microATX Gaming Build

[d1screet]

Hi everyone,

 

I've been contemplating on putting together a microATX build, and I would like some feedback on what I have in mind so far as well as ask a few questions.

Here is a link to the list of parts that I have in mind thus far:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-4200 3.3GHz Quad-Core OEM/Tray Processor  ($59.95 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H55 57.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus M5A78L-M/USB3 Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard  ($47.08 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($53.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($52.49 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 280 3GB DUAL-X Video Card  ($159.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair Air 240 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($69.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($44.09 @ Newegg)
Total: $542.57
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-22 16:14 EDT-0400

 

This PC will be used as my primary workstation at home/dorm, with gaming being the most intensive activity that I would be performing on it (meaning I'm not looking to be doing any sort of video editing or Adobe Photoshop work). I live in the US so everything should be in USD.

 

I may stream using OBS on occasion, but I am not really looking to have some super awesome 60FPS stream, just something that is decently watchable for people. In terms of games, I tend to play mostly fighting games such as USF4/Skullgirls/KOF13/DOA5, but I do also enjoy other games such as Heroes of the Storm, Civ V, and CS:GO. I don't really play games at ultra settings, nor do I really require it; I care more about being able to hold a stable 60+ framerate at low to medium settings without much trouble for games coming within the near future (I don't need INSANE futureproofing, it's not necessary).

 

I should also note that I usually use a 1600 x 900 resolution, as I don't own a 1080p monitor. I don't require any extra peripherals with my build, as I am carrying mouse/keyboard/USB Audio over from my current build - All I would need from the new motherboard is to have 4 USB slots, which I'm fairly sure is standard. The OS I intend on installing will be Windows 8.1 and upgrading to Windows 10 whenever that is officially released.

 

Please feel free to offer any substitutions or changes to my build as the only thing I am actually set on is the case; I think it looks nice, clean, and will be easier to transport than my current mid-size tower.

 

A few questions:

1.) Should I actually worry about trying to order all of my parts from one distributor/seller? I just kinda have this fear that if I buy a couple parts from here, a couple parts from there, something nightmarish can happen and everything just doesn't work out. Perhaps this is just irrational, but is it ultimately best for me to just suck it up and order my parts from the cheapest sources possible since I am looking to save as much as possible?

 

2.) How much should I trust customer ratings at websites such as Newegg? Are they to be noted or cared about in any way or is it all with a grain of salt? I ask this because I notice that a lot of the microATX motherboards that I looked at on Newegg that were compatible with AMD's FX line of processors all had dismaying customer review averages (3 eggs or so), and it certainly does not seem like there's many options.

 

Thanks for your help in advance, I hope this wall of text wasn't too terrible to read. I'd love to hear your answers soon.

 

[niofalpha]

What's your total budget? 

 

This build will  be better. http://pcpartpicker.com/p/XbwnJx

[niofalpha]

Please follow your post @d1screet to get notifications when someone replies

[Arwanell]

What's your total budget? 

 

This build will  be better. http://pcpartpicker.com/p/XbwnJx

 

Exactlly, this is what i meant

 

please OP, for gaming, keep away from AMD (CPU), video cards are ok

[ltguy]

Exactlly, this is what i meant

 

please OP, for gaming, keep away from AMD (CPU), video cards are ok

please join me in a moment of silence for amd. They are greatly missed.

[NicekillBG]

What's your total budget? 

 

This build will  be better. http://pcpartpicker.com/p/XbwnJx

this

[d1screet]

Oh, sorry for forgetting to follow my own post:

 

My budget is roughly around $500-600 USD.

 

I got some other feedback from people telling exactly the same thing: go Intel. And so I guess my question from there would be which one?

 

My current computer has an i3-2120, and while it's been quite stable for about 4 years now, but I'm not entirely sure whether simply hyper-threading fits my uses or whether I would benefit from an actual quad-core processor?

 

Also, would it be a reasonable idea (or not) to simply go with the anniversary edition of the Pentium to just rock dual-core or will I come across bottlenecks quickly?

 

Thanks all for you help!

[MrKickkiller]

Oh, sorry for forgetting to follow my own post:

 

My budget is roughly around $500-600 USD.

 

I got some other feedback from people telling exactly the same thing: go Intel. And so I guess my question from there would be which one?

 

My current computer has an i3-2120, and while it's been quite stable for about 4 years now, but I'm not entirely sure whether simply hyper-threading fits my uses or whether I would benefit from an actual quad-core processor?

 

Also, would it be a reasonable idea (or not) to simply go with the anniversary edition of the Pentium to just rock dual-core or will I come across bottlenecks quickly?

