price up

Also whats the best budget am3+ board?

david cassar · February 28, 2015

If a game doesn't like hyperthreading on an i7, then it won't like it on that i3. That i3 is going to be exactly like a Pentium G3258 at the same speed.

It'll still be for the most part better than AMD chips in single- or dual-threaded games, but anything that'd use a quadcore or more would do better on an AMD 8 core if they can find it.

Thats not how it works. Most games don't see that much benefit from an i7 is because they don't use more than 4 threads. The i3 will still be better than the pentium. Look at far cry 4 for example, there is no difference in fps from an i7 and an i5. Does that mean that there will be no difference between the i3 and pentium? Hell no, the pentium even with work arounds still performs much slower than the i3 because the i3 has a higher amount of threads. Look at hyperthreading not as a feature but as actual virtual cores.

karl0508 · February 28, 2015

Thats not how it works. Most games don't see that much benefit from an i7 is because they don't use more than 4 threads. The i3 will still be better than the pentium. Look at far cry 4 for example, there is no difference in fps from an i7 and an i5. Does that mean that there will be no difference between the i3 and pentium? Hell no, the pentium even with work arounds still performs much slower than the i3 because the i3 has a higher amount of threads. Look at hyperthreading not as a feature but as actual virtual cores.

So an i3 would be the best choice at under £400??

namarino · February 28, 2015

I could swap the fx 6300 and push to a 8320e

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/TvtnFT

Would this make it the best???

It would push price up

Also whats the best budget am3+ board?

I built an AMD rig myself and I went with the 8320. I really like the way that it performs in games for the level of gaming I do. If I were you, I would go with the 8 core. I'm not being bias, but I think it will perform well in game and you'll have those other cores there when you need 'em if you want to do some video editing or anything of that nature.

namarino · February 28, 2015

So an i3 would be the best choice at under £400??

Remember that gaming favors 4 strong threads. Hyperthreading does help in games to a certain extent, but in general, it favors repetitive and predictable tasks like video editing. I personally think that your best bet would be to go with the 8320. It'll perform well enough in games, and it will perform phenomenally in video editing and multithreaded applications like that.

D2ultima · February 28, 2015

If you intend to play a variety of games OP, my tip goes to the 8320, especially if you overclock it. It will fare worse in single threaded games/apps, and even dual-threaded ones, but anything that uses more should get a huge benefit.

namarino · February 28, 2015

Just thought I'd throw together a build real quick. I think this would be a good system for you. I think it would fit your need really well. Post here or send me a PM if you have any questions

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor (£110.22 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Asus M5A97 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£69.56 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£50.54 @ More Computers)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£42.97 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 270 2GB Double Dissipation Video Card (£110.72 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£49.79 @ Aria PC)
Total: £433.80

D2ultima · February 28, 2015

Thats not how it works. Most games don't see that much benefit from an i7 is because they don't use more than 4 threads. The i3 will still be better than the pentium. Look at far cry 4 for example, there is no difference in fps from an i7 and an i5. Does that mean that there will be no difference between the i3 and pentium? Hell no, the pentium even with work arounds still performs much slower than the i3 because the i3 has a higher amount of threads. Look at hyperthreading not as a feature but as actual virtual cores.

No, some games flat out ignore hyperthreads. Unless you can prove to me that i3 vs Pentium at same speeds always yields victory to the i3 in games where i5 and i7 = same performance, I take this with a huge grain of salt. I've seen games ignore my hyperthread cores down to the point of 0% util on them. I don't get why a program that would use Hyperthreading on a dual core would go "yeah gimme core 0, 2, 4 and 6, i don't wanna see 1, 3, 5 or 7" on an i7.

david cassar · February 28, 2015

So an i3 would be the best choice at under £400??

Question is what do you intend to do most? If its gaming then the i3 hands down, in some cases it even beats out the fx 8xxx series in games. If mostly editing save up some money and get the fx 8320 with a decent mobo.

david cassar · February 28, 2015

No, some games flat out ignore hyperthreads. Unless you can prove to me that i3 vs Pentium at same speeds always yields victory to the i3 in games where i5 and i7 = same performance, I take this with a huge grain of salt. I've seen games ignore my hyperthread cores down to the point of 0% util on them. I don't get why a program that would use Hyperthreading on a dual core would go "yeah gimme core 0, 2, 4 and 6, i don't wanna see 1, 3, 5 or 7" on an i7.

