$650 gaming build challenge

[Corporal79]

I have a buddy at work that is handing his i3 gaming machine down to his kids and looking to put something together for himself.

1) Budget = $650.

2) Components.
Starting from scratch for the PC itself. Don't need keyboard, mouse or monitor though. The smaller the case the better but doesn't have to be like a Shuttle sized case. I gave him a Crucial M4 128GB SSD so I think he's good there.

3) Usage.
Gaming, not hardcore. No FPS. Typical games currently are World of Tanks, Hearthstone, Need for Speed series and 2kxx basketball titles. Gaming on a 1080p monitor. Some home video editing while listening to music, watching movies.

4) Features.
at least 8GB of memory

5) Overclocking.
None

9) Where to get parts.
Newegg? One stop shopping would be nice and convenient

I know you guys are awesome at putting stuff like this together, your help is appreciated!

 

[StoleMyOwnCar]

I took a stab at it for fun. This build I made is strictly assuming that you don't currently need:
- Operating system
- More space (doubtful, I'm guessing he at least wants a 1TB)
- No optical drive

If any of these are necessary, the parts are gonna need a drastic cut (which is fine, I doubt he'll actually need an R9 280X; this is just a starting point).

And since you mentioned video editing, I went very CPU-heavy with it. Since you also didn't need overclocking, I didn't add in a non-stock CPU cooler. I think stock should suffice, though a cheap one can be had. All of these are online retailers.

Link: http://pcpartpicker.com/user/xshadowinxbc/saved/Y4MmP6

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($296.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($45.98 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Team Elite 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($57.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 280X 3GB Double Dissipation Video Card ($204.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Cougar Spike MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($29.99 @ Mwave)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $660.92
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-10 17:48 EST-0500

 

[StoleMyOwnCar]

Actually, I had to modify that. The 4970 might require a BIOS update on that MB, so I just went ahead and scaled back to a 4770 instead although it's 10$ more expensive. Modified the post to account because I don't think anyone wants to mess around with BIOS updates to get something working.

 

[PornoSatan]

That's a pretty solid setup StoleMyOwnCar threw out there IMO. Very nice for the price.

 

[Dangman]

Went a different route: I don't factor in MIR until I actually receive them due to the fact that they're not 100% guaranteed. As such, I judge and recommend parts by their before rebate prices.

$200 - Intel Core i5-4590 CPU
$83 - ASRock H97M Pro4 Intel H97 ATX Motherboard
$70 - Kingston HyperX FURY HX316C10F/8 8GB DDR3 1600 RAM
$200 - PowerColor TurboDuo AXR9 280 3GBD5-T2DHE/OC Radeon R9 280 3GB PCI-E Video Card
$45 - Coolermaster N200 NSE-200-KKN1 mATX Case
$63 - XFX TS Series XFX TS 550W PSU
----
Total: $661 shipped.

Basically the same price as StoleMyOwnCar's build list but my $661 price tag is BEFORE rebates whereas StoleMyOwnCar's $661 price tag is AFTER rebates. With that said, key differences between my setup and the above:
- Better quality PSU
- Better quality and more up to date motherboard. It's fully compatible with the COre i5 4590.
- Better quality and cooling case: The Coolermaster does not have those tear-off expansion slots like the Cougar does. Tear-off expansion slots are a dead give-away of the case's low quality. In addition, the Coolermaster has a bit more space behind the motherboard tray and cable management features which means cable management is a ton easier. Finally, since the PSU is bottom mounted in the Coolermaster, there's better overall cooling for the CPU area.

All of the above comes as the cost of a slower CPU for video editing and a slower video card for playing games. But the Core i5 4590 isn't exactly a slouch in the video editing department. Same goes for the R9 280 and games. With the above, you now have stronger base for a longer lasting system.

 

[StoleMyOwnCar]

I agree wholeheartedly on the PSU and case. I certainly didn't pick the best of choices out, just things that would fit price-wise and would "work" (which is all that matters to most people that aren't [H] I think). But putting that aside, I have to disagree with some things.

