500-700 Dollar Gaming Computer To Replace Laptop

[Mr.Chow]

I've had my laptop for about 8 years now and I've finally gotten fed up with how it performs and just overall how slow it is. Instead of buying a new laptop I wanted to build a small portable computer that I can use instead and I was wondering which build is better. All help and changes to the build are appreciated thanks!

AMD Build: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/xwBpdC

Intel Build: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/yNMYpg

 

[HKZeroFive]

Not sure why you need watercooling. That $40 could be put into getting a better part for your build. I've decided to go for a i5 6400 and GTX 950 combination. A i3 6100 and R9 380 combo would work as well.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-6400 2.7GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($242.15 @ Vuugo) 
Motherboard: ASRock H110M-DGS Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($61.50 @ Vuugo) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($44.99 @ NCIX) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($64.15 @ Vuugo) 
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 950 2GB Video Card  ($180.00 @ Vuugo) 
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($39.99 @ NCIX) 
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($46.99 @ NCIX) 
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WN881ND 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter  ($24.99 @ Amazon Canada) 
Total: $704.76
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-11 02:41 EDT-0400

[Streetguru]

24 minutes ago, Mr.Chow said:

 

Should save up a bit more money and get an i3 + 380, you aren't going to want a pure dual core for gaming and the i3 at least has hyperthreading, also you can't OC the G3258 on that board anyways

Ya this has a pretty sizable case though
 

PCPartPicker part list: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/FxwfK8
Price breakdown by merchant: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/FxwfK8/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($154.25 @ shopRBC)
Motherboard: MSI B150M Pro-VD Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($89.98 @ NCIX)
Memory: Crucial 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($40.50 @ Vuugo)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($65.25 @ shopRBC)
Video Card: Club 3D Radeon R9 380 4GB royalQueen OC Video Card  ($249.98 @ Canada Computers)
Case: Deepcool TESSERACT BF ATX Mid Tower Case  ($44.99 @ Amazon Canada)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($69.88 @ Canada Computers)
Total: $714.83
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-11 02:48 EDT-0400
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Both the ITX builds should have built in wifi

Or there the ITX build here with a 370 instead, probably worth losing the bit of performance vs the 950 to save 40 bucks. There's also probably a better ITX budget board, but I'm familiar with this one as being decent

 

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

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($154.25 @ shopRBC)
Motherboard: MSI B150I GAMING PRO AC Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($146.98 @ NCIX)
Memory: Crucial 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($40.50 @ Vuugo)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($65.25 @ shopRBC)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R7 370 4GB Video Card  ($169.88 @ Canada Computers)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 130 Mini ITX Tower Case  ($69.75 @ Vuugo)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($85.54 @ shopRBC)
Total: $732.15
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-11 02:56 EDT-0400


Or for under budget and with a 240gb SSD there's this APU build, which is really probably only good for like Dota 2/CS:GO gaming, though it would be really tiny,

 

if you do want to go for something like this though, you'd be best off waiting for AM4 to launch so you have an upgrade path

 

PCPartPicker part list: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/969ZnQ
Price breakdown by merchant: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/969ZnQ/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD A10-7700K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($124.88 @ Canada Computers)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A88XN-WIFI Mini ITX FM2+ Motherboard  ($121.98 @ DirectCanada)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2400 Memory  ($50.98 @ Newegg Canada)
Storage: Sandisk SSD PLUS 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($89.99 @ NCIX)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 110 Mini ITX Tower Case  ($49.82 @ shopRBC)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($85.54 @ shopRBC)
Total: $523.19
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-11 02:59 EDT-0400

[Mr.Chow]

17 minutes ago, Streetguru said:

Should save up a bit more money and get an i3 + 380, you aren't going to want a pure dual core for gaming and the i3 at least has hyperthreading, also you can't OC the G3258 on that board anyways

Ya this has a pretty sizable case though
 

PCPartPicker part list: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/FxwfK8
Price breakdown by merchant: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/FxwfK8/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($154.25 @ shopRBC)
Motherboard: MSI B150M Pro-VD Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($89.98 @ NCIX)
Memory: Crucial 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($40.50 @ Vuugo)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($65.25 @ shopRBC)
Video Card: Club 3D Radeon R9 380 4GB royalQueen OC Video Card  ($249.98 @ Canada Computers)
Case: Deepcool TESSERACT BF ATX Mid Tower Case  ($44.99 @ Amazon Canada)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($69.88 @ Canada Computers)
Total: $714.83
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-11 02:48 EDT-0400
-

-

-
Both the ITX builds should have built in wifi

Or there the ITX build here with a 370 instead, probably worth losing the bit of performance vs the 950 to save 40 bucks. There's also probably a better ITX budget board, but I'm familiar with this one as being decent

 

