Look over for my first build

[frogger35]

Hey everyone,

 

I'm looking for a little bit of advice on whether this build would be good enough for the following games and general web browsing/video streaming. My budget is $500.00. I can go a little ($50) over but I would prefer to stay under. 

1. Battlefield 4
2. LoL/dota2
3. WoW
4. Minecraft
5. Civ 5
6. Ark
7. Payday 2
8. Everquest
9. World of tanks
10. Terraria

 

I'm wanting to get into PC gaming and I need a basic rig that will allow this so here is the one i pieced together. I am really looking into a less expensive video card that will still be able to get 60+ frames in most games on high settings. I chose to go with AMD as my friends all have similar rigs. Any suggestions are welcome!!

 

PC: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/wD7WQ7

 

[19_blackie_73]

i'd drop 8 gb of ram and go with a i3 and h81/ b85 motherboard

[Starelementpoke]

Hey everyone,

 

I'm looking for a little bit of advice on whether this build would be good enough for the following games and general web browsing/video streaming. My budget is $500.00. I can go a little ($50) over but I would prefer to stay under. 

1. Battlefield 4
2. LoL/dota2
3. WoW
4. Minecraft
5. Civ 5
6. Ark
7. Payday 2
8. Everquest
9. World of tanks
10. Terraria

 

I'm wanting to get into PC gaming and I need a basic rig that will allow this so here is the one i pieced together. I am really looking into a less expensive video card that will still be able to get 60+ frames in most games on high settings. I chose to go with AMD as my friends all have similar rigs. Any suggestions are welcome!!

 

PC: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/wD7WQ7

We should play civ together. I love civ. Also:

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ctkdhM

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

 

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($69.99 @ NCIX US) 

Motherboard: ASRock FM2A78M PRO3+ Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard  ($51.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport XT 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($39.99 @ Newegg) 

Storage: Hitachi Ultrastar 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($43.00 @ Amazon) 

Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 380 2GB Double Dissipation Black Edition Video Card  ($213.98 @ Newegg) 

Case: Thermaltake Versa H21 ATX Mid Tower Case  ($34.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Power Supply: Thermaltake SMART 650W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($39.99 @ Newegg) 

Total: $509.94

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-09-14 15:04 EDT-0400

You don't need 16 gbs for gaming. The 860k has much better single core performance, plus with 4 cores it should be enough for games that can utilize them. Everything else is pretty standered. Decent gpu, decent case, etc. 

[Heizu]

Agree with 19_blackie 8gb is all you need for any game right now, and an i3 will be a better route to go with

[Feather]

Why 16GB of RAM?  Which games do you play the most?

[olback]

If OP is playing modded minecraft, he needs more than 8gb RAM, just saying

[Feather]

Here's my suggestion:

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ct4qZL

 

This allows you to purchase an aftermarket CPU cooler down the road and overclock the CPU.  With even a CM 212 you could get it to 4.3-4.5GHz probably.  This is sufficient for BF4 even at stock (eq to AMD 4100) despite it only having two cores.  Each core is about twice as fast as the 4100 or 6300, it's basically a 4690K with two cores instead of four, so for games like Civ 5 and graphics mods for Minecraft, it will run MUCH better than any AMD CPU since these run primarily on one CPU thread/core.  The board is also a Z97 so you could upgrade the CPU down the road as well and overclock it fine since the board is no budget motherboard by any means.

 

I'm also an nVidia fan so my recommendation is the GTX 960, the drivers are better from my experience, plus Gigabyte has triple fan coolers which overclock like a beast / are quieter.  An alternate case (cheaper) would be the CM 431 Elite.

 

 

If OP is playing modded minecraft, he needs more than 8gb RAM, just saying

 

that's true

[frogger35]

Thank you all for the responses. I've looked at the current builds placed. I am going to take the 16 down to 8 I played modded mc with 4 gbs and that was more than enough for most heavily modded servers so i'm sure 8 will be plenty. I am just starting out as a college student right now so I don't plan on upgrading within the next 3 years. That said it could always change .

 

Here is the revised build I've made from the suggestions so far. How is it looking now? http://pcpartpicker.com/p/DrQZbv

 

Why go the i3 instead of the amd? is it for the upgradability and better OC?

Should i change the graphics card to a nvidia or leave it alone?

