Brother's Budget Build

[TopDollar]

Since the budget workstation I built my parents for Christmas went over so well, I decided to build my brother a new computer for his birthday. He mostly games on his xbox one, but his only other computer is a barely functioning Dell laptop from about 7 years ago. He makes model tractor toys as a hobby and would like to be able to get into some 3d modelling of parts he can have 3d printed. Since he might want to play some games on it, I figured an AMD APU would be a good fit with a ~$550 budget including operating system. He can upgrade to a dedicated gpu later down the road if he wants himself. Always fun to have other opinions on builds, so see below for specs and prices.

 

Specs (with prices in USD):

• Processor: AMD A10-7850K - $104.95
• Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper T4 - $24.99
• Motherboard: Biostar Hi-Fi A70U3P - $39.99
• Memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 2133mhz - $46.99
• Storage:
  • Kingston SSDNow V300 120GB - $44.99 (yes I know it's "slow", but it's cheap and I trust it more than other budget SSD brands)
  • WD Blue 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache - $53.99
• PSU: SeaSonic S12II 520 Bronze - $63.99 (I friggn love this little power supply for budget builds. Inexpensive but reliable and more than enough power for your average user.)
• Case: Fractal Design Core 1100 - $39.99
• OS: Windows 10 - $119.99
• Optical: ASUS DRW-24B1ST - $19.99 (It's a dvd drive/burner..nothing fancy here).

Tax: $10.14

Shipping: $14.79

Promo Code: -$4.00 (on the dvd drive of all things).

 

Total Cost: $580.79

 

Anyone have any first hand experience with these APU chips? Benchmarks look pretty damn solid with fast memory so I think it will be a good fit for him. Especially if gets something like an R9 380 or something similar later down the road.

[verydogesuchwow]

1. GET AN INTEL NO MATTER THE BUDGET!! AMD is generally worse than Intel

2. Don't know much about fans but get a Hyper 212 Evo, they work well I've heard

 

Otherwise, good given the budget!

[Streetguru]

23 minutes ago, TopDollar said:

Since the budget workstation I built my parents for Christmas went over so well, I decided to

You can quiet easily get an i5 and a 380 for that budget, and no one should ever buy a V300 SSD

 

Wait, well if you have to fit in windows you could still get an 860K + 380 for around that budget

 

an APU build tops out at around the $300 mark

 

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/XtZxnQ
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/XtZxnQ/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($72.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A88M PRO3+ Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard  ($56.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill NS Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory  ($36.90 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R9 380 4GB PCS+ Video Card  ($184.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply  ($34.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $436.75
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-02-09 22:37 EST-0500

[TopDollar]

1 minute ago, verydogesuchwow said:

1. GET AN INTEL NO MATTER THE BUDGET!! AMD is generally worse than Intel

2. Don't know much about fans but get a Hyper 212 Evo, they work well I've heard

 

Otherwise, good given the budget!

1. Ehhhh it's more about picking the right part for the job than absolute processing power all the time (or brand loyalty). Straight off the bat, I knew I probably wasn't going to include a dedicated gpu since I'm already spending a lot on a birthday present. The i3 series is also the minimum Intel processor I'll use for a daily driver computer/workstation. The i3-6100 does still beat the A10-7850K on both single and multi threaded processing, but is more expensive, not overclockable, and loses on onboard graphics processing (high on the weighted objectives table). I also haven't done an AMD build before and thought it would be interesting.

 

2. I have a Hyper 212 Evo on my main computer, and it's great. I honestly got the T4 because I'm super lazy and didn't want to deal with the whole back plate nonsense (I hope). The T4s performance will be way better than a stock cooler for the mild (at most) overclock I may put on it.

[EunSoo]

Here's what I would go for, but your preference, it not my build:

 

CPU: AMD FX-6300

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-D3P

RAM: G.Skill Ares Series 8gb (2 x 4gb) ddr3-1600

GPU: Gigabyte AMD R7 360

Storage (I liked your storage setup): 

   1. Kingston SSDNow V300 120GB

   2. WD Blue 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache

Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80Plus PSU

Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case

 

All of that adds up to about $550. I personally think that is the best you can get for that price point. Good Luck!

