Updated Budget Build (Need Feedback)

[indieclique]

Hi, I posted about a week ago looking for some people to help me with an upcoming budget build. 

 

Budget & Location

Hi, my name is Douglas. I am from the United States, and I have a budget of around 500-600 dollars.

 

Aim

I am a complete beginner at this, so I don't know much. What this computer is going to be used for is lots of video-editing (higher-end programs like Premiere Pro & After Effects), graphic design (Photoshop CS6), and some low-range gaming. I don't play games like Fallout 4 or anything. I play games like Minecraft, The Sims 4, Garry's Mod, you get the picture.

 

Monitors

I don't care too much about graphics quality (about medium on most games is fine with me). I only plan on using one monitor, and I only care that it runs at 1080p. I do not plan to upscale whatsoever. I'm fine with just one 

 

Peripherals

 I've got most peripherals covered, like a keyboard, mouse, and headset. I just need a new monitor. I will also need Windows 10 Home which varies in price. 

 

Why am I upgrading?

Right now, I am using an Acer Aspire 5552 laptop. A 4 GB DDR3 Memory, hour-lasting battery piece of junk. I don't think much needs to be said about that. Let's just say that I've been pushing this thing to the limit, using Premiere Pro CS6 and After Effects CS6. It would just be nice for my PC not to take over an hour and a half to render a 3-minute video, or maybe even to have a PC that can at least reach 60 fps on Minecraft, of all games. So yeah, after 5-6 years on this thing, it's time for an upgrade. 

 

Since that time, I have revised my parts list that I ended up with, and the total came to around 586 dollars. Here's the list:

 

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3kQ8FT
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/3kQ8FT/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($73.88 @ OutletPC) 
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper TX3 54.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  ($17.89 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A88X PRO3+ ATX FM2+ Motherboard  ($57.55 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury White 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory  ($35.95 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($44.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 950 2GB Superclocked+ ACX 2.0 Video Card  ($138.98 @ Newegg) 
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case  ($49.99 @ Micro Center) 
Power Supply: EVGA 400W ATX Power Supply  ($17.98 @ Newegg) 
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer  ($18.89 @ OutletPC) 
Monitor: Asus VX238H 23.0" Monitor  ($109.99 @ Micro Center) 
Keyboard: Cooler Master CM Storm Devastator Gaming Bundle Wired Gaming Keyboard w/Optical Mouse  ($19.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $586.08
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-05-21 19:20 EDT-0400

 

Please give me your opinion on it, it was the best I could do. Should I change anything? (also I do not want an SSD)

 

[zootcake]

I think your prices are messed up but you dont need cd/dvd drive and a 950 will be very sufficent for what your doing.

[indieclique]

1 minute ago, zootcake said:

I think your prices are messed up but you dont need cd/dvd drive and a 950 will be very sufficent for what your doing.

What do you mean by the prices being messed up? And I think I would need a cd/dvd drive to install windows, correct?

[alexhelvetica]

The PSU on that your parts list is very low end, I'd replace it with the Antec EarthWatts Green 380W ($39) or the XFX TS or Pro 550W ($48)

[Aereldor]

That power supply is inadequate for pretty much anything. Shall I configure a part list assuming you have a budget of $600 including peripherals and a monitor?

[indieclique]

1 minute ago, Aereldor said:

That power supply is inadequate for pretty much anything. Shall I configure a part list assuming you have a budget of $600 including peripherals and a monitor?

That would be great.  

[zootcake]

2 minutes ago, indieclique said:

What do you mean by the prices being messed up? And I think I would need a cd/dvd drive to install windows, correct?

you can use USB, pauls hardware has video about cheap windows and putting it on usb.

[htoby]

I can't help with the processor because I don't know much about AMD's lineup. and if you're not fussed about not playing on the best graphics at high settings then the 950 should be good enough. And you don't need the disk drive, you can now install them on usbs.

