Thoughts on this build/where I can cut down cost?

Agonyworm

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Feb 21, 2013
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I've been working on getting the perfect build for me for the past one or two months now, and feel like I'm getting ready to order soon.

Here's what I've got so far:

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/QPGG

CPU - AMD FX 6300 - £101.94 @ Aria PC
Mobo - Asus M5A97 R2.0 - £73.87 @ Amazon
GPU - MSI TF GTX 650 Ti Boost - £149.99 @ Novatech
RAM - Kingston HyperX Beast 1866Mhz 2x4GB - £41.97 @ Amazon
Case - Zalman Z11 Plus - £47.99 @ Aria PC
HDD - Seagate Barracuda 500GB - £39.99 @ Dabs
PSU - XFX Core PRO550W - £53.99 @ Aria PC
OS - Windows 8 64Bit - £69.97 @ Scan



Approximate Purchase Date: e.g.: In around a fortnight

Budget Range: £450-570, including shipping

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, graphics design (in Blender, which requires CUDA to run efficiently)

Are you buying a monitor: Yes, but I am not including it in my budget.

Parts to Upgrade: Buying an entire new system

Do you need to buy OS: Yes

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Amazon.co.uk, Novatech.co.uk, Scan.co.uk, Overclockers.co.uk

Location: West Midlands, UK

Parts Preferences: I need an NVIDIA GPU for CUDA

Overclocking: Mild

SLI or Crossfire: Preferable in the future, but I'm willing to cut it out if the cost is to great

Your Monitor Resolution: 1366x768 to start with, will be getting higher resolution later on in the year

Additional Comments: I'd like the case to have some kind of style to it, not one of those black cuboids some people recommend :p

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: My current prebuilt Sony laptop just isn't up to scratch




Is there any way I could cut costs with this build? For instance, I was wondering if the difference between the 4300 and 6300 was worth it.

Thanks very much :)
 

amundy14

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Apr 10, 2013
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Expect two or three years on that one. Besides which, all of the game studios are going to continue making games compatible with Win 7 for some time yet, seeing as that's what most people, particularly gamers, have.
 

yasserBasha

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Mar 23, 2013
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Actually windows 8 may have some problem regarding games, 7 is YOUR BEST BET

AND there isn't any way to noticeably cut cost unless you go for less RAM or Lower GPU than 650 ti boost ( asus 7850 or HD7790)

http://www.ebuyer.com/393396-asus-hd-7850-1gb-gddr5-dual-dvi-pci-e-graphics-card-hd7850-dc-1gd5

http://www.ebuyer.com/491754-gigabyte-hd-7790-1gb-gddr5-dual-dvi-hdmi-displayport-pci-e-graphics-card-gv-r779oc-1gd
 
For a gaming pc, the graphics card is all important.
My rule of thumb is to budget twice the cost of the cpu for the graphics card.

In this case, you could look at a less expensive cpu like the FX-4100.
Few games use more than 2-3cores so the extra cores of the FX-6300 will go largely unused.
Or, depending on the games you will play, the faster cores of a Intel i3-3220 might work out better.
The i3 does not depend on fast ram for performance, and the motherboard should be cheaper.
Read this to see how it might apply to your situation:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-fx-pentium-apu-benchmark,3120-10.html

The motherboard is a full ATX sized motherboard. How many of those 7 expansion slots will you ever use?
Look for a less expensive M-ATX sized motherboard with 4 expansion slots.

If you love the case, buy it. But a less expensive case will functionally do the job.
 

mikeeginger

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Dec 7, 2012
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yasserBasha

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Mar 23, 2013
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NEVER EVER suggest any Bulldozer CPU as a replacement for any thing ... FX-(x)100 family is a sorry excuse for a processor, i mean TOTAL FAIL and would be terrible choice (it's downgrade actually)

I agree for i3
 

yasserBasha

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PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-3220 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor (£89.94 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock B75 PRO3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£60.00 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£32.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£45.54 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 660 3GB Video Card (£164.21 @ Dabs)
Case: Zalman Z11 ATX Mid Tower Case (£44.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply (£49.99 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer (£11.13 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £498.79
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-04-15 15:43 BST+0100)

Look at this build, it's much better and you can add your OS and still keep your budget range :)
 

Agonyworm

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Feb 21, 2013
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Wow O_O

My concern with the i3 series was that they would start to become old and useless in the next 3 years or so, are these concerns completely unwarranted?

Also, will the 1155 socket still be having new CPUs added or will I have to buy a new motherboard if I want to update my CPU in the future?
 

yasserBasha

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Of course .... The i3 is a capable CPU That will always give powerful performance and will need LONG to get useless ( Core 2 Duo comes in mind here - still popular until now)
Don't worry .... you won't regret this build
 

yasserBasha

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Mar 23, 2013
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I'll state here two CPU's :
Core i5-3570k
Core i7-3770k

Intel thinks ahead of 10-15 years for the market when they make a processor, so you shouldn't expect less for an Intel CPU to get old or out of the market
 

Agonyworm

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Feb 21, 2013
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Last two things :p Will the two cores hold me back? Could I perhaps go with the 2100 and get those extra cores?

And could you suggest a mobo that has SLI and supports the 3220? Thanks :)
 

Poprin

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Dec 13, 2012
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I agree with everyone basically, for gaming you rarely need more than dual core even now (i know some stuff is being developed but still...) core speed is what you want. I'm still running a core 2 duo but it's 3.2 clock still keeps it performing quite wll even by todays standards.
 

amundy14

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Apr 10, 2013
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Actually, I would wouldn't suggest the ASRock board. They make budget boards, using thin PCB and cheap parts. It will burn out in a very short time, costing you more money to replace it. Get MSI, Gigabyte, or Asus, but not ASRock.

Edit: Oh, wait, scrap that. Didn't see the last post. Go with the P8, it's excellent.
 
The i3-2100 is still a dual core cpu The i3-3220 is 15% stronger on a clock for clock basis. Both have hyperthreading which adds two added processing threads, each of which has the power of about 1/3 of a full core.

Socket 1155 will be replaced in June with haswell socket 1050. But, if you buy a motherboard with a Z77 chipset, you will be able to remove the i3 duo and replace it with a quad like a 3570K. With a 3570K, I do not foresee a big need for more cpu power for gaming for several years.
If you anticipate that, it would be prudent to pay a small bit more up front for Z77.

AMD is also scheduled to replace it's motherboard chipset in that time frame.

Over time, such changes are necessary to continue the advancement of computing.