Here is an example. As you can see even though the game ignores the extra threads of the i7 it wholeheartedly uses the extra threads provided by hyperthreading on the i3. To the point where they too are maxed out.

karl0508 · February 28, 2015

Just thought I'd throw together a build real quick. I think this would be a good system for you. I think it would fit your need really well. Post here or send me a PM if you have any questions

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor (£110.22 @ Ebuyer)

Motherboard: Asus M5A97 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£69.56 @ Scan.co.uk)

Memory: Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£50.54 @ More Computers)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£42.97 @ CCL Computers)

Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 270 2GB Double Dissipation Video Card (£110.72 @ Scan.co.uk)

Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£49.79 @ Aria PC)

Total: £433.80

I came up with this build which is similar

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/G9H2f7

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor (£110.22 @ Ebuyer)

Motherboard: Asus M5A78L-M/USB3 Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£48.95 @ Amazon UK)

Memory: Kingston Fury Black Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£54.98 @ Dabs)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£42.97 @ CCL Computers)

Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB WINDFORCE Video Card (£109.90 @ Amazon UK)

Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£27.90 @ Amazon UK)

Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£38.87 @ Scan.co.uk)

Total: £433.79

Whats the difference between A78 and A97??

Question is what do you intend to do most? If its gaming then the i3 hands down, in some cases it even beats out the fx 8xxx series in games. If mostly editing save up some money and get the fx 8320 with a decent mobo.

I plan to do lots of gaming, but also alot of uni work, and 3D modeling, as well as uni work.

I plan to start record games and start to upload to youtube, so going to get into alot more editing

namarino · February 28, 2015

I came up with this build which is similar

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/G9H2f7

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor (£110.22 @ Ebuyer)

Motherboard: Asus M5A78L-M/USB3 Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£48.95 @ Amazon UK)

Memory: Kingston Fury Black Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£54.98 @ Dabs)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£42.97 @ CCL Computers)

Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB WINDFORCE Video Card (£109.90 @ Amazon UK)

Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£27.90 @ Amazon UK)

Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£38.87 @ Scan.co.uk)

Total: £433.79

Whats the difference between A78 and A97??

I plan to do lots of gaming, but also alot of uni work, and 3D modeling, as well as uni work.

I plan to start record games and start to upload to youtube, so going to get into alot more editing

Awesome! I really think that'll be a good system for you. Good luck with the build! And I believe the one that you picked out is an mATX board rather than the M5A97 which is a standard ATX board. I think that's the only difference, but I would compare their features just to be sure.

david cassar · February 28, 2015

I came up with this build which is similar

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/G9H2f7

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor (£110.22 @ Ebuyer)

Motherboard: Asus M5A78L-M/USB3 Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£48.95 @ Amazon UK)

Memory: Kingston Fury Black Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£54.98 @ Dabs)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£42.97 @ CCL Computers)

Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB WINDFORCE Video Card (£109.90 @ Amazon UK)

Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£27.90 @ Amazon UK)

Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£38.87 @ Scan.co.uk)

Total: £433.79

Whats the difference between A78 and A97??

I plan to do lots of gaming, but also alot of uni work, and 3D modeling, as well as uni work.

I plan to start record games and start to upload to youtube, so going to get into alot more editing

Its a bit of a tough decision. Honestly if you get the i3 ,in the future you can upgrade to a xeon e3 1230v3 (basically an locked i7 but cheaper) which would be much better than the any amd processor especially in editing and gaming. Its difficult, it depends if you are patient enough to save money and get the xeon i guess haha If you are going to be getting the 8320 then don't get the motherboard you linked. The build which @namarino suggested is much better. The motherboard you linked has a bad vrm phase and no vrm heatsinks. This would mean bad things as the 8320 requires a decent motherboard in order to be run, in fact it would most probably be throttled by the board. The m5897 r2.0 is much better than the a78. Also the gpu which he suggested is 20% faster than the 750ti.

