Budget AMD X4 860K Entry level, Mid range, and Overclocking build

[ArponFlux]

alright like the title says, this topic will provide 3 different builds based around the 860K for BUDGET BUILDS! Please discuss what you think and what can be improved/ what would you do differently around the build.

CPU: obviously Athlon X4 860k @74.99 amazon

MOTHERBOARD:
Entry level: MSI A68 FM2+ @42.99 newegg (i would not recommend overclocking, what u think?)
Mid range: MSI A78 FM2+ @67.99 newegg (mid-overclock)
Ovclk: MSI A88 FM2+ @72.99 newegg (high overclocking)

POWER SUPPLY:
Entry: EVGA 430w 80PLUS +12v 34A @39.99 negg
Ovclk: EVGA 500w 80BRONZE +12v 40A @49.99 negg

RAM:
Entry: Kingston fury 8Gb single stick MHz1866 @42.49 amazon
Ovclk: gskill series x 16Gb (2x8gb) Mhz1866 @76.99 negg

Storage:
Entry: Silicon power 120 Gb SSD @42.99
Mid: Spwr 240 Gb SSD @70.99
Ovclk: spwr two 240 Gb SSD @141.98 (cheaper than buying the 480Gb version)

Video:
Entry: MSI GTX 750 1GB ddr3 @94.99 negg
Mid: MSI GTX 750 TI 2Gb gdr5 @129.99 negg
OC: MSI GTX 960 2Gb gddr5 @184.99 amazon

Price
Entry: 338.44
Mid with 8gb and 80bronze psu: 463.44
OC: 601.93


Of course there are many mix and match options like geting mid level with best video card or high end with less storage to make a wiser system. what is your favorite combination?
this topic is for information purposes so please comment! i am not building a system its just an estimate. enjoy

MY favorite system would be
a88 mobo, evga 500w, 240gb ssd, gtx 960, and 8gb ram @ 496.44

NOTE: SERIOUS OVERCLOCKING SHOULD NOT BE PERFORMED ON STOCK COOLER FOR LONGEVITY OF YOUR PROCESSOR. Just saying, since i dint list any coolers. cheers.

 

[Barty1884]

Good topic!

Out of curiosity, why did you go with 1x8GB or 2x8GB - wouldn't there be an advocate for 2x4GB in a "budget" build?

Same idea, wouldn't an SSD present too low in storage for a "budget" build? Maybe an SSHD or a regular HDD be a sensible choice initially?

Some capable builds in there, good performance* for a good price.
*subjective, of course.

I went for the 860k in my build, and spent quite a bit more than these builds (around $1,000 CAD), so I would hope mine could better these.

That being said, I might well be looking at a new mobo in the near future, to OC the CPU and drive a bit more power out of it (just because. I don't actually need it), so Ill look at these suggestions for sure.

Personally, I'd pick the same parts you did, but I see it at $421.45 based on the prices you listed...?

 

[tiny voices]

Neither PSU is very good. Change to something Antec, XFX, Seasonic, EVGA (G2,B2,GS)

No reason to have 16gb RAM with a CPU this low end. Pointless. Use 8gb only.

Storage makes no sense. USe only a 120gb SSD for all 3 builds and then an additional 1tb SSD. DEFINITELY do not use 2 SSDs in RAID. The average PC user will mess that up badly and ruin everything.

Why only MSI boards and GPUs. There are better boards for sure.

 

[ArponFlux]

Neither PSU is very good. Change to something Antec, XFX, Seasonic, EVGA (G2,B2,GS)

No reason to have 16gb RAM with a CPU this low end. Pointless. Use 8gb only.

Storage makes no sense. USe only a 120gb SSD for all 3 builds and then an additional 1tb SSD. DEFINITELY do not use 2 SSDs in RAID. The average PC user will mess that up badly and ruin everything.

Why only MSI boards and GPUs. There are better boards for sure.

Thanks for your input mate!
would you consider these psu's to be more reliable?
Antec EA-430w @47.90 newegg double +12v 25A each (80+bronze)
Antec Basiq BP430 @39.99 negg +12v 16A and 17A (80+)

about srorage i have the understanding that the os and whatever you put in the ssd will load very fast, but whatever games you pud in hhd's would load slower right?
i do understand the reliability of one ssd for os and hdd for massive storage. I didn't know is not good to run two ssd in raid, what would be the major setback for an average pc user?

even though there are several price ranges in this build its still cheapest parts available. there were other gygabite boards among this ones but the msi ones had advantages like dual 3.0 pci slots
same with videocard, it just turned out that msi had better price/performance. feel free to suggest any parts since this topic is mainly to help people interested in the 860k

 

[ArponFlux]

Good topic!

Out of curiosity, why did you go with 1x8GB or 2x8GB - wouldn't there be an advocate for 2x4GB in a "budget" build?

Same idea, wouldn't an SSD present too low in storage for a "budget" build? Maybe an SSHD or a regular HDD be a sensible choice initially?

Some capable builds in there, good performance* for a good price.
*subjective, of course.

I went for the 860k in my build, and spent quite a bit more than these builds (around $1,000 CAD), so I would hope mine could better these.

That being said, I might well be looking at a new mobo in the near future, to OC the CPU and drive a bit more power out of it (just because. I don't actually need it), so Ill look at these suggestions for sure.

Personally, I'd pick the same parts you did, but I see it at $421.45 based on the prices you listed...?

I went for a single 8Gb slot because it was the cheapest i found in a ratio of gigabyte per dollar. there were modules that were 4Gb at same price but were 1666mhz. Its also just easier to have that many gb in one stick, easy to upgrade or change to another system

on the ssd part yeah, its a build that compromises storage for performance. i just love how fast and quiet they are hehe

 

[nikoli707]

antec vp450. no frills inexpensive quality unit that can usually be found for $32 but regularly comes with rebates that sometimes drive its price down into the teens(i got one for $15). after that its the xfx 550w. but like tiny said above, any of those brands that is the cheapest will be ideal.

the amount of money saved by going with a 1x8gb for $36 vs 2x4gb for $42 is negligible. its better to have the dual channels and potentially gain 10-20% performance from bandwidth.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor ($69.99 @ NCIX US)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper TX3 54.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($15.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus A88XM-A Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($52.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport XT 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: A-Data Premier Pro SP600 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($47.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card ($102.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: Antec 450W ATX Power Supply ($29.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $359.92
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-09-11 21:55 EDT-0400

you didnt include a case in your build above so i didn't. but something like a fractal design 1100 would do nice for $35.

 

[g-unit1111]

For $600 - $650 you could easily squeeze an Intel Core i5-4460 and a GTX 960 in there with making very few modifications. Most of those components you have picked are things that are very low tier.

I would do something like this if you're working with a $600 budget:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($176.95 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M PRO4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($79.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($55.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($43.70 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 2GB SuperSC ACX 2.0+ Video Card ($189.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($43.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($57.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($16.99 @ Directron)
Total: $665.59
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-09-12 01:09 EDT-0400