[SOLVED] Building a budget pc, any opinions?

[bobjackieson]

PCPartPicker Part List

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 1600 (14nm) 3.2 GHz 6-Core Processor | £91.97 @ CCL Computers
Motherboard | Gigabyte B450M DS3H Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard | £60.93 @ Amazon UK
Memory | Crucial Ballistix 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-2666 Memory | £62.99 @ Amazon UK
Storage | Western Digital Green 240 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive | £34.99 @ Amazon UK
Storage | Western Digital Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive | £35.48 @ Aria PC
Video Card | Asus Radeon RX 580 4 GB Dual Video Card | £139.99 @ AWD-IT
Case | Cougar MG130-G MicroATX Mini Tower Case | £32.97 @ Amazon UK
Power Supply | Corsair CX (2017) 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply | £45.98 @ Currys PC World Business
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total | £505.30
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-03-02 16:51 GMT+0000 |

Got a strict budget of 500-520. Please no suggestions of 1tb SSDs or 1660ti. But thanks for any advice.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Hey there,

It's a pretty solid build. I'd only change a couple of things.

1. PSU - whilst I wouldn't go for that PSU myself, if you must stick with the CX, then you should go for a 500-550w PSU. The newer CX's are better, but you can get decent gold units which will last much longer and will be of better overall quality. A better unit will give you some headroom for OC'ing your CPU, which are gonna want to do.

2. Ram - 2 x 8gb is good, but the speed is low-ish. Go for some 2933/3000mhz ram and get an extra 10-20% performance boost alone. Specially in gaming. Ryzen loves faster ram.

Just a side-note. MATX and your case mean you have a small space, and there will be some heat there. Ideally your GPU should exhaust heat from the back of the case, as opposed to, blowing the hot air from the GPU into the case too. It can increase the heat quite a bit. Make sure the case has some fans 1/2 in front and back to bring some airflow through the system to keep the temps down a bit. The shroud on the one you have chosen looks like some heat might escape from it.

 

[Newtonius]

Everything is compatible. Your PSU is right at the minimum so if you plan to upgrade GPU or CPU you'll have to upgrade that too most likely depending on the TDP of the new CPU or GPU.

If 500 quid was your budget then you've hit the mark but if you have some more money to spare your board can handle faster RAM, and everyone knows AMD loves fast memory.

 

[bobjackieson]

Everything is compatible. Your PSU is right at the minimum so if you plan to upgrade GPU or CPU you'll have to upgrade that too most likely depending on the TDP of the new CPU or GPU.

If 500 quid was your budget then you've hit the mark but if you have some more money to spare your board can handle faster RAM, and everyone knows AMD loves fast memory.

Would it be better to go for this ram?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07MGPH9R9/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_i_8bvxEbZZ93KMB

I don't know if my build with utilise the ram difference enough for what I use it for? Any thoughts?

 

[Newtonius]

Would it be better to go for this ram?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07MGPH9R9/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_i_8bvxEbZZ93KMB

I don't know if my build with utilise the ram difference enough for what I use it for? Any thoughts?

That's acceptable. Though 3000 and 3200MHz kits are priced nearly the same here in the US. If you can find a 3200MHz kit for the same price I'd recommend getting it. Otherwise what you sent above is fine too.

 

[bobjackieson]

Hey there,

It's a pretty solid build. I'd only change a couple of things.

1. PSU - whilst I wouldn't go for that PSU myself, if you must stick with the CX, then you should go for a 500-550w PSU. The newer CX's are better, but you can get decent gold units which will last much longer and will be of better overall quality. A better unit will give you some headroom for OC'ing your CPU, which are gonna want to do.

2. Ram - 2 x 8gb is good, but the speed is low-ish. Go for some 2933/3000mhz ram and get an extra 10-20% performance boost alone. Specially in gaming. Ryzen loves faster ram.