 

Thanks all for you help!

 

May I add that Intel Quadcore does not even remotely relate to an AMD Quadcore.

Generally speaking AMD Cpu's have been much weaker per core then Intel one.

[brob]

<clip>

 

A few questions:

1.) Should I actually worry about trying to order all of my parts from one distributor/seller? I just kinda have this fear that if I buy a couple parts from here, a couple parts from there, something nightmarish can happen and everything just doesn't work out. Perhaps this is just irrational, but is it ultimately best for me to just suck it up and order my parts from the cheapest sources possible since I am looking to save as much as possible?

 

2.) How much should I trust customer ratings at websites such as Newegg? Are they to be noted or cared about in any way or is it all with a grain of salt? I ask this because I notice that a lot of the microATX motherboards that I looked at on Newegg that were compatible with AMD's FX line of processors all had dismaying customer review averages (3 eggs or so), and it certainly does not seem like there's many options.

 

Thanks for your help in advance, I hope this wall of text wasn't too terrible to read. I'd love to hear your answers soon.

 

 

Many people prefer to order from a single supplier. Some suppliers offer price matching to encourage this. Some offer free shipping for larger orders.

 

If there are consistent negative themes in reviews of an item, pay attention.

 

I am not surprised you are discouraged by the poor reviews of mATX AM3+ motherboards. The selection is poor, they tend to use older chipsets, and they do not usually have beefy enough power distribution to overclock. 

[CatzRuleZWorld]

This with your choice of storage if you want a Intel quad core that'll last a long time. GPU might need upgrade in a few years though.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/nm2LBm

This if you want to stay under budget and want to overclock and want mITX (what I'd probably do)

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/p76VTW

[d1screet]

Would I end up hitting a bottleneck due to just being a dual core with the Pentium, or would just overclocking for better single-thread performance be able to cut it?

[d1screet]

With the uses that I described, would an i3 suffice (with hyperthreading)?

 

I don't really mind dual-core, I just want to see how I can get the most with my money.

[Arwanell]

With the uses that I described, would an i3 suffice (with hyperthreading)?

 

I don't really mind dual-core, I just want to see how I can get the most with my money.

 

Let's get something straight, you said you will be gaming with this PC

 

2 core Intel beats --> 8 <--- core AMD, and 4 core Intel destroys it!

so, please get Intel, pentium will be fine but if you can push to i3 it would be great

[d1screet]

Yes, gaming will be the only thing that would particularly be demanding upon the computer that I intend on using.

The next-most demanding software that I could think of running realistically is MATLAB, but in my opinion that's not really even that intense work unless I'm running multiple scripts at once.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($64.98 @ NCIX US)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H55 57.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI H81M Eco Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($49.99 @ Directron)
Memory: Team Elite Plus 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.30 @ Amazon)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R7 260X 2GB Core Edition Video Card  ($106.10 @ Amazon)
Case: Corsair Air 240 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($77.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($29.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $483.33
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-23 10:53 EDT-0400

 

So I guess that this is the bare-minimum that I'm working with. If I'm going with the Pentium, I would definitely like to grab the liquid cooler to give myself stable temps while pushing the processor a bit so that it's not bottlenecking too badly. I'd definitely think that streaming would be out of the question with the Pentium, which I don't really care as I'm not particularly a big-time streamer or anything. I would think that playing a game, listening to music using foobar2k, and possibly having mumble up wouldn't be too much stress on a Pentium? Or am I wrong?

 

Anyways, I suppose I have a bit of headroom to upgrade a part or two within my build; my question would be which one should it be? Should I upgrade the processor up to i3/i5 and keep the 260X (or maybe even a different graphics card?) or keep the Pentium and use the extra money on a beefier card? Sorry for all my questions, and thank you all for your help.

[Arwanell]

Yes, gaming will be the only thing that would particularly be demanding upon the computer that I intend on using.

The next-most demanding software that I could think of running realistically is MATLAB, but in my opinion that's not really even that intense work unless I'm running multiple scripts at once.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($64.98 @ NCIX US)

CPU Cooler: Corsair H55 57.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($54.99 @ Newegg)

Motherboard: MSI H81M Eco Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($49.99 @ Directron)

Memory: Team Elite Plus 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($49.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.30 @ Amazon)

Video Card: XFX Radeon R7 260X 2GB Core Edition Video Card  ($106.10 @ Amazon)

Case: Corsair Air 240 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($77.99 @ Micro Center)

Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($29.99 @ NCIX US)

Total: $483.33

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-23 10:53 EDT-0400

 

So I guess that this is the bare-minimum that I'm working with. If I'm going with the Pentium, I would definitely like to grab the liquid cooler to give myself stable temps while pushing the processor a bit so that it's not bottlenecking too badly. I'd definitely think that streaming would be out of the question with the Pentium, which I don't really care as I'm not particularly a big-time streamer or anything. I would think that playing a game, listening to music using foobar2k, and possibly having mumble up wouldn't be too much stress on a Pentium? Or am I wrong?