[EunSoo]

2 minutes ago, SCGazelle said:

~snip~

 

 

All from amazon btw

[TopDollar]

3 minutes ago, SCGazelle said:

Here's what I would go for, but your preference, it not my build:

 

CPU: AMD FX-6300

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-D3P

RAM: G.Skill Ares Series 8gb (2 x 4gb) ddr3-1600

GPU: Gigabyte AMD R7 360

Storage (I liked your storage setup): 

   1. Kingston SSDNow V300 120GB

   2. WD Blue 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache

Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80Plus PSU

Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case

 

All of that adds up to about $550. I personally think that is the best you can get for that price point. Good Luck!

 

 

11 minutes ago, Streetguru said:

You can quiet easily get an i5 and a 380 for that budget, and no one should ever buy a V300 SSD

 

Wait, well if you have to fit in windows you could still get an 860K + 380 for around that budget

 

an APU build tops out at around the $300 mark

 

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/XtZxnQ
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/XtZxnQ/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($72.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A88M PRO3+ Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard  ($56.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill NS Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory  ($36.90 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R9 380 4GB PCS+ Video Card  ($184.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply  ($34.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $436.75
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-02-09 22:37 EST-0500

 

Both good points, however I was also looking at a budget of ~$550 out the door ($120 fixed OS cost included). The reason I don't mess around with operating systems on other people's systems I build is really just for piece of mind. I generally don't have a problem messing around with getting a key online for cheaper for my own system since I know I can troubleshoot it. For other people however, a turnkey solution is more appropriate. I can also be pretty pedantic about certain parts selections.

 

For example the signal quality if the EVGA 500W power supply sketches me out a lot, and I usually consider the non modular lower power SeaSonic units to be the minimum of quality I'll accept. I like the S12II because it has a black finish, looks nicer in a case (aesthetics still play a roll too), and has one of the highest reviews from Johnny Guru I have seen for a budget unit. I also refuse to not use an SSD for an OS drive. Even the "slow" V300 is much faster than a traditional hard drive. It adds to the overall user experience.

 

Being my first AMD build, I also don't know how I feel about the Athlon series as I was under the impression it is more of the lower end chips. Kind of goes along with the i3 being the minimum I'll use in an intel workstation build. The FX6300 would have been a fine choice, however my GPU power requirement rears it's head again (and I personally think the Kaveri APUs have a cool party piece). The APU choice then had to follow with faster memory speeds since it shares system memory.

 

These budget builds are always challenging since I have to go against my usual thought process of pure performance and general disregard for price (within reason). They're fun and rewarding to do though.

 

I also don't trust OutletPC or SuperBiiz like I do Amazon or Newegg, so that plays a roll too.

[Streetguru]

3 minutes ago, TopDollar said:

 

 

Both good points, however I was also looking at a budget of ~$550 out the door ($120 fixed

the i3 is a decent amount faster than like an 860K, but it really doesn't matter too much for gaming, only CPU heavy games will be bottlenecked by an AMD quad core

 

also I'd recommend you just find windows for free if you're going to buy a gray market key

if you just want a low power low cost APU rig here ya go, what you could do is put the money towards a freesync display, but at your budget you're going to better off with the above 380 build

 

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/mncC3C
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/mncC3C/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD A8-7600 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($77.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-D3H Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard  ($63.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2400 Memory  ($39.88 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.89 @ OutletPC)
Case: Xion XON-310_BK MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($31.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply  ($34.99 @ Amazon)
Monitor: AOC G2460PF 144Hz 24.0" Monitor  ($259.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $558.61
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-02-09 23:19 EST-0500

[TopDollar]

I guess it may seem as if I am arguing these particular hardware choices against any others suggested. Not my intention. I just enjoy weighing the benefits and trade offs of different hardware selections based on a particular set of design criteria.

 

The research portion of computer building I find to be the most enjoyable part by far.