Just a side-note. MATX and your case mean you have a small space, and there will be some heat there. Ideally your GPU should exhaust heat from the back of the case, as opposed to, blowing the hot air from the GPU into the case too. It can increase the heat quite a bit. Make sure the case has some fans 1/2 in front and back to bring some airflow through the system to keep the temps down a bit. The shroud on the one you have chosen looks like some heat might escape from it.

I don't OC. I like to prolong the lifespan of my parts. Would a 550 version benefit more, i don't know if for my budget that a gold unit would be more cost effective since its around 10% of my build cost already.

 

[bobjackieson]

That's acceptable. Though 3000 and 3200MHz kits are priced nearly the same here in the US. If you can find a 3200MHz kit for the same price I'd recommend getting it. Otherwise what you sent above is fine too.

Ok thanks. Yeah, ram prices across the board have went up around £2-5 overnight for me! I think a 3000mhz upgrade would be 8-12 more. Also is a wd Green alright for my boot? Had alot of people get mad about it on Pcmr sub.

 

[OllympianGamer]

Cpu - R5 2600 - Amazon = £110
Motherboard - Msi Tomahawk b450 max - overclockers = £85 (b grade)
Ram - Patriot viper 2 x 8gb 3200mhz - CCL = £72
PSU - Corsair cx550w - CCL = £60
Boot Drive - PNY 128gb ssd - CCL = £20
Storage - wdblue 1tb hdd- Amazon = £35
Case - Various aerocool rgb ones for £30ish which come with a fan.
Gpu leaves about £100 - 110 for a gpu, I would try and get a second hand rx 580 or gtx 1060 6gb for that on ebay, look for a trusted seller and altogether you would be within budget with a pretty sweet build.

 

[bobjackieson]

Cpu - R5 2600 - Amazon = £110
Motherboard - Msi Tomahawk b450 max - overclockers = £85 (b grade)
Ram - Patriot viper 2 x 8gb 3200mhz - CCL = £72
PSU - Corsair cx550w - CCL = £60
Boot Drive - PNY 128gb ssd - CCL = £20
Storage - wdblue 1tb hdd- Amazon = £35
Case - Various aerocool rgb ones for £30ish which come with a fan.
Gpu leaves about £100 - 110 for a gpu, I would try and get a second hand rx 580 or gtx 1060 6gb for that on ebay, look for a trusted seller and altogether you would be within budget with a pretty sweet build.

I agree with most of that. I would rather get the WD Green m.2 with twice the storage for 50% more.

I'm getting a nitro 580 from amazon warehouse in like new condition for 122 and its a 1600AF for £96. Already got my mobo and case. Thanks for the advice.

Fun fact: In the UK amazon offers 2 years warranty on warehouse gpus on there site.

 

[Newtonius]

Ok thanks. Yeah, ram prices across the board have went up around £2-5 overnight for me! I think a 3000mhz upgrade would be 8-12 more. Also is a wd Green alright for my boot? Had alot of people get mad about it on Pcmr sub.

It's sub-par. It has really low IOPS for an M.2 SSD, which is the amount of random small file reads and writes it can perform a second. IOPS however are crucial for application and game bootups, so while yes it's still faster than an HDD it's pretty slow for an SSD. I'd recommend getting a samsung 860 EVO SATA 2.5" SSD 500GB, it costs a little bit more but it's about 1.3x faster and will most likely last longer too.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod...ISjZRS7lYlZ6ukvT_gPu4iJBb-fhhPnRoCCu8QAvD_BwE

I have a 250GB WD black and it has 220,000 IOPS read speed while the WD green only has about 37,000. You can see the vast difference there.

