Looking for some feedback (Again.)

[CaptainKips]

Hey, so, it's been a while.

I'm on a super-tight budget, but I want a relatively low-end gaming computer.

What that means is, I want to be able to play games like SWTOR, LOL, Smite, Runescape, /maybe/ minecraft, Battlefield, etc. on low-to-mid settings and my computer not, ya know. Die. Or anything.

 

So, I've come up with a build that I'd like critical feedback on. Without further ado:
 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($74.88 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: ARCTIC Alpine 64 GT 25.6 CFM CPU Cooler  ($9.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI A68HM-GRENADE Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard  ($53.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Mushkin ECO2 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R7 240 2GB Video Card  ($58.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Rosewill R521-M MicroATX Mini Tower Case w/400W Power Supply  ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer  ($13.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit)  ($87.95 @ OutletPC)
Wireless Network Adapter: Rosewill N900PCE 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter  ($30.88 @ OutletPC)
Total: $460.51
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-02-20 04:36 EST-0500

Edited February 20, 2016 by CaptainKips
Fixed an issue with the wrong type of code :D:D:D

[shadowbyte]

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

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($66.88 @ OutletPC) 
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler  ($34.50 @ Newegg) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-DS3H-A Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($49.98 @ OutletPC) 
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory  ($38.98 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Crucial BX200 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($59.99 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card  ($104.99 @ Amazon) 
Case: NZXT Source 210 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($34.99 @ Directron) 
Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($43.98 @ Newegg) 
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit)  ($20.00) 
Total: $454.29
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-02-20 04:39 EST-0500

[Castdeath97]

Don't get that GPU please:

 

 

And get a better board, use the stock CPU for now (as much as its a pain, its better than going with a r7 240). And you can install windows without a CD reader. Don't use stock PSUs they are terrible. 

[Castdeath97]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($74.88 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A88M PRO3+ Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard  ($52.38 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Mushkin ECO2 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($29.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.89 @ OutletPC) 
Video Card: PNY GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Enthusiast Edition Video Card  ($94.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($24.99 @ NCIX US) 
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($19.99 @ Newegg) 
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit)  ($87.95 @ OutletPC) 
Wireless Network Adapter: Rosewill N900PCE 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter  ($30.88 @ OutletPC) 
Total: $465.94
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-02-20 04:51 EST-0500

[tataklee]

2 minutes ago, CaptainKips said:

Hey, so, it's been a while.

I'm on a super-tight budget, but I want a relatively low-end gaming computer.

What that means is, I want to be able to play games like SWTOR, LOL, Smite, Runescape, /maybe/ minecraft, Battlefield, etc. on low-to-mid settings and my computer not, ya know. Die. Or anything.

 

 

Please just get Windows 10 from Kinguin. I know, I know, some guys around here make it sound like that's a borderline illegal and super risky endeavour, but it's totally not. Like at all. Almost everyone I know uses those keys and there never was the slightest issue. 

 

Get a socket 1151 system for a future upgradeability. And I personally think that buying a video catd below a 750 Ti or a R7 370 simply isn't worth it.

 

Here's what I woild get for the money.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($123.88 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H110M-A Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($51.89 @ OutletPC) 
Memory: G.Skill NT Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($30.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.89 @ OutletPC) 
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 960 4GB AMP! Edition Video Card  ($194.99 @ Amazon) 
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($24.99 @ NCIX US) 
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($19.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $496.62
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-02-20 04:49 EST-0500

 

 

 

[HKZeroFive]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($74.88 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: MSI A68HM-E33 V2 Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard  ($44.88 @ OutletPC) 
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory  ($33.93 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($46.89 @ OutletPC) 
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 950 2GB Video Card  ($129.99 @ Micro Center) 
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($24.99 @ NCIX US) 
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($55.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer  ($17.78 @ OutletPC) 
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit)  ($20.00 @ Kinguin) 
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus PCE-N10 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter  ($7.99 @ Micro Center) 
Total: $457.32
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-02-20 04:53 EST-0500

[Castdeath97]

1 minute ago, tataklee said:

Please just get Windows 10 from Kinguin. I know, I know, some guys around here make it sound like that's a borderline illegal and super risky endeavour, but it's totally not. Like at all. Almost everyone I know uses those keys and there never was the slightest issue. 

 

Get a socket 1151 system for a future upgradeability. And I personally think that buying a video catd below a 750 Ti or a R7 370 simply isn't worth it.

