$600 Build Feedback

[EmeraldKiwi]

So I'm planning a PC build for a friend, and he's got a budget of $600 US. I slapped together a quick build just to show him some possibilities, but I really want some feedback on my build so that he gets the best experience for his money. He said he already has a mouse, keyboard and monitor, so I didn't put those on the build. He doesn't have a clue about overclocking, so we don't NEED an unlocked CPU. Also, we're trying to keep this on the Intel platform, so please don't recommend AMD processors. Thanks for your help!

 

Here's the build I made:

 

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

CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($201.98 @ Newegg) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-DS3H-A Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($54.98 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory  ($39.88 @ OutletPC) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.49 @ OutletPC) 
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 960 4GB Video Card  ($179.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($24.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($42.33 @ OutletPC) 
Total: $578.64
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-19 00:34 EDT-0400

[mbryant]

 

I would suggest asking him if he can stretch the budget a bit, bulding an intel rig with an i5 at this price point I feel he will be making compromises with some components IMO. I feel a good i5 rig would cost between $650 and $750. I built my first rig (AMD) for $588. Also whatever you do get a 1060. 

[xephoneration]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6400 2.7GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($174.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Motherboard: ASRock H110M-HDS Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($42.94 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($37.50 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.49 @ OutletPC) 
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB 6GT OC Video Card  ($249.00 @ B&H) 
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($24.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Power Supply: EVGA 430W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply  ($33.49 @ SuperBiiz) 
Total: $612.40
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-19 00:49 EDT-0400

 

EDIT: UPDATED ONE $12 over budget

 

 

EDIT: and this one is $33

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($195.79 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: ASRock H110M-HDS Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($42.94 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($37.50 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.49 @ OutletPC) 
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB 6GT OC Video Card  ($249.00 @ B&H) 
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($24.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Power Supply: EVGA 430W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply  ($33.49 @ SuperBiiz) 
Total: $633.20
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-19 00:52 EDT-0400

 

higher clock cpu but eh TLDR going to bed

[Mi26]

It might be worth to wait for Zen 

[xephoneration]

1 minute ago, Mi26 said:

It might be worth to wait for Zen 

OP does not want AMD

[SnowyMus]

36 minutes ago, EmeraldKiwi said:

So I'm planning a PC build for a friend, and he's got a budget of $600 US. I slapped together a quick build just to show him some possibilities, but I really want some feedback on my build so that he gets the best experience for his money. He said he already has a mouse, keyboard and monitor, so I didn't put those on the build. He doesn't have a clue about overclocking, so we don't NEED an unlocked CPU. Also, we're trying to keep this on the Intel platform, so please don't recommend AMD processors. Thanks for your help!

 

Here's the build I made:

 

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

CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($201.98 @ Newegg) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-DS3H-A Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($54.98 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory  ($39.88 @ OutletPC) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.49 @ OutletPC) 
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 960 4GB Video Card  ($179.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($24.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($42.33 @ OutletPC) 
Total: $578.64
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-19 00:34 EDT-0400

The CPU is okay. There isn't any need to overclock to get good performance even on a gaming rig unless (unless you're going with a low end CPU or something). No one should ever feel that overclocking is mandatory.

 

I'd consider investing a little more into your graphics card, however. The 960 is a decent card that can still hit pretty high settings at 1080p to this day, but for $179, you're not getting as good of a value of something like an RX 470 or RX 480 which only cost around $20-$50 more and can carry 8 GB of video memory. You won't regret it.

[EmeraldKiwi]

23 minutes ago, xephoneration said:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6400 2.7GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($174.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Motherboard: ASRock H110M-HDS Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($42.94 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($37.50 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.49 @ OutletPC) 
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB 6GT OC Video Card  ($249.00 @ B&H) 
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($24.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Power Supply: EVGA 430W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply  ($33.49 @ SuperBiiz) 
Total: $612.40
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-19 00:49 EDT-0400

 

EDIT: UPDATED ONE $12 over budget

 

 

EDIT: and this one is $33

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($195.79 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: ASRock H110M-HDS Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($42.94 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($37.50 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.49 @ OutletPC) 
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB 6GT OC Video Card  ($249.00 @ B&H) 
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($24.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Power Supply: EVGA 430W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply  ($33.49 @ SuperBiiz) 
Total: $633.20
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-19 00:52 EDT-0400

 

higher clock cpu but eh TLDR going to bed

I showed him these and he likes the i5-6400 build. This is a great build for the money I think.

[Zyndo]

50 minutes ago, EmeraldKiwi said:

So I'm planning a PC build for a friend, and he's got a budget of $600 US. I slapped together a quick build just to show him some possibilities, but I really want some feedback on my build so that he gets the best experience for his money. He said he already has a mouse, keyboard and monitor, so I didn't put those on the build. He doesn't have a clue about overclocking, so we don't NEED an unlocked CPU. Also, we're trying to keep this on the Intel platform, so please don't recommend AMD processors. Thanks for your help!

 

Here's the build I made:

 

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

CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($201.98 @ Newegg) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-DS3H-A Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($54.98 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory  ($39.88 @ OutletPC) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($49.49 @ OutletPC) 
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 960 4GB Video Card  ($179.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($24.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($42.33 @ OutletPC) 
Total: $578.64
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-19 00:34 EDT-0400

I would not advise getting older hardware. get skylake now. then in 2-4 years when you have another 600 dollars to spend on a computer, you just get a better skylake/kaby lake CPU and whatever GPU is available at the time. you can get a decent CPU/GPU combo for 600 bucks.

 

I would recommend i3 6100 and gtx 1060 6GB now (assuming you're after 1080p 60hz gaming, which is what you should be doing if you're on a limited budget). You should be able to get an easy 60 fps with those components in almost any game today.

[Herman Mcpootis]

1 hour ago, EmeraldKiwi said:

I showed him these and he likes the i5-6400 build. This is a great build for the money I think.

please get a better psu to go with that build, the evga psu isn't made for a gtx 1060.

[xephoneration]

8 hours ago, herman mcpootis said:

please get a better psu to go with that build, the evga psu isn't made for a gtx 1060.

How so? 1060 requires a 400w psu, let alone it only draws about 140w when not OC which the op did state the person for said build is not OC in general. as well the evga psu has the proper connectors for the 1060. a 500w psu for this build is really not necessary since you are looking at a draw of 270w-340w. the psu is fine. 

[Herman Mcpootis]

9 hours ago, xephoneration said:

How so? 1060 requires a 400w psu, let alone it only draws about 140w when not OC which the op did state the person for said build is not OC in general. as well the evga psu has the proper connectors for the 1060. a 500w psu for this build is really not necessary since you are looking at a draw of 270w-340w. the psu is fine. 

its made with inferior chinese capacitators, sleeve bearing fans, old topology, only one tier above junk in @STRMfrmXMN psu tier list. http://m.hardocp.com/article/2015/02/19/evga_430w_power_supply_review/9#.WAgJVnPmjqA

[STRMfrmXMN]

12 hours ago, xephoneration said:

How so? 1060 requires a 400w psu, let alone it only draws about 140w when not OC which the op did state the person for said build is not OC in general. as well the evga psu has the proper connectors for the 1060. a 500w psu for this build is really not necessary since you are looking at a draw of 270w-340w. the psu is fine. 

Wattage isn't the concern - the quality of the unit is. This is what people inexperienced with the ins and outs of PSUs tend to overstep. Just because a unit claims to be able to output X wattage does not mean it will do it as safely as a different PSU. Longevity is also a concern. That particular EVGA is of mediocre quality. I would not pair it with a discrete GPU that requires external power, which the 1060 does.