Family Build

[TheCaptain53]

Due to getting myself a new case and PSU, I've decided to re-purpose my old case and PSU and build a family PC.

I've more or less decided on these components, but wouldn't mind some opinions:

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258
Mobo: MSI H81M-P33 (mATX)
RAM: 2x4GB G.Skill Z Ripjaws 1600MHz
GPU: MSI GTX 750 Ti OC
HDD: Seagate Baracuda 1TB

Baring in mind this is not intended for Crysis 7 at 632K, it's for my little brothers to play some games at 1080p at medium textures (hence the CPU and GPU).

Whilst this is not intended to be a super upgradeable PC, I may add an aftermarket air cooler later on down the line to get a nice overclock on the Pentium. However, I'm not certain whether the mobo listed restricts me from doing so. If this is the case, I may splash out a bit more and get a Z97 board instead.

Thoughts?

[WyvernAbstracts]

cant you get a 270x or 280x for the same price as a 750ti? 

[Comessy]

It looks good.

I'm not too sure, but I think with a bios update you can overclock that pentium

[TheCaptain53]

cant you get a 270x or 280x for the same price as a 750ti? 

The 270X is £30 more expensive where I am.

It may not seem like much, but it all adds up.

Plus, should the 750 Ti be lacking in performance, I can always chuck it on eBay and just buy another card.

[WyvernAbstracts]

The 270X is £30 more expensive where I am.

It may not seem like much, but it all adds up.

Plus, should the 750 Ti be lacking in performance, I can always chuck it on eBay and just buy another card.

true, I think your brother might need a titan to play minecraft  

[TheCaptain53]

true, I think your brother might need a titan to play minecraft

Tri-Titan X SLI anyone? 

[deusvult]

Granted that you can get a decent ssd for 50 bucks nowadays, and the massive performance gains it yields for such a minor investment - it's kinda silly not too.

 

The rest looks fairly decent. I think you could get a bit more bang for the buck if you got a newer board and perhaps looked for some mid-range amd stuff second hand. 

[TheCaptain53]

Granted that you can get a decent ssd for 50 bucks nowadays, and the massive performance gains it yields for such a minor investment - it's kinda silly not too.

I know exactly what you mean. I've got an SSD boot drive in my system and I love it.

What I will probably do is create a 110GB partition in the 1TB drive, call it the C:\ drive, then there's the option of copying it over to an SSD at some point in the future.

[dizmo]

I'd almost suggest an AMD 4 core over the Pentium.
Have you looked around to see if you can land a good deal on an i3 via the classifieds or something similar?

[TheCaptain53]

I'd almost suggest an AMD 4 core over the Pentium.

Have you looked around to see if you can land a good deal on an i3 via the classifieds or something similar?

I did consider the X4 860K, but from watching a couple of benchmarks, have found out that the G3258 is slightly better performing overall (and cheaper).

Even though it only has 2 cores, that little chip is damn impressive.

The Pentium is also £35 cheaper than the bottom end i3. My gut tells me the Pentium may even perform better if you put a generous overclock on it (something you can't do on the i3).

[NumLock21]

Get a Core i3 and a R7-260x or a R9-270.

[TheCaptain53]

Get a Core i3 and a R7-260x or a R9-270.

Why's that?

I probably should have mentioned earlier that I'm trying to keep costs low.

 

Granted that you can get a decent ssd for 50 bucks nowadays, and the massive performance gains it yields for such a minor investment - it's kinda silly not too.

 

The rest looks fairly decent. I think you could get a bit more bang for the buck if you got a newer board and perhaps looked for some mid-range amd stuff second hand. 

I'm not ruling out second hand graphics cards, but this is just a general idea for a build.

[NumLock21]

Why's that?

I probably should have mentioned earlier that I'm trying to keep costs low.

 

Core i3 better than G3258 because it has HT so it's like a quad core. 260x is faster than 750Ti

[TheCaptain53]

Core i3 better than G3258 because it has HT so it's like a quad core. 260x is faster than 750Ti

The 260X is on par with the 750 Ti. Most of the benchmarks I've seen have had them putting out similar scores, depending on which game. Considering most games are better optimised for nVidia and the 750 Ti uses considerably less power, in my eyes, it's a no brainer.

Yes, the i3 does have HT, but it's not quite a 4 core. Having more cores isn't the be-all and end-all of picking a CPU, otherwise everyone would be running AMDs. Furthermore, I doubt you will see considerable performance gains in the i3 over the Pentium when it's paired with a low powered graphics card.

If there was an unlocked i3, I'd consider putting it in my own PC... But there isn't.

[NumLock21]

The 260X is on par with the 750 Ti. Most of the benchmarks I've seen have had them putting out similar scores, depending on which game. Considering most games are better optimised for nVidia and the 750 Ti uses considerably less power, in my eyes, it's a no brainer.

Yes, the i3 does have HT, but it's not quite a 4 core. Having more cores isn't the be-all and end-all of picking a CPU, otherwise everyone would be running AMDs. Furthermore, I doubt you will see considerable performance gains in the i3 over the Pentium when it's paired with a low powered graphics card.

If there was an unlocked i3, I'd consider putting it in my own PC... But there isn't.

260x is cheaper than 750Ti. If you were to get a 750Ti just for lower power consumption or games better "optimised" for nvidia then it's up to you. But if one was to spend that money on a 750Ti, most will definitely spent a itsy bit more and go with a R9-270. For gaming, quad core will be the CPU to go for and the Intel Core i3 is the closest you can get to being a "quad". As for the G3258 the only thing good for is it's ability to overclock since its unlocked, but no matter how much that CPU is OCed, it won't outperform a stock Core i3. Now if someone has a budget of just $500 wants a actual quad core, then AMDs will be their only choice. Intel won't have a unlock Core i3 even if they can just simply flip the switch and enable it because they know it will probably perform just the same as a Core i5 and with a much lower price tag. They can't let that happen.

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/compare/gigabyte-video-card-gvn75toc2gi%2Cgigabyte-video-card-gvr927oc2gd%2Csapphire-video-card-1003662l/

[TheCaptain53]

260x is cheaper than 750Ti. If you were to get a 750Ti just for lower power consumption or games better "optimised" for nvidia then it's up to you. But if one was to spend that money on a 750Ti, most will definitely spent a itsy bit more and go with a R9-270. For gaming, quad core will be the CPU to go for and the Intel Core i3 is the closest you can get to being a "quad". As for the G3258 the only thing good for is it's ability to overclock since its unlocked, but no matter how much that CPU is OCed, it won't outperform a stock Core i3. Now if someone has a budget of just $500 wants a actual quad core, then AMDs will be their only choice. Intel won't have a unlock Core i3 even if they can just simply flip the switch and enable it because they know it will probably perform just the same as a Core i5 and with a much lower price tag. They can't let that happen.

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/compare/gigabyte-video-card-gvn75toc2gi%2Cgigabyte-video-card-gvr927oc2gd%2Csapphire-video-card-1003662l/

I did consider the AMD X4 860K, but apparently the the Pentium outperforms it in a lot of scenarios. I don't want to buy an i3 because of the extra premium over a Pentium. If it was a massive performance gain over the Pentium then I would consider it, but the system won't be asked of much, just a couple of games with reduced settings and homework.

Should I completely regret buying the Pentium, then the mobo will allow me to upgrade to an i3. However, I don't think I will, and so cannot justify the extra cost of an i3.

Honestly, my biggest concern is the motherboard. The Z97 is considerably more expensive, but it would officially support overclocking and would be a good base for possible upgrades in the future. But, I don't know if the requirements of this system can justify the extra cost.