Bang for buck gaming rig (G3258/H81)

[hoopertr0n]

Guys I'm looking to put together an über bang for buck machine using the G3258 / H81 platform, with the following components:

• Gigabyte GeForce GTX 750Ti "Low Profile" 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express
• Kingston 120GB SSDNow KC380 Drive mSATA 6Gb/s 1.8" Solid State Hard
• BitFenix Prodigy 'Tiger' Mini-ITX Cube Case
• Asus H81I-Plus Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard
• Intel Pentium K Anniversary G3258 Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail
• TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit
• Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo CPU Cooler Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo CPU Cooler

The rig will be used for gaming, including Xplane, and office work, as well as some distributed computing etc.

Would appreciate some advice on the above, in particular I have the following uncertainties:

1. Overclocking - can the H81I-Plus overclock the G3258 out of the box and has overclocking been disabled in recent BIOS updates?

2. Will the heatsink fit in the case?

3. Is that memory ok - can I go faster and will it make a difference?

4. Would I actually be better off with an ATI Kaveri 7850K and more modern motherboard?

Inputs gratefully received.


....I should probably add that I am intending to run Linux with either the open source or proprietary nvidia drivers.

 

[mahius]

That Kingston M.2 SSD isn't going to do any good (not great value for money) especially as that board doesn't support it. It'll use up 4 of the 16 lanes knocking the graphics card down to 8 PCIe lanes. While it doesn't matter much since there won't be SLI, it's still unnecessary and not available on the motherboard you've chosen. Best to go with the Samsung 850 EVO, costs a bit more, but is actually better value for money and is 250GB. IMO, 120GB is not enough, even if you run Linux.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Samsung 250GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E250B/EU) £79.99



To answer questions...

1) That H81 chipset should be able to overclock, but the best boards for it are the Z97 boards. They also have better features, like M.2 support, if you still want to go with that aspect. In fact, I haven't ever heard of any mini-ITX motherboards that support M.2, maybe I haven't looked around enough.

2) The CM Hyper 212 Evo cooler is about 8cm high, should be fine in that BitFenix case. I can't find out the size of HSF that case supports.

3) That memory is plenty fine. IMO, above 1600Mhz, the performance gains are not so easily noticeable.

4) Heck, I'd say go for an i3-4150. It does miles better than a G3258 overclocked, and even has hyperthreading for 4 threads. Though AMD would definitely be a viable option, I have no experience with modern AMD chips, so I wouldn't know. By the looks of it, a Piledriver FX-6300 is better and cheaper than the i3. Thus, the 7850k should be even better.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i3-4150 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £97.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-6 Six Core 6300 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £82.99



Here's a link to processor benchmarks on a newly released game so you can see how it all relates: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rutk9ErhKG4

Edit: Might I ask what the budget is? Best bang for buck doesn't necessarily mean cheap, but best value for money. You can build a great i5-4690k+GTX960 PC for under £600.

 

[ShivP]

There are also better choices for the money than the 750Ti generally, such as R9 270 which eats it in most games as it just has more beef

The 7850k won't be better than the above CPU choices recommended by mahius and the GPU inside is not nearly as good as a 270

 

[hoopertr0n]

Decided to go i3 after finding a youtube video with horrible intermittent lagging due to the G3258 not having hyperthreading.

Aim is to get very good single core performance for Xplane, and my understanding is that Intel thrashes AMD for the same number of clock cycles. i3-4360 3.7GHz serves this purpose nicely.

Thanks for the info on the SSD and GPU. R9 270 could be the way to go.

...not looking quite so cheap now, but still very much in the bang for buck category i feel!

 

[faceman123]

Decided to go i3 after finding a youtube video with horrible intermittent lagging due to the G3258 not having hyperthreading.

Aim is to get very good single core performance for Xplane, and my understanding is that Intel thrashes AMD for the same number of clock cycles. i3-4360 3.7GHz serves this purpose nicely.

Thanks for the info on the SSD and GPU. R9 270 could be the way to go.

...not looking quite so cheap now, but still very much in the bang for buck category i feel!

try used market. can pick up i5 dirt cheap

 

[Mercutio]

Had a friend I built a rig that would play diablo 3 for. That was based on one of the "G" processors and didn't really struggle. If the i3 isn't much more, sure.

Consider 2nd hand market for both, I see you don't have the post count for the members market here but still, if you can source it, 2nd hand is worth a look.