Is This Budget Build Good Enough?

[Gavin Matthew]

Hello everyone!

Short story, my laptop died and I wanted to get my own custom build PC. Just to point it out, that this is my first time gathering up components, and so I've selected the ones which are right for my very strict budget, which is 440 USD (591 USD when I include a new 1080p monitor).

So here's the specs as follows:

• 
  Processor - Intel Pentium G3220 3.0GHz Dual Core (4th Generation)
  Motherboard - MSI H81M-P33
  Casing & PSU - Cooler Master Elite 311 + 420W PSU
  RAM - Apacer 4GB 1600MHz DDR3
  SSD - Transcend SSD340 64GB SATA 6Gbps Solid State Drive
  HDD - Western Digital Purple 500GB Intellipower SATA 6Gbps
  VGA - Sapphire Radeon R7 240 1GB GDDR5

I wanted to try squeezing in every single latest thing which I can, which resulted me with the above. What I want to know from you guys is whether that this build is stable? To make it more specific, I'll be using this computer for:

• 
  ■Very basic photo editing (i.e Photoshop).
  ■Watching movies, listening to songs, Internet.
  ■Playing simple games. The only games that I play are MMORPGS (Aion, Smite, DotA).
  ■Office work (word processing).

Also, I wanted to get the Intel Core i3 4130 3.4GHz Dual Core (4th Generation) processor, but due to me having budget limits, I cannot unless I get rid of the Sapphire VGA and just use the on-board Intel Graphics instead.

So what do you think? Will this suit my needs? As being a normal user, will the Core i3 make any noticeable difference for me compared with the Pentium?

Please do let me know. Thanks in advanced! 🙂

 

[Karsten75]

For about $8 more, get the G3258 . That can be overclocked and yields excellent results when overclocked.

 

[pierrerock]

An SSD would only get you better booting performance. Your hard drive isn't a bottle neck in this build, so i would get better component instead of getting a SSD. Also, this cooler master PSU is in the worst PSU you can get.

this would giver better performance :

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor ($112.09 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($49.98 @ OutletPC)
Memory: A-Data XPG V1.0 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($74.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($51.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: HIS Radeon R7 260X 2GB iCooler Video Card ($101.37 @ Amazon)
Case: Thermaltake VL80001W2Z ATX Mid Tower Case ($22.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $443.39
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-15 09:45 EDT-0400

 

[Squall321]

seems like you put a great deal in picking your parts. I think it looks good.

 

[Beezy]

Honestly, save up just a tad more, for a tad longer, and you wont regret it. The processor is a dual core, which is fine if you only want to play mine craft and other games from 2010. The r 7 240 is weak as hell. Especially if you plan on playing at 1080p, more pixels = more work = more lag and less frames. With the hardware in this budget youll be playing at 1024 x 768 with the AAA games that come out today (some of which demand more than 2GB of GDDR5 RAM at 1080p).

 

[Gavin Matthew]

An SSD would only get you better booting performance. Your hard drive isn't a bottle neck in this build, so i would get better component instead of getting a SSD. Also, this cooler master PSU is in the worst PSU you can get.

this would giver better performance :

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor ($112.09 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($49.98 @ OutletPC)
Memory: A-Data XPG V1.0 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($74.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($51.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: HIS Radeon R7 260X 2GB iCooler Video Card ($101.37 @ Amazon)
Case: Thermaltake VL80001W2Z ATX Mid Tower Case ($22.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $443.39
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-15 09:45 EDT-0400

This is definitely a better build. I'll see whether the components are available in stores. Where I live the parts are really limited, almost all stores have the same items, while others are higher, so I'm not sure whether I can get everything, probably can order from abroad, but that will build up tax. Thanks by the way!

 

[Squall321]

An SSD would only get you better booting performance. Your hard drive isn't a bottle neck in this build, so i would get better component instead of getting a SSD. Also, this cooler master PSU is in the worst PSU you can get.

An SSD does help more then booting performance. I would keep the SSD
But you're right about the PSU. never skimp on the PSU. I myself had two cheapo' PSU's failing and one taking both my mobo and CPU in the grave.
I would recommend looking for a branded PSU.

 

[Gavin Matthew]

An SSD would only get you better booting performance. Your hard drive isn't a bottle neck in this build, so i would get better component instead of getting a SSD. Also, this cooler master PSU is in the worst PSU you can get.

An SSD does help more then booting performance. I would keep the SSD
But you're right about the PSU. never skimp on the PSU. I myself had two cheapo' PSU's failing and one taking both my mobo and CPU in the grave.
I would recommend looking for a branded PSU.

Thanks for the advice. I will try looking for a better PSU!

 

[Gavin Matthew]

Honestly, save up just a tad more, for a tad longer, and you wont regret it. The processor is a dual core, which is fine if you only want to play mine craft and other games from 2010. The r 7 240 is weak as hell. Especially if you plan on playing at 1080p, more pixels = more work = more lag and less frames. With the hardware in this budget youll be playing at 1024 x 768 with the AAA games that come out today (some of which demand more than 2GB of GDDR5 RAM at 1080p).