 

Here's my suggestion:

 

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ct4qZL

 

This allows you to purchase an aftermarket CPU cooler down the road and overclock the CPU.  With even a CM 212 you could get it to 4.3-4.5GHz probably.  This is sufficient for BF4 even at stock (eq to AMD 4100) despite it only having two cores.  Each core is about twice as fast as the 4100 or 6300, it's basically a 4690K with two cores instead of four, so for games like Civ 5 and graphics mods for Minecraft, it will run MUCH better than any AMD CPU since these run primarily on one CPU thread/core.  The board is also a Z97 so you could upgrade the CPU down the road as well and overclock it fine since the board is no budget motherboard by any means.

 

I'm also an nVidia fan so my recommendation is the GTX 960, the drivers are better from my experience, plus Gigabyte has triple fan coolers which overclock like a beast / are quieter.  An alternate case (cheaper) would be the CM 431 Elite.

 

 

 

that's true

I wanna thank you for the information and the build but it's a little out of my price range right now since I would be overclocking it. Later on down the road I'm going to intel but It won't be a budget gaming pc at that point . 

[Nena Trinity]

That is able to play all those games yes! :3 (not sure bout Payday 2...)

 

Why not this RAM?

*HyperX Savage 1866MHz CL9 4GB (x2)

[frogger35]

That is able to play all those games yes! :3 (not sure bout Payday 2...)

 

Why not this RAM?

*HyperX Savage 1866MHz CL9 4GB (x2)

Curious as to what the benefit of that ram would be compared to the new build?

Thanks for your reply!

[Feather]

Thank you all for the responses. I've looked at the current builds placed. I am going to take the 16 down to 8 I played modded mc with 4 gbs and that was more than enough for most heavily modded servers so i'm sure 8 will be plenty. I am just starting out as a college student right now so I don't plan on upgrading within the next 3 years. That said it could always change .

 

Here is the revised build I've made from the suggestions so far. How is it looking now? http://pcpartpicker.com/p/DrQZbv

 

Why go the i3 instead of the amd? is it for the upgradability and better OC?

Should i change the graphics card to a nvidia or leave it alone?

 

I wanna thank you for the information and the build but it's a little out of my price range right now since I would be overclocking it. Later on down the road I'm going to intel but It won't be a budget gaming pc at that point . 

 

What about this? http://pcpartpicker.com/p/y3J8t6

 

I know I went a little over budget, I just wanted to propose a build I was proud of.  The 500R for that price is quite a deal, it's also in a much higher class in terms of build quality than anything else in that price range.  

 

In this scenario if you have enough cash to upgrade in the next year or two you could use the same board, so that is kind of nice.  Also be aware that only H97 and Z97 will have RAID support.  Also notice I didn't recommend a part that's like red for example, then also suggest a case with blue LEDs.  I like to keep everything looking nice color-wise.

 

Some thoughts on your latest build you posted are:

 

• The i3 is not unlocked while the Pentium 3258 is unlocked (meaning you can overclock it).  The i3 has hyper-threading which the 3258 does not have though.  Basically if you overclock, the Pentium is better, if you don't, the i3 is better.
• I would not recommend MSI boards, they aren't the best for a list of reasons.  I would stick with Asus and Gigabyte (no exp with ASRock but some seem decent..)
• Your budget is pretty low, I wouldn't spend 30% more on RAM for blue and G.SKILL if it was me but that's your call since it's 50% an aesthetic decision
• WD Blues are statistically more reliable than Seagate drives but are slower (about 80-100MB/s vs 150-200MB/s depending on drives).  If a Seagate has good reviews on Newegg I usually will buy it, I've never had one die on me that isn't a lemon like 7200.11 was.
• It's my opinion (and general consensus from conversations) that nVidia has better drives / software than AMD, plus Gigabyte 960 has three fans and a bigger heatsink.
• That Thermaltake case's build quality is really bad, I would get either a CM 431 or HAF 912 mimimum IMO.
• EVGA power supplies are just decent, I forget who makes them but they're nothing special (someone at NCIX once told me Seasonic makes them WHICH IS A LIE!), XFX are better since they are made by Seasonic and are priced pretty competitively really.

[jimakos234]

• EVGA power supplies are just decent, I forget who makes them but they're nothing special (someone at NCIX once told me Seasonic makes them WHICH IS A LIE!), XFX are better since they are made by Seasonic and are priced pretty competitively really.

 

Lel

evga g2/b2 - superflower (tier 1/tier 2 rated)

evga gs - seasonic. (tier 1 rated)

[Nena Trinity]

Curious as to what the benefit of that ram would be compared to the new build?

