APU build for my band's home studio and 720p gaming

Xavier Wells

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Jun 29, 2013
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I'm on a pretty low budget, under $600 (USA). This is for a home studio, so it needs a decent sound card. I also want us to be able to chill and play some 720p games and maybe medium settings. It doesn't need to be anything special, as we primarily work with Audacity.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD A10-7850K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor ($179.99 @ TigerDirect)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A88XN-WIFI Mini ITX FM2+ Motherboard ($99.69 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital VelociRaptor 300GB 2.5" 10000RPM Internal Hard Drive (Purchased For $0.00)
Case: Inwin BP655.300TB3L Mini ITX Tower Case w/200W Power Supply ($54.99 @ Mwave)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 300W 80+ Bronze Certified TFX Power Supply ($43.98 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: HP DVD1265I DVD/CD Writer ($28.98 @ Newegg)
Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio 24-bit 96 KHz Sound Card ($43.99 @ Mwave)
Total: $586.60
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-04-13 23:22 EDT-0400)
 
Solution
You could save more money by going with the new AM1 platform. Haven't seen any benchmarks for it, but my bet is combine it with a 270X or something and mantle/DX12 will take care of that CPU overhead no problem.

Shankovich

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Feb 14, 2010
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You could save more money by going with the new AM1 platform. Haven't seen any benchmarks for it, but my bet is combine it with a 270X or something and mantle/DX12 will take care of that CPU overhead no problem.
 
Solution

Xavier Wells

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Jun 29, 2013
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Hmm... That's a tough one. How new is the platform? I haven't been up to date with motherboard platforms lately.
 

Shankovich

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Feb 14, 2010
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Seems to be doing quite well. It's $100 for a mobo + APU, the apu is ehhh alright at 720p gaming. Tom's did a review a few days ago on it.
 

Xavier Wells

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Jun 29, 2013
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10,640


Okay. I'll wait for the platform to mature a bit then make the decision, I have a couple weeks leeway. Ireally did like the motherboard here and that's why I went with it, and I also like the the mini ITX form factor.