Good advice! Quick question though, not involving in playing games, how will the build hold up to other tasks?

 

[Beezy]

Honestly, save up just a tad more, for a tad longer, and you wont regret it. The processor is a dual core, which is fine if you only want to play mine craft and other games from 2010. The r 7 240 is weak as hell. Especially if you plan on playing at 1080p, more pixels = more work = more lag and less frames. With the hardware in this budget youll be playing at 1024 x 768 with the AAA games that come out today (some of which demand more than 2GB of GDDR5 RAM at 1080p).

Good advice! Quick question though, not involving in playing games, how will the build hold up to other tasks?

its a dual core, so dont expect lightning speeds outside of web browsing and word processing. Yes its unlocked, wahoo, and can be overclocked, but consider that a hobby and it starts to draw considerably a lot more power at that point (making it like other better CPUs at stock if you will, but with 'unnecessary' work). If you heavily multitask with a LOT of programs open at once, do any sort of rendering or encoding, a quad core intel is a sure bet for a work station. the cheap 300$ lenovos i buy at microcenter for my parents sport a dual core intel penitum. i chose that because they youtube and facebook and email, thats it lol.

My workstation is an 8 core FX, shes a beast all right, beats out an i5 for most things other than gaming and music editing. the i5 for now is still better for gaming IMO, but games are getting more and more threaded and i think well see more work fall onto the GPU rather the CPU anyhow (as time goes by).

I do some gaming, titanfall, and other steam games w my HD 7870 in there with no problems at all. I mostly play with emulators, coding programs, blender, sculptris, photoshop, illustrator etc and other modeling/rendering programs. often many at the same time, so i consider that a heavy workload.

Photoshop can use your GPU to accelerate a lot of functions now (CS5 at least and later) and it benefits most from an SSD of any size, so long as photoshop is installed to the SSD. even an i3 or APU could handle photoshop with ease.

all in all, it should be fine for the kinds of games you listed, that favor CPU strength over GPU graphics (that is say, first person shooters need to be faster graphics wise than an MMOrpg or something turn based etc which is more so reliant on strong single threads;which the pentium satisfies for the most part)

 

[Gavin Matthew]

Honestly, save up just a tad more, for a tad longer, and you wont regret it. The processor is a dual core, which is fine if you only want to play mine craft and other games from 2010. The r 7 240 is weak as hell. Especially if you plan on playing at 1080p, more pixels = more work = more lag and less frames. With the hardware in this budget youll be playing at 1024 x 768 with the AAA games that come out today (some of which demand more than 2GB of GDDR5 RAM at 1080p).

Good advice! Quick question though, not involving in playing games, how will the build hold up to other tasks?

its a dual core, so dont expect lightning speeds outside of web browsing and word processing. Yes its unlocked, wahoo, and can be overclocked, but consider that a hobby and it starts to draw considerably a lot more power at that point (making it like other better CPUs at stock if you will, but with 'unnecessary' work). If you heavily multitask with a LOT of programs open at once, do any sort of rendering or encoding, a quad core intel is a sure bet for a work station. the cheap 300$ lenovos i buy at microcenter for my parents sport a dual core intel penitum. i chose that because they youtube and facebook and email, thats it lol.

My workstation is an 8 core FX, shes a beast all right, beats out an i5 for most things other than gaming and music editing. the i5 for now is still better for gaming IMO, but games are getting more and more threaded and i think well see more work fall onto the GPU rather the CPU anyhow (as time goes by).

I do some gaming, titanfall, and other steam games w my HD 7870 in there with no problems at all. I mostly play with emulators, coding programs, blender, sculptris, photoshop, illustrator etc and other modeling/rendering programs. often many at the same time, so i consider that a heavy workload.

Photoshop can use your GPU to accelerate a lot of functions now (CS5 at least and later) and it benefits most from an SSD of any size, so long as photoshop is installed to the SSD. even an i3 or APU could handle photoshop with ease.

all in all, it should be fine for the kinds of games you listed, that favor CPU strength over GPU graphics (that is say, first person shooters need to be faster graphics wise than an MMOrpg or something turn based etc which is more so reliant on strong single threads;which the pentium satisfies for the most part)

Thanks for the reply! I see that you're a very heavy user. I certainly won't be doing that much at all. Just more conventional use like I've said above. But I'll certainly look into getting better specs, hopefully I can just jump with the Core i3 to be on the safe side of things.

One more final question, is it possible for me to attach my laptop hard drive to the desktop? Its 500 GB and I just don't want it to be lying there. Thanks again!

 

[pierrerock]

Yes you can. but a laptop drive 2.5 inches wide so it will just not fit into a 3.5 inches bay. you can buy an adaptor though :

http://www.amazon.com/Notebook-Drive-Mounting-Bracket-Adapter/dp/B00AYJFXIQ/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1408137487&sr=8-6&keywords=2.5+to+3.5+drive

 

[Beezy]

Honestly, save up just a tad more, for a tad longer, and you wont regret it. The processor is a dual core, which is fine if you only want to play mine craft and other games from 2010. The r 7 240 is weak as hell. Especially if you plan on playing at 1080p, more pixels = more work = more lag and less frames. With the hardware in this budget youll be playing at 1024 x 768 with the AAA games that come out today (some of which demand more than 2GB of GDDR5 RAM at 1080p).

