Building a Budget PC with the Radeon RX 460: Part 2

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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Rowdy Ryan Shrout of PCPer fame sums up his AMD-sponsored Budget Build. Just don't try to use it for a Premium VR Experience. And he is giving it away!
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My time with this little experiment has been eye opening. More often than not I am building systems and running tests on graphics cards that cost as much as this entire PC. And while a whole hell of a lot of fun, it's not realistic. From an everyday consumer perspective, a budget of $600 is spot on, and a build with a card I previously had no experience with has left me impressed.
 
I would totally agree on the rx460, recently added one to a htpc mainly for some older emulator support and 4k60 output over hdmi 2.0b. Well I started trying out the steam library and games actually run fairly well at 1080p like Arkham Knight and Mad Max. Some things to note are some cards can unlock cores from 896 to 1024, which I think puts it in the r370 range, and these are really close to the flagship cards of yester-year like the gtx 680 / 770 or Radeon 7950. Oh and they are cheap I picked up a Powercolor 2gb for 60AR. Not bad for < 75 Watts too :)
 
Cool, he addressed the elephant in the room, aka the monitor. Still no mention of which OS he used or how much it was. Or if it was even legal. :p
 
My only complaint is that they wasted $19 on an aftermarket cooler when the i3 comes with one. I feel that every dollar counts when it comes to 'budget' builds.
 
ir0nw0lf said:
Cool, he addressed the elephant in the room, aka the monitor. Still no mention of which OS he used or how much it was. Or if it was even legal. :p
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Actually it has gotten a lot easier for us reviewers over the years when it comes to testing hardware with a recent Windows OS. Now you can go to the Microsoft site, download the latest tool and build a bootable USB key with the OS on it. Since we generally never need an OS for more than a couple of weeks, I just install without a key and am generally done with it before activation is needed. Anyway, I mention this so all you guys are aware of this.
 
I apologize, I guess my point about the OS didn't come across correctly: they are giving the machine away, does that mean they are actually including the OS? I don't see mention of that in the video description and the breakdown list of what is in the machine. And if they are including the OS, which one and how much extra into the build was it?
 
Emission said:
My only complaint is that they wasted $19 on an aftermarket cooler when the i3 comes with one. I feel that every dollar counts when it comes to 'budget' builds.
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Yeah, but that $19 is probably worth it because of Intel mounting system.
 
wizzi01 said:
Yeah, but that $19 is probably worth it because of Intel mounting system.
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I'm pretty sure most people would rather push 4 pins into place than assemble an aftermarket coolers mounting system, in addition to saving $19 and 10 minutes.
 
For a $600 budget build I would get a:
$130 (shipped!) - Used Optiplex 790 Mini Tower w/8GB + i5-2400 + W7 COA (Win10 upgrade still works, btw)
$30 AMIR - 500W PSU from newegg
$140 - 480GB SSD (these regularly are on sale for sub $100)
$240 AC - GTX 1060 6GB Mini
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$540

That leaves $60 for RAM upgrades or a nice mouse, and would be a far, far superior gaming machine.
 
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Dew said:
$130 (shipped!) - Used Optiplex 790 Mini Tower w/8GB + i5-2400 + W7 COA (Win10 upgrade still works, btw)
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You have to wait for those. They aren't normally that price. If you want it to ship today you're going to pay at least $50 more.
 
Dew said:
For a $600 budget build I would get a:
$130 (shipped!) - Used Optiplex 790 Mini Tower w/8GB + i5-2400 + W7 COA (Win10 upgrade still works, btw)
$30 AMIR - 500W PSU from newegg
$140 - 480GB SSD (these regularly are on sale for sub $100)
$240 AC - GTX 1060 6GB Mini
-----
$540

That leaves $60 for RAM upgrades or a nice mouse, and would be a far, far superior gaming machine.
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While there are plenty of refurb/recert/used options that will net a cheaper build cost, I believe the point of this article is to show how little you can spend on brand new, modern parts.

Also, as an aside, the Optiplex 790 doesn't appear to have an actual expansion slot for graphics, and even if it did, it would likely be single-slot, half-height. Even the 'Mini' cards are dual-slot solutions. This is the link I'm looking at for reference: https://www.neweggbusiness.com/Prod...oaDzUcrTerAd43-urkb1b61EmzCnbZguYqhoCShrw_wcB

Edit: Nevermind, I found the Optiplex 790 MT in question: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Optipl...7f264c0&pid=100005&rk=2&rkt=6&sd=272050066555

Still, new vs used. Warranty vs no warranty plus questionable condition.
 
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Emission said:
I'm pretty sure most people would rather push 4 pins into place than assemble an aftermarket coolers mounting system, in addition to saving $19 and 10 minutes.
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Also, this is an i3 which can't overclock. The stock Intel cooler EASILY keeps an i3's temps in check.
 
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