400 € gaming rig for kids

O

Ondroid

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Hello,
I'm building gaming rig for my sister's kids (one's in the 4th grade and the other in the 1st).
The budget is 400 € with the primary purpose being gaming (with occasional web browsing/ e-mail checking).
I only need the following components :
MOBO, CPU, RAM, GPU, PSU, STORAGE and CHASSIS.(They will be getting my old 19'' LCD BenQ FP93G and windows 8.1 - courtesy of MSDNAA [microsoft academic alliance].Mouse, keyboard,CPU cooler, optical drive - this is all taken care of)
I live in Slovakia and will be buying from www.alza.sk .Longevity being a factor - the longer this lasts the better with potential upgrade in let's say 3 years or more (CPU/GPU).
Here's what i've got so far:

MOBO - GIGABYTE F2A88XM-D3H - 62,14 €
CPU - AMD Athlon X4 750K Black Edition - 67,31 €
RAM - Corsair 4GB DDR3 1600MHz CL9 Vengeance - 38,82 €
GPU - ASUS HD7770-DC-1GD5-V2 - 101,46 €
PSU - Corsair CX430M - 44,36 €
STORAGE - Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 1000GB s Advanced Format - 55,48 €
CASE - C-TECH PHOENIX gaming - 25,87 €

---------------------- TOTAL = 395,44 € ---------------------------------------- + 4,50 € postage

Please let me know what you think and i'm looking forward to your suggestions.
 
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I'd upgrade that case since that case does not offer sufficient cooling for a modern system, it's cramped inside, and it has little room for cable management. I recommend this case instead:
http://www.alza.sk/corsair-200r-carbide-series-cerna-d360185.htm

As for your upgrade plans, honestly, just be ready to replace the CPU, mobo, and RAM in three years. These days, the chances of you being able to upgrade only the CPU (and not the mobo and RAM as well) is extremely low.
 
Ondroid said:
Well, i really can't go over the budget.As good as that case might be, it's 25 € more which is a lot.
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Then do you have any spare 120mm fans that you can add to that case? Like I said, that case really is crappy from a cooling perspective.

Ondroid said:
The PSU is modular so that should help at least a little :> . I wanted to ask you about the new ASUS A88XM-A that just came out.I think i like it even better than the GIGABYTE F2A88XM-D3H.What do you think?

Here's a newegg comparison : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...28-659^13-128-659-TS&percm=13-128-659:$$$$$$$
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I'm not seeing how you think the Asus is better than the GIgabyte.
 
Dangman said:
Then do you have any spare 120mm fans that you can add to that case? Like I said, that case really is crappy from a cooling perspective.
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Yes, i've got a pair.


Dangman said:
I'm not seeing how you think the Asus is better than the GIgabyte.
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Could you elaborate on that ? Why do you think Gigabyte's better ? (I assume you think that it's better)

What i personally like about the Asus the most is the DIGI+ VRM and UEFI BIOS amongst other things.I'm certainly no expert that's why i'm asking for advice.And as far as connectivity goes, both have plenty (more than they'll actually ever need).Oh and the Asus has only one fan header compared to Gigabyte's 2 so there's that.(this i don't like)
 
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Ondroid said:
Yes, i've got a pair.)
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Then add them to that case then.

Ondroid said:
Could you elaborate on that ? Why do you think Gigabyte's better ? (I assume you think that it's better)
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No, I don't think the Gigabyte is better overall. I think the Asus and Gigabyte are about the same. Asus definitely has the better UEFI but the Gigabyte has been out longer which means better chance of bugs being picked up. With Asus, you definitely want to wait awhile for reviews to pour in since they're getting kind of inconsistent with their quality control and design. However, Gigabyte mobos tend to be a bit quirky (i.e when you start it up, it'll instantly shut down and then boot back up again, the keyboard isn't recognized some times, etc) to begin with.

Honestly, just flip a coin.
 
Hey, i've been playing around a little bit with the build to fit in the case you suggested and i got to this setup:

MOBO - GA-F2A88XM-DS2 47,16 €
CPU - AMD Athlon X4 750K Black Edition 66,08 €
RAM - Corsair 4GB KIT DDR3 1600MHz CL9 Vengeance Low profile (2x2) 45,64 €
GPU - ASUS HD7770-DC-1GD5-V2 101,46 €
PSU - Corsair CX430M 43,58 €
STORAGE - Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 1000GB s Advanced Format 54,00 €
CASE - Corsair 200R Carbide Series 49,67 €

---------------------- TOTAL = 404,87 € ----------------------------------------

Now i'm going with this MOBO instead : GA-F2A88XM-DS2 (comparison - http://www.gigabyte.com/products/comparison/list.aspx?ck=2&pids=4726,4716) and a new RAM.Do you think it's worth it just to be able to get that case ? It only has 2 RAM slots, it's missing 1 x HDMI port, some expansion slots and ofcourse it has less connectivity options but i don' think it makes any difference for our intents and purposes.
 
I don't recommend that RAM since it pretty much limits you to 4GB of RAM max. I would aim for a single 4GB stick of RAM if possible. Besides that, looks good to me.
 
Hello again,

i've also tried to go the Intel way with this build.Could you please let me know what you think ?

MOBO - ASUS H81M-PLUS 54,13 €
CPU - Intel Pentium G3420 56,56 €
RAM - Corsair 4GB DDR3 1600MHz CL9 Vengeance Low Profile 39,82 €
GPU - ASUS HD7770-DC-1GD5-V2 101,46 €
PSU - Corsair CX430M 43,58 €
STORAGE - Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 1000GB s Advanced Format 54,00 €
CASE - Corsair 200R Carbide Series 49,67 €

---------------------- TOTAL = 400,06 € ----------------------------------------
 
That Intel will definitely outperform the AMD setup in games.
 
Dangman said:
That Intel will definitely outperform the AMD setup in games.
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I would agree with this statement only if you do not plan on overclocking. The Athlon X4 750K can be gotten up to 4.2 GHz without much effort, so you can get an easy 25% performance increase. This will mostly erase the single-threaded performance difference between the two.

If not overclocking:

Intel will have the advantage in unoptimized games, and AMD will have an advantage in games that use 4 cores. But both processors should be fast enough to get you 60fps in most games.

If we were talking an even smaller budget, Intel is the only game in town. Their Celeron processors run circles around the AMD dual-cores. But the X4 750K makes it a tougher decision, especially when AAA games like Borderlands 2, Bioshock Infinite, Battlefield, Tomb Raider, Splinter Cell support 4 cores.
 
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defaultluser said:
I would agree with this statement only if you do not plan on overclocking. The Athlon X4 750K can be gotten up to 4.2 GHz without much effort, so you can get an easy 25% performance increase. This will mostly erase the single-threaded performance difference between the two..
Click to expand...
But then you would have to spend more money on an AMD motherboard suitable for overclocking. Not to mention the HSF as well. At that point, it may be more cost-effective to just buy a 3Ghz Core i5 should still outperform (or at the very least match) the Athlon X4 750K at 4.2Ghz. while more than likely using less power.
 
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