- Your MB is literally the cheapest H97 you can get. I know you had to because otherwise you couldn't even fit a new generation CPU in. It's an ASROCK. I opted for a B85 because it's much cheaper without really sacrificing any performance. What exactly about the Gigabyte board is bad? It has USB 3.0, and it has more than enough ports for all of his gear.

- This build isn't really any longer lasting. In fact it'll last less time because your CPU is weaker. I don't know how much video editing he does, but an i5 will generally always lose to an i7 in that department. Not to mention the GPU is weaker so he will need to upgrade sooner. Your build isn't longer lasting, but it's an attractive option for people who do not like mail in rebates. And that's a fair point in and of itself. Personally the only times I haven't gotten my money back from a rebate is due to my own sloth. Other than that, the only few that I've ever mailed in always came back with money.



Anyway prices have changed.
I took the liberty of also upgrading the case and PSU to something that is perhaps a little more palpable (oh and also the RAM. very slightly). The GPU took a somewhat minor hit. General price of the build went down about 15-20 bucks.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($296.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($45.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Team Vulcan 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 285 2GB Double Dissipation Video Card ($185.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $643.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-11 12:02 EST-0500


EDIT: Actually, according to this guy:
http://pcpartpicker.com/b/h9KZxr

He didn't have any BIOS issues putting a 4690 into that B85 motherboard, either... Judging from that, I can probably go ahead and upgrade the CPU to a 4790 if I wanted to:

If you do want to try it out:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor ($286.94 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($45.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Team Vulcan 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 280X 3GB Double Dissipation Video Card ($212.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $660.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-11 12:50 EST-0500

 

[Deleted member 88227]

- Your MB is literally the cheapest H97 you can get. I know you had to because otherwise you couldn't even fit a new generation CPU in. It's an ASROCK. I opted for a B85 because it's much cheaper without really sacrificing any performance. What exactly about the Gigabyte board is bad? It has USB 3.0, and it has more than enough ports for all of his gear.

I've never been a fan of AsRock and you can search my previous posts to confirm that. However, they have really upped their game over the last year and a half.

- This build isn't really any longer lasting. In fact it'll last less time because your CPU is weaker. I don't know how much video editing he does, but an i5 will generally always lose to an i7 in that department. Not to mention the GPU is weaker so he will need to upgrade sooner. Your build isn't longer lasting, but it's an attractive option for people who do not like mail in rebates. And that's a fair point in and of itself. Personally the only times I haven't gotten my money back from a rebate is due to my own sloth. Other than that, the only few that I've ever mailed in always came back with money.

The OP stated "home video editing" in which case home editing software doesn't make use of the advantages that an i7 will have over an i5. Therefore, they'll perform exactly the same.

 

[Dangman]

- Your MB is literally the cheapest H97 you can get. I know you had to because otherwise you couldn't even fit a new generation CPU in. It's an ASROCK. I opted for a B85 because it's much cheaper without really sacrificing any performance. What exactly about the Gigabyte board is bad? It has USB 3.0, and it has more than enough ports for all of his gear.

Well remember what I said about not factoring in MIR? In addition, the OP did appear to want to limit the number of websites he needed to buy parts from. Hence why I limited myself to only two sites. Whereas your planned build is coming from four different websites. So assuming that OP would limit himself to a smaller number of sites, that means he's more than likely going to go with Newegg. That Gigabyte mobo is currently $68 on Newegg, only $15 less than my AsRock. To me that extra $15 is justified since:
1) The H97 is actually compatible with newer Intel CPUs and will supposedly support Broadwell CPUs as well.
2) Gigabyte has relatively short support (in terms of drivers and UEFI updates) for their motherboards. Especially for their lower-end motherboards. AsRock seems to do a little better in this regards.
3) It has two extra USB 3.0 ports. USB 3.0 controller cards costs about $15 but generally uses slower, older, and crappier USB controllers compared to the native Intel USB 3.0 controller.

