Another budget build

[Wintermut3]

Hiya, I'm looking to build a a decent desktop for my partner.

• Budget is <8000 SEK / €860 / $1160
• I'm after a 1920x1080 resolution.
• Mostly WoW, but I'd also like it somewhat futureproof for games.
• No other intensive software used, just some light graphical work (2D).
• Sweden, I realize price differences might be difficult to calculate, but aim for the dollar/euro budget and it should be pretty close to the Swedish prices.
• I don't need an OS, I've got MSDNA.
• I'll need a monitor (+ if it has speakers, don't care about quality for those) - Preferably around 24".

Been looking at something around the i5-4460 and a GTX 760. Not sure if the budget could cover a more OC-friendly setup.
Any ideas?

- - - Updated - - -

So I spied a build close to the budget (from a different thread, thanks Faithh) I was aiming for:

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($184.99 @ NCIX US) 
Motherboard: MSI H81M-E33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($44.99 @ Micro Center) 
Memory: Corsair XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($64.99 @ NCIX US) 
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($109.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($54.98 @ OutletPC) 
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card  ($119.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: Raidmax ATX-249B (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($24.99 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($55.98 @ SuperBiiz) 
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit)  ($89.98 @ OutletPC) 
Total: $750.88

Seems like there's plenty of things I could take from there, but I've also been looking at alternatives such as swapping out the motherboard and CPU.
AMD AM3+ FX-8320, 8-core, 125W
ASUS AM3+ M5A97 R2.0

In my head, futureproof seems to be going with a solid motherboard, CPU (seeing as GFX, RAM, PSU and other pieces are easier exchangeable)
Is this correct?

Should I be aiming for a higher end CPU/Motherboard and go for a cheaper GPU? 750Ti/270(x)?

[Deleted]

There is no "futureproof" at that low budget. Including a monitor we aren't for alot of power here.

First things first. If you want a gaming rig forget amd, intel only.

Gtx 750 ti is a good low end card, known for it low power consumption and nothing more. If you can squize abit more out for an R9 270(x) you should go for it. I would say that if you're going for a i5 4460, you are better of with an i3 4330. You either go full out on i5 or aint worth it.

Still i believe with that budget you can do alot better that what you got linked unless stuff are expensive over there. Can you give us a link from the shop(s) you will be buying your parts from to have a look? (and no language isn't a problem )

[Ghâzh]

[*]Budget is <8000 SEK / €860 / $1160

You need to keep in mind that EU pc parts are more heavily taxed so 860€ is usually close to $860 (and what ever that's in SEK). In the end you'll have to double check your local retailer what kind of price the parts are going for.

In my head, futureproof seems to be going with a solid motherboard, CPU (seeing as GFX, RAM, PSU and other pieces are easier exchangeable)
Is this correct?

It's pretty hard to futureproof lower end builds. If you wanna have steady upgrade path in the future you should actually get quality PSU and Case because those don't lose value that fast and could easily last you from 5 to 10 years.

Choosing the right motherboard would be smart as well if you see yourself upgrading to a more expensive CPU in the next few years since the current LGA 1150 socket will support the upcoming Broadwell CPU's. This won't matter as much if you don't think you'll upgrade to anything more expensive since buying a new next generation CPU from the same price bracket won't be nearly as big of an upgrade. You'll also need to ask yourself if you'll want to be able to overclock in the future to get extra performance and make the CPU potentially last longer. In this case you'll want Z97 motherboard instead of H81 which won't allow overclocking.

If you choose to overclock getting a quality CPU cooler will futureproof you since those can last you a long time too.

And a strong CPU would be smart since the newer games don't usually ask for that much more processing power but instead rely more on the graphics performance.

GPU is pretty much the only thing that you can't future proof. You'll have to buy a new one in 2 to 3 years if you are looking to play the newest games decently. So it's actually more cost efficient to buy lower end (750ti/760/270(x)/280).


Now, all this said, the problem when building a budget system is quite surprisingly the budget. You can't afford to spend money on quality parts that will last you longer so all you can do is select smartly and keep your expectations low.

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($184.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-E33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($44.99 @ Micro Center)
Memory: Corsair XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($64.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($109.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Raidmax ATX-249B (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($55.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $750.88

Something like this would be pretty fitting. When you take away that copy of windows 8 you'll still have budget left for a screen (if you can find the parts for this price in sweden). You can also safely drop the power supply down to XFX 450W which will be a tiny bit cheaper. And to be fair if the build is mainly for WoW you'd get better performance out of i3-4360, the problem is, if you wanna play new games in the distant future i3 (which is 2 core, albeit HT makes it practically 4 core) might struggle to keep up.

[Cyrops]

I won't repeat what others said, but I will warn you that in sweden prices are very high for PC parts, we had many people from sweden here and they said they buy parts outside of sweden online.

Here is what I came up using sweden prices:



Both builds go a bit over budget and you probably will need to pay for shipping, so second build you can just remove the SSD and go with that.