Thanks for your reply!

Well the RAM I posted has less latency which means its faster! :3 (also you do not need more than 8GBs for gaming unless you are gonna use web-browser while gaming?)

 

1. Highest MHz should be 1600MHz(Intel Haswell), 1866MHz(AMD Piledriver) or 2133MHz(AMD Steamroller)

The only exception to the rules is machines using a iGPU they should have as high as possible but remember advice number 2!

 

2. The cast latency(CL) should be lower and not higher!

(1600MHz/1866MHz should have CL8, 9 or 10 anything above that should only be bought if you are on a budget or do not mind a 0.5 to 1 FPS loss)

 

3. Heat spreaders and lights are not worth the premium price but if you like how something look then go ahead its your money! :3

 

4. You should not have 4 random types of ram and all should have same MHz and CL or it could result badly!

All four should be same or be in two identical pairs but MHz and CL should still be same!!! (Voltage is also VERY IMPORTANT!!!)

 

Example on safest miss-matching, RAM 1 & 3(channel 1): HyperX Savage DDR3 1866MHz CL9 4GB Red (2x4) / RAM 2 & 4(channel 2): AMD Radeon R7 Performance Series 1866MHz CL9 4GB (2x4). Things you should note, same MHz(1866), same CL(9) & same voltage of 1.5V! :3

 

 

[Feather]

Lel

evga g2/b2 - superflower (tier 1/tier 2 rated)

evga gs - seasonic. (tier 1 rated)

 

o that's interesting, I've been kind of out of the loop for awhile, back when I searched eVGA's PSUs there was no GS series.  I'll keep that in mind.

 

with that said, I think the one the OP posted is a B2 (right?) so it's Superflower, and yeah they're not really anything special IMO.

[frogger35]

Again Thanks to all who gave more information! Special thanks to nena360 for the ram info! 

 

 

What about this? http://pcpartpicker.com/p/y3J8t6

 

I know I went a little over budget, I just wanted to propose a build I was proud of.  The 500R for that price is quite a deal, it's also in a much higher class in terms of build quality than anything else in that price range.  

 

In this scenario if you have enough cash to upgrade in the next year or two you could use the same board, so that is kind of nice.  Also be aware that only H97 and Z97 will have RAID support.  Also notice I didn't recommend a part that's like red for example, then also suggest a case with blue LEDs.  I like to keep everything looking nice color-wise.

 

Some thoughts on your latest build you posted are:

 

• The i3 is not unlocked while the Pentium 3258 is unlocked (meaning you can overclock it).  The i3 has hyper-threading which the 3258 does not have though.  Basically if you overclock, the Pentium is better, if you don't, the i3 is better.
• I would not recommend MSI boards, they aren't the best for a list of reasons.  I would stick with Asus and Gigabyte (no exp with ASRock but some seem decent..)
• Your budget is pretty low, I wouldn't spend 30% more on RAM for blue and G.SKILL if it was me but that's your call since it's 50% an aesthetic decision
• WD Blues are statistically more reliable than Seagate drives but are slower (about 80-100MB/s vs 150-200MB/s depending on drives).  If a Seagate has good reviews on Newegg I usually will buy it, I've never had one die on me that isn't a lemon like 7200.11 was.
• It's my opinion (and general consensus from conversations) that nVidia has better drives / software than AMD, plus Gigabyte 960 has three fans and a bigger heatsink.
• That Thermaltake case's build quality is really bad, I would get either a CM 431 or HAF 912 mimimum IMO.
• EVGA power supplies are just decent, I forget who makes them but they're nothing special (someone at NCIX once told me Seasonic makes them WHICH IS A LIE!), XFX are better since they are made by Seasonic and are priced pretty competitively really.

 

 

Okay so if I went this route would I need the after market cooler in order to overclock? My research has told me that if I don't overclock it's not worth the pentium but if I do it is worth it. If I need an aftermarket cooler would this do? http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002G392ZI/ref=cm_sw_su_dp?tag=viglink20237-20

[jimakos234]

o that's interesting, I've been kind of out of the loop for awhile, back when I searched eVGA's PSUs there was no GS series.  I'll keep that in mind.

 

with that said, I think the one the OP posted is a B2 (right?) so it's Superflower, and yeah they're not really anything special IMO.

Super flower is one of the best psu manufacturers out there

[Thunder Down Under]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/pGq3YJ