Possible to get great CPU Build for ~800

Call Me Jimmy

Hi guys,

I'm looking to build a new PC with main priority being CPU, and would like a decent graphics card but nothing special. I have 32gb of ddr2 ram which, hopefully I can use that but I'm not sure if it will be compatible with whatever new motherboard I'd require.

I just need the actual PC, no peripherals. No windows.

Will it be possible to do you think? Any recommendations for top CPU mobo graphics card?

Thanks

K.O.Kiki

Your DDR2 is worthless (unless you somehow find a buyer on the 2nd-hand market), sorry.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor (£137.94 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock - Fatal1ty AB350 Gaming K4 ATX AM4 Motherboard (£86.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Memory: Team - Dark 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£82.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Storage: Kingston - A400 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£47.94 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Hitachi - Ultrastar 7K3000 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.60 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1060 3GB 3GB Windforce OC Video Card (£197.99 @ Aria PC)
Case: Corsair - SPEC-01 ATX Mid Tower Case (£47.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: be quiet! - Pure Power 10 500W 80+ Silver Certified ATX Power Supply (£56.98 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £698.42
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-06-13 12:55 BST+0100

TerrorFirmer

What is it for, why is the CPU most important?

I assume you mean 32GB DDR3 as I can't imagine why/how anyone would have 32GB DDR2 ram to hand?

If you already have 32GB DDR3 to use, 2nd hand would be perfectly viable - i7-4770 machine or similar for about €250.

Call Me Jimmy

Music production mainly, game development (high end) and CPU heavy games. (I still have the computer I got from you which is 750ti and i7 2600.

TerrorFirmer

For games, the i7-2600 is still pretty OK if high/ultra 60fps is your target, the 750ti at this stage is the major low-point of the system. That said the i7-2600 is still a very capable CPU considering its age, though a new Ryzen 2600 or i5-8400 would be way better now for productivity tasks. On the whole, though, it's held up very well.

Just throwing in a new GPU would give you a great boost. A GTX1050Ti 4GB would be twice as fast, for about €160, and you'd get around €70 back for a 750Ti.

That said though you have a good budget so it's up to you what to do with it really.

KO's build above is great if you want to go all new, new platform with latest DDR4, etc but settle for 8GB ram for now. I suppose it really depends on how important the 32GB of ram is to you, as replacing 32GB of DDR3 with 32GB of DDR4 at the moment would be horrifically expensive (half your budget alone).

The alternative option is to pick up an i7-4770 or i7-4790 based machine on Ebay 2nd hand. They can be had for about €250-300 depending, and you could re-use your 32GB ram and put the rest of the cash into a large SSD + GTX1060 6GB model + few other bits and pieces.

Obviously other considerations there include a) full size case b) uses standard parts, most manufacturers do but a few have snuck back to using non-standard, non upgradable components c) PC with 4 ram banks so you can use all 32GB.

And finally, the i7-2600 with 32GB of ram and a GTX750Ti is still, generally speaking, a very solid productivity machine and capable of decent casual gaming. If you sell that, I would say you should still get a fair couple of hundred for it - if this could be added to your budget, you'd be able to really do the dog on your new build.

Eg. Ryzen 2600, 16GB DDR4, 500GB SSD, GTX1060 6GB based-build.

Call Me Jimmy

Yea I've no doubt the 2600 is still decent for most games, but for music production I can't track on low sample rates and it is very slow with even a few plugins in the session. And it is ddr3 ram, does that mean I should be ok with not having to upgrade that?

Billy86

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i5-8400 2.8GHz 6-Core Processor (£147.97 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte - H310M H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£51.57 @ Box Limited)
Memory: Crucial - 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£60.17 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Crucial - 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£60.17 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Kingston - A400 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£47.29 @ More Computers)
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£50.39 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Sapphire - Radeon RX 580 4GB PULSE Video Card (£189.69 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Rosewill - FBM-X1 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£23.70 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair - TXM Gold 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£69.59 @ Aria PC)
Total: £700.54
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-06-17 13:19 BST+0100
£700.54 = €801.43

The 8400 CPU is £10 more than the 1600, but with the lower cost of motherboards (no need for an overclockable one) and RAM (Ryzen needs 2666mhz+ to get it's best, while Intel typically runs on 2133/2400) it actually comes out cheaper. Both have 6 cores, Intels are stronger -- but the i5 has 6 threads while the 1600 has 12. I don't know exactly, but some on here can let you know which would work best on the productivity end of things.

The motherboard is the lowest cost model that there was there as no real frills are needed that I'm aware of, and I had that exact RAM - it works perfect, only thing is if you want a windowed case to look into it does look extremely bare. Getting 16GB out of the gate could be a help as it's in budget and getting the exact same make/model (esp with the demand on DDR4 RAM these days) can be tricky. You can also just buy one stick and put the money into another part of the game, but if you do go 8GB be sure to bookmark the type you buy for if you need a second stick down the road. I reckon the 16GB should come in very handy for the music production end of things and such.

580 and 1060 are extremely close in terms of GPUs, to the point my preference would be 1060 3GB < 580 4GB < 1060 6GB < 580 8GB. the 6GB and 8GB models are still a fair bit €50+ more expensive so I figured this would be the best fit as the extra GB of VRAM could come in quite handy at times depending on the type of game you play. Though either the 1060 3GB or 580 4GB will have you playing on more or less fully maxed out graphics for the foreseeable future on 1080p (I'm on a 970 which is just a shade below these two models and am doing so, for reference).

Kept the SSD the same but switched the HDD because the one in KO.Kiki's build seems to have gone out of stock, switched case to the lowest priced one as it is always extremely subjective (any ATX or MATX case will do but as it is an MATX motherboard, if you want a windowed case it will look a bit small and silly inside an ATX case, though if you want an ATX case there are plenty of ATX motherboards for about £10-20 more). Moving down to 1TB of HDD space will save about €25 if you're looking to spend more on the case, and HDDs are the simplest thing to install down the line (put in the case, plug in, do a 5 minute install). Another idea might be to lower the HDD to 1TB and up the SSD to 480GB - again I can't say for sure, but the SSD might seriously cut down the music production time etc.

The PSU is Gold and semi modular which is always a big help, 650W might seem overkill but this was the second lowest cost one that was gold + semi modular, with the lowest (the 550W model) only being £4 less so I figured might as well on the tiny off chance you ever need the extra power.

***Do you still have the HDDs from your old/current computer, and are they 7200RPM? If so, you can actually scratch the HDD off this build and either pocket the money or invest back into the build. If you have both an SSD -and- HDD you could probably even go for an i7 or higher Ryzen 2XXX model.

TerrorFirmer

Call Me Jimmy wrote: »

Yea I've no doubt the 2600 is still decent for most games, but for music production I can't track on low sample rates and it is very slow with even a few plugins in the session. And it is ddr3 ram, does that mean I should be ok with not having to upgrade that?

I wonder is there something up with your setup or system?

The 2600 is older, but it should not be so slow that you literally cannot use the software the way it's intended.

We have PC's of that age in work that are used for audio production and video editing and they're fine. (obviously a new system would be a good bit faster, but fundamentally they're OK to use)

What sort of problems are you having specifically? What is the software?

ED E

If the CPU is pegged in use you're on the mark, if not then you need to review.

In the case that its not ensure you aren't putting a rake of DACs through a single USB controller, that could run into problems.