Is my new budget build any good?

[Pixelatedtrollface]

Hi,
Could someone who knows their stuff please tell me if this build is any good? This is my first build and im a bit nervous. I need it to stay cool, look awesome inside and outside, be almost silent, and be fast enough to game at 60+ fps with a skype call and a browser with a few tabs open.

The budget is: $700-880ish

Build: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/t6XVHx

Thanks! 😀

 

[KoopaCreeper]

Unless you're video editing, a hyper-threaded CPU isn't justified. Here's one with a far superior GPU and an i5:

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/FGfxNG
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/FGfxNG/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($179.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M PRO4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($79.98 @ OutletPC)
Memory: A-Data XPG V1.0 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($68.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($53.97 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 285 2GB Double Dissipation Video Card ($179.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Aerocool DS Cube Black Edition Silent Cube MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($97.12 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 620W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($54.99 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($18.75 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $823.75
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-17 12:36 EST-0500

 

[LucoTF]

You don't need a xeon for what you're doing, you could save a few bucks there.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($209.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M Anniversary Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($66.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($63.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.98 @ Directron)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 760 2GB ACX Video Card ($199.99 @ Best Buy)
Case: Aerocool DS Cube Black Edition Silent Cube MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($97.12 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($33.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($18.75 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($90.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $836.79
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-17 12:32 EST-0500

The XFX power supply is cheaper and is a rebranded seasonic, and instead of the gtx 760 I listed I would get the 960 when it's released (next week I believe) which would be around the same price

 

[KoopaCreeper]

I would go with the R9 285 over the GTX 760 as it is faster, but just my 2 cents.

 

[Pixelatedtrollface]

I think ill keep the Xeon
http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Xeon-E3-1231V3-vs-Intel-Core-i5-4460
http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Xeon-E3-1231V3-vs-AMD-FX-9590
http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Xeon-E3-1231V3-vs-Intel-Core-i5-4690K

And here it is with the r9 285:
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/B7hvYJ

 

[KoopaCreeper]

Your call. It's a great build nonetheless. Happy building!

 

[h2tahoe]

this combo is not bad. for what your going to run i don't know if you really need an Xeon. the parts seem to mesh. personally i would look to see if there is anyway you could get a better graphics card. this could be done by saving money by using an I5, similar to what koopacreeper said. personally my first build had an overclock able I5 and it blew any amd i put against it . the only place i sacrificed was the graphics card which i regret.

 

[Pixelatedtrollface]

AHHHHHHH I---am---keeping---the---Xeon!

 

[Pixelatedtrollface]

xD

 

[Pixelatedtrollface]

Anyways,
What card could you be talking about? o.o

 

[Nextg_Rival]

Firstly, I wouldn't call a 880 PC exactly a "budget build". Secondly, the Xeon is a horrible choice, since it is a server CPU, meant to be used by servers, not PCs. The only game that will run well with it is probably Crysis 3, as it is optimised for multi threading, but apart from that game, I don't see what else it'd be able to do with reasonable effectiveness at a good price. The video card is pretty old as well. My bet would be on an overclocked i5 4690k and a R9 280X. If you want me to, I can give you my suggestion.

 

[Pixelatedtrollface]

Please do, but only the card, and I chose the Xeon because im not overclocking and of this:
http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Xeon-E3-1231V3-vs-Intel-Core-i5-4690K

 

[KoopaCreeper]

Anyways,
What card could you be talking about? o.o

Firstly, I wouldn't call a 880 PC exactly a "budget build". Secondly, the Xeon is a horrible choice, since it is a server CPU, meant to be used by servers, not PCs. The only game that will run well with it is probably Crysis 3, as it is optimised for multi threading, but apart from that game, I don't see what else it'd be able to do with reasonable effectiveness at a good price. The video card is pretty old as well. My bet would be on an overclocked i5 4690k and a R9 280X. If you want me to, I can give you my suggestion.

That doesn't mean it's a bad CPU. The low-end Xeons like this one are identical silicon to locked i7s, just cheaper and clocked ~200MHz lower. Although it's not neccesary for what he's doing, I wouldn't expect a frame drop.

 

[Nextg_Rival]

Please do, but only the card, and I chose the Xeon because im not overclocking and of this:
http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Xeon-E3-1231V3-vs-Intel-Core-i5-4690K

I modified your build with the card I would choose: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/cfP8mG

This is a better website by the way:
http://www.game-debate.com/cpu/index.php?pid=2118&pid2=2104&compare=xeon-e3-1231-v3-vs-core-i5-4690k-3-5ghz

As you can see the Xeon only slightly outperforms the i5 which is cheaper and can be upgraded better.

 

[Nextg_Rival]

That doesn't mean it's a bad CPU. The low-end Xeons like this one are identical silicon to locked i7s, just cheaper and clocked ~200MHz lower. Although it's not neccesary for what he's doing, I wouldn't expect a frame drop.

I haven't heard many good things about the Xeon processors (at least for gaming that is) in the past, rather, quite the opposite. I saw a guy with a double Xeon setup being unable to play a 2010 game because his 12 cores were clocked at 2 GHz, which was well under the game requirements, hence my reaction to Xeons included in gaming setups.

 

[mdocod]

Nextg,

Xeon is a marketing distinction, not a technological distinction.
CORE is a marketing distinction, not a technological distinction.
Pentium is a marketing distinction, not a technological distinction.
Celeron is a Marketing distinction, not a technological distinction.