If you still need to save money and you are okay with the way these people sell their keys you can get a cheap windows license from Kinguin but it is OEM (basically the same as normal windows but the licence is attached to the motherboard. 

[Aereldor]

Since you're going to be editing video more than gaming, I've sacrificed gaming performance to get you as much CPU power as I can at this budget. The 860k is inadequate for almost everything with its low IPC, but the Xeon E3 1231-v3 I've included is an absolute beast of a processor- it's essentially a Core i7 4770 without the iGPU, which you won't need anyway.

The GTX 750 Ti will handle all lightweight games without any difficulty, and will even maintain a 30FPS on most triple-A titles at medium settings at 1080p, if you ever decide to play them. Rolling back to a 750 Ti won't significantly effect rendering performance either. Furthermore, the power supply I've included is infinitely more reliable.

You can get Windows 10 for $30 on Kinguin, although keep in mind that the free upgrade might still be available from Windows 7 and 8.1.

I can't squeeze in peripherals, as I'm already a little over budget. If you have any, see if you can make do with them for a while.
 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($239.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($43.88 @ OutletPC) 
Memory: Crucial 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($26.50 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($44.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card  ($94.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: Xion XON-310_BK MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($25.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic 350W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($31.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Monitor: AOC i2267Fw 60Hz 22.0" Monitor  ($99.99 @ Amazon) 
Other: Windows (Kinguin OEM key) ($30.00)
Total: $638.32
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-05-21 19:44 EDT-0400

[zootcake]

1 minute ago, Aereldor said:

Since you're going to be editing video more than gaming, I've sacrificed gaming performance to get you as much CPU power as I can at this budget. The GTX 750 Ti will handle all lightweight games without any difficulty, and will even maintain a 30FPS on most triple-A titles at medium settings at 1080p, if you ever decide to play them.

You can get Windows 10 for $30 on Kinguin, although keep in mind that the free upgrade might still be available from Windows 7 and 8.1.
 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($239.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($43.88 @ OutletPC) 
Memory: Crucial 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($26.50 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($44.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card  ($94.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: Xion XON-310_BK MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($25.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic 350W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($31.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Monitor: AOC i2267Fw 60Hz 22.0" Monitor  ($99.99 @ Amazon) 
Other: Windows (Kinguin OEM key) ($30.00)
Total: $638.32
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-05-21 19:44 EDT-0400

he does not need a xeon m8. put more money into gpu not cpu

[Aereldor]

2 minutes ago, zootcake said:

he does not need a xeon m8. put more money into gpu not cpu

Bull. He said he's going to be editing (and probably rendering) more than gaming. The 750 Ti will handle all the lightweight games he plays, and performs just as well as the 950 and 960 when rendering, but the CPU makes a WORLD OF DIFFERENCE when editing and rendering video. I render videos with a Haswell i3, and it's an absolute chore. With the Xeon E3 1231-v3, he'll have more than double the CPU horsepower.

[zootcake]

2 minutes ago, Aereldor said:

Bull. He said he's going to be editing (and probably rendering) more than gaming. The 750 Ti will handle all the lightweight games he plays, and performs just as well as the 950 and 960 when rendering, but the CPU makes a WORLD OF DIFFERENCE when editing and rendering video. I render videos with a Haswell i3, and it's an absolute chore. With the Xeon E3 1231-v3, he'll have twice the performance.

yes he may be doing some rendering but that is a little extreme. put a bit of future proof into the gpu maybe. with the new nvidia chip out gpu price will drop

[glitchmaster0001]

do a used PC build using an X58 board and a Xeon E5-2670 8 core 16 threads is a beast for rendering videos and workstation applications. X58 board and CPU would set you back $250 to $300 max. you then have $100 to $150 for the GPU, $50 for 1TB HDD, $50 for PSU and $50 for case. 