[Wintermut3]

There is no "futureproof" at that low budget. Including a monitor we aren't for alot of power here.
First things first. If you want a gaming rig forget amd, intel only.

I figured as much, since I'll need all the peripherals I probably shouldn't expect the build to get particularly powerful. At least it should be remarkably cheaper to upgrade the build in 2~ years, providing I could keep PSU/Case/Display.

I'll definitely stick to Intel.

It's pretty hard to futureproof lower end builds. If you wanna have steady upgrade path in the future you should actually get quality PSU and Case because those don't lose value that fast and could easily last you from 5 to 10 years.

I guess it's all about making sure you can reuse some of the parts in a few years of time, GFX/CPU and all that will get outdated no matter what I'll get. Thanks for clearing that up!

Choosing the right motherboard would be smart as well if you see yourself upgrading to a more expensive CPU in the next few years since the current LGA 1150 socket will support the upcoming Broadwell CPU's. This won't matter as much if you don't think you'll upgrade to anything more expensive since buying a new next generation CPU from the same price bracket won't be nearly as big of an upgrade. You'll also need to ask yourself if you'll want to be able to overclock in the future to get extra performance and make the CPU potentially last longer. In this case you'll want Z97 motherboard instead of H81 which won't allow overclocking.

If you choose to overclock getting a quality CPU cooler will futureproof you since those can last you a long time too.

I've considered the overclocking option, but I think it would set me back too much in terms of budget. Comparing the i5-4460 (which was my initial aim) with f.e. the i5-4670K would set me back another 300 SEK, add a CPU cooler for another 300-400 SEK and a motherboard that will manage it all should be another 600~ SEK more.

I'll come back to this option later when I've got a better list of parts.

GPU is pretty much the only thing that you can't future proof. You'll have to buy a new one in 2 to 3 years if you are looking to play the newest games decently. So it's actually more cost efficient to buy lower end (750ti/760/270(x)/280).

GPU is definitely on the lower part of my priority list (especially with WoW in mind).

I won't repeat what others said, but I will warn you that in sweden prices are very high for PC parts, we had many people from sweden here and they said they buy parts outside of sweden online.

Here is what I came up using sweden prices:
<snip>

Thanks a lot for the suggestions, I've taken some to heart for my own list.



Few notes:

• I browsed some of the cases with my partner yesterday and she set her heart on this one, despite it being quite pricy. (Tough luck! )
• I opted out for the Storage HDD, it's something I will probably get later down the line. A system SSD should be a good start.
• I chose a cheaper display, is there something with the AOC G2460PQU that makes it stand out from the rest? I realize BenQ is hardly the quality brand.
• The Asrock Motherboard seems really cheap. 430 SEK is the real price. For example, how would it compare to:
  

Now, the total price on the picture isn't quite accurate (it doesn't always account for shipping and it has a habit of picking prices of stores that don't have the stock). But I'd imagine it would land at around 7000~ SEK, roughly 1000 SEK below my initial budget.

So I see my options as the following (provided there's nothing dramatically wrong with my previous list)

a) Splash some more on a better GFX (760/270x)
b) Go for a i5-4670K (or similar), get a better Motherboard (No clue which, but with OC support) and lastly a CPU Cooler (CM 212 Evo, I guess?)
c) Invest in some other better parts (larger SSD, better screen, better PSU)
d) Save it for a rainy day.

Lastly, thanks a lot for all your input!

[Deleted]

Personally, I wouldn't buy that ssd. Your cheapest more reliable options in the 120gb area, are Samsung 840Evo, Corsair Force ls, Intel 530, Crucial M550.

Benq has some really good monitors, its one of the good brands, its down to individual model.

Aint really worth going for a more expensive board unless its a Z series.

I would say 4466 aint worth it. Can't you (within the budget) get a Z97 pro4 and pentium G3258/CM hyper evo? At least when you get some money you can get a better cpu but you will have the board. You can keep that cpu untill next cpu gen that will use that Z97 board you will have bought and the cpu cooler. This pentium overclocks like hell and will make wow raiding a breeze.

Something like this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor (£43.19 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£24.25 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97M Pro4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£78.00 @ More Computers)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£58.80 @ Kustom PCs)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£57.41 @ Scan.co.uk)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card (£99.30 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £360.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-07-23 13:48 BST+0100

If after this you got spare money you could go for an R9 270(x)

[Wintermut3]

Something like this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor (£43.19 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£24.25 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97M Pro4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£78.00 @ More Computers)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£58.80 @ Kustom PCs)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£57.41 @ Scan.co.uk)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card (£99.30 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £360.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-07-23 13:48 BST+0100

If after this you got spare money you could go for an R9 270(x)

This looks like a pretty good deal, with prices varying a bit compared to Sweden. I came up with the following:


Real price came to around 6250 SEK / €677 / £534 / $912 which seems like a pretty good deal, even after looking at some G3258 reviews, it seems very stable for the pricetag.

