College & Gaming Build

will56

Hi,

Query from a friend of mine about pricing a custom build
Would it be possible to build a PC for around €400 that could do some gaming and also handle some light 3d rendering, photoshop ? Interested in programs like this going on it - Autodesk Maya
Gaming doesn't have to be high quality.

I assume for the College work, More Cores and Ram is important ?
We priced up a build that would work for gaming but it had the Pentium G3258 in it which I think wouldn't be great for the college work ?

1. What is your budget? €400ish
2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? College Work - Arts student with interest in image editing, animation, 3d rendering
2a. Games most likely played: Nothing brand new, sports sims, FPS
3. Do you need a copy of Windows? No
4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? 1tb HDD
5. Do you need a monitor? No
6. Do you need any of these peripherals? No
7. Are you willing to try overclocking? Yes
8. How can you pay? Anyway
9. When are you purchasing? In the next 6 months
12. Additional info: Nothing has to be the highest standard and fastest speed but the system still has to be useable. Storage can be added over time

Digital Solitude

An i3 is probably best bet here, or an AMD build.

Zalman T4 €20
1tb HDD €55
400w PSU €50
8gb RAM €50

Leaves 220 for CPU, board and maybe GPU.

i3, cheap board and second hand 7770 would fit the build, be fairly decent for gaming and general use

AMD 8350 + decent board would be much worse for gaming, but much better for editing.

If he can stretch to 500 he could pick up a Xeon, which would outperform the 8350, but at cost of the graphics card

will56

Digital Solitude wrote: »

An i3 is probably best bet here, or an AMD build.

Zalman T4 €20
1tb HDD €55
400w PSU €50
8gb RAM €50

Leaves 220 for CPU, board and maybe GPU.

i3, cheap board and second hand 7770 would fit the build, be fairly decent for gaming and general use

AMD 8350 + decent board would be much worse for gaming, but much better for editing.

If he can stretch to 500 he could pick up a Xeon, which would outperform the 8350, but at cost of the graphics card

An AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz CPU with an Asus M5A78L-M/USB3 board ?

Digital Solitude

I'd recommend the i3 over the 6300 anyways

will56

Digital Solitude wrote: »

I'd recommend the i3 over the 6300 anyways

I3 4160 with MSI H81-P33 board ?

Digital Solitude

Yeah, H81M it should be

will56

How does this look ? Comes in at about the €400 mark depending on what I buy new/secondhand

Case Zalman T4
PSU 400w
RAM 8gb
Storage 1TB
CPU i3 4160
Motherboard H81M-93
GPU Geforce GTX560ti

Digital Solitude

If you can fit a 560Ti that'd be fairly strong going for the price

will56

Digital Solitude wrote: »

If you can fit a 560Ti that'd be fairly strong going for the price

Fit as is size or budget ?

Digital Solitude

Budget

will56

Digital Solitude wrote: »

Budget

I've seen a few on adverts and other sites that would just squeek it in under budget depending on what we get the other parts for.

No major rush so we can keep an eye out for deals/buy it piece by piece.

will56

If this was going to be used for college work, adobe flash etc instead of gaming would i be better switching for a multi core amd chip and put in a graphics card at a later stage ?

Digital Solitude

Yeah, i3 is a good gaming chip but is a good bit off for multicore stuff. 8350 or 6300 even would be better

will56

Thanks for the quick reply. Since overclocking isn't a concern at the moment am I okay going with a cheaper motherboard to help keep costs down ?

If he puts in a graphics card at a later stage would the 6300 be okay for gaming (don't expect exceptional perfomance but enough to warrant the spend on a card)

http://de.pcpartpicker.com/p/VDqNwP

will56

Hi,

Can I get a second opinion on this please before I press buy.
All parts coming from Amazon (crappy exchange but free delivery to Parcel motel so hoping that'll help)

Zalman Z3 Plus £25.29
AMD FX4300 £59.71 (was originally going for the 6300 but budget is a concern)
Gigabyte 78LMNT £40.17 (onboard graphics should suffice until a 2nd had GPU can be picked up
Corsair Builder Series 430W £35.84
2*4gb RAM £39.17
WD 1TB Caviar Blue £40

Comes in under €350 when converted

Ant695

will56 wrote: »

Hi,

Can I get a second opinion on this please before I press buy.
All parts coming from Amazon (crappy exchange but free delivery to Parcel motel so hoping that'll help)

