Tax Refund Build

[Capt_Mctavish37]

I am looking to put together a decent gaming desktop without breaking $1000. I primarily play League, or Lord of the Rings Online, but I would like to play more modern games also (Mass Effect: Andromeda) . If there are any gaps or easy upgrades please let me know.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/NJWq9W

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor ($148.49 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 LED 66.3 CFM Rifle Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.88 @ OutletPC)
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5g Thermal Paste ($7.49 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus 970 PRO GAMING/AURA ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($104.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($94.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Sandisk SSD PLUS 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($44.99 @ Best Buy)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB SC GAMING ACX 2.0 Video Card ($127.99 @ Newegg)
Case: DIYPC Ranger-R4-R ATX Mid Tower Case ($25.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Rosewill Hive 550W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($60.98 @ Newegg Marketplace)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer ($16.89 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($88.58 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: Corsair Air Series AF120 Red 52.2 CFM 120mm Fan ($10.88 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: AOC i2267Fw 22.0" 1920x1080 60Hz Monitor ($99.88 @ Jet)
Total: $856.91

 

[SgtScream]

That amd build is severely outdated. If you can't wait for Ryzen R5, have someone spec you out an i5 intel build.

 

[TJ Hooker]

^+1
An AM3+ build in 2017 is a poor choice. For the price of that CPU, mobo and cooler you can get an i5 + H110 mobo (stock cooler is fine) that will perform much better in games.

 

[Capt_Mctavish37]

I looked into the R5's but even those look like they will be in the mid $200's. Could you pick a particular i5 to build out? I can do the build but looking at the i5-6600k it seems like I would be spending quite a bit more money for less performance and value, at least based on these benchmarks. Unless I'm not comparing the right stats.

=1780&cmp[]=2570]http://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp[]=1780&cmp[]=2570

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+FX-8350+Eight-Core&id=1780

 

[TJ Hooker]

I consider Passmark results to be pretty useless, but if you want to try and use them to establish gaming performance you're better off looking at the single threaded performance results. Where the 6600k beats the 8350 by 43%.

 

[Capt_Mctavish37]

Here is a modified build based on the i5.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.38 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 LED 66.3 CFM Rifle Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.88 @ OutletPC)
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5g Thermal Paste ($7.49 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus B150 PRO GAMING/AURA ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($89.00 @ Newegg)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($110.33 @ Newegg)
Storage: Sandisk SSD PLUS 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($44.99 @ Best Buy)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB SC GAMING ACX 2.0 Video Card ($127.99 @ Newegg)
Case: DIYPC Ranger-R4-R ATX Mid Tower Case ($25.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Rosewill Hive 550W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($60.98 @ Newegg Marketplace)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer ($16.89 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($88.58 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: Corsair Air Series AF120 Red 52.2 CFM 120mm Fan ($10.88 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: AOC i2267Fw 22.0" 1920x1080 60Hz Monitor ($99.88 @ Jet)
Total: $937.25
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-03-07 18:36 EST-0500

 

[TJ Hooker]

If you want to overclock, you need a Z170/270 motherboard. If you don't want to overclock, you can save yourself some money by getting a non -k (unlocked) CPU. Even something like an i5 7500 would be great.

 

[Capt_Mctavish37]

If you want to overclock, you need a Z170/270 motherboard. If you don't want to overclock, you can save yourself some money by getting a non -k (unlocked) CPU. Even something like an i5 7500 would be great.

Swapped out the unlocked for the 7500 but still swapped mobo's since I liked the capabilities of the Z170 better. Another thing I was looking at is the RX 470, it looks better all around than the 1050 Ti but is it better enough to warrant $30 more. What kind of actual performance upgrade would I really be able to notice?