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

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($154.25 @ shopRBC)
Motherboard: MSI B150I GAMING PRO AC Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($146.98 @ NCIX)
Memory: Crucial 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($40.50 @ Vuugo)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($65.25 @ shopRBC)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R7 370 4GB Video Card  ($169.88 @ Canada Computers)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 130 Mini ITX Tower Case  ($69.75 @ Vuugo)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($85.54 @ shopRBC)
Total: $732.15
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-11 02:56 EDT-0400


Or for under budget and with a 240gb SSD there's this APU build, which is really probably only good for like Dota 2/CS:GO gaming, though it would be really tiny,

 

if you do want to go for something like this though, you'd be best off waiting for AM4 to launch so you have an upgrade path

 

PCPartPicker part list: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/969ZnQ
Price breakdown by merchant: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/969ZnQ/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD A10-7700K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($124.88 @ Canada Computers)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A88XN-WIFI Mini ITX FM2+ Motherboard  ($121.98 @ DirectCanada)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2400 Memory  ($50.98 @ Newegg Canada)
Storage: Sandisk SSD PLUS 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($89.99 @ NCIX)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 110 Mini ITX Tower Case  ($49.82 @ shopRBC)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($85.54 @ shopRBC)
Total: $523.19
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-11 02:59 EDT-0400

Jesus Christ the legends are true you edit your posts a lot 0.0. I like the APU build (http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/969ZnQ) because I'm mostly going to be playing CS:GO and LoL(maybe a few other online games but they shouldn't be too hard to run) and if I ever need to run something that this can't handle I can always easily upgrade it by adding a graphics card or swapping out cpus.  The only thing I was wondering about is if I should add a cooler (because the AMD A10-7700K is a toaster) and if changing the A10-7700k to an A10-7850k or 7860k would have better performance. Thanks for the help!

[Streetguru]

6 minutes ago, Mr.Chow said:

Jesus Christ the legends are true you edit your posts a lot 0.0. I like the APU build (http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/969ZnQ) because I'm mostly going to be playing CS:GO

Wouldn't be worth buying any new 120mm cooler probably, maybe upgrade and find one used sometime.

 

but ya the APUs will run those pretty well, I used a 5800K for a while without much issue. but you wouldn't really be able to upgrade, as paying any more for the APU build is a bit silly. which is why I said waiting for AM4 might work since you can then upgrade the CPU to zen at some point.

 

you would need a small form factor GPU at some point though, the R9 nano should drop in price through the months further and that'd be a solid card to throw in the Elite 110

 

here's some benchmarks yours would be a bit faster though being the A10 and with 2400mhz RAM, especially over teh 1866mhz test here maybe like 10-15% faster going by the scaling here

http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Memory/Ultra-Speed-DDR3-Revisited-AMD-APU-Memory-Scaling/Graphics-Benchmarks

 

A8 7650K | CS:GO/Dota 2/SC2 benchmarks Tested With 1866Mhz RAM
http://www.technologyx.com/featured/amd-a8-7650k-apu-review-the-little-apu-that-could/4/

A8 7650K | Various AAA titles Tested with 2133Mhz RAM
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9217/the-amd-a8-7650k-apu-review-also-new-testing-methodology/7

[Streetguru]

32 minutes ago, Mr.Chow said:

Jesus Christ the legends are true you edit your posts a lot 0.0. I like the APU build (http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/969ZnQ) because I'm mostly going to be playing CS:GO and LoL(maybe a few other online games but they shouldn't be too hard to run) and if I ever need to run something that this can't handle I can always easily upgrade it by adding a graphics card or swapping out cpus.  The only thing I was wondering about is if I should add a cooler (because the AMD A10-7700K is a toaster) and if changing the A10-7700k to an A10-7850k or 7860k would have better performance. Thanks for the help!

Forget the 7860K business actually, Maybe the 7800 is worth it if you want the lower TDP/power usage.

Also like. toootally gotta step you up to dota 2 meng.

About 5 bucks more, but the 7700K has the potential to OC higher than the locked 7800

http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/part/amd-cpu-ad7800ybjabox

[Seminole]

Don't use an i3 with a 380, AMD's drivers are very core hungry, bad for the i3 (I have benchmarks proving that in my thread). Get a 960/970 and an i3-6320.

 

EDIT: As for APUs, I'd recommend you get an A8-7600/7650 but don't get the 7870 because it has a high TDP and when more electricity is delivered to an APU then it cuts down it's performance.

[Streetguru]

15 minutes ago, Seminole said:

 

Couple issues there though, GTA V generally favors nvidia cards to start with, and while AMD's drives would like a stronger CPU seemingly, they were still fairly even through most of that run from what I saw in a side by side. And then there's the whole DX12 thing, where maxwell really doesn't gain anything, while current AMD cards are getting some sizable performance gains.

 

Plus if he's playing competitive games mostly, he'll probably get a 144hz display at some point, at which point he'd save $140 going free-sync vs G-sync

 

free-sync 362

https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/part/aoc-monitor-g2460pf

G-sync 499

https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/part/aoc-monitor-g2460pg