Good Build?

[8enjicraf2]

Hey Guys,

I have £550 to spend on a PC and I just wanted to know if I could get any better hardware for the money

 

Specs:

 

CPU: AMD FX 6350 £100

Cooler: CM Hyper 412S £29

Motherboard: Gigabyte 970A-UD3P £72

GPU: Gigabyte R9 280 WindForce OC £

Memory:Avexir Core Series 8GB (2x4GB) £50

PSU: Corsair CX 500w Modular £53

Storage: Samsung SpinPoint M8 2.5" 1TB £48

Case: BitFenix Neos £30

 

all prices rounded to the nearest £

Help Much Appreciated, 8

[thekeemo]

looks good

[Zauski]

The 6350 has no benefit over the 6300, and the 6300 is cheaper.

[Matt_Twinkletoes]

I would try and push for a 4440, but that is a good build and try to get a sapphire r9 280

[Sousuke]

Hey Guys,

I have £550 to spend on a PC and I just wanted to know if I could get any better hardware for the money

 

Specs:

 

CPU: AMD FX 6350 £100

Cooler: CM Hyper 412S £29

Motherboard: Gigabyte 970A-UD3P £72

GPU: Gigabyte R9 280 WindForce OC £

Memory:Avexir Core Series 8GB (2x4GB) £50

PSU: Corsair CX 500w Modular £53

Storage: Samsung SpinPoint M8 2.5" 1TB £48

Case: BitFenix Neos £30

 

all prices rounded to the nearest £

Help Much Appreciated, 8

 

Looks good Very similar to my gaming build! However I'd spend a bit more money on the case as I regretted it like hell for 10 months buying a cheap arse case.

[Carnoustie14]

Maybe ditch the aftermarket cooler if it leaves the budget for a gtx 970 or a better cpu

U can always upgrade a cooler later, but not with a cpu u spent £100 or so on...

[Atmos]

This build would be quite a bit better, the 4150 offers about 40% better single core performance, and is hyperthreaded allowing for far better multitasking than the pentium series.

 

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

Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/sfBvCJ/by_merchant/

 

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

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper TX3 Evo 43.1 CFM CPU Cooler  (£16.48 @ CCL Computers) 

Motherboard: Asus H81-PLUS ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£48.58 @ Amazon UK) 

Memory: Kingston Savage 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2400 Memory  (£50.90 @ Overclockers.co.uk) 

Storage: Corsair Force LS 60GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£36.72 @ Aria PC) 

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

Video Card: Asus Radeon R9 280X 3GB DirectCU II Video Card  (£193.14 @ Aria PC) 

Case: BitFenix Neos Black ATX Mid Tower Case  (£29.27 @ Aria PC) 

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

Total: £547.03

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-01 21:18 GMT+0000

 

That cpu uses the lga1150 socket, leaving quite a bit of room for upgrade later on.

[salecar3]

looking good you could try to get i3 but fx is good at quad core demanding games or video rendering and streaming

[CoolaxGaming]

The 6350 has no benefit over the 6300, and the 6300 is cheaper.

There is a benefit - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1281?vs=699

[8enjicraf2]

The 6350 has no benefit over the 6300, and the 6300 is cheaper.

doesn't it? how come?

[8enjicraf2]

 

This build would be quite a bit better

 

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

Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/sfBvCJ/by_merchant/

 

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

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper TX3 Evo 43.1 CFM CPU Cooler  (£16.48 @ CCL Computers) 

Motherboard: Asus H81-PLUS ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£48.58 @ Amazon UK) 

Memory: Kingston Savage 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2400 Memory  (£50.90 @ Overclockers.co.uk) 

Storage: Corsair Force LS 60GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£36.72 @ Aria PC) 

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

Video Card: Asus Radeon R9 280X 3GB DirectCU II Video Card  (£193.14 @ Aria PC) 

Case: BitFenix Neos Black ATX Mid Tower Case  (£29.27 @ Aria PC) 

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

Total: £547.03

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-01 21:18 GMT+0000

 

That cpu uses the lga1150 socket, leaving quite a bit of room for upgrade later on.

