Reasonably budget pre-built

[cj2013]

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).

 

[cj2013]

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.

 

[cj2013]

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.

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?