Please give feedback

EarlYu

Reputable
Aug 27, 2016
4
1
4,525
Hi, this is my first time building a PC. I was wondering if you guys could give me any feedback on this build, as I am pretty clueless on building.

CPU: AMD FX 6300 @ 3.5 GHz ($99.98)
GPU: Gigabyte Radeon RX 460 4GB WINDFORCE OC ($128.99)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3P ATX AM3+ Motherboard
Memory: Team Vulcan 16 GB DDR3-1600
Case: AZZA Sirius ATX Mid Tower
PSU: EVGA 430W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply

Are there any parts missing, any suggestions? I won't be able to go above $425. Thanks.

*Edit* I already have a HDD*

 
Solution
I wouldn't recommend investing in an FX CPU - it's a 'dead' socket, extremely dated, and not very efficient.

The EVGA 430W is 'ok', but far from the best - and at $20, that should be pretty obvious. It's a good deal for an office build, with minimal power requirements, but it's not best suited for a GPU etc.

If the budget works, look to this instead:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($110.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Asus H110M-A/M.2 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($50.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($35.98 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon RX 460 4GB...

Barty1884

Retired Moderator
I wouldn't recommend investing in an FX CPU - it's a 'dead' socket, extremely dated, and not very efficient.

The EVGA 430W is 'ok', but far from the best - and at $20, that should be pretty obvious. It's a good deal for an office build, with minimal power requirements, but it's not best suited for a GPU etc.

If the budget works, look to this instead:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($110.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Asus H110M-A/M.2 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($50.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($35.98 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon RX 460 4GB WINDFORCE OC Video Card ($128.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Azza Cosmas ATX Mid Tower Case ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($51.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $398.92
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-08-27 23:51 EDT-0400
 
Solution

notlim981

Distinguished
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD Athlon X4 880K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($83.98 @ NCIX US)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A88X+ Killer ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($85.91 @ Newegg)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Red 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon RX 460 4GB WINDFORCE OC Video Card ($128.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($44.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Antec Neo Eco 620W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($64.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $473.73
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-08-27 23:54 EDT-0400

The AM3 platform is almost dead with Zen coming out sooner than later and FM2+ is a very solid platform, you won't be missing any features that really matters like PCIe 3.0 and USB3.0. Also I would play safer and spend a little more on the PSU as you can see. Good luck.
 

Barty1884

Retired Moderator
The i3-6100 is a better performer than the 880K, and spending that much on the case or PSU (and including anything but a stock cooler) are excessive for a pretty 'budget' build.

For $70+ less, the performance will be greater - and will provide an upgrade path to an i5 or i7 in future if needed.
 

notlim981

Distinguished


Performance wise the 880K takes the lead as it's a quad core, whereas the i3 is a dual core with HT, but still a dual core. It's also faster in frequency than the i3. http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/145/AMD_Athlon_X4_880K_vs_Intel_Core_i3_i3-6100.html
 

Barty1884

Retired Moderator
I agree - it sounds better, on paper.

In actual, real-world use though - the i3 wins out. The 880K is still based on an outdated platform, with a clock speed of 4GHz to make it 'look' better on paper.
You'd need to OC the 880K pretty significantly to keep up with the i3's performance. That's something there's no guarantee of (silicone lottery) and will add cost in a suitable motherboard, and quality cooler (the 212EVO wouldn't cut it) - pushing the budget substantially higher than for the i3 build.
 

notlim981

Distinguished


The i3 base clock is 3.7GHz and it doesn't even have TurboBoost. The 880k base clock is 4GHz and it auto boosts to 4.2 when needed, how is it that you'd need to OC it so it matches the i3 which is slower on paper and in real world usage? If anything it wins by having L3 cache which does not make a hell of a difference in this case.
 

Barty1884

Retired Moderator
The clock speed 'war' has been over for what, over a decade now? Clock speed (or boost clock) is only a small piece of the puzzle - especially in gaming.

The i5-6400 (clocked at 2.7GHz base) will outperfom an 880K in gaming, and so will an i3-6100.

There are numerous factors at play, which Intel have made substantial progress on in the past few years while AMD has been churning out CPUs based on extremely dated architecture.

Again, the 880K is on a 'dead' socket. There is no upgrade path, so even cost-wise, it makes no sense. The 880K wil be (fairly) irrelevant in a couple of years, requiring a new board and DDR4 memory.

The i3 on the otherhand, even if Dual+HT loses ground (I doubt it anytime soon), there is still availability on the platform to move to an i5 or i7.

I don't want to 'bash' AMD - I'm eagerly awaiting Zen, but they have nothing worthwhile investing in in 2016.
 
Ah right, sorry.
I'm blind, was on mobile! :)
Here's my build.
Includes an SSD as a boot drive, which should greatly improve boot up times, better quality RAM allowing for 16GB in the future, and the rest very similar to barty. ;)
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($110.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Asus H110M-A/M.2 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($50.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($33.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: A-Data Premier SP550 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($37.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon RX 460 2GB WINDFORCE OC Video Card ($118.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Azza Cosmas ATX Mid Tower Case ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair CXM 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $422.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-08-28 03:26 EDT-0400
 


Not sure where you come up with your information, but there is no comparison between an i3 and the 880k for gaming, all fan boyism aside. Look at the video below starting at 5:08 for game benchmarks comparing the two. Gaming performance of any CPU is highly dependent on the single core performance. The architecture of the Intel is far superior which means that it can complete more instructions per clock cycle (IPC) which more than makes up for any difference in frequency.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxukB3GZyMg

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html
 

Karadjgne

Titan
Ambassador
@notlim981,

The difference is in single thread processing performance. AMD architecture runs a single thread through a core at about 2/3rd the speed of Intel architecture. So while the core working speed itself might be 4.2GHz, you'll only push through about 7 completed threads for 10 Intel threads. This basically means in order to almost match a 3.0GHz Intel cpu, an AMD must be running close to @4.5GHz. Roughly. Running at 3.7GHz, the i3-6100 has much better throughput than the 4.2GHz 880k, it would need to be running at over 5GHz to even come close to the same single thread performance. Since most games, especially ones like gta:V rely heavily on single thread performance, you'll start out with higher fps on an Intel based system which you'd not usually see without a bump in gpu or some OC on an AMD system