 

Anyways, I suppose I have a bit of headroom to upgrade a part or two within my build; my question would be which one should it be? Should I upgrade the processor up to i3/i5 and keep the 260X (or maybe even a different graphics card?) or keep the Pentium and use the extra money on a beefier card? Sorry for all my questions, and thank you all for your help.

 

good, nice, but if I was you, I wouldn't buy aftermarket CPU cooler, and put those 55€ into CPU and get Intel i3 4xxx

It will do better for gaming

it won't be evn close to overheating or something like that

trust me, i have i3 4160, I'm playing GTA 5, Far Cry4, Unity.. all day long on ultra and it's nice and quiet and the temps are also good.

get the cooler some time later when you get money

 

hope i helped

[VenkiPhy6]

good, nice, but if I was you, I wouldn't buy aftermarket CPU cooler, and put those 55€ into CPU and get Intel i3 4xxx

It will do better for gaming

it won't be evn close to overheating or something like that

................................

get the cooler some time later when you get money

This. 

 

BTW @d1screet Nice build mate! If you are going to put up a build log I would follow. I love budget gaming builds! If you had time put up some benchmarks too.

[d1screet]

Alright, makes sense guys.

 

Thank you all for your help.

 

I guess I'll play around with some numbers on the i3 as my processor with just using a stock cooler. Just a sidenote that my current build is running an i3-2120 and I've been quite satisfied with it for about 4 years now; I was just wondering whether perhaps there could be a bit of a better option for the budget that I am able to spend, and seeing as how Linus praises the performance of the Pentium, I was kinda curious on what it could do for me.

 

I'm planning on ordering the parts and putting together the build over this upcoming summer, and I'll definitely try to put up a build log covering it and try to run a few benchmarks to show how it goes.

 

Thanks again!

[VenkiPhy6]

Wait...wait...if you have a PC already, will you be selling it? Then you can make money out of that and add it to increase the budget of your present build right? Or have you already taken that into account in your budget?

[d1screet]

No, actually; I'm gifting my PC to my parents as their current workstation PC at home stopped working.

 

I could add onto the budget of my projected build a bit (perhaps my parents would be willing to chip in a couple bucks) but I'm pretty concerned about how to make the money that I can afford to spend work first before expanding upon it out of control.

 

So it all kinda looks like this at the moment:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4330 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($129.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI H81M Eco Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($49.99 @ Directron)
Memory: Team Elite Plus 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.30 @ Amazon)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R7 260X 2GB Core Edition Video Card  ($106.10 @ Amazon)
Case: Corsair Air 240 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($77.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($42.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $506.35
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-04-23 14:17 EDT-0400

 

Which is pretty nice because it's in that $500 dollar range that I was kinda striving to keep at. Now let's say if I were able to spare an extra $100 somehow. What SHOULD I change? Better CPU? Better graphical card (if so, which one(s))?

 

Thanks for noting that though, I don't know entirely sure if I could be able to sell this PC or not, but it would definitely be worth a try.

[VenkiPhy6]

Whoa! If you put in another $100 you could get a better graphic card and suddenly you will start getting kick ass 1080p gaming performance ! But you might have to get some extra fans or something to cool things down a bit. In addition, check if your Case would support the form factor of the graphic and your power supply will be able to survive.

 

From what I see in newegg maybe R9 280. But don't take my word! I have never actually bought a high end graphic card. Someone else can help I suppose.

[d1screet]

Yup, the maximum GPU length that my case can handle is 290mm, which should be able to fit all but the most ridiculous of cards.

 

I suppose that the most pertinent upgrade point would be the graphics card then. I don't even game in 1080p, but I suppose having the security in graphical power would be certainly nice to have. The R9 280 is definitely what people seem to recommend, I only simply used the 260X as it's what Linus used in his Budget OC Build, so I used it as a starting point.

 

I've been asking this question around a number of places and people sure do seem to like pushing the i5-4440 or similar models on me, but I'm not entirely sure I'd want/need to go that high. It would certainly become a trade-off for me to either upgrade the processor to an i5 or upgrade the graphics card to a 280 (or a GTX 960 from what I've been seeing in most example builds?) and I don't think I could do BOTH without spending more than I'd like.