Even more tempted to throw a 270(x) in there, seeing as they're only about 150-250 SEK away (with seemingly large differences).

Thanks for the input!

[Ghâzh]

Keep in mind that you'll have to overclock that Pentium G3258 or else it'll be a lot worse then the i3's.

I'd still suggest going with i3 4360. It has hyperthreading over the pentium so essentially 4 cores instead of just 2. Even though Pentium with good overclock would probably beat i3's now for WoW more cores would keep you covered longer looking at the future.

Something like this maybe:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4360 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor (€143.40 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Motherboard: ASRock H81M-HDS Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (€44.89 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (€75.56 @ Hardwareversand)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (€70.98 @ Pixmania DE)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card (€127.45 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case: Corsair 230T Windowed-BLUE ATX Mid Tower Case (€76.87 @ Hardwareversand)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 450W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply (€69.90 @ Caseking)
Total: €609.05
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-07-23 17:39 CEST+0200

Shuffling around the brands and finding the cheapest should give you very similar price to that G3258+z97+cooler build you linked earlier, even a bit cheaper I think.

[Deleted]

Yes Ghazh as i said he need to overclock that pentium which everyone is reporting to do so easily. The idea is that he gets the mobo and a cpu that can do what he wants now perfectly well and get an i5 later on when he can afford it. He will only have "wasted" 60bucks on the pentium, whereas with an i3-H81 when he will want to upgrade he'll have "thrown" more money away if that makes sense.

[Ghâzh]

Yeah I hear you on that and if so it'd be a smart move. But I'm just throwing out options if he doesn't want to upgrade again in a couple of years and instead would like to have this setup last as long as possible.

[Wintermut3]

I threw together the two lists and compared, the difference in cost is basically none (lots of margins not being calculated with this particular tool).

To my understanding the deal basically comes down to:

Pentium G3258 / ASRock Z97M Pro4 / CM Hyper 212 EVO
Pros

• Cheap to upgrade, basically only need to change the CPU once it feels outdated.
• Ability to OC, which will give me similar performance as mid-end CPUs(?)

Cons

• Weaker CPU performance
• "Only" dual-core, with no virtual cores. Might suffer in certain games due to this?

i3-4360 / ASRock H81M-HDS
Pros

• Higher performance
• No OC ability (I list this as a pro, since the computer isn't for me and it means me having to maintain it :P)
• Will last longer

Cons

• More expensive to upgrade
• Once outdated, without OC there's no possibility of it keeping up.

Have I missed anything?
Also something I should consider, how far away would the next step in CPU be after the i3-4360. I mean, I'm already a fair bit under budget (which is all good!), but what would the next logical step be if I wanted an even better CPU?

Thanks again for the continous input, it's very much appreciated!

[Ghâzh]

Yeah that's pretty nicely summed. Although I wouldn't call that "G3258 / ASRock Z97M Pro4 / CM Hyper 212 EVO" bundle "Weaker CPU performance" per se, it might actually perform better for WoW with +4GHz overclock (this is speculation on my part).

To be honest the next logical step would be i5 4670k. You could keep that Asrock Z97M Pro4 board and CM Hyper 212 EVO cooler so you'd be looking at about 1340 SEK increase in price. I don't think there's any point in going with any of the lower end i5's since those are all clocked below that i3-4360 and they only add more physical cores.

[Deleted]

An overclocked 4Ghz+ Pentium will be better than a stock i5 4690k and any i3 for wow and similar games that only use 1-2 cores. So wow+skype/vent/ts whatnot only is going to be awesome as long as you do the overclock. We had a fella very recently on a low budget build that did this thing. He jumped to 4.5GHz (i think) overclock with the pentium and he was amazed by the performance.

The difference with the i3 is that you can't multitask. Unfortunately this is the only downside. Ie you cannot play wow and have other multiple applications up, only cause -2cores, where the i3 would help with hyperthreading. Keep in mind hyperthreading is like 1/3 of a real core, to make is simple you have something like 1core+1core+1/3core+1/3core.

[Ghâzh]

An overclocked 4Ghz+ Pentium will be better than a stock i5 4690k and any i3 for wow and similar games that only use 1-2 cores. So wow+skype/vent/ts whatnot only is going to be awesome as long as you do the overclock. We had a fella very recently on a low budget build that did this thing. He jumped to 4.5GHz (i think) overclock with the pentium and he was amazed by the performance.

Well kind of. Since they are all different processors (although same architecture) 4Ghz clocked Pentium isn't same as 4Ghz clocked 4690k with less cores, there's actually some subtle changes like cache and stuff. And to further add to that WoW offloads some work to other cores as well and while this might not amount to much it's quite impossible to compare the two purely based on specs alone, hence why I said it's just speculation.

[Cyrops]

[*]I chose a cheaper display, is there something with the AOC G2460PQU that makes it stand out from the rest? I realize BenQ is hardly the quality brand.

I think I derped there, AOC is 144hz monitor, not for budget build D: sowwwyy~