I know a guy with a Pentium 4 machine that sucks at everything. That does not mean that a Pentium G3220 sucks at everything.

You can probably find lots of people with first generation CORE i5's that are beginning to show their age and perform poorly in modern games. By your reckoning, this would mean that a CORE i7-4790K must also perform poorly in modern games.

You can not judge the E3-1231V3 based on some limited intuitive guesswork and considerations of a server/enterprise/workstation platform that is 5 years old.

 

[Pixelatedtrollface]

There we go. Someone who understands

 

[Nextg_Rival]

Nextg,

Xeon is a marketing distinction, not a technological distinction.
CORE is a marketing distinction, not a technological distinction.
Pentium is a marketing distinction, not a technological distinction.
Celeron is a Marketing distinction, not a technological distinction.

I know a guy with a Pentium 4 machine that sucks at everything. That does not mean that a Pentium G3220 sucks at everything.

You can probably find lots of people with first generation CORE i5's that are beginning to show their age and perform poorly in modern games. By your reckoning, this would mean that a CORE i7-4790K must also perform poorly in modern games.

You can not judge the E3-1231V3 based on some limited intuitive guesswork and considerations of a server/enterprise/workstation platform that is 5 years old.

I would say that the difference is that while i5, i7, pentium and celeron are all aimed at the PC and the Xeon is aimed specifically at servers, there's some difference between them. Regardless, I won't argue since I do not know much about Xeons anyway.

 

[KoopaCreeper]

That doesn't mean it's a bad CPU. The low-end Xeons like this one are identical silicon to locked i7s, just cheaper and clocked ~200MHz lower. Although it's not neccesary for what he's doing, I wouldn't expect a frame drop.

I haven't heard many good things about the Xeon processors (at least for gaming that is) in the past, rather, quite the opposite. I saw a guy with a double Xeon setup being unable to play a 2010 game because his 12 cores were clocked at 2 GHz, which was well under the game requirements, hence my reaction to Xeons included in gaming setups.

Yeah, but this one is at 3.4GHz, 3.8 with turbo boost. Of course processors locked at 2GHz won't be good for games! They were probably older Westmere-EP chips as well, which won't be as fast per-core as Haswell.

 

[mdocod]

Yes there are different marketing "aims," however, there are many areas of overlapping performance interest.

The same performance characteristics of a CPU that are great in many CAD engineering applications (like Solidworks), are also fantastic for gaming CPUs. (really powerful, fast cores, 2-4 of them). There are quad core Xeons in the E3 and E5 series that are comparable to i5's and i7's in gaming performance. There are also many Xeon's better suited to many-client server workloads or render farm duty or scientific compute and simulation applications.

 

[Nextg_Rival]

Yes there are different marketing "aims," however, there are many areas of overlapping performance interest.

The same performance characteristics of a CPU that are great in many CAD engineering applications (like Solidworks), are also fantastic for gaming CPUs. (really powerful, fast cores, 2-4 of them). There are quad core Xeons in the E3 and E5 series that are comparable to i5's and i7's in gaming performance. There are also many Xeon's better suited to many-client server workloads or render farm duty or scientific compute and simulation applications.

I see. I'll try to look more favourably on the Xeons if that is the case. However, why is not everyone making PCs with Xeons then? If they really are like cheap i7s, they should be selling really well.

 

[KoopaCreeper]

Yes there are different marketing "aims," however, there are many areas of overlapping performance interest.

The same performance characteristics of a CPU that are great in many CAD engineering applications (like Solidworks), are also fantastic for gaming CPUs. (really powerful, fast cores, 2-4 of them). There are quad core Xeons in the E3 and E5 series that are comparable to i5's and i7's in gaming performance. There are also many Xeon's better suited to many-client server workloads or render farm duty or scientific compute and simulation applications.

I see. I'll try to look more favourably on the Xeons if that is the case. However, why is not everyone making PCs with Xeons then? If they really are like cheap i7s, they should be selling really well.

Most consumers don't do research into the Xeon brand name, instead they see "i7" everywhere and assume it's the best of the bunch. Also, Xeons aren't as widely avaliable because many of the produced units are shipped directly to OEM server manufacturers.

 

[mdocod]

see. I'll try to look more favourably on the Xeons if that is the case. However, why is not everyone making PCs with Xeons then? If they really are like cheap i7s, they should be selling really well.

Most of the E3 series are priced competitively in their performance and feature segment vs i7's. It just so happens that the E3-1230/31 series has been a nice value niche for performance desktops that are going to use dGPUs anyway.

What gives the E3-1231V3 it's competitive edge for this application, is that you aren't paying for a redundant iGPU in systems that will be using a dGPU anyway. There is value in the iGPU for systems that are going to use it. There are also plenty of more expensive E3's with iGPUs and higher clocks etc...


The rest... marketing and ignorance.

 

[Nextg_Rival]

Most consumers don't do research into the Xeon brand name, instead they see "i7" everywhere and assume it's the best of the bunch. Also, Xeons aren't as widely avaliable because many of the produced units are shipped directly to OEM server manufacturers.

To be quite honest, as an ex-"wow i7 must be the best thing ever" person, I must say that Intel/AMD/Nvidia don't seem to be interested in making their naming models easy to understand.

 

[mdocod]

I actually appreciate the abundance of product complexity. It effectively creates a market for professional system builders that would never exist if things were simpler.