is it worth the money?

[c0ck7aiL]

Hello guys, been thinking of getting a new PC and I have an offer from a friend.
Basically, here it goes:
- Intel i5 2500k - currently at 4.7Ghz.(60 C in Prime 95, in games around 50 C)
- Corsair Hydro Series H105 240mm Extreme Performance Liquid Cooler
- Asus Z68 (P8Z68-V) motherboard. USB 3.0 Boost includes world's first UASP support PCI 3.0
- Asus Strix GTX 960 2Gb. currently at 1291Mhz. on the core , 7200Mhz on the RAM. Gaming mode - 1406Mhz. and 7220Mhz. on the RAM.
- 16Gb. 1600Mhz Corsair DDR3 Vengeance Jet Black and Blue Low Profile, PC3-12800
- Seagate Desktop HDD ST1000DM003 1TB 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb
- SSD - OCZ Vertex 3 120Gb. 499Mb/s Read , 141Mb/s Write
- Corsair Carbide Series SPEC-01 Mid tower
- Cooler Master B700 700W PSU Power Supply

I'm not highly familiar with GPU overclocking and I read somewhere that the GTX 960 2GB has the same performance as the 4GB more or less. The processor is clocked well, since there is good aftermarket cooling, so that's that. The SSD doesn't have the best Write but it has a good Read. Thought I'd ask the tech savvy community.

My budget is £600. Give me better builds or discuss this one. Absolutely not a fan of AMD and Radeon.

 

[Gingerbread]

This is the most powerful build you can get for anything below 600 pounds. However you can easily get him to drop the price to 500 pounds.

 

[c0ck7aiL]

You are right, I'm buying it for 550
I think It's a really solid build too, just wondering if DDR3 RAM and the 2500k will get old too soon to spend as much on it

 

[Gingerbread]

Well, no the CPU won't get old soon. Not overclocked to this level. Ram speed doesn't matter, be it ddr3 or ddr4 you won't feel a difference. My biggest concern is the GPU. Would be best if you could get him to remove the GPU and lower the price by another 80-100 pounds. This is a gpu you don't want to have, better to buy the RX 470/480 in 1 month time.

 

[c0ck7aiL]

I agree with your point, but with the rx 480 coming, the 1070 and the discounts of 970(uuugh gimped) and 980 are also coming. Sadly, he doesn't want to sell any components separately. You buy all or nothing. So, I can live with a 960 to be honest, for some time, and might upgrade in the future. Question is, in your opinion, is the Intel + Radeon a viable option? or should I go with the 1070? I might want to research, heh 😛

 

[Gingerbread]

There is no Intel + radeon or intel + nvidia. It's CPU + GPU, works the same with every brand. Frankly speaking I would not buy that build.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£157.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI B150M BAZOOKA Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£67.24 @ More Computers)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (£51.65 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.95 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case (£51.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£69.47 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £438.29

Look at that, around 440 pounds, i5-6500 outperforms the i5-2500k @4.6GHz by a few percents. But this way you will get new parts with warranty. Only problem would be the lack of ssd but yo ucan always add one and it will be 500 pounds. You have 100 pounds open for an RX 470 which will most likely be 140 pounds tops and will perform as good as a gtx 970. Or you can even push the rx 480.

 

[c0ck7aiL]

Oh, I see, but, as I said, I'm not that big of a fan of AMD. I'd rather wait for the benchmarks on the RX470 and RX480 and see the temps, also I would go for a newer build, but, I'm from Bulgaria and those parts really aren't the same price if I want them with warranty. They are, let's say, 1.5x more expensive. I would stray from buying new parts in here... Also I haven't heard a lot of good things about the MSI mobos and to be honest, I'm good with the DDR3 RAM. Lastly, I might consider upgrading to the RX470 or RX480 in the future when I get more money and I might straight off buy them without warranty from Amazon or something.

 

[Inkiad]

Don't be a fan boy. AMD's new RX 480 will have a very good bank for your buck. You may hate brand, not the products.

I suggest you do not buy that pc for £550. A better brand new build can be done with similar price -
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£157.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B150M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£61.98 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: Kingston FURY 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£49.38 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£37.98 @ Novatech)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 4GB SuperSC ACX 2.0+ Video Card (£169.99 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Thermaltake Versa H21 ATX Mid Tower Case (£33.66 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£69.47 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £580.45
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-06-17 10:09 BST+0100

If you can wait, get the RX 480 and you will have a very good pc for £600.

IMO if you can get the system for £350 then it will be a deal.

 

[Gingerbread]

Щом си от България, защо говориш в паундове? The build I made will be less than the build you want, way less, motherboard is just a placeholder. Also no one says you should buy the rx 470 or 480, that will be determined when benchmarks arrive, might as well get the 1060. Regardless of which, all of them will perform way better than a gtx 960.

 

[c0ck7aiL]

@Gingerbread Importing from UK and paying in Pounds, also easier to understand in a .co.uk website. I should've said 1500лв... you are right 😀. OFC I know the 960 is the worst from the new generations but I'm saying that I will live with the handicap of the 960. The ASUS Strix holds good temps afaik and is OCed. Also with that build - you are only telling me I need a 6500, which I'd consider if I had the budget, but sadly I don't. Looking for a CPU that's unlocked, was thinking of the 4690k in the past but this offer came up. Also, I'm all for gold and platinum rated PSU's but I can live with this one, and can upgrade later on.

@Inkiad I will never buy an EVGA GPU! All about that ASUS and Gigabyte 3-fan. So, that build is basically the same without the SSD, a Gigabyte MOBO and an i5-6500 that doesn't beat the OCed 2500k by a lot in performance but beats it by a lot in $$$. The Gigabyte Mobo is ok, but the ASUS Z68 handles this CPU well too. Also £350 is MAAJOR lowballing for that system, the GPU and CPU alone are ~£250 in the best scenario.