 

[bobjackieson]

It's sub-par. It has really low IOPS for an M.2 SSD, which is the amount of random small file reads and writes it can perform a second. IOPS however are crucial for application and game bootups, so while yes it's still faster than an HDD it's pretty slow for an SSD. I'd recommend getting a samsung 860 EVO SATA 2.5" SSD 500GB, it costs a little bit more but it's about 1.3x faster and will most likely last longer too.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1382498-REG/samsung_mz_76e500b_am_860_evo_500gb_internal.html/?ap=y&ap=y&smp=y&smp=y&lsft=BI:514&gclid=CjwKCAiA-vLyBRBWEiwAzOkGVAnW_Tffonj027LyBUBjU7ISjZRS7lYlZ6ukvT_gPu4iJBb-fhhPnRoCCu8QAvD_BwE

I have a 250GB WD black and it has 220,000 IOPS read speed while the WD green only has about 37,000. You can see the vast difference there.

I don't really have that in my budget. Anything better for then price? What about a BX500 2.5inch?

Also I think the 860 is roughly £80 which with the exchange rate and usd vs gbp is bollocks! That the main issue with pc parts in the UK vs US. They charge the same amount in both currencies.

My friend can get the same ram for $60 in cali unfortunately.

 

[bobjackieson]

It's sub-par. It has really low IOPS for an M.2 SSD, which is the amount of random small file reads and writes it can perform a second. IOPS however are crucial for application and game bootups, so while yes it's still faster than an HDD it's pretty slow for an SSD. I'd recommend getting a samsung 860 EVO SATA 2.5" SSD 500GB, it costs a little bit more but it's about 1.3x faster and will most likely last longer too.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1382498-REG/samsung_mz_76e500b_am_860_evo_500gb_internal.html/?ap=y&ap=y&smp=y&smp=y&lsft=BI:514&gclid=CjwKCAiA-vLyBRBWEiwAzOkGVAnW_Tffonj027LyBUBjU7ISjZRS7lYlZ6ukvT_gPu4iJBb-fhhPnRoCCu8QAvD_BwE

I have a 250GB WD black and it has 220,000 IOPS read speed while the WD green only has about 37,000. You can see the vast difference there.

What do you think that the best thing in or around the greens price point would be?

 

[Newtonius]

What do you think that the best thing in or around the greens price point would be?

No BX, go MX. BX is doo-doo. MX SSD's perform all the same from 250GB to my 2TB variant and come with many software features like encryption or data corruption prevention.
Hopefully it's priced the same over there in the UK as it is here in the US. It should be in the same price range as the WD green but leagues better in terms of performance. The dedicated software dashboard for the MX crucial ssd is also pretty good - great UI with good features such as Cache momentum (boosts your SSD read and write speeds by utilizing your RAM as a data cache). This however can cause corrupted data if you have to force a shutdown or get a power outage whilst writing to the drive. So it's up to you if you want to utilize it.

tl;dr, MX500 250GB 2.5" SSD is way better than wd green and same price. Only downside is that it's not an M.2.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod...R6A2eV9FoZOwe9XTGeiipfRPuTudtoWhoCmnAQAvD_BwE

 

[bobjackieson]

No BX, go MX. BX is doo-doo. MX SSD's perform all the same from 250GB to my 2TB variant and come with many software features like encryption or data corruption prevention.
Hopefully it's priced the same over there in the UK as it is here in the US. It should be in the same price range as the WD green but leagues better in terms of performance. The dedicated software dashboard for the MX crucial ssd is also pretty good - great UI with good features such as Cache momentum (boosts your SSD read and write speeds by utilizing your RAM as a data cache). This however can cause corrupted data if you have to force a shutdown or get a power outage whilst writing to the drive. So it's up to you if you want to utilize it.

tl;dr, MX500 250GB 2.5" SSD is way better than wd green and same price. Only downside is that it's not an M.2.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1378548-REG/crucial_ct250mx500ssd1_mx500_250gb_2_5_ssd.html/?ap=y&ap=y&smp=y&smp=y&lsft=BI:514&gclid=CjwKCAiA-vLyBRBWEiwAzOkGVMO7itTy2AZmo3-trbajCWR6A2eV9FoZOwe9XTGeiipfRPuTudtoWhoCmnAQAvD_BwE

I'll keep these in mind. But theoretically if I did go green then I would be fine right?