[Aereldor]

6 minutes ago, zootcake said:

yes he may be doing some rendering but that is a little extreme. put a bit of future proof into the gpu maybe. with the new nvidia chip out gpu price will drop

It isn't extreme at all. Not all 'Xeons' are 22-core monsters. The consumer-platform Xeons just happen to have the best value for money. This is a 4-core, 8-thread chip just like the Core i7 4770. It's the exact same CPU- it's only cheaper because it doesn't have integrated graphics, which OP doesn't need, seeing as he's buying a graphics card anyway.

OP isn't doing 'some' rendering. Here, read his post again-

36 minutes ago, indieclique said:

What this computer is going to be used for is lots of video-editing (higher-end programs like Premiere Pro & After Effects), graphic design (Photoshop CS6), and some low-range gaming. I don't play games like Fallout 4 or anything. I play games like Minecraft, The Sims 4, Garry's Mod, you get the picture

If he has to edit videos, chances are he has to render them. You can't just upload a premiere project file to a streaming website like YouTube, and if you could, it would take weeks. Unless OP has a badass offsite rendering machine like Linus does, this computer will probably have to render his videos too.

A GTX 750 Ti is just fine for low-range gaming like the titles he's cited. Not everyone puts gaming at the top of their priority list, and he certainly hasn't. If you want to argue about this, please send me a message, but don't continue said argument on this thread- it isn't helping anyone.

[indieclique]

22 minutes ago, Aereldor said:

Since you're going to be editing video more than gaming, I've sacrificed gaming performance to get you as much CPU power as I can at this budget. The 860k is inadequate for almost everything with its low IPC, but the Xeon E3 1231-v3 I've included is an absolute beast of a processor- it's essentially a Core i7 4770 without the iGPU, which you won't need anyway.

The GTX 750 Ti will handle all lightweight games without any difficulty, and will even maintain a 30FPS on most triple-A titles at medium settings at 1080p, if you ever decide to play them. Rolling back to a 750 Ti won't significantly effect rendering performance either. Furthermore, the power supply I've included is infinitely more reliable.

You can get Windows 10 for $30 on Kinguin, although keep in mind that the free upgrade might still be available from Windows 7 and 8.1.

I can't squeeze in peripherals, as I'm already a little over budget. If you have any, see if you can make do with them for a while.
 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($239.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($43.88 @ OutletPC) 
Memory: Crucial 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($26.50 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($44.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card  ($94.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: Xion XON-310_BK MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($25.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic 350W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($31.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Monitor: AOC i2267Fw 60Hz 22.0" Monitor  ($99.99 @ Amazon) 
Other: Windows (Kinguin OEM key) ($30.00)
Total: $638.32
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-05-21 19:44 EDT-0400

Wow! Everyone has been telling me to do the best for gaming and such. You're the first to say anything about the editing. This is actually really great, and I already found that keyboard and mouse bundle for 20 bucks, so that's all good. If it means I have to go over budget to get everything I need and best for the money, I guess I should. Thank you!

 

Edit: Also, do I need a CPU cooler? I don't know if it is necessary but usually on all of the builds I look at I see one.

Edited May 22, 2016 by indieclique
Question

[Aereldor]

2 hours ago, indieclique said:

Wow! Everyone has been telling me to do the best for gaming and such. You're the first to say anything about the editing. This is actually really great, and I already found that keyboard and mouse bundle for 20 bucks, so that's all good. If it means I have to go over budget to get everything I need and best for the money, I guess I should. Thank you!

 

Edit: Also, do I need a CPU cooler? I don't know if it is necessary but usually on all of the builds I look at I see one.

The Xeon E3 1231 V3 runs pretty cool, and the stock cooler it ships with is actually a little beefier than the regular Intel cooler. It's the same as the one that ships with the Pentium G3258, if I'm not wrong.

If you can spend $30 more, I'd strongly recommend adding a 120GB SSD to your build. It'll speed up your boot times immeasurably and all of your programs will be far snappier to install and use, and at $35 for a reasonably fast 120GB SSD, this is insane value.

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/a-data-internal-hard-drive-asp550ss3120gmc