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$200 USD Platform upgrade

catzambia
By catzambia
in CPUs, Motherboards, and Memory
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Go to solution Solved by Curufinwe_wins,

 

CPU: Intel Core i3-4170 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($116.89 @ OutletPC) 

Motherboard: ECS B85H3-M9 (1.0) Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($30.98 @ Newegg) 

Memory: Crucial 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($30.99 @ Amazon) 

Total: $178.86

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-12 20:41 EST-0500

 

You can actually get a pretty decent board with the left over 20 USD, but this one has amazing value.

Posted

Hey guys, so I need a platform upgrade for less than 200 dollars. I would spend more but I'm too young to get a job, and can only make money during the summer. :/  So what would you guys recommend for less than 200 USD. I need a cpu, motherboard, and ram. I have no problem with AMD or Intel, but I want to support AMD so AMD would be better. Thanks guys!

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Hey guys, so I need a platform upgrade for less than 200 dollars. I would spend more but I'm too young to get a job, and can only make money during the summer. :/  So what would you guys recommend for less than 200 USD. I need a cpu, motherboard, and ram. I have no problem with AMD or Intel, but I want to support AMD so AMD would be better. Thanks guys!

amd apu, cheap ass ram

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Hey guys, so I need a platform upgrade for less than 200 dollars. I would spend more but I'm too young to get a job, and can only make money during the summer. :/  So what would you guys recommend for less than 200 USD. I need a cpu, motherboard, and ram. I have no problem with AMD or Intel, but I want to support AMD so AMD would be better. Thanks guys!

 

hmm... try find a 6300 with some budget boards.

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  • Solution

 

CPU: Intel Core i3-4170 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($116.89 @ OutletPC) 

Motherboard: ECS B85H3-M9 (1.0) Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($30.98 @ Newegg) 

Memory: Crucial 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($30.99 @ Amazon) 

Total: $178.86

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-12 20:41 EST-0500

 

You can actually get a pretty decent board with the left over 20 USD, but this one has amazing value.

LINK-> Kurald Galain:  The Night Eternal 

Top 5820k, 980ti SLI Build in the World*

CPU: i7-5820k // GPU: SLI MSI 980ti Gaming 6G // Cooling: Full Custom WC //  Mobo: ASUS X99 Sabertooth // Ram: 32GB Crucial Ballistic Sport // Boot SSD: Samsung 850 EVO 500GB

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Headset: Senn RS185 // Monitor: ASUS PG348Q // Devices: Note 10+ - Surface Book 2 15"

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Prosumer DYI FreeNAS

CPU: Xeon E3-1231v3  // Cooling: Noctua L9x65 //  Mobo: AsRock E3C224D2I // Ram: 16GB Kingston ECC DDR3-1333

HDDs: 4x HGST Deskstar NAS 3TB  // PSU: EVGA 650GQ // Case: Fractal Design Node 304 // OS: FreeNAS

 

 

 

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CPU: Intel Core i3-4170 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($116.89 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: ECS B85H3-M9 (1.0) Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($30.98 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Crucial 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($30.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $178.86
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-12 20:41 EST-0500
 
You can actually get a pretty decent board with the left over 20 USD, but this one has amazing value.

 

Would the i3 last me till another platform upgrade, or would it be more likely that I would pop in an i5 later on? And how would that board handle an i5 if I did upgrade.

 

EDIT: Basically what would my upgrade path be if needed.

LTT's Fastest 9800gt

LTT Forum Beginners Guide

 

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PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3240 3.1GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($53.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI H97 PC MATE ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($88.88 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($36.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $179.86
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-12 20:43 EST-0500

New: PCPartPicker part list

Old:Intel® Core2 Quad CPU Q8400 @ 2.66GHz, GIGABYTE GA-EP43T-UD3L, 4 GB Elixir PC3 ddr3-1333,  ASUS RADEON R7 260X, Thermaltake M9, 1TB HDD, GreatWall GW550SEL 550 WATT, BENQ GW2255, Hyper T4, Samson SR950 Headphones, fiio ek10.