As for your attempt at disparaging AsRock, I understand where you're coming from. As with Skillz, I too was very skeptical of AsRock for a long time as these posts show. But again, like Skillz said, AsRock has gotten a lot better actually. In addition, I've also have had the pleasure of working with multiple AsRock motherboards as well. IN fact, one of my next system is using an AsRock motherboard. So at this point, I have no reservations about recommending AsRock mobos in general. Again, two years ago I was recommending against AsRock. Now two years later, I'm about to have an AsRock in one of my PCs. That should tell you something.

- This build isn't really any longer lasting. In fact it'll last less time because your CPU is weaker. I don't know how much video editing he does, but an i5 will generally always lose to an i7 in that department. Not to mention the GPU is weaker so he will need to upgrade sooner. Your build isn't longer lasting,

As Skillz pointed out, not all video editing programs will take advantage of the Core i7's HT. In addition, the R9 280 isn't that much slower than the R9 280X to justify the extra $43 for the 280X. If the MIR doesn't go through, $243 for the R9 280X is a poor choice as this time since you can get the significantly faster R9 290 fo around $270. Hence why I went with the R9 280: its price to performance was better than the R9 280X.

However, when I said longer lasting, I was thinking more of your original case and PSU choices. How the OP would have had to replace that case rather soon on account of its poor quality and relatively poor cooling and the PSU due to its so-so quality.

but it's an attractive option for people who do not like mail in rebates. And that's a fair point in and of itself. Personally the only times I haven't gotten my money back from a rebate is due to my own sloth. Other than that, the only few that I've ever mailed in always came back with money.

I have had good success with MIR as well. However, I know enough people who haven't had good experiences with MIR (or simply forget) and I don't want to screw people over by making them spend more money when they don't need to. Especially with the risk as noted above.

EDIT: Actually, according to this guy:
http://pcpartpicker.com/b/h9KZxr

He didn't have any BIOS issues putting a 4690 into that B85 motherboard, either... Judging from that, I can probably go ahead and upgrade the CPU to a 4790 if I wanted to:

Need a lot more confirmation than that IMO: We still have to BIOs update certain B85 motherboards to support the Haswell Refresh CPUs. In addition, we were still BIOs updating X99 motherboards to support IB-E motherboard NINE months after the release of the IB-E CPUs. As such, without a lot more confirmations, I wouldn't assume that Gigabyte B85 mobo will work.

Not to mention that was that guy's first PC build. Some of his choices were....odd to say the least. So his credibility is not known.

 

[StoleMyOwnCar]

Well remember what I said about not factoring in MIR? In addition, the OP did appear to want to limit the number of websites he needed to buy parts from. Hence why I limited myself to only two sites. Whereas your planned build is coming from four different websites. So assuming that OP would limit himself to a smaller number of sites, that means he's more than likely going to go with Newegg. That Gigabyte mobo is currently $68 on Newegg, only $15 less than my AsRock. To me that extra $15 is justified since:
1) The H97 is actually compatible with newer Intel CPUs and will supposedly support Broadwell CPUs as well.
2) Gigabyte has relatively short support (in terms of drivers and UEFI updates) for their motherboards. Especially for their lower-end motherboards. AsRock seems to do a little better in this regards.
3) It has two extra USB 3.0 ports. USB 3.0 controller cards costs about $15 but generally uses slower, older, and crappier USB controllers compared to the native Intel USB 3.0 controller.

TL;DR the board you chose has two extra USB 3.0 ports. Okay got it. It's up to him if that's worth it. IMO not really. For any average user I would think 4 3.0 and 4 2.0 ports would be darn well more than enough.

Either way, the differences between 4790 and 4770 are so small that there's little reason to get either one outside of strictly price concerns, and he's likely not going to replace either one any time soon. I was just pointing out the 4790 in that board as a possibility.
http://pcpartpicker.com/builds/by_part/gigabyte-motherboard-gab85mds3h#c=138,39

Also, my build is coming from 3 web sites, not 4 (at least the latest ones). Who cares either way? It's just a bunch of boxes arriving at your doorstep.