Good advice! Quick question though, not involving in playing games, how will the build hold up to other tasks?

its a dual core, so dont expect lightning speeds outside of web browsing and word processing. Yes its unlocked, wahoo, and can be overclocked, but consider that a hobby and it starts to draw considerably a lot more power at that point (making it like other better CPUs at stock if you will, but with 'unnecessary' work). If you heavily multitask with a LOT of programs open at once, do any sort of rendering or encoding, a quad core intel is a sure bet for a work station. the cheap 300$ lenovos i buy at microcenter for my parents sport a dual core intel penitum. i chose that because they youtube and facebook and email, thats it lol.

My workstation is an 8 core FX, shes a beast all right, beats out an i5 for most things other than gaming and music editing. the i5 for now is still better for gaming IMO, but games are getting more and more threaded and i think well see more work fall onto the GPU rather the CPU anyhow (as time goes by).

I do some gaming, titanfall, and other steam games w my HD 7870 in there with no problems at all. I mostly play with emulators, coding programs, blender, sculptris, photoshop, illustrator etc and other modeling/rendering programs. often many at the same time, so i consider that a heavy workload.

Photoshop can use your GPU to accelerate a lot of functions now (CS5 at least and later) and it benefits most from an SSD of any size, so long as photoshop is installed to the SSD. even an i3 or APU could handle photoshop with ease.

all in all, it should be fine for the kinds of games you listed, that favor CPU strength over GPU graphics (that is say, first person shooters need to be faster graphics wise than an MMOrpg or something turn based etc which is more so reliant on strong single threads;which the pentium satisfies for the most part)

Thanks for the reply! I see that you're a very heavy user. I certainly won't be doing that much at all. Just more conventional use like I've said above. But I'll certainly look into getting better specs, hopefully I can just jump with the Core i3 to be on the safe side of things.

One more final question, is it possible for me to attach my laptop hard drive to the desktop? Its 500 GB and I just don't want it to be lying there. Thanks again!

right laptop drives are just usually slower (5400 rpm) but no issues connecting (uses SATA)

 

[Gavin Matthew]

Yes you can. but a laptop drive 2.5 inches wide so it will just not fit into a 3.5 inches bay. you can buy an adaptor though :

http://www.amazon.com/Notebook-Drive-Mounting-Bracket-Adapter/dp/B00AYJFXIQ/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1408137487&sr=8-6&keywords=2.5+to+3.5+drive

Alright, that's good to know. Thank you very much!

Honestly, save up just a tad more, for a tad longer, and you wont regret it. The processor is a dual core, which is fine if you only want to play mine craft and other games from 2010. The r 7 240 is weak as hell. Especially if you plan on playing at 1080p, more pixels = more work = more lag and less frames. With the hardware in this budget youll be playing at 1024 x 768 with the AAA games that come out today (some of which demand more than 2GB of GDDR5 RAM at 1080p).

Good advice! Quick question though, not involving in playing games, how will the build hold up to other tasks?

its a dual core, so dont expect lightning speeds outside of web browsing and word processing. Yes its unlocked, wahoo, and can be overclocked, but consider that a hobby and it starts to draw considerably a lot more power at that point (making it like other better CPUs at stock if you will, but with 'unnecessary' work). If you heavily multitask with a LOT of programs open at once, do any sort of rendering or encoding, a quad core intel is a sure bet for a work station. the cheap 300$ lenovos i buy at microcenter for my parents sport a dual core intel penitum. i chose that because they youtube and facebook and email, thats it lol.

My workstation is an 8 core FX, shes a beast all right, beats out an i5 for most things other than gaming and music editing. the i5 for now is still better for gaming IMO, but games are getting more and more threaded and i think well see more work fall onto the GPU rather the CPU anyhow (as time goes by).

I do some gaming, titanfall, and other steam games w my HD 7870 in there with no problems at all. I mostly play with emulators, coding programs, blender, sculptris, photoshop, illustrator etc and other modeling/rendering programs. often many at the same time, so i consider that a heavy workload.

Photoshop can use your GPU to accelerate a lot of functions now (CS5 at least and later) and it benefits most from an SSD of any size, so long as photoshop is installed to the SSD. even an i3 or APU could handle photoshop with ease.

all in all, it should be fine for the kinds of games you listed, that favor CPU strength over GPU graphics (that is say, first person shooters need to be faster graphics wise than an MMOrpg or something turn based etc which is more so reliant on strong single threads;which the pentium satisfies for the most part)

Thanks for the reply! I see that you're a very heavy user. I certainly won't be doing that much at all. Just more conventional use like I've said above. But I'll certainly look into getting better specs, hopefully I can just jump with the Core i3 to be on the safe side of things.

One more final question, is it possible for me to attach my laptop hard drive to the desktop? Its 500 GB and I just don't want it to be lying there. Thanks again!

right laptop drives are just usually slower (5400 rpm) but no issues connecting (uses SATA)

Alrightie. Thank you very much! That's all I need to know! 🙂