First Time $500 Budget PC

Hello, I’m Ben, and I would love to hear from you guys on how to build a PC. I know how to physically build a PC, but I only have a slight idea of what the best bang for my buck is when it comes to parts.

I have $500.00 to spend on a PC. I don’t have a brand preference, mainly because I am inexperienced, so I hope to learn from this.

I do a bit of gaming on the side, but I mostly model 3D assets in Autodesk Maya and 3DS Max. I also make games in Unity 3D. That being said, I don’t make movies or 3D photos if that’s what you mean by rendering; I just model. I have no specific requirements for gaming, but I’d at least like 30 fps on games like TERA, PSO2 and Minecraft.

I don’t need an OS, as I can get a Linux distro., or I can cannibalize my old HP laptop and get windows 7 home premium off of that. I can also use the hard drive in that as a slave, but I will still probably want either a 32GB or a 64GB SSD for Autodesk programs and the OS.

In terms of peripherals, I have just about everything, so there is no need. I apologize for the fact that I do not have a PC part picker list, but like I said, I’m new here.

Thanks to you guys for what you do for the PC community.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/222OJ

I think this is a fairly good budget build, just swap the HDD for an SSD. I know there is currently a sale on some of the 120 GB Adata ones, so you might be able to pick it up fairly inexpensively.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/22YTi

I swapped out the HDD for an SSD like you said. A very good bargain. Also, since I may want to upgrade in the future, and the fact that the motherboard supports up to 16GB of ram, I swapped out the 2x4GB sticks for a 1x8GB stick. Same speed, same brand, yet a buck cheaper.

I prefer this build out of the first two.

Why is it better?

Brand is somewhat irrelevant. I don't frequently recommend brands of RAM over each other, because it is down to personal preference. I've had mixed results with RAM in the past, but because I don't have access to literal tons of the product to test, I don't have a large enough sample group to draw any correlations.

On a side note: running just one stick puts it into single channel mode, which theoretically chops your bandwidth in half, and will lower your real world performance. Just buy 16 GB of RAM now.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/23amT

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/23dKZ

You read my mind. I was gone earlier and I was going to add 16GB of dual channel RAM as soon as I got back. The only thing that I see with the Kingston RAM is that the CAS is 10. I found PNY 2x8GB 1600 RAM with CAS 9 for only 5 more bucks.

Do you think this build looks good to go? I could order the parts today if it is.

Build looks good, don't try overclocking that cpu the motherboards vrms might catch fire. I think you should get everything but the ssd and try to pick up a samsung ssd on sale during black friday. Too many horror stories of peoples ssd's dying on them.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/23p6A

I had to swap out the cooler because the other one was discontinued. Do you think its worth it to wait until black friday to order all the parts, or just the ssd?

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/23w6r

Fixed it:

The cooler was a lie, the selling company that had it on sale didn't actually have the product advertised correctly. So I had to switch it for a different one. The PNY RAM does look pretty good, and appears to be on a better sale than expected. Sorry for not getting back to you before, I was busy today.

The Adata one is about as good as any of them, even Samsung. I do have to agree, though, about overclocking. No FM2 board is built for overclocking. You can get a certain amount of overclocking on this board, especially if you can do so without having to raise the voltage for your overclock. I would recommend keeping overclocks to around 15-20% over stock for stability and heat.

When you feel that there's a super awesome deal sitting right in front of you, snatch it up.  Prices fluctuate daily, and if you miss out on an item, it may not go on sale again.

If you want future upgradeability, here's a slight motherboard change:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/23wwu

This lacks an SSD and an aftermarket cooler. Although it is always nice to buy the newest thing, with these motherboards, with this price point, the difference between the two may not necessarily be worth the price to upgrade to it.

It's fine if you were busy- We all are at some point.

So I noticed that the cooler you chose had a rifle bearing instead of a sleeve. Is a rifle bearing better than the sleeve? Also, your cooler was quieter, but it only had one fan speed. Does it really matter if it has multiple fan speeds, or should I just get a cooler with one fan speed?

The G Skill RAM has a great sale, making it less expensive than my PNY RAM. the question is, my motherboard maxes out at 2133 for speed on RAM and the G Skill RAM is 2400. Would I even be able to run that if I got it?

Another thing; the latency is 11. Even with the speed improvement, I'm not really sure if it will help my real-world performance. What do you guys think?

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f32400c11d16gxm

With the first build, keep the HDD but get this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139028 power supply, and get this card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127769 and overclock it to 1000 mhz. You keep under your 500 dollar build and get a lot more performance.

 

Oh, and to counteract not getting an SSD, get windows 8.

this 650w power supply is on sale on newegg  and its modular!! its $35 off

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182132

These cheap coolers are all about the same, honestly. You can look up different bearing types on wikipedia, if you want, but the lifespan is going to be roughly equivalent. The fan will adjust its speed based on the amount of power sent it by the motherboard, although PWM fans are better for this because they provide fan speed readings back to the motherboard. Although it could run at max speed and you wouldn't have any issues besides it being a little noisy. I know, I would probably go on ebay and pick up a Cooler Master Seidon 240. There are usually a couple floating around for really good prices, but that will push your build over.

dunno why you advertise this PSU so much.  It's not THAT great of a deal.