Thank you for all the advice so far, I always miss things and I really appreciate it.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-7500 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($192.33 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 LED 66.3 CFM Rifle Bearing CPU Cooler ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5g Thermal Paste ($7.49 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170XP-SLI ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($110.33 @ Newegg)
Storage: Sandisk SSD PLUS 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($44.99 @ Best Buy)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB SC GAMING ACX 2.0 Video Card ($134.98 @ Newegg)
Case: DIYPC Ranger-R4-R ATX Mid Tower Case ($25.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Rosewill Hive 550W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($60.49 @ OutletPC)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($17.88 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($88.58 @ OutletPC)
Case Fan: Corsair Air Series AF120 Red 52.2 CFM 120mm Fan ($10.88 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: AOC i2267Fw 22.0" 1920x1080 60Hz Monitor ($99.88 @ Jet)
Total: $903.79
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-03-09 12:36 EST-0500

 

[TJ Hooker]

A few suggestions: See if you can find a Z270 board you like that hopefully is around the same price. Z170 mobos required a BIOS update to support Kaby Lake (7th Gen) CPUs. A new Z170 board might come with the right BIOS installed already, but it's not certain.

That CPU comes with a stock cooler/paste, so you don't really need an aftermarket cooler and paste.

I'd recommend a 250 GB SSD at a minimum, they tend to be better value and more practical.

The Rx 470 is around 25% faster than the 1050 Ti. Whether that's worth it depends on what prices are available to you, and how much performance you want.

 

[Capt_Mctavish37]

A few suggestions: See if you can find a Z270 board you like that hopefully is around the same price. Z170 mobos required a BIOS update to support Kaby Lake (7th Gen) CPUs. A new Z170 board might come with the right BIOS installed already, but it's not certain.

That CPU comes with a stock cooler/paste, so you don't really need an aftermarket cooler and paste.

I'd recommend a 250 GB SSD at a minimum, they tend to be better value and more practical.

The Rx 470 is around 25% faster than the 1050 Ti. Whether that's worth it depends on what prices are available to you, and how much performance you want.

So here is the final build. I was able to snag the RX 480 off Newegg for the same price the 470 would have been so I figured that was a no brainer. Went with one stick of RAM for now I'll probably grab a second in a couple weeks.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-7500 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($192.33 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI Z270 GAMING M3 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($122.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($53.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Sandisk SSD PLUS 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($79.00 @ B&H)
Case: DIYPC Ranger-R4-R ATX Mid Tower Case ($25.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Rosewill 550W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($54.88 @ OutletPC)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($18.88 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($88.58 @ OutletPC)
Monitor: Asus VE248H 24.0" 1920x1080 Monitor ($139.99 @ Newegg)
Other: MSI Radeon RX 480 DirectX 12 Radeon RX 480 4G Video Card ($169.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $946.59
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-03-13 10:58 EDT-0400

 

[James Mason]

This build a bit more powerful where it matters, at the sacrifice of having "the absolute latest CPU"

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.69 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: *Asus H110M-E/M.2 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($46.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: *Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($55.39 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Crucial MX300 275GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($89.88 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.33 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: XFX Radeon RX 480 8GB RS Video Card ($209.99 @ Newegg Marketplace)
Case: *DIYPC MA08-BK MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($29.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: *SeaSonic S12II 620W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($49.90 @ B&H)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home Full - USB 32/64-bit ($106.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Monitor: Asus VH238H 23.0" 1920x1080 Monitor ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $928.12
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-03-13 11:30 EDT-0400

 

[TJ Hooker]

Overall looks good, a couple final suggestions from me:
I can't really find much info on that PSU, if you can spare an extra $10 this one is pretty good: https://pcpartpicker.com/product/TgW9TW/seasonic-power-supply-m12ii520bronze

If you buy RAM sticks separately, they're not guaranteed to work together, even if they're two of the same model (although I think if you buy two identical sticks your odds are pretty decent). If you're planning on upgrading to 16 GB within a couple weeks, I'd recommend just getting a 2x8 GB kit right off the bat.

 

[Capt_Mctavish37]

Okay good to know about the RAM, I'll see if I can swap the ARC out with the Seasonic.
Again, thanks for all your help with this.