So I'm hoping to build a pc with a good upgrade path as well as very good for gaming. I'm hoping I can get suggestions on a build for a budget of 425 to 450 with a monitor. I was maybe going to use the amd a10 build, but I wanted to get input if there are any better builds for the price.
Thanks, Phil
okay 450 is pretty low budget especially with a monitor included
do you already have a PC no matter how old, you can still reuse the case, and if its recent maybe the HDD and ODD if its SATA, this will help cut cost without really affecting performance
you'll have to get 1366x768 (pretty low resolution for today's standards) monitor if you want to fit it in the 450 line
don't get that one 1080p monitor that's really cheap, its got 16ms response time, you want around 5ms
I do appreciate the quick response. Is there a disadvantage of having one stick of 8gb at 1866 clock speed then 4x2 sticks?
about 15% loss of bandwidth since its not in dual channel, which you need all of that you can since the GPU and CPU share it
it might be okay to just get 1 stick if you plan on getting another later.
also 8Gb sticks tend to have higher latecy than say a 4GB stick
Here's an option to consider:
[url=http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Sf3J]PCPartPicker part list[/url] / [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Sf3J/by_merchant/]Price breakdown by merchant[/url] / [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Sf3J/benchmarks/]Benchmarks[/url]
[b]CPU:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/amd-cpu-ad580kwohjbox]AMD A10-5800K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor[/url] ($114.99 @ Amazon)
[b]Motherboard:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-motherboard-f2a55mlkplus]Asus F2A55-M LK PLUS Micro ATX FM2 Motherboard[/url] ($59.99 @ Newegg)
[b]Memory:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f31866c9d8gab]G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory[/url] ($64.99 @ Newegg)
[b]Storage:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/toshiba-internal-hard-drive-dt01aca050]Toshiba 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive[/url] ($54.99 @ Newegg)
[b]Case:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/nzxt-case-gama001bk]NZXT Gamma Classic (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case[/url] ($29.99 @ Newegg)
[b]Power Supply:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-power-supply-cx430]Corsair Builder 430W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply[/url] ($34.99 @ Newegg)
[b]Optical Drive:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/lite-on-optical-drive-ihas124-04]Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer[/url] ($17.99 @ Newegg)
[b]Monitor:[/b] [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/part/aoc-monitor-e2051sn]AOC e2051Sn 60Hz 20.0" Monitor[/url] ($89.99 @ Newegg)
[b]Total:[/b] $467.92
[i](Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)[/i]
[i](Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-04-21 23:15 EDT-0400)[/i]
* CPU/GPU = APU is the best for the $ right now.
* Mobo has what you would need for this budget range.
* RAM is fast and has LOW PROFILE heat spreaders, so you will have the option of adding just about any CPU HSF on the market to your mobo. You could drop down to 4 gb's of RAM, but with an APU I would recommend sticking with 8 gb's, since your iGPU will use some of that RAM to run.
* HD is good and $10 more gets you 1 TB, so you can decide on that.
* Case is simple and will do the job for this budget.
* PSU is a quality one and will allow you to upgrade to a dedicated GPU down the road (up to AMD 7850 or nVidia GTX 660).
* Monitor is 1600 x 900, so it's a bit better than 1366 x 768, IMHO. Another $10 gets you 1920 x 1080, but that will be up to you if you want that. I like 1920 x 1080 when it comes to working on a single monitor. I can split the screen up to 2 x 970 x 1080 windows. This makes multitasking a bit easier, IMHO. You can decide on what is best for you.
I'm over budget by $17, so you could drop the RAM down to 2 x 2 gb's (4 gb total) and save about $30, but I'd recommend against it, if you have that option.
If you upgrade the Monitor to 1920 x 1080 and upgrade the HD to 1 TB size, the build price would be up to about $487.
500$ really is the sweet spot for a APU rig with a monitor included
Yeah $500 would be a better position to be in, like I suggested in my post :)