Reasonably budget pre-built

cj2013

cj2013

cj2013

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22 Dec 2013
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Hi guys.

Been trying to get up-to-speed with specs around a decent enough sub £500 build. Not expecting fireworks from it, but best bang for buck mainly.

I've looked at self-build and pre-built, but so far I can't see anything but good value from this pre-built setup:

- Gigabyte 78LMT MB
- AMD FX6300 Black Edition CPU
- Corsair CX600 80+ Bronze PSU
- Standard Cooler (won't be overclocked at first, can look at it as an 'upgrade' later w/cooler)
- 8GB DDR3 1600mhz RAM (again, can easily upgrade later as MB has 4 DDR3 slots)
- Nv Geforce GTX 960 2GB
- 1TB Seagate Barracuda HDD
- Fractal Design Core 1000 Case

All that comes in ready built for less than £450. Can also swap out the Seagate for a Kingston v300 120gb SSD, possibly leaving room for a separate HDD soon after.

It's £100 or so more to swap out the AMD setup for an i5:

- Gigabyte H81M-S2H MB
- Intel i5 4460 (Standard Cooler)
- Corsair CX600 80+ Bronze PSU
- 8GB DDR3 1600mhz RAM (again, can easily upgrade later as MB has 4 DDR3 slots)
- Nv Geforce GTX 960 2GB
- 1TB Seagate Barracuda HDD
- Vantage Green Case (card reader and 4 fans included)


I understand the i5 is going to be better overall perhaps, just the FX has better OC potential. Is the extra 20% or so cost 'worth it?'. I'd like the PC to be used for some gaming, some graphics work, maybe some multimedia.

Any input is appreciated! I know the norm is to get a shopping basket pasted in, but I couldn't see the numbers adding up. Don't worry about OS or peripherals, just base system.

Edit: Here's the closest I could match to the i5 build, which doesn't even include a case or pre-built

YOUR BASKET
1 x KFA2 GeForce GTX 960 EX OC "Black Edition" 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - Retail (96NPH8DVD9XX) £161.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4460 3.20GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £154.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 600w Modular '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020060-UK) £60.95
1 x Avexir Core Red Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16001104G-2CIR) - Red Light £47.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £42.95
1 x Gigabyte H81M-D2V Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £40.99
Total : £519.46 (includes shipping : £8.00).

 
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Personally, I'd take the Intel option at this point. The AMD sockets won't likley be getting any new CPUs, and you don't have much of an upgrade path from the 6300, whereas on Intel's 1150 you'll have the 4690k and 4790k as potential upgrades, and Broadwell too (unless that's only z97, I'm not sure).

Spring up an extra few quid for a half decent motherboard up front, and you should be fine for the higher end chips in the future.

storage wise, whichever route you go, get an SSD. It's the only way. You can pick up mech drives cheap enough second hand if you don't have any spare drives lying around.
 
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Here's what I'd be looking at, around that sort of money (self-build):

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4460 3.20GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £154.99
1 x MSI Radeon R9 280 Gaming 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £149.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97P-D3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £62.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Fury 120GB 2.5" SATA 6Gbps Solid State Drive (SHFS37A/120G) £52.98
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED38G2400HC11CDC01) £44.99
1 x EVGA 500W 80 Plus Bronze Power Supply (100-B1-0500-KR) £43.99
1 x BitFenix Comrade Midi-Tower - White £25.99
Total : £550.02 (includes shipping : £11.75).



You could drop the price ~£30 or so by going for an i3 instead, and maybe a further tenner buy going for a naff case but that's pushing it IMO if you want your system to look nice and have half-decent airflow.

Specced the 280 as it's faster than the 960 and has an extra GB of RAM, which should last you a bit longer too.
 
The AMD vs the Intel... probably unlikely the overclocked AMD will beat the intel...
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/699?vs=1198

Option that 'minimizes' initial outlay within reason, but should allow for wide upgrade potential (Including Broadwell):
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1265?vs=699

This chip should overclock to be close to the FX6300 overall.

I have included a 2TB harddrive, as the 1TB are very much in poor value for money.
The SSD is not the cheapest, but the cheapest but recommendable SK Hynix is not in stock. The v300 doesn't get a lot of love because of component switches by Kingston.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Radeon R9 280 Gaming 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £149.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £66.98
1 x Gigabyte Z97P-D3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £62.99
1 x Crucial MX100 128GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter (CT128MX100SSD1) £58.44
1 x Intel Pentium K Anniversary G3258 Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £55.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £52.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite Black 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TPKD38G1600HC11DC01) £44.99
1 x BitFenix Comrade Midi-Tower - White £25.99
Total : £532.46 (includes shipping : £11.75).



This build sacrifices a bit of 'value' for the sake of having upgrade options.
 
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Thanks for the replies!

What does the Z97P offer over a Asus H81M Plus?

The H81M seems to be quite common in a bundle, which sheds a few ££ off the cost.
 
9 series chipset is supposed to support the Broadwell chips, while the 8 series are not supposed to.

My suggested build is not the cheapest possible, it makes trade-offs assuming you'll upgrade the CPU, likely an i5 or i7 from the Broadwell series, in due time. (12-24 months, depending on End-of-Life dates) and better value for money on the mechanical drive.
 
Ronald said:
9 series chipset is supposed to support the Broadwell chips, while the 8 series are not supposed to.

My suggested build is not the cheapest possible, it makes trade-offs assuming you'll upgrade the CPU, likely an i5 or i7 from the Broadwell series, in due time. (12-24 months, depending on End-of-Life dates) and better value for money on the mechanical drive.
Click to expand...

I have an external HDD which I could use for media, and probably would keep the laptop used for most of the day to day crap, so in this set up I've looked at dropping the mech HDD for a twice-size SSD:

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Radeon R9 280 Gaming 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £149.99
1 x Kingston 240GB SSDNow V300 Drive SATA 6Gb/s 3 2.5" (7mm height) Solid State Hard Drive - (SV300S37A/240G) £79.99
1 x Intel Pentium K Anniversary G3258 Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £55.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £52.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Savage Red 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (HX324C11SRK2/8) £46.99
1 x MSI H81M-E33 Intel H81 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £34.99
1 x BitFenix Comrade Midi-Tower - White £25.99
Total : £461.04 (includes shipping : £11.75).




Is the MB a bad choice?
 
Depends really. As it won't support the upgrade path to Broadwell, you're limiting upgrade options as well as the time frame to do it (Haswell will End of life sooner than Broadwell, and post EOL prices for components tend to rise as availability dwindles)

The Pentium-K is a very conservatively clocked dual core, without hyperthreading, so in its base state it is not massively quick. It really needs to be overclocked to make sense!
With that in mind, H series chipsets are not as geared to overclocking as Z... some do support it though. The board you picked is out of stock, and it being an old chipset, I wouldn't expect it to become available.

If you don't want to upgrade to a i5 or i7 later, then it makes more sense to get one now and possibly different component choices, closer to implosiveturnip's suggestion and you should be fine with the H
 
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