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No need for the integrated graphics though. :P

then you might be good

id recommend it anyways though, cause it will be faster and if you ever want to do a game itll work for it

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Would the i3 last me till another platform upgrade, or would it be more likely that I would pop in an i5 later on? And how would that board handle an i5 if I did upgrade.

Yes the i3 is plenty strong, but unlike AMD boards, intel boards have no issues at all handling the full range of locked cpus.

LINK-> Kurald Galain:  The Night Eternal 

Top 5820k, 980ti SLI Build in the World*

CPU: i7-5820k // GPU: SLI MSI 980ti Gaming 6G // Cooling: Full Custom WC //  Mobo: ASUS X99 Sabertooth // Ram: 32GB Crucial Ballistic Sport // Boot SSD: Samsung 850 EVO 500GB

Mass SSD: Crucial M500 960GB  // PSU: EVGA Supernova 850G2 // Case: Fractal Design Define S Windowed // OS: Windows 10 // Mouse: Razer Naga Chroma // Keyboard: Corsair k70 Cherry MX Reds

Headset: Senn RS185 // Monitor: ASUS PG348Q // Devices: Note 10+ - Surface Book 2 15"

LINK-> Ainulindale: Music of the Ainur 

Prosumer DYI FreeNAS

CPU: Xeon E3-1231v3  // Cooling: Noctua L9x65 //  Mobo: AsRock E3C224D2I // Ram: 16GB Kingston ECC DDR3-1333

HDDs: 4x HGST Deskstar NAS 3TB  // PSU: EVGA 650GQ // Case: Fractal Design Node 304 // OS: FreeNAS

 

 

 

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PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3240 3.1GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($53.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Motherboard: MSI H97 PC MATE ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($88.88 @ OutletPC)

Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($36.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Total: $179.86

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-12 20:43 EST-0500

Why an h97 board for a locked pentium? And I'll be playing gta v, which doesn't run well on dual cores, and gta v is the reason I need a platform upgrade lol.

LTT's Fastest 9800gt

LTT Forum Beginners Guide

 

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Why an h97 board for a locked pentium? And I'll be playing gta v, which doesn't run well on dual cores, and gta v is the reason I need a platform upgrade lol.

 

I was surprised just how well GTA V worked on my Xeon E3-1231v3 when I disabled two cores but left HT on to simulate a 3.8 GHz i3. There were drops into the 50s fps wise on my 970, but mostly it was above 60 fps and at 70%-85% gpu usage. And the drops weren't stutters like they were when I disabled two cores and disabled HT to simulate a 3.8 GHz Pentium (which was straight unplayable with all the stutter). I gotta say the i3 seemed like a hell of a budget option after how my simulated one handled GTA V on a mix of very high and ultra with my 970. Gameplay was really smooth and enjoyable, night and day better than a console, though I guess you should factor in GTA V being one of the best optimized games to come out on pc in a while.

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I was surprised just how well GTA V worked on my Xeon E3-1231v3 when I disabled two cores but left HT on to simulate a 3.8 GHz i3. There were drops into the 50s fps wise on my 970, but mostly it was above 60 fps and at 70%-85% gpu usage. And the drops weren't stutters like they were when I disabled two cores and disabled HT to simulate a 3.8 GHz Pentium (which was straight unplayable with all the stutter). I gotta say the i3 seemed like a hell of a budget option after how my simulated one handled GTA V on a mix of very high and ultra with my 970. Gameplay was really smooth and enjoyable, night and day better than a console, though I guess you should factor in GTA V being one of the best optimized games to come out on pc in a while.

Alright, thanks dude. How would an i3 compare to the slightly cheaper fx-6300?

LTT's Fastest 9800gt

LTT Forum Beginners Guide

 

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Alright, thanks dude. How would an i3 compare to the slightly cheaper fx-6300?

 

I haven't used an FX-6300 so I can't say any more than the i3 seems to usually win in cpu benchmarks I have seen.