 

The only issue is core i3s are dual core, I was going to be streaming on this

[8enjicraf2]

Maybe ditch the aftermarket cooler if it leaves the budget for a gtx 970 or a better cpu

U can always upgrade a cooler later, but not with a cpu u spent £100 or so on...

i have

[8enjicraf2]

 

This build would be quite a bit better

 

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

Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/sfBvCJ/by_merchant/

 

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

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper TX3 Evo 43.1 CFM CPU Cooler  (£16.48 @ CCL Computers) 

Motherboard: Asus H81-PLUS ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£48.58 @ Amazon UK) 

Memory: Kingston Savage 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2400 Memory  (£50.90 @ Overclockers.co.uk) 

Storage: Corsair Force LS 60GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£36.72 @ Aria PC) 

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

Video Card: Asus Radeon R9 280X 3GB DirectCU II Video Card  (£193.14 @ Aria PC) 

Case: BitFenix Neos Black ATX Mid Tower Case  (£29.27 @ Aria PC) 

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

Total: £547.03

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-01 21:18 GMT+0000

 

That cpu uses the lga1150 socket, leaving quite a bit of room for upgrade later on.

 

I think ill go with that anyway, lucky for me overclockers is a short walk from my house! wow, biggest pc shop in Europe, just down the road

[Sousuke]

doesn't it? how come?

 

Well to be honest looking at benchmarks the FX-6350 is £20 extra for the lowest of performance gains. Adding a Potato to your build gives you more performance to your build than bumping up from the FX-6300 to the FX-6350.

 

I'd invest that extra £20 into something else in your build.

[Atmos]

The only issue is core i3s are dual core, I was going to be streaming on this

 

Yea, the i3 would fall short in that by leaps and bounds. Hyperthreading doesnt count for crap against streaming until you get 4 physical cores. I'd really, suggest trying to save up just like, 30 more pounds or so and getting an i5 or Xeon for hyperthreading. The 4 cores will beat out the 6350, and the hyperthreaded 4 cores on a xeon would take away overclocking, but give you far, far better access to multitasking.

 

Or, get that, and start saving up to get a better cpu as your next upgrade!

[Lotus]

You can afford an i5 build at this price point. If you can stretch by another 15, you can do this:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4440 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£143.99 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-E33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£34.12 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Crucial 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (£48.74 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£37.99 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R9 290 4GB PCS+ Video Card  (£221.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Zalman Z3 Plus ATX Mid Tower Case  (£26.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (£50.34 @ Aria PC)
Total: £564.16
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-01 21:27 GMT+0000

 

 

if not, you can do this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£143.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI Z97 PC MATE ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£64.76 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: Kingston Fury Black Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory  (£52.99 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£37.99 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 280X 3GB TWIN FROZR Video Card  (£175.54 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: Zalman Z3 Plus ATX Mid Tower Case  (£26.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (£50.34 @ Aria PC)
Total: £552.60
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-01 21:29 GMT+0000

 

 

For streaming, even an i3 is okay because intel CPUs with an iGPU can use somethign called Quicksync for h.264 encoding, meaning that video capture and encoding is handled by the iGPU of the CPU so there is no performance loss on the CPU or GPU. i3s are fine for streaming provided you use Quicksync. This i5 is definitely sufficient.

[Sousuke]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor  (£78.99 @ Amazon UK) 

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  (£25.50 @ Amazon UK) 

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P ATX AM3+ Motherboard  (£64.54 @ More Computers) 

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (£56.99 @ Amazon UK) 

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

Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 280X 3GB Black Edition Double Dissipation Video Card  (£185.99 @ Novatech) 

Case: NZXT S340 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case  (£59.94 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Power Supply: Corsair Builder 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (£43.00 @ Amazon UK) 

Total: £552.94

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-01 21:29 GMT+0000

 

100% An awesome system .... as I've been running most of this hardware for 10 months

[Lotus]

And as a last alternative, if you REALLY don't want to use quicksync, you can do this:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V3 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£201.00 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: ASRock H81 Pro BTC ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£39.30 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Kingston Savage 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (£51.90 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£37.99 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 280 3GB TWIN FROZR Video Card  (£146.99 @ Novatech)
Case: Zalman Z3 Plus ATX Mid Tower Case  (£26.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (£38.87 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £543.04
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-03-01 21:35 GMT+0000

 

Please please don't get an FX CPU for a gaming machine. It doesn't make sense. The very first build I posted (i5-4440 + R9 290) is by far the best performer in games, and with quicksync you'll have no trouble streaming either. However this machine sacrifices a lot for multi-threaded CPU performance to brute-force CPU intensive tasks, and has no iGPU but can instead just use the CPU for streaming. Nothing fancy, just brute force.