Final Suggestions on my $800 Budget Build

IxWolfie

Commendable
Apr 29, 2016
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I'm sorry that this is such a long post... At the VERY bottom there is a tl;dr. Skip this block of text and read it if you wish.

Over the past week or so, I've asked about a $800 Intel build, as well as some suggestions on motherboards and a $700 build. So finally, after all of that stuff (unfortunately, I couldn't think of all of those questions at a single time), I have my final two options.

I have a Skylake Build, i5-6500, and I also have an AMD Build FX-8350. My main use for this is gaming, but I also stream and do rendering as well. Talking to friends goes with it as well. I do have monitors I can use, and I also have a hard drive that I can swap over from my current PC. It would be nice if you could somehow include a Hard Drive, at least 1TB, into the build. However, as I said it's not necessary... It'd just be nice partly because I'm worried about this Hard Drive not going into the other one, or something stupid like that. I haven't even cracked open this computer since I bought it awhile ago when it came out... Damn prebuilts, lol.

Look at both builds, and choose which would be best for what I wish for it to do. If you find issues, please feel free to change it in the build you think is best. I can deal with longer render times as well as the games can get recorded/streamed well. I don't have a 1080p monitor (768p is my main monitor in which I game and watch streams on, and 900p is my second monitor, which I use for things like reading chat when I stream, rendering a video while watching streams/youtube, etc.), and I'll get one eventually when my budget isn't so tight... I also need a copy of Windows, which means I need a disc drive for the cheapest version (which is OEM, and I've heard that it's a disc... Correct me if that's wrong.)

I'm buying from the United States. This is my final build, put together from various threads I've posted in the past week or two. After this, I'll have all of the input I could possibly ask for, and learn as much as I could learn with this build. I just want to take a minute to thank everyone from the previous threads, and because it's too many to count I can't find all of their names. I'm trying to learn more about computers and building them and what / why different parts are better or worse, so if you change something please (if it's not too much of an issue) explain why you switched it or got rid of it. Thanks again!

At the end of each list, I'll explain my choices, so if something seems out of the ordinary it's probably in the paragraph below it. If not, feel free to ask me. I'll respond as soon as I can.

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Skylake Build:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($194.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H170-D3HP ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($97.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($34.39 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 380 4GB NITRO Dual-X OC Video Card ($194.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair Graphite Series 230T Black ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ B&H)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($61.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer ($13.89 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) ($85.95 @ B&H)
Case Fan: Corsair Air Series SP120 High Performance Edition (2-Pack) 62.7 CFM 120mm Fans ($21.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $766.16
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-05-26 20:14 EDT-0400

I can't really decide on a Motherboard for this build, mainly because all of the budget ones seem to have like, no reviews what so ever, and the ones that do are $150. That motherboard takes ddr4-2133 memory, so I didn't get 2400. I don't want to overclock, so I didn't get a Z170 board, or an unlocked Processor. I might in the future, but for an $800 budget I wanted to try and get the best Video Card I could. The Case I chose, while somewhat expensive to me, has 3 fans included. I also got two fans to replace, or add, to the case for increased cooling on the R9 380, hearing that it runs pretty hot. I'm fairly confident on the power supply, but if it's too much or too little feel free to change it.

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[strike]AMD Build:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor ($149.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG H7 49.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($35.00)
Motherboard: ASRock 970 Extreme3 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($83.89 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($32.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 380X 4GB NITRO Video Card ($238.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair Graphite Series 230T Black ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ B&H)
Power Supply: EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($48.99 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($17.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) ($85.95 @ B&H)
Case Fan: Corsair Air Series SP120 High Performance Edition (2-Pack) 62.7 CFM 120mm Fans ($21.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $775.76
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-05-26 20:18 EDT-0400

In this build, I chose the fx-8350 because to my knowledge it's the best one available from AMD. It's also clocked at 4.0ghz and has 8 cores, versus the fx-6300 clocked at 3.5ghz and 8 cores. I added a CPU Cooler hearing that the Processor itself runs pretty hot as well. The Motherboard, as before, I honestly still can't choose one confidently. There are no reviews for a lot of these, and the ones that have reviews are expensive... Again $800 Budget... I just took a leap of faith at this point. I didn't ask for an AMD Motherboard, so I was even less confident for this one. R9 380X because the processor and motherboard is ending up cheaper than Skylake, which I thought was a pretty good trade off. I got the same case, and two extra fans for the same reason as the Skylake build, which was that the video card runs pretty hot. I also got a 600W power supply because the R9 380X takes more power than the R9 380. Is it too much, or too little power? A lot of this AMD build was kind of leaps of faith, I've never even taken a glance at AMD, but from the looks of it it's cheaper but doesn't sound like it has good gaming performance.[/strike]

screw amd lol

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In the end, I personally like the Skylake build better, but I decided to make an AMD build because I wanted to see where I would stand if I went with an AMD build. They're about equal in price (as you can see), but the AMD build has a better video card, and the Skylake build has a better(?) processor, at least that's what I can tell from the benchmarks I've received from various people on this site (again thank you guys!). After this, all I have to do is get the cash (which shouldn't be too much of an issue), and then we're good. So this is the final part of my pre-build. This site has been very helpful, and I've learned a lot about it. My build started our very amateur, and now we're here where I've used the things I've received from you guys collectively.