I'm not too worried about storage needs because I have my hard drive and I'm patience, so speed isn't the be all and end all for me. But everything should theoretically work fine right? My OS won't work any worse right? Also I think that WD drives are meant to have low failure rates.

 

[Newtonius]

I'll keep these in mind. But theoretically if I did go green then I would be fine right?

I'm not too worried about storage needs because I have my hard drive and I'm patience, so speed isn't the be all and end all for me. But everything should theoretically work fine right? My OS won't work any worse right? Also I think that WD drives are meant to have low failure rates.

Yeah it should be fine, speed wise you'll still notice a difference when compared to an HDD. WD is a fine brand with great reliability overall the only problem is they overprice their stuff when some competitors are just better for the money.
I use WD all the time both in personal desktops and servers but having a good diversity in brands you get to see which companies you can rely on the most in the end. WD, crucial, and Samsung are reliable storage brands that I would choose above seagate and toshiba anyday.

 

[bobjackieson]

Yeah it should be fine, speed wise you'll still notice a difference when compared to an HDD. WD is a fine brand with great reliability overall the only problem is they overprice their stuff when some competitors are just better for the money.
I use WD all the time both in personal desktops and servers but having a good diversity in brands you get to see which companies you can rely on the most in the end. WD, crucial, and Samsung are reliable storage brands that I would choose above seagate and toshiba anyday.

Thanks, I'll probably build this then stick a Blue SSD or a mx500 later in the year. The greens just a cheap boot drive that will serve me well.

As long as I have a decent runner that gives me hassle free gaming then I'm a happy man! Anyways my old build was rx 4350 and rx 470 so this is a huge step up in performance! Use to have a blue ssd for booting before my psu killed it! Anyways thanks, if you have any other thoughts feel free to pass them on! Thanks, my friend!

 

[mdd1963]

I'd delete both storage drives, and just get a single 1 TB SSD...(WD's Black SN750 comes to mind, but, it's prices were the same as Samsung, so, Samsung it is!)

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-970-...words=wd+black+1tb+nvme&qid=1583186360&sr=8-2

HP's EX920 is a little less...
https://www.amazon.com/HP-EX920-Int..._1?keywords=hp+1tb+nvme&qid=1583186489&sr=8-1

If NVME is too pricey, standard SATA drives are about $105...(love the Crucial MX500!)

 

[bobjackieson]

I'd delete both storage drives, and just get a single 1 TB SSD...(WD's Black SN750 comes to mind, but, it's prices were the same as Samsung, so, Samsung it is!)

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-970-...words=wd+black+1tb+nvme&qid=1583186360&sr=8-2

HP's EX920 is a little less...
https://www.amazon.com/HP-EX920-Int..._1?keywords=hp+1tb+nvme&qid=1583186489&sr=8-1

If NVME is too pricey, standard SATA drives are about $105...(love the Crucial MX500!)

My Hardrive I salvaged for free and my green ssd is 30. Thats 3.5x the price on both.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

It's sub-par. It has really low IOPS for an M.2 SSD, which is the amount of random small file reads and writes it can perform a second. IOPS however are crucial for application and game bootups, so while yes it's still faster than an HDD it's pretty slow for an SSD. I'd recommend getting a samsung 860 EVO SATA 2.5" SSD 500GB, it costs a little bit more but it's about 1.3x faster and will most likely last longer too.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1382498-REG/samsung_mz_76e500b_am_860_evo_500gb_internal.html/?ap=y&ap=y&smp=y&smp=y&lsft=BI:514&gclid=CjwKCAiA-vLyBRBWEiwAzOkGVAnW_Tffonj027LyBUBjU7ISjZRS7lYlZ6ukvT_gPu4iJBb-fhhPnRoCCu8QAvD_BwE

I have a 250GB WD black and it has 220,000 IOPS read speed while the WD green only has about 37,000. You can see the vast difference there.