Anyway the rest of your foundation as an argument is based upon MIR's and multiple sellers vs just Newegg with no MIR's for the apparently extremely lazy OP. So I'll just ignore those parts since it's strictly a matter of opinion. When I build a BUDGET pc, I make sure to mail in MIR's though.

As for your attempt at disparaging AsRock, I understand where you're coming from. As with Skillz, I too was very skeptical of AsRock for a long time as these posts show. But again, like Skillz said, AsRock has gotten a lot better actually. In addition, I've also have had the pleasure of working with multiple AsRock motherboards as well. IN fact, one of my next system is using an AsRock motherboard. So at this point, I have no reservations about recommending AsRock mobos in general. Again, two years ago I was recommending against AsRock. Now two years later, I'm about to have an AsRock in one of my PCs. That should tell you something.

It tells me that you want a PC on the cheap and are willing to try out AsRock. That's about it.

As Skillz pointed out, not all video editing programs will take advantage of the Core i7's HT. In addition, the R9 280 isn't that much slower than the R9 280X to justify the extra $43 for the 280X. If the MIR doesn't go through, $243 for the R9 280X is a poor choice as this time since you can get the significantly faster R9 290 fo around $270. Hence why I went with the R9 280: its price to performance was better than the R9 280X.

Not all of them, but who's to say that the one he's using will not? Either way, the i7 is a more futureproof solution either way.

As for your other point, again that has to do with MIR's so I'll just ignore it. But I will say that the 280X is noticeably far ahead of the 280 AND 285.

However, when I said longer lasting, I was thinking more of your original case and PSU choices. How the OP would have had to replace that case rather soon on account of its poor quality and relatively poor cooling and the PSU due to its so-so quality.

Uh no. The average user, as long as the PC is working fine, won't need to replace anything. We can't really say it'll have poor cooling for said setup until we've tried it. I've built computers in worse cases than that. Its cooling is plenty fine for one CPU and one GPU. However since prices changed I decided to upgrade them either way in the next two suggested builds. When you have that little money, though, you can't be picky about the case. It just needs to hold your crap. That's it. When I was in college I was just happy I could fit all that I did into the budget that I had. (i5 750 and 5850HD back then, which were great)

I have had good success with MIR as well. However, I know enough people who haven't had good experiences with MIR (or simply forget) and I don't want to screw people over by making them spend more money when they don't need to. Especially with the risk as noted above.

I said I wouldn't address this but...
You basically have 2 risks either way. Either you risk with MIR's and if they fail end up spending a bit more money for a better PC, or you build a worse computer without MIR's and fail to potentially save money on whatever you would have saved with MIR's. It's all equal in the end, just one potentially leads to overspending. You possibly lose money either way. One leads to possibly less money saved, one leads to possibly more money spent. As long as you can soak up the risk of either path, I don't see what the point of entirely eschewing MIR's is. The OP never claimed he hated doing them, and for anyone building on a budget, they're entirely worth taking into account unless you can't handle the money lost if they don't go through. I mean yes, one path can go potentially over budget but if you want the best system possible for the price, you should follow it.

Need a lot more confirmation than that IMO: We still have to BIOs update certain B85 motherboards to support the Haswell Refresh CPUs. In addition, we were still BIOs updating X99 motherboards to support IB-E motherboard NINE months after the release of the IB-E CPUs. As such, without a lot more confirmations, I wouldn't assume that Gigabyte B85 mobo will work.

Not to mention that was that guy's first PC build. Some of his choices were....odd to say the least. So his credibility is not known.

What looks that odd....? I mean PCP people haven't been entirely known by me for their OPTIMAL system choices, but it looks entirely like a relatively normal build to me. I built something similar in college on probably an even worse budget. The only reason I was even able to hobble the thing together was because I won a piece of software from Chegg that I sold on Ebay for 600$.