If there are any final changes, or maybe some challenges you know I might face with the components, please tell me. I'm a first time builder, so I'd love to hear any advice you could give me as well. I'll be sure to fill you guys in whenever I get the computer, it's components, and actually get it up and running.

Thank you for taking the type to read this, and thank you for any info you could give me.

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tl;dr I have both a Skylake and an AMD Processor Build. They have the same budget of $800, and I need a copy of Windows. I'd like to have a new 1TB Hard Drive, but I don't NEED one. It'd just be nice. I have two monitors, which are not 1080p. I plan on only getting a 1080p monitor when my budget allows. I'm buying from the United States. Please tell me why you changed what you did, even if it's very brief so I can learn a little more about your choice. This is all a learning experience for me.

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Neither of the builds is optimal if you are streaming and rendering. Both are best done on an i7 and here's a build that has a Xeon that is basically an i7-4770 without integrated graphics.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($239.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($61.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R9 380X 4GB PCS+ Myst. Edition Video Card ($179.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair Graphite Series 230T Black ATX Mid Tower Case ($54.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($61.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer ($13.89 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) ($83.89 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: Corsair Air Series SP120 High Performance Edition (2-Pack) 62.7 CFM 120mm Fans ($21.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $748.70
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-05-26 21:07 EDT-0400

Also, i urge you to add an SDD. Even a 120gig adata sp550 is better than none: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/a-data-internal-hard-drive-asp550ss3120gmc


CPU Comparison: http://ark.intel.com/compare/80910,75122

EDIT: I've ammended the build to also have the better GPU ;)
 

IxWolfie

Commendable
Apr 29, 2016
54
0
1,630


As I said I really only care about gaming and recording/streaming games decently, which the i5-6500 does well. The rendering is fine, I don't care if I need to wait an extra few minutes. I usually go eat when I render anyway, and it's done when I come back. Anything's and upgrade, but I'll definitely take that into consideration. However, due to this being Haswell I'm very hesitant... I've never really liked Haswell, because all of the benchmarks I've seen show that it's worse than Skylake, ESPECIALLY when you aren't overclocking.

My current PC takes around 30 minutes to render 10 minutes of footage, so to be entirely honest with you it's still an upgrade so I'll be happy, and ESPECIALLY for gaming it'd be an upgrade as well. Like I said though, I really mainly care about gaming performance and streaming whilst maintaining decent FPS. Is that just as possible with the Xeon E3-1231, or is that going to be better on the i5-6500? Is the only thing that's better about the E3-1231 that it's rendering speed is better, because if so I'd rather take the i5. :p
 


Simply gaming: i5 wins marginally.
Gaming and streaming: i7 wins across the board.
Games are good and getting better at using 4 threads, witch maxes out an i5. The i7 has room to handle the streaming compressin and stuff without affecting game perfromance.
You should trust me, but if you dont, ask around. What do peaople recommend for gaming and streaming?
 
Also, dude, if you'd have done your homework seriously theres no way you would have included AMD in this. It's 2016. That platform is long dead, and it;s not getting any better. The reason why people recommended it to you is because you said streaming and the 8350 has 8 cores.. see what im getting at? ;)

Btw, both the xeon and i5 will max out whatever card you get in your price range, so actually the i5 never wins, whereas the xeon wins while streaming.
 

IxWolfie

Commendable
Apr 29, 2016
54
0
1,630


Mmh. I didn't see that the Xeon had 8 Threads. My bad. I mean like I said everything at this point is an upgrade, I'll consider it greatly, now that I saw it had 8 Threads. My quick glance, I saw 4 and thought it had 4 Threads... Stupid me lmao. Again, my bad.

If nobody else replies, I'll take your build, because it does look really solid.
 

IxWolfie

Commendable
Apr 29, 2016
54
0
1,630


I have no clue why people recommended AMD to me, to be completely honest. I laughed at myself TRYING to make an AMD build, but I threw it on because it's something I was recommended. I was pretty much 100% set on Intel because honestly I don't think I'd buy an AMD Processor at this point lol.

No, I didn't do my homework on AMD because they aren't worth my time. ;)
 


It is bro. Check out the comparison: http://ark.intel.com/compare/80910,75122
Basically, this cpu is a glitch in Intels pricing. you shouldn't be able to get i7 performance at this price point, but this enterprise oriented CPU provides it :)
 

IxWolfie

Commendable
Apr 29, 2016
54
0
1,630


The more that I think about it, the more I really like this because I don't have a 1080p monitor, and I'm looking at youtube benchmarks and it's getting 60fps at 1080p on various games... Damn, I need to do more homework on this kind of stuff, lmao. Thanks again, man. :)
 

IxWolfie

Commendable
Apr 29, 2016
54
0
1,630


One question, though, why a motherboard that only takes DDR3-1600 (and less)? Do you not see a major difference from 1600 to 2400 or something? I haven't done much homework on RAM, :p
 


Beyond a certain point(1600mhz for ddr3 and 2400mhz for ddr4) the gains from going higher are imperceptible UNLESS you are using integrated graphics. In that case, the iGPU uses the RAM as VRAM, thus faster ram really does help while gaming.
But that doesn't matter to you as you're getting a discrete card :)
 

IxWolfie

Commendable
Apr 29, 2016
54
0
1,630


Hm. Interesting. Thank you for being so informative. :D