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Complete system on a budget
My sister wants me to build a gaming PC for my nephew for $900 or less.. It is his first desktop so I had to include monitor, keyboard, speakers and a mouse. I put this system together , what do you all think about what I have built? Any thoughts on how to improve the build without breaking the bank?
FUncom putting the FU in fun since 1993.
Comments
That looks really good for the $900.
The only thing you could do would be to add in an SSD. Which would put you over budget several hundred dollars. You are already over budget until the mail in rebates come in, which takes 6-8 weeks. Not much else you could do unless you went with a cheaper CPU & mobo, ditched the HDD altogether and just added an SSD.
However if this is for your nephew to goof off and game on I would leave it just like it is. That PC will do everything he needs and more. Plus you can add an SSD at a later date if he chooses.
That's not a bad first effort, but let's make it better.
First, there's no real need to pay $180 for AMD's top of the line. You can save $70 by getting an FX-6300 instead. You lose 2 cores, 100 MHz, and 30 W, but you save $70.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1867959
Both the CPU and the GPU have promo codes on them. If the codes aren't compatible with the combo deal, then break the combo deal and use the promo codes.
Next, the difference between AMD's 990FX chipset and AMD's 970 chipset is CrossFire/SLI support and about $30 or so. On a sub-$1500 build, you shouldn't use CrossFire/SLI anyway, so you can save money by getting a cheaper motherboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1904494
That also gives up eSATA and FireWire ports that you'll never use, and the integrated audio is different (though I'm not sure if it's better or worse), but the motherboards are otherwise nearly the same, except that you save $41.
Next, you don't actually need an aftermarket cooler, as AMD's FX-series processors come with a decent stock cooler. Not a great stock cooler, mind you, though as stock coolers go, it's pretty good--and much better than you'd get with an AMD A-series or any Intel processor. Indeed, it's not automatic that the cheap aftermarket cooler you selected would be an upgrade. So you can skip that from the build.
But the goal was to get you a better computer for the same price, not a nearly as good computer for cheaper. So now that we've saved you $128, let's spend it on some upgrades that matter. First up is the solid state drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820721108
A computer without a good solid state drive is slow. Period. No matter what else it has. So you spend $100 on a solid state drive and the computer will be fast.
Next, let's spend an extra $25 to upgrade the monitor:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824005589
The main upgrade there is from TN to IPS, which will make a huge difference in image quality. The monitor is also a little larger, with the same resolution.
The net result is a much nicer computer for $3 cheaper than what you picked, by moving money from things that don't matter to things that do.
Drop AMD and get i3 with cheap MB - 70 USD top, it will do the job as good. For the money you just saved, get bigger IPS display.
idk about prices where you are but i just built one and am quite happy with it even though it is not a high end machine.
I went for a I7 4770 and a Geforce GTX 760 the 256 bit version and it runs quite good.This is one thing you should look for in video cards,sometimes they are cheaper versions of such as the one i got,the cheaper version is only a 128 bit version but advertises as a 3mb card compared to the 2mb card i got,so some might think oh more memory the better biut it is not the case.
BTw i looked around NewEgg and Tiger Direct and several others,i found the infamous New Egg to not have any deals at all,their prices were actually about the same as just ordering through a store.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Two cores for the price of six, you say? What could possibly go wrong?
Nothing...
At my local Microcenter they have some offers for the FX6300 bundled with a motherboard. Are any of these a better value? The bundles for the FX6300 are at the bottom.
http://www.microcenter.com/site/products/amd_bundles.aspx
Using the Microcenter bundle of FX6300 + the asus M5A07 R2.0
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/yLpCMp
FUncom putting the FU in fun since 1993.
You could readily justify either the Asus or MSI motherboards from that list: they're both good deals if you're willing to drive to Micro Center. Don't get the Gigabyte motherboard or either of the AsRock ones, though. The Gigabyte motherboard shouldn't even exist (its chipset is three generations older than the socket), while AsRock falls under the category of "cheaper for a reason"; it's not junk, really, but you shouldn't get a discount quality part without a discount price.
Depending on storage capacity needs, you may be able to skip the hard drive entirely. If it's his first computer and he doesn't have a ton of junk to transfer over, I would skip the hard drive. If you later discover that you need more capacity, it's easy to add a hard drive later.
The mouse has gone up in price, so you may want to change it to something else.
FX-6000 + Gigabyte MB is a bargain. While I would normally vouche for i3, this is truly great deal and would be foolish to miss out on that one.
CPU+MB for 100 USD.
FUncom putting the FU in fun since 1993.
The Gigabyte motherboard is cheap for a reason. It requires overclocking to run DDR3 memory even at 1333 MHz, let alone more typical speeds like 1600 MHz. It's far from guaranteed that the CPU will have everything function properly on that motherboard; AMD won't guarantee it because that's not one of the chipsets that is supposed to go with that CPU.
Instead, you're dependent on Gigabyte's hackery to make everything work right. How hard to you think they will try to make everything work flawlessly in a cheap junk motherboard, as opposed to focusing on their higher end boards? Maybe it will work, or maybe it will throttle back clock speeds or disable features and only kind of work.
So no, I'd pass on it and get one with a 900 series chipset. You can get the motherboard for free, but you'll get what you pay for. It's not like you're having to squeeze everything into a $500 budget.
FX-6300 is officially supported on GigaByte website and so are DRR3 1600+ modules.
It is offered as a bundle and it is unlikely he will encounter any issues as they won't provide a defunct bundle.
The only "issue" is that he will need to setup memory speed manually because it won't be recognized by SPD.