Zalman Z3 Plus £25.29
AMD FX4300 £59.71 (was originally going for the 6300 but budget is a concern)
Gigabyte 78LMNT £40.17 (onboard graphics should suffice until a 2nd had GPU can be picked up
Corsair Builder Series 430W £35.84
2*4gb RAM £39.17
WD 1TB Caviar Blue £40

Comes in under €350 when converted

You could lose the benefit of parcel motel due to the case probably not fitting and having to pay more to have it delivered to a residence or to pick it up from one of their depots. Also it may not all come as one shipment so you could pay parcel motel 3-4 times which will quickly add up as well. If you buy from hardwareversand it'll be one shipment with ups direct to the door.

Ant695

Had a quick look on hardwareversand and can get same build but a different motherboard as I couldn't find that one on their for 360 but thats without the geizhals discount which should take it under 350 and about 12 delivered but would be one shipment.

will56

Thanks for pointing that out
I'll go with hardwareversand so.

Does the build look okay otherwise ?

Ant695

will56 wrote: »

Thanks for pointing that out
I'll go with hardwareversand so.

Does the build look okay otherwise ?

I'm no expert on amd but the ram is pretty much a standard recommendation on here. Corsair are one of the best for psus and the hard drive is bang on. Case is just personal taste and budget for the most part. Like I say though I'd leave it to someone else to advise about cpu & motherboard if they are the best.

Digital Solitude

Motherboards are motherboards for the most part.

The i3 is actually faster than the FX4300 and a touch off the 6300 when I check it out, but the 4300 will suffice on the budget.

Built in drivers totally suck so don't prepare to play anything more than an indie

will56

Digital Solitude wrote: »

Motherboards are motherboards for the most part.

The i3 is actually faster than the FX4300 and a touch off the 6300 when I check it out, but the 4300 will suffice on the budget.

Built in drivers totally suck so don't prepare to play anything more than an indie

Thanks for the reply, geizhal and Hardwareversand are bringing it in under budget so we might push for the 6300

Once we get up and running he can look out for a decent second hand card for gaming since its meant to be for college work first and foremost

will56

Went with the following after, is there anything that should have been different/need to swap ?

Case: Aerocool Mechatron (Deal on Ebay) €40 Maybe should have gotten a cheaper New case but he liked the look of the Aerocool
PSU: Corsair CX 430 €47.70
RAM: HyperX Fury 8gb Ram (2 x 4GB) €45.52
Processor: AMD FX - 6300 €99.18
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA 78LMNT €60.40
Storage: WD Blue 1TB €48.10
GPU: Asus GTX 550 TI (Ebay €45

Including Windows and Delivery it was about €420

90% of usage is college work, Adobe Flash and similar

TerrorFirmer

It's fine, the i3-4170 is only about €20 more and better for games and the 1150 socket is far more future proof though. Also the 550Ti is a pretty terrible card, you would have gotten a GTX560Ti/HD6870 for the same money on adverts which are way faster (and still not incredibly good for the latest games, but the 550Ti will be pretty bad on the latest games).

will56

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

It's fine, the i3-4170 is only about €20 more and better for games and the 1150 socket is far more future proof though. Also the 550Ti is a pretty terrible card, you would have gotten a GTX560Ti/HD6870 for the same money on adverts which are way faster (and still not incredibly good for the latest games, but the 550Ti will be pretty bad on the latest games).

550ti was the best I could get at the time, seen better since unfortunately
Games for the moment are all older titles, he doesn't want much on it to avoid the distraction.

That's why i thought the multi-core AMD was a better choice ?

will56

Case: Aerocool Mechatron (Deal on Ebay) €40 Maybe should have gotten a cheaper New case but he liked the look of the Aerocool
PSU: Corsair CX 430 €47.70
RAM: HyperX Fury 8gb Ram (2 x 4GB) €45.52
Processor: AMD FX - 6300 €99.18
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA 78LMNT €60.40
Storage: WD Blue 1TB €48.10
GPU: Asus GTX 560 TI - Adverts

Including Windows and Delivery it was about €420

90% of usage is college work, Adobe Flash and similar. No gaming really

With black Friday etc coming up what would be a cost efficient upgrade ?
120gb ssd ?
More RAM ?
Higher wattage psu