Any improvements I could make for this build? ($1200 Mid-End Gaming Build)

Phil923

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Aug 24, 2014
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Hey Forums,

I've been out of the loop in terms of the best parts for money since Skylake came out and want to ask for your suggestions in terms of possible improvements to this build that would save me money while possibly improving performance.

I am going to be building this computer for a friend and was debating between an Intel i5 6500 or the Intel Xeon 1231 v3 and I went with the Xeon. My reasoning for choosing the Xeon was that when playing on my brother's rig with the Xeon, there were noticeable FPS gains with the extra threads compared to my OCd 4690k especially in newer games.

Going with the older technology also allows me to save money on the motherboard and ram.

Storage was standard, SSD Boot Drive and 1TB HDD for mass storage.

Case and PSU were pretty simple choices, I trust Phanteks for a case, and the EVGA GS is a good unit.

My friend wanted dual monitors for multitask and these Acer ones seemed great for the price. (Gaming will be done on 1 monitor)

Now the trouble I have with is the GPU, I'm not too caught up in the new cards released this year but it seems like the mid end choices would be the RX 480 and the GTX 1060. The 1060 seems like the stronger single card choice, but the 480 with its Xfire support and higher VRAM seems like it would be a strong choice going into 2017 and on.

Anyways, thanks for reading this and I hope to get this build rolling ASAP.

Build:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($239.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 PRO4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($78.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($32.88 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($92.00 @ B&H)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($47.49 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB GAMING Video Card ($249.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro M ATX Mid Tower Case ($66.11 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA GS 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($88.41 @ Newegg)
Case Fan: Corsair Air Series AF120 Quiet Edition (2-Pack) 39.9 CFM 120mm Fans ($25.88 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Acer H236HLbid 23.0" 60Hz Monitor ($139.00 @ B&H)
Monitor: Acer H236HLbid 23.0" 60Hz Monitor ($139.00 @ B&H)
Total: $1199.74
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-08-11 18:17 EDT-0400



 
Phil I'm surprised your asking with all the badges you got, lol you should be pretty heads up. That being said I have some thoughts:

I would go Skylake instead of Haswell since the Haswell is gen 4 and Skylake is gen 6

I prefer the iCore the the Xeon

I'm not a big ASRock fan I prefer GIGABYTE, and ASUS more

I would go with a 8GB kit (2x4GB)

With SKylake MB you could go with an M.2 SSD, Otherwise the SK Hynix 250GB is priced very aggressively last time I checked.

Anyway looks like a fun system I hope your friend appreciates all your efforts for him.
 

CTurbo

Pizza Monster
Moderator
Looks like a great build. I love the Xeon and have used it many times. The EVGA GS is great, but at $88 there are better options. That 1060 is not in stock. It's not easy to get your hands on a good priced non-reference 1060 and nearly impossible to find a non-reference 480 in stock anywhere.
 

CTurbo

Pizza Monster
Moderator
Not anymore expensive to go with a Skylake Xeon with DDR4


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1230 V5 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($252.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X150M-PLUS WS Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($63.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: GeIL EVO POTENZA 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($32.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($89.39 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($47.49 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB GAMING Video Card ($249.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro M ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA GS 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($80.98 @ Newegg)
Case Fan: Corsair Air Series AF120 Quiet Edition (2-Pack) 39.9 CFM 120mm Fans ($25.88 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Acer H236HLbid 23.0" 60Hz Monitor ($139.00 @ B&H)
Monitor: Acer H236HLbid 23.0" 60Hz Monitor ($139.00 @ B&H)
Total: $1181.67
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-08-11 19:54 EDT-0400
 
Solution
I Like it you got him into Gen 6 and went to an 8GB kit and it is cheaper then his Gen 4, +1 CTurbo!
If you need to trim a little cash off you could go to a SK hynix SL308 2.5" 250GB $65.00 and they have good specs. https://www.neweggbusiness.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9B-20-329-009&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleBiz-PC&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleBiz-PC-_-pla-_-Solid+State+Disk-_-9B-20-329-009&gclid=CJy76sTKus4CFRJafgodKT4H_A