 

Here's what I woild get for the money.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($123.88 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H110M-A Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($51.89 @ OutletPC) 
Memory: G.Skill NT Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($30.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.89 @ OutletPC) 
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 960 4GB AMP! Edition Video Card  ($194.99 @ Amazon) 
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($24.99 @ NCIX US) 
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($19.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $496.62
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-02-20 04:49 EST-0500

 

 

 

The R9 380 is around 5-15% percent faster, use it:

 

 

 

[tataklee]

4 minutes ago, Castdeath97 said:

The R9 380 is around 5-15% percent faster, use it:

 

 

 

True, but it suffers from frame drops on some DX 11 games. This seems to get worse when coupled with a weaker CPU because of driver overhead. Also the high factory overclock on the Zotac should alleviate the performance loss pretty much.

 

 

 

[Castdeath97]

1 minute ago, tataklee said:

True, but it suffers from frame drops on some DX 11 games. This seems to get worse when coupled with a weaker CPU because of driver overhead. Also the high factory overclock on the Zotac should alleviate the performance loss pretty much.

 

 

 

You know that game didn't have AMD driver support at the time of the release? So, it invalidates the results.

[tataklee]

8 minutes ago, Castdeath97 said:

You know that game didn't have AMD driver support at the time of the release? So, it invalidates the results.

Seems to be a similar story in Fallout 4. I'm not arguing that the R9 380 is a bad card, I'm just saying that I'd personally get a highly overclocked 960 over it at the moment, especially since we're talking about a price difference of maybe 20 bucks. AMD driver overhead is a real thing.

 

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2015-the-best-pc-hardware-for-fallout-4-4023

 

 

[Castdeath97]

5 minutes ago, tataklee said:

Seems to be a similar story in Fallout 4. I'm not arguing that the R9 380 is a bad card, I'm just saying that I'd personally get a highly overclocked 960 over it at the moment, especially since we're talking about a price difference of maybe 20 bucks. AMD driver overhead is a real thing.

 

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2015-the-best-pc-hardware-for-fallout-4-4023

 

 

Once again, they tested fallout before the AMD drivers came out and even a overclocked 960 can't beat a R9 380 in some games (you can overclock tonga GPUS too, and quite well)  watch the video:

 

 

 

 

AMD does have a driver overhead but they have better specs to compensate for it. So, unless you bring me a game which had full AMD support when test I will still consider the results invalidated.

[tataklee]

41 minutes ago, Castdeath97 said:

Once again, they tested fallout before the AMD drivers came out and even a overclocked 960 can't beat a R9 380 in some games (you can overclock tonga GPUS too, and quite well)  watch the video:

 

 

 

 

AMD does have a driver overhead but they have better specs to compensate for it. So, unless you bring me a game which had full AMD support when test I will still consider the results invalidated.

 

https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?act=url&depth=2&hl=nl&ie=UTF8&nv=1&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://m.pclab.pl/art60000-20.html&usg=ALkJrhgJFF6B4iKwYgIYrWmQyBwjFc9fCw

[Castdeath97]

8 minutes ago, tataklee said:

 

https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?act=url&depth=2&hl=nl&ie=UTF8&nv=1&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://m.pclab.pl/art60000-20.html&usg=ALkJrhgJFF6B4iKwYgIYrWmQyBwjFc9fCw

What was the date of the testing of fallout 4?

[tataklee]

2 minutes ago, Castdeath97 said:

What was the date of the testing of fallout 4?

Can't say for sure, but the test itself was released five days ago.

[Castdeath97]

3 minutes ago, tataklee said:

Can't say for sure, but the test itself was released five days ago.

The problem is it's hard to make a conclusion out of it when you can get results like this:

 

Then this:

 

 

It could be that one map is GPU intensive while the other isn't, but even in the translated version it's hard to understand. I will agree however with you until I'm presented with better data for the core i3.

[CaptainKips]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD A10-6800K 4.1GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($121.89 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: Gelid Solutions CC-Siberian-01 51.9 CFM CPU Cooler  ($8.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI A68HM-E33 V2 Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard  ($44.88 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory  ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Sandisk Ultra Plus 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($59.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($69.88 @ OutletPC)
Case: Thermaltake VL80001W2Z ATX Mid Tower Case  ($22.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit)  ($87.95 @ OutletPC)
Wireless Network Adapter: Asus PCE-N53 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter  ($17.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $489.43
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-02-20 12:26 EST-0500

 

Okay, so, I decided to change my processor to get a better value as far as processing speed and power goes.

I've also added an SSD for booting and for keeping my most used software on.
I changed my case and went with an aftermarket PSU, as suggested - it ends up being the same price, so no skin off my nose.

 

On to my next decision. The APU that I've chosen has a decent enough built-in graphics to run ultra-low on most games (I don't really care enough about how they look for that to bother me). It has better overall performance from the 860k, and just seems like a better buy all around for my system.

I can't afford to pop in the extra money for a graphics card right now. I just can't. BUT, with the A10, if my sources were correct, I should be able to function for about a month, enough time to save up to get a good graphics card, rather than a $70 el cheapo.

Any thoughts on this build?