My custom build is too expensive. Can you help bringing the cost down?

nectron · Apr 10, 2016

Hi,

I'm going to leave the UK in a month time for France. To celebrate, I'm planning on buying a custom build (I've been living with a shitty laptop for the past 4 years, playing on PS4 and X360). I'd like to use the PC for casual gaming (should run latest games for the next 4 years, mid settings are okay as long as FPS > 30, on 1920x1080), and comfortable CAD modeling using Catia v6, so nothing too serious. I'd like to keep the cost as little as possible as long as the above requirements are met - 400 target, 500 GBP max (about 575 and 725 USD respectively). My current "careful but enthusiastic shopping" reached more than 800 GBP... Link here: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/nectron/saved/PQm6Mp

The idea is "75% performance for half the cost": I'm not counting my coins, but I'd rather play on lower settings and travel somewhere interesting. Example: replace CPU by a i3-6100, but what about the rest?

Help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Nectron

lakimens · Apr 10, 2016

Not possible to go lower than this, with your expectations from this build.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor (£97.98 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H110M-H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£51.22 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory (£29.62 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£68.99 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card (£149.99 @ Novatech)
Case: NZXT Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£34.98 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: XFX XT 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£44.28 @ Aria PC)
Monitor: BenQ GL2460HM 60Hz 24.0" Monitor (£116.11 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £593.17
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-11 01:14 BST+0100

BadActor · Apr 10, 2016

Easily upgradeable. Won't be exactly 75 percent the performance and half the cost, but a competent 1080p rig for med/high settings.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor (£97.98 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: MSI H110M Pro-VD Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£45.99 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (£32.49 @ Ebuyer)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.84 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 950 2GB Video Card (£119.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1100 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£29.99 @ Novatech)
Power Supply: XFX TS 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£31.75 @ More Computers)
Monitor: BenQ GL2250HM 60Hz 21.5" Monitor (£88.89 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £486.92
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-11 01:23 BST+0100

ScrewySqrl · Apr 10, 2016

SUB 400 BUILD!

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor (£97.98 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: MSI H110M Pro-VD Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£45.99 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: Panram Ninja-V 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£27.90 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£37.98 @ Novatech)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 950 2GB Video Card (£119.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Zalman ZM-T4 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£25.97 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Power Supply: XFX TS 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£31.75 @ More Computers)
Total: £387.56
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-11 01:28 BST+0100

lakimens · Apr 10, 2016

Will he be able to play games >30FPS on a GTX 950?

BadActor · Apr 10, 2016

Easily. The GTX 950 is just a slightly neutered 960, and with overclocking, the performance is nearly the same. I think Nvidia shot there self in the foot when they released it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEoWDf8wKVc

ScrewySqrl · Apr 10, 2016

yes. 950 will give playable fps (40-60) at 1920x1080 on high settings for most modern games

lakimens · Apr 10, 2016

I thought the 960 is twice as good as the 950, but that's the 970 vs 960, I guess.

nectron · Apr 11, 2016

Thanks guys, I was happily surprised to see several answers in such a small amount of time!
So I have mixed your suggestions to come up with a reasonable 510£ config excluding the screen: a) I'll go with the GTX 960 to be on the safe side, and I've heard 2GB is starting to be very small for games like The Witcher 3, so I've specced a 4GB version. b) I'd like to be able to add RAM if necessary, so I've chosen the cheapest motherboard that has 4 DIMM slots. I guess I could choose 1 8GB and go for a 2 slots, but isn't the increased latency going to be an issue? c) I've kept the SSD, that's one component which is going to make my life better even when not gaming.
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/nectron/saved/WLMLrH

Nearly there? What do you think?

BadActor · Apr 11, 2016

Even though mobo manufacturers sell DDR3 motherboards and tell you it's safe to use DDR3 with them, Intel warns that only DDR3L should be used to prevent long term damage to the memory controller. I would use a DDR4 based board and RAM unless you happen to have DDR3L RAM. The price difference between DDR3 and DDR4 now is mostly nonexistent anymore.

http://wccftech.com/skylake-does-not-support-ddr3-damage-ddr3l-only/

nectron · Apr 11, 2016

Wow, thanks for the heads up. That's definitely something I need to know. The max frequency is 2133MHz at this motherboard price anyway, so might as well go for DDR4.
I'm doing minor tweaks now, I've read in multiple places that the Radeon R9 380 4Gb was more capable than the GTX960 for the same price so switched to that one, but don't hesitate to tell me if that's bull "sheet".
I've accepted the first answer, but honestly that's thanks to all of you that I have a clearer idea of what's reasonable and achievable for my budget.
New config: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/nectron/saved/Jm6kcf
Managed to bring the price down to 603£ with shipping!

Bearmann · Apr 11, 2016

nectron :

Well, it's not completely clear, but you can probably do fine with only one stick of RAM since you are using a separate GPU:

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1478-page1.html

https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/492721-skylake-gaming-performance-scaling-with-ddr4-ram-frequency/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESeoexGLVFU

lakimens · Apr 11, 2016

It was the cheapest option to go for 1 8GB stick, with a H110M motherboard, upgradable to 16GB.

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My custom build is too expensive. Can you help bringing the cost down?

nectron

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lakimens

lakimens

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BadActor

Expert

ScrewySqrl

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lakimens

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BadActor

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ScrewySqrl

Champion

lakimens

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nectron

Commendable

BadActor

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nectron

Commendable

Bearmann

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lakimens

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