Good $500 Folding Rig?

[Madone6]

Wondering on starting a little farm. OS Required, No monitor required

[Imakuni]

Wondering on starting a little farm. OS Required, No monitor required

Do you already have a computer in your house? If so, it's best to just slap another GPU on it, and maybe change the PSU, if needed.

[tobben]

If possible, according to my estimates. Adding another gpu to your current rig will result in approximately

10000 times better value than building another rig for 500$

[jimakos234]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($69.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A88M PRO3+ Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard  ($56.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory  ($42.75 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($52.33 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 950 2GB SSC ACX 2.0 Video Card  ($149.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Deepcool TESSERACT BF ATX Mid Tower Case  ($33.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($54.00 @ Newegg)
Total: $460.04
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-10-11 14:36 EDT-0400

[Madone6]

Do you already have a computer in your house? If so, it's best to just slap another GPU on it, and maybe change the PSU, if needed.

I do, it doesn't have a gpu in it, it has an OEM 180W PSU which i would think is the only choke point. It has an A10-7800 APU living in it and i dont really want any bottle necks, the psu I was considering is a corsair cx430m

[Imakuni]

I do, it doesn't have a gpu in it, it has an OEM 180W PSU which i would think is the only choke point. It has an A10-7800 APU living in it and i dont really want any bottle necks, the psu I was considering is a corsair cx430m

Huh. I would get either a Gtx 970 or an R9 390. The first will have lower power consumption and heat, which is very useful if you are going to run this 24/7. The later, however, will have slightly better gaming performance (and possibly folding too?), as well as not eating up 1 entire CPU core just for itself.

 

Neither choice is wrong, pick one that you think is the best, considering size (has to fit your case), visuals, and the above.

 

For the PSU, you probably want a gold one, since 24/7 is can eat up a lot of power. If only ever plan on having 1 GPU on that machine, this Rosewill 500w one will already be enough. However, if you think you'll add more later (say, your mobo has another PCIe slot), I'd recommend this EVGA 650w for 2x Gtx 970, or this XFX 750w for 2x 390.

 

 

With the rest of the money, I'd get:

1. CPU cooler for your rig. If you mobo is half decent, you can also OC that APU and get a nice performance boost. I have an A6 3500, and by changing BCLK and voltages, I was able to snag myself 137 x 24 = 3288mhz. Almost a 900mhz boost from the stock 2.4ghz (if only 138mhz bclk didn't crash on me....).
2. An SSD, if you don't already have one. Aside for booting faster (minimizing down time), it also consumes less power, emits no noise, and is much more reliable for 24/7 operation than your regular HD. Not a necessity by any means, but something to think about.

[Madone6]

 

Huh. I would get either a Gtx 970 or an R9 390. The first will have lower power consumption and heat, which is very useful if you are going to run this 24/7. The later, however, will have slightly better gaming performance (and possibly folding too?), as well as not eating up 1 entire CPU core just for itself.

 

Neither choice is wrong, pick one that you think is the best, considering size (has to fit your case), visuals, and the above.

 

For the PSU, you probably want a gold one, since 24/7 is can eat up a lot of power. If only ever plan on having 1 GPU on that machine, this Rosewill 500w one will already be enough. However, if you think you'll add more later (say, your mobo has another PCIe slot), I'd recommend this EVGA 650w for 2x Gtx 970, or this XFX 750w for 2x 390.

 

 

With the rest of the money, I'd get:

1. CPU cooler for your rig. If you mobo is half decent, you can also OC that APU and get a nice performance boost. I have an A6 3500, and by changing BCLK and voltages, I was able to snag myself 137 x 24 = 3288mhz. Almost a 900mhz boost from the stock 2.4ghz (if only 138mhz bclk didn't crash on me....).
2. An SSD, if you don't already have one. Aside for booting faster (minimizing down time), it also consumes less power, emits no noise, and is much more reliable for 24/7 operation than your regular HD. Not a necessity by any means, but something to think about.

 

I've already been looking at a 960, so that might not live up to your expectations but it fits my budget

[Imakuni]

I've already been looking at a 960, so that might not live up to your expectations but it fits my budget

I assumed a 500$ budget and went with that. But hey, it's your money, not mine.

 

Though I really recommend the 970, if possible. The performance is much higher, with a similiar level of power consumption, so the PPW is better. You may even considering buying it used, it's still a very recent card afterall.