 

[StoleMyOwnCar]

Anyway prices keep moving and shifting while the OP waits, so I just went ahead and made a parametric build.

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/xshadowinxbc/saved/RtWypg

What was interesting is that I didn't know there was actually a 670 GTX in stock anywhere. But there is. When I included 670 in the mix because I knew it was the only actual equivalent to the R9 280, turns out there's actually one in stock at NCIX. It's for a decent price, too. About 180$. Good deal in case anyone is interested in Nvidia on the cheap.

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-video-card-n670gtxpm2d2gd5oc

It'll outperform the 760 and compete with the 280. I just didn't include it in the mix because I don't know how stable that availability will be.

Edit: Appears the deal only sticks if you go through PCP's web site.

 

[Dangman]

TL;DR the board you chose has two extra USB 3.0 ports. Okay got it. It's up to him if that's worth it. IMO not really. For any average user I would think 4 3.0 and 4 2.0 ports would be darn well more than enough.

Have no solid counter-arguments to my other points, then? Also, your Gigabyte only has two rear USB 3.0 ports, not four. The AsRock I recommended has four rear USB 3.0 ports. Are you counting the front-panel USB 3.0 port?

Also, my build is coming from 3 web sites, not 4 (at least the latest ones). Who cares either way? It's just a bunch of boxes arriving at your doorstep.

Well it was four with the first build but three is still a tad much. Why care? Well:
- You don't have to spread more of your credit card info all over the place

- If there's an issue, better to deal with a few sites rather than multiple.

- The packages will/may come in all staggered and therefore delay the build.

It tells me that you want a PC on the cheap and are willing to try out AsRock. That's about it.

I was pointing out that AsRock isn't as bad as you're making them out to be.

Not all of them, but who's to say that the one he's using will not? Either way, the i7 is a more futureproof solution either way.

It's not the right solution if it means that the OP has to spend more for no gains.

But I will say that the 280X is noticeably far ahead of the 280 AND 285

Not noticeable enough to justify an extra $43:
http://anandtech.com/bench/product/1332?vs=1041

There's roughly a 4 to 10FPS difference. Not worth $43 more.

Uh no. The average user, as long as the PC is working fine, won't need to replace anything. We can't really say it'll have poor cooling for said setup until we've tried it. I've built computers in worse cases than that. Its cooling is plenty fine for one CPU and one GPU. However since prices changed I decided to upgrade them either way in the next two suggested builds. When you have that little money, though, you can't be picky about the case. It just needs to hold your crap. That's it. When I was in college I was just happy I could fit all that I did into the budget that I had. (i5 750 and 5850HD back then, which were great)

All that tells me that you didn't look hard enough for good cases for the cheap. As I showed, the Coolermaster N200 case is a solid case for $45 shipped. Only $7 more than your original Cougar Spike recommendation (I put in my zip code for shipping from MWave). Good cases can be had for low prices.

What looks that odd....? I mean PCP people haven't been entirely known by me for their OPTIMAL system choices, but it looks entirely like a relatively normal build to me. I built something similar in college on probably an even worse budget. The only reason I was even able to hobble the thing together was because I won a piece of software from Chegg that I sold on Ebay for 600$.

He cheaped out on the motherboard and PSU yet went stupid overkill on the monitor, keyboard, and all those extra fans. He spent a bit more than necessary on the CPU and went with a relatively mid to high-end range case. Not balanced at all. Hence why I say it's odd.

Anyway the rest of your foundation as an argument is based upon MIR's and multiple sellers vs just Newegg with no MIR's for the apparently extremely lazy OP. So I'll just ignore those parts since it's strictly a matter of opinion. When I build a BUDGET pc, I make sure to mail in MIR's though.

.....

As for your other point, again that has to do with MIR's so I'll just ignore it.

....