 

As for cooling, I'm feeling pretty ok so far, as my case has two 120mm fans in the front panel and extra 120mm fan included that I would most likely use as an exhaust fan to direct my airflow upwards out of the case. Would you think that I should still invest in another fan?

[d1screet]

Playing around with some of the numbers, I'd come across the R9 270? Can anyone give any feedback on how good of a card that is for the price? Any better alternatives around for it?

[VenkiPhy6]

If you are going to go for a $200 graphic then at least one more fan might help(total 3 fans). Coz' graphic cards generate a lotta heat and you will have to somehow direct it out of your case without distributing the heat inside the case itself to other components.  

[d1screet]

Hey guys,

 

Just popping in with an update on what I'd like my build to be:

 

[PCPartPicker part list]http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2xc2NG) / [Price breakdown by merchant](http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2xc2NG/by_merchant/)(

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
**CPU** | [intel Core i3-4150 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80646i34150) | $93.99 @ SuperBiiz
**Motherboard** | [MSI H81M Eco Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-motherboard-h81meco) | $49.99 @ Directron
**Memory** | [G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f314900cl10s8gbxl) | $51.99 @ Newegg
**Storage** | [Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/western-digital-internal-hard-drive-wd10ezex) | $52.49 @ OutletPC
**Video Card** | [XFX Radeon R9 270 2GB Core Edition Video Card](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/xfx-video-card-r9270acnfc) | $142.49 @ SuperBiiz
**Case** | [Corsair Air 240 MicroATX Mid Tower Case](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-case-cc9011070ww) | $79.99 @ Newegg
**Power Supply** | [Thermaltake 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/thermaltake-power-supply-pstr20450npcbusb) | $40.98 @ Newegg
 | *Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts* |
 | Total (before mail-in rebates) | $531.92
 | Mail-in rebates | -$20.00
 | **Total** | **$511.92**
 | Generated by [PCPartPicker](http://pcpartpicker.com) 2015-04-29 22:22 EDT-0400 |

 

This is the idea I've got so far, but I'm a still a little shaky on whether my motherboard will actually have the BIOS update out of the box to support my Haswell refresh CPU. I'm still not entirely certain on the R9 270, I may just step down just a little to a 260X, but who knows; maybe I'll go crazy and go for a GTX 960 or something.

 

Anyways, let me know what you think about it so far; I'll definitely be sure to post up a Build Log once I get all the parts together.

[d1screet]

After a lot of deliberation and discussion with other people, I've come to the conclusion to try to stretch a bit further to get an i5, while keeping the graphics card relatively budget:

 

[PCPartPicker part list]http://pcpartpicker.com/p/wmpFhM) / [Price breakdown by merchant](http://pcpartpicker.com/p/wmpFhM/by_merchant/)(

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
**CPU** | [intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/intel-cpu-bx80646i54460) | $167.99 @ SuperBiiz
**Motherboard** | [ASRock H97M Anniversary Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asrock-motherboard-h97manniversary) | $61.98 @ Newegg
**Memory** | [Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1333 Memory](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/crucial-memory-bls8g3d1339ds1s00) | $53.49 @ Amazon
**Storage** | [Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/western-digital-internal-hard-drive-wd10ezex) | $52.49 @ OutletPC
**Video Card** | [sapphire Radeon R7 260X 2GB Video Card](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/sapphire-video-card-1003662l) | $89.99 @ Newegg
**Case** | [Corsair Air 240 MicroATX Mid Tower Case](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-case-cc9011069ww) | $77.99 @ Micro Center
**Power Supply** | [Corsair CX 430W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply](http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-power-supply-cx430m) | $25.00 @ Newegg
 | *Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts* |
 | Total (before mail-in rebates) | $578.93
 | Mail-in rebates | -$50.00
 | **Total** | **$528.93**
 | Generated by [PCPartPicker](http://pcpartpicker.com) 2015-05-10 13:21 EDT-0400 |

 

Why? Because while gaming is cool and all; work will probably be more important. So i5 would make sense in being able to handle more of a workload and probably being able to handle most if not all things in the future. Not to mention, the majority of the games that I play aren't heavily demanding nor do I ever use anti-aliasing. So for gaming purposes, I will be perfectly happy, and if I were to see fit, I could easily upgrade just the GPU in my build and perhaps a new PSU if the GPU does take up a lot of power. So yeah, trying to take more realistic priorities with my computer