karl0508 · February 28, 2015

Awesome! I really think that'll be a good system for you. Good luck with the build! And I believe the one that you picked out is an mATX board rather than the M5A97 which is a standard ATX board.

so is A78 good?/

EDIT

Also this is £20 less

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/KG4sBm

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor (£110.22 @ Ebuyer)

Motherboard: Asus M5A78L-M/USB3 Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£48.95 @ Amazon UK)

Memory: Kingston Fury Black Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£54.98 @ Dabs)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£42.97 @ CCL Computers)

Video Card: XFX Radeon R7 260X 2GB Core Edition Video Card (£86.71 @ Scan.co.uk)

Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£27.90 @ Amazon UK)

Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£38.87 @ Scan.co.uk)

Total: £410.60

karl0508 · February 28, 2015

Its a bit of a tough decision. Honestly if you get the i3 ,in the future you can upgrade to a xeon e3 1230v3 (basically an locked i7 but cheaper) which would be much better than the any amd processor especially in editing and gaming. Its difficult, it depends if you are patient enough to save money and get the xeon i guess haha If you are going to be getting the 8320 then don't get the motherboard you linked. The build which @namarino suggested is much better. The motherboard you linked has a bad vrm phase and no vrm heatsinks. This would mean bad things as the 8320 requires a decent motherboard in order to be run. The m5897 r2.0 is much better than the a78. Also the gpu which he suggested is 20% faster than the 750ti.

I could go i3 then get xeon, as when broadwell comes out wont they release new xeons??/

If so which build for i3 as it stands?

david cassar · February 28, 2015

I could go i3 then get xeon, as when broadwell comes out wont they release new xeons??/

If so which build for i3 as it stands?

You would get something like this. Also I included an h97 motherboard which is going to support broadwell whenever it realeses. In all honesty broadwell isn't going to be much faster than haswell, so I would reccomend getting a cheaper h81 motherboard which cost about 30£ less than the h97 motherboard and in the future get a haswell xeon. With the money saved you can get a much better gpu in the form of the r9 280.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4150 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor (£84.16 @ Scan.co.uk)

Motherboard: MSI H97M-E35 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£59.98 @ Amazon UK)

Memory: Kingston Fury Black Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£54.98 @ Dabs)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£42.97 @ CCL Computers)

Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 270 2GB Double Dissipation Video Card (£110.72 @ Scan.co.uk)

Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£27.90 @ Amazon UK)

Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£38.87 @ Scan.co.uk)

Total: £419.58

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-28 10:31 GMT+0000

karl0508 · February 28, 2015

You would get something like this. Also I included an h97 motherboard which is going to support broadwell whenever it realeses. In all honesty broadwell isn't going to be much faster than haswell, so I would reccomend getting a cheaper h81 motherboard which cost about 30£ less than the h97 motherboard and in the future get a haswell xeon. With the money saved you can get a much better gpu in the form of the r9 280.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4150 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor (£84.16 @ Scan.co.uk)

Motherboard: MSI H97M-E35 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£59.98 @ Amazon UK)

Memory: Kingston Fury Black Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£54.98 @ Dabs)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£42.97 @ CCL Computers)

Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 270 2GB Double Dissipation Video Card (£110.72 @ Scan.co.uk)

Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£27.90 @ Amazon UK)

Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£38.87 @ Scan.co.uk)

Total: £419.58

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-28 10:31 GMT+0000

Is their anything a H97 has a H81 hasnt???

CPU: Intel Core i3-4150 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor (£84.16 @ Scan.co.uk)

Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£34.57 @ Scan.co.uk)

Memory: Kingston Fury Black Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£54.98 @ Dabs)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£42.97 @ CCL Computers)

Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 280 3GB WINDFORCE Video Card (£139.98 @ Amazon UK)

Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£27.90 @ Amazon UK)

Power Supply: Silverstone Strider Essential 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£46.64 @ Scan.co.uk)

Total: £431.20

EDIT

Would a B85 be a good choice?

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