I said I wouldn't address this but...
You basically have 2 risks either way. Either you risk with MIR's and if they fail end up spending a bit more money for a better PC, or you build a worse computer without MIR's and fail to potentially save money on whatever you would have saved with MIR's. It's all equal in the end, just one potentially leads to overspending. You possibly lose money either way. One leads to possibly less money saved, one leads to possibly more money spent. As long as you can soak up the risk of either path, I don't see what the point of entirely eschewing MIR's is. The OP never claimed he hated doing them, and for anyone building on a budget, they're entirely worth taking into account unless you can't handle the money lost if they don't go through. I mean yes, one path can go potentially over budget but if you want the best system possible for the price, you should follow it..

I generally don't mind going over-budget on a PC build (for myself or others) if it's worth it. However, with your recommendations so far, going over-budget isn't worth it. He hasn't said what video editing program he's using so the Core i7 is potentially a waste. In addition, at $243, that R9 280X card is a stupid choice considering that the R9 290 is $270 more. In other words, I actually would have less problem with you recommending the R9 290 than the R9 280X since the R9 290, even if the MIR doesn't go through, would have a significantly better bang for the buck value. Finally, if the MIR doesn't go through on the PSU, he ends up spending more on a ok-ish PSU when he could have gotten a better PSU for less (The XFX PSU I recommended is now $50).

All right, let's wait for the OP to actually ask his friend how he feels about MIR and then plan a build from there rather than continue this sniping of each other's points.

 

[Deleted member 88227]

Not all of them, but who's to say that the one he's using will not? Either way, the i7 is a more futureproof solution either way.

No it's not. HT has been around for a decade and to this day a lot of software still doesn't utilize it to it's full potential. I'd wager a bet that the home video editing software in use wont even make use of a quad core much less utilize the advantage of HT.

Basically by the time the OP needs to upgrade his i7 the i5 would have got him the same distance. HT wont make a difference.

 

[Zepher]

Premiere uses all cores and as much memory as you have,

this was a test I did a few years ago

 

[Deleted member 88227]

I wouldn't consider Adobe's Premiere as "home video editing" software. Although it's what I use when I do video edits, most people use the software included with their camera or camcorder to do the editing. That's the sort of software I am referring to.

 

[Zepher]

I don't have any really cheap consumer programs to test at the moment.
I think I still have Edius Neo installed on my other workstation, it's a $200 program, more consumer/amateur friendly in price. I'll see if that uses Hyper Threading.
EDIT: Nope, I must have uninstalled it

 

[StoleMyOwnCar]

Have no solid counter-arguments to my other points, then? Also, your Gigabyte only has two rear USB 3.0 ports, not four. The AsRock I recommended has four rear USB 3.0 ports. Are you counting the front-panel USB 3.0 port?

My point is that it has 4 USB 2.0 and 4 USB 3.0. Many devices currently don't even need 3.0 bandwidth, they just need a USB slot. As far as the average user is concerned, 4 USB 3.0 ports is more than plenty, and an expansion card can be had for the price difference of the boards. As for the rest of your arguments, they were relative insignificant. He wouldn't be updating the CPU anyway, so how in the future the MB is... is totally irrelevant. UEFI updates are irrelevant if the board... you know... doesn't need updates. I haven't updated my MPower since the day I got it.

Well it was four with the first build but three is still a tad much. Why care? Well:
- You don't have to spread more of your credit card info all over the place

- If there's an issue, better to deal with a few sites rather than multiple.

- The packages will/may come in all staggered and therefore delay the build.

I don't know who actually gives a crap about that, and somehow 2 isn't much but 3 is arbitrarily too many? This is just an inane point.

I was pointing out that AsRock isn't as bad as you're making them out to be.

I actually don't remember ever saying they were bad. Just implying that they weren't top of the line by any means as a brand... and that you considering a build with them didn't really mean much except exactly what you said.

It's not the right solution if it means that the OP has to spend more for no gains.