Worthy 30 USD over MSI board? Imo yes, as he won't be gaining anything for that money.
The point you keep missing in pretty much with all your advices given is that despite you do not have to squeeze everything into 500 USD budget, you can... Often that extra money money filling the budget are simply not worthy, ie. like SSD in this machine.
You must be looking at a different motherboard:
Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4305#sp
Memory
4 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM sockets supporting up to 32 GB of system memory (Note 1)
Dual channel memory architecture
Support for 1333+ (O.C.)/1066 MHz memory modules
(Note 1) Due to a Windows 32-bit operating system limitation, when more than 4 GB of physical memory is installed, the actual memory size displayed will be less than the size of the physical memory installed.
Straight from their own web page specifications.
If you get that motherboard, you're taking an AMD chipset and an AMD processor that AMD never meant to be compatible with each other and relying on Gigabyte to make them work together--and without the ability to modify either the CPU or the chipset. Will it work well enough that someone who is clueless about computers won't think it's obviously broken? Probably. Will you get the full, proper PCI Express, USB, SATA, and system memory bandwidth, as well as the normal CPU clock speeds and voltages with turbo, idle clock down, and all of the other features you'd hope for? Doubtful. I'm pretty sure that it won't give the normal SATA and system memory bandwidths; I'm not sure about some other things.
Yes, you can plug in 1600 MHz DDR3 modules, run them at 1066 MHz, and they'll work. But that's very different from buying 1600 MHz modules and running them at 1600 MHz, which isn't supported and may or may not even be available as an overclocking option.
Nah, you just do not look hard enough :P
http://download.gigabyte.eu/FileList/Memory/mb_memory_ga-78lmt-usb3.pdf
The board will run DDR3 1600 at DDR3 1600 speed.
It is not difficult to use google to find out people use the same setup and are even capable to OC with that combo, ability that is on these boards funilly being contributed to expensive boards only, making people waste their money.
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php/749817-Piledriver-FX-6300-on-Gigabyte-GA-78LMT-USB3
Ummm yeah I would advise buying a motherboard you know will work properly and not one with a chipset not designed and outdated for the CPU your buying. Why would someone even consider that ? ! ?
In other words skip the Gigabyte with the 760 chipset, get the asus with the 900 series chipset. especially since the price difference is minimal in the overall build.
For reference the 760G chipset came out in 2009. The FX 6300 came out late 2012, the 900 series chipset in mid 2011.
Nah, you just do not look hard enough :P
http://download.gigabyte.eu/FileList/Memory/mb_memory_ga-78lmt-usb3.pdf
Supporting it natively in the chipset, and supporting it via an overclock - are two totally different animals.
One is guaranteed. The other is a gamble. Sure, it may boot up initially, but that's one funny thing about overclocks: they degrade over time. All silicon actually degrades over time, but when you OC, it does so a lot faster. A stock clock you may not notice it for decades, whereas something OCed to the limit (and going from 1066 to 1600 is a fairly health bump for that memory controller, and they certainly aren't saying they support anything over 1600), you're going to notice degradation a lot sooner - partially because it's degrading faster, and partially because your up against the limit and any degradation at all is going to show up in instability.
It's not my money, and I don't have anything against Gigabyte in general, but if it were my money I'd stay far away from that one. I'm not for wasting money when you don't need to, but I'm also for not cutting corners if you don't need to.
Luckily, that isn't the case.
There is no OC going on here. You use DDR3 1600 at their native speed, the board supports speeds up to DDR3 1600.
You do not like the option, fair enough but please avoid fool elaborations.
It states on the manufacturers product page that 1066 is supported and 1333 + is O.C.
So no it does not natively support 1600 without an OC. Unless the board manufacturer is making fool elaborations.
If you want to buy a motherboard with a 5+ year old chipset just to save a few dollars then all good. Most people would rather pay the extra $20 for a motherboard that was actually designed for the CPU we are buying and not have to worry about everything working correctly.
Anyways, no use posting anymore as you have justified this in your mind somehow as being a good deal.
Good luck to you
The full list of memory module support, modules verified by manufacturer, is provided in link above. DDR3 1600 modules are among them.
Yes, you will need to manually override the setting, not overclock though. All will run within native speeds.
It is scary that people with so little tech knowledge as you are dare to give out advice to other people...
/facepalm
The board does not support 1600 natively. You dont have to OC as in crank up 1333 to 1600 speed, but manually adjust voltage or other setting to get it to run at the 1600. Otherwise it will default to a lower supported speed.
If you stuck 1600 speed RAM in that board and did nothing else it would not run at the rated 1600. Manually changing voltage or other settings is overclocking. Hence the motherboard manufacturer listed 1600 as OC on the product page.
And as for giving bad advice yours was to buy an i3 with a cheap motherboard?? or buy a cheap ass motherboard with his AMD with a chipset that was 3 years old before the CPU was released. LOL and that is your idea of good advice!?
It would help if you even understood whats on the manufacturers own product specification site. Which clearly shows 1333+ RAM as O.C. to run. That means it will run it, but not without adjusting setting over the stock / default setting, which is known as O.C.
If nothing else you have been entertaining with your " advice". hopefully the OP got a laugh and learned something.
Here is the product specs straight off the gigabyte site. 1333+ (O.C.) it shows, meaning 1333 or anything over
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4305#sp
I think you might want to delete that last sentence after looking at the advice you have given or the fact that you are not fully comprehending the concept of what speeds are "natively" supported. I am just saying.....
James T. Kirk: All she's got isn't good enough! What else ya got?