This statement is a little misleading. Although IOPS are relative, they are not something that one measures the performance of an SSD. Typically that's read and write speeds, which are measured in MB/s. IOPS as a standalone measurement, mean very little in terms of SSD performance. In addition, IOPS will vary with the size of data and type of workload, so it's not really that useful to compare speed of other SSD's using that metric.

 

[Newtonius]

This statement is a little misleading. Although IOPS are relative, they are not something that one measures the performance of an SSD. Typically that's read and write speeds, which are measured in MB/s. IOPS as a standalone measurement, mean very little in terms of SSD performance. In addition, IOPS will vary with the size of data and type of workload, so it's not really that useful to compare speed of other SSD's using that metric.

It does seem misleading so allow me to clarify, the read and write speeds I assume you're talking about are for sequential data read and writes or throughput (copying, moving, or writing large chunks of data) which the wd green can do at a speed of 540MB/s read and 480 write, not that bad compared to other SSD's. But when it comes to loading games, booting into windows, or opening various applications, IOPS determine the overall throughput since it's the measurement of how big the packet size will be for R/W random data and therefore plays an important role. SSD's with low IOPS will obviously have higher latency in doing tasks like updating windows or booting up, this is why I was using them as a comparison because that's what OP was asking about, "will it be good as a boot drive?".

But you are correct that it varies on the size of the data and type of workload. However, as a pure boot drive, I would go for an SSD with better IOPS.

 

[bobjackieson]

It does seem misleading so allow me to clarify, the read and write speeds I assume you're talking about are for sequential data read and writes or throughput (copying, moving, or writing large chunks of data) which the wd green can do at a speed of 540MB/s read and 480 write, not that bad compared to other SSD's. But when it comes to loading games, booting into windows, or opening various applications, IOPS determine the overall throughput since it's the measurement of how big the packet size will be for R/W random data and therefore plays an important role. SSD's with low IOPS will obviously have higher latency in doing tasks like updating windows or booting up, this is why I was using them as a comparison because that's what OP was asking about, "will it be good as a boot drive?".

But you are correct that it varies on the size of the data and type of workload. However, as a pure boot drive, I would go for an SSD with better IOPS.

My only other options are the Pny cs900, silicon power A55 and the patriot burst. They are all on the ssd tier list above the green but not sure about reliability compared to WD since its gonna be a boot drive!

SSD TIER LIST

Welcome to the SSD tier list. SSD or Solid State Drive is a storage device containing non-volatile flash memory, used in place of hard drive because of its much greater speed. Unlike a hard drive, a solid state drive doesnt have any moving parts. It has two main components - A flash controller an...

linustechtips.com

 

[Newtonius]

My only other options are the Pny cs900, silicon power A55 and the patriot burst. They are all on the ssd tier list above the green but not sure about reliability compared to WD since its gonna be a boot drive!

SSD TIER LIST

Welcome to the SSD tier list. SSD or Solid State Drive is a storage device containing non-volatile flash memory, used in place of hard drive because of its much greater speed. Unlike a hard drive, a solid state drive doesnt have any moving parts. It has two main components - A flash controller an...

linustechtips.com

The PNY is the best of the bunch there, if you don't mind the extra cables for a 2.5" drive. PNY is reliable as far as I know but best to do your research on them beforehand if you feel like going that route, silicon power is the next runner up.

 

[bobjackieson]

The PNY is the best of the bunch there, if you don't mind the extra cables for a 2.5" drive. PNY is reliable as far as I know but best to do your research on them beforehand if you feel like going that route, silicon power is the next runner up.

Doesn't matter. Got a drive that no one can really complain about. The WD Blue SN550 250gb NVMe M.2!

 

[Newtonius]

Doesn't matter. Got a drive that no one can really complain about. The WD Blue SN550 250gb NVMe M.2!

lol finally, thought you were gonna ask about every drive that's ever come out. WD blue is fine, a good middle choice between black and green versions. Plus it's an NVMe and not SATA m.2, so it's faster in sequential read and writes.