<point X for future reference>The problem is that you're acting like he doesn't have enough space in his budget for a 4770 either way, and that it won't ever be useful. A better CPU is never a waste, whereas a better GPU in his case is secondary and easily outlived. There are plenty of scenarios where you could benefit from hyperthreading and in his case he doesn't currently need any of the GPU options above a 270/X. Therefore it's natural to allocate the rest of the budget to the CPU. Even if I was building this under the assumption of no MIR's going through, I would have just downgraded the GPU (likely to a 7870Ghz if those still exist, or the 270X, which would also save on PSU costs) and still went with the i7. It's a solid CPU. If he ever decides to get serious about his video editing hobby or swap to a program that uses it, the power will be there. If he decides to swap over to very demanding games, the difference between a 270/270X/280 kind of start blurring. I've actually played FF14 at 1440p with high settings on a 7870Ghz at decent framerates, so really GPU power is overstated. I was putting a 280X in there because it just fit and it was the highest thing that fit. That's all.

Not noticeable enough to justify an extra $43:
http://anandtech.com/bench/product/1332?vs=1041

There's roughly a 4 to 10FPS difference. Not worth $43 more.

I put it in there simply because it fit under his budget WITH an i7 still in the build. It has risen about 10$ since then which makes it less competitive now.

All that tells me that you didn't look hard enough for good cases for the cheap. As I showed, the Coolermaster N200 case is a solid case for $45 shipped. Only $7 more than your original Cougar Spike recommendation (I put in my zip code for shipping from MWave). Good cases can be had for low prices.

I've changed my recommendation to a Xion since then. It's rated 5 stars on PCP by people that actually built things using it. It looks pretty decent actually. Not that the N200 is bad by any means.

My point is simply that for any casual users the only point of the case is to hold the components and make sure they don't overheat. With a very simple setup like this, that's not hard to accomplish. He doesn't even have a hard disk at the moment, it's just one SSD!

He cheaped out on the motherboard and PSU yet went stupid overkill on the monitor, keyboard, and all those extra fans. He spent a bit more than necessary on the CPU and went with a relatively mid to high-end range case. Not balanced at all. Hence why I say it's odd.

Did he sound that intelligent to you? Most people on PCP make stupid builds like that. And then they get angry when you point it out and downvote you. I don't think that's the point anyway. The point was that he (and 2 other people actually, on there if you search) have experienced no problems with that CPU in that motherboard. I don't see why this is so hard for you to believe.

I generally don't mind going over-budget on a PC build (for myself or others) if it's worth it. However, with your recommendations so far, going over-budget isn't worth it. He hasn't said what video editing program he's using so the Core i7 is potentially a waste. In addition, at $243, that R9 280X card is a stupid choice considering that the R9 290 is $270 more. In other words, I actually would have less problem with you recommending the R9 290 than the R9 280X since the R9 290, even if the MIR doesn't go through, would have a significantly better bang for the buck value. Finally, if the MIR doesn't go through on the PSU, he ends up spending more on a ok-ish PSU when he could have gotten a better PSU for less (The XFX PSU I recommended is now $50).

... Why are you still hung up on my original build? Either way I don't care about the MIR not going through. For the CPU I believe I explained that at point X up there.


But supposing I changed mine up to a i5, I suppose we could fit an R9 290 in there.

All right, let's wait for the OP to actually ask his friend how he feels about MIR and then plan a build from there rather than continue this sniping of each other's points.

You know, it kind of sucks when I get down to this line after making up the rest of the arguments. Anyway yeah, this whole debate is practically centered around MIR's in general so let's at least leave that part aside until he gets in to respond.

 

[gamer0622]

Do you have a microcenter near you? If so
Cpu: i7 4790k 249.99 or i5 4690 179.99 microcenter
Mobo: msi z97-g45 gaming 79.99
Ram: 8gb hyperx fury at 20AR tigerdirect if you dont mind virus scanner rebate
Case: nzxt source 210 32.99 microcenter nothing fance
Psu: themaltake toughpower 750w 49.99AR newegg
Hdd: 256gb mx100 rakuten 80 now after masterpass at rakuten
Gfx card: asus r9 290 200 after masterpass at rakuten

Total i7 ~715 or i5 ~645 without os