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Alright, thanks dude. How would an i3 compare to the slightly cheaper fx-6300?

Do you happen to live near a Microcenter? They have a Core i5 4590 on sale for $160. While the board and ram choice are not great, this is a nice cheap quad core setup:

 

 
CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($159.99 @ Micro Center) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H81M-H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($30.98 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Crucial 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($30.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $221.96
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-12 21:08 EST-0500
 
If you can't go this route, go with the i3 route suggested by the others. 

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Why an h97 board for a locked pentium? And I'll be playing gta v, which doesn't run well on dual cores, and gta v is the reason I need a platform upgrade lol.

i thought you meant you wanted a system with an upgrade path.

New: PCPartPicker part list

Old:Intel® Core2 Quad CPU Q8400 @ 2.66GHz, GIGABYTE GA-EP43T-UD3L, 4 GB Elixir PC3 ddr3-1333,  ASUS RADEON R7 260X, Thermaltake M9, 1TB HDD, GreatWall GW550SEL 550 WATT, BENQ GW2255, Hyper T4, Samson SR950 Headphones, fiio ek10.

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i thought you meant you wanted a system with an upgrade path.

yeah sure, but still gots to gta v xD And I'd be upgrading very soon with a pentium so lel

LTT's Fastest 9800gt

LTT Forum Beginners Guide

 

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yeah sure, but still gots to gta v xD And I'd be upgrading very soon with a pentium so lel

yeah lol didnt know about gtav.

New: PCPartPicker part list

Old:Intel® Core2 Quad CPU Q8400 @ 2.66GHz, GIGABYTE GA-EP43T-UD3L, 4 GB Elixir PC3 ddr3-1333,  ASUS RADEON R7 260X, Thermaltake M9, 1TB HDD, GreatWall GW550SEL 550 WATT, BENQ GW2255, Hyper T4, Samson SR950 Headphones, fiio ek10.

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Do you happen to live near a Microcenter? They have a Core i5 4590 on sale for $160. While the board and ram choice are not great, this is a nice cheap quad core setup:

 

 
CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($159.99 @ Micro Center) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H81M-H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($30.98 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Crucial 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($30.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $221.96
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-12 21:08 EST-0500
 
If you can't go this route, go with the i3 route suggested by the others. 

 

Unfortunately I live nowhere near a microcenter :(

LTT's Fastest 9800gt

LTT Forum Beginners Guide

 

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Yeah dude gta v reks cpus :o

CPU_01.png

 

 

So yea... As good or better (the i3 I recommended is a bit faster which actually makes a big difference on dual core HT with this particular game.)

 

Another image with a faster i3 if you notice the difference. Also yea the i3-4170 is a 3.7 so it's still faster than this one.

 

s1Em8AI.jpg

LINK-> Kurald Galain:  The Night Eternal 

Top 5820k, 980ti SLI Build in the World*

CPU: i7-5820k // GPU: SLI MSI 980ti Gaming 6G // Cooling: Full Custom WC //  Mobo: ASUS X99 Sabertooth // Ram: 32GB Crucial Ballistic Sport // Boot SSD: Samsung 850 EVO 500GB

Mass SSD: Crucial M500 960GB  // PSU: EVGA Supernova 850G2 // Case: Fractal Design Define S Windowed // OS: Windows 10 // Mouse: Razer Naga Chroma // Keyboard: Corsair k70 Cherry MX Reds

Headset: Senn RS185 // Monitor: ASUS PG348Q // Devices: Note 10+ - Surface Book 2 15"

LINK-> Ainulindale: Music of the Ainur 

Prosumer DYI FreeNAS

CPU: Xeon E3-1231v3  // Cooling: Noctua L9x65 //  Mobo: AsRock E3C224D2I // Ram: 16GB Kingston ECC DDR3-1333

HDDs: 4x HGST Deskstar NAS 3TB  // PSU: EVGA 650GQ // Case: Fractal Design Node 304 // OS: FreeNAS

 

 

 

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