Dear Forum Folk,
I have had terrible PCs and hand-me-downs all my life, now looking into a box I can upgrade as and when cash flow permits.
First it will be used for number crunching and modelling big data in matlab (engineering software), and standard home media. But the point is also to be able to turn it into a real gaming computer further down the line.
I've found something, and would like to know what's wrong with it, because to me it looks like an ok baseline.
AMD 6300 Piledriver
I am really broke, and have no time to learn building from scratch, but I'm perfectly capable of upgrading the ram, gpu, and ssd myself in future.
For £287 ($433), it seems to me like I'll be able to afford the upgrades without too much pain, and have a decent-ish box to start from.
What do you think?
Things wrong - most likely a shitty psu, and of course the gpu. As long as you dont intend on gaming for a good while then the pc will be fine for matlab and most indie games. At least you have 8gb of ram as I know my matlab shit chew through ram.
Down the track would look at upgrading the psu and gpu.
(URGENT, need to buy this week...)
The PSU included looks like it would be the Aerocool Strike-X 500W. Can you (please) more clearly define shitty? Would this PSU be a TOTAL waste of time?
Remember that I'm looking at this as a skeleton rig (AMD 6300 Piledriver). I know the GPU included is useless. The point is to CHEAPLY get the box, motherboard, CPU and PSU right (now) so I can easily build on it later with a better GPU etc (when my cash flow allows it).
The FX6300 comes highly recommended by Tek Syndicate. The Asus motherboard included in this rig seems distictly better than the cheaper Gigabyte alternative they offer.
That leaves the question of PSU. These are the ones they use. Any good advice you have would be very welcome! What should be my ideal wattage to allow future expansion?
Best wishes, Gareth
By the time you install uupgrades and have the complete and final cost, you would have been better off picking the parts and building yourself.
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/1o4BJ
This is better in every way. The main reason for the extra expense is probably down to my choice of video card, which is £60-70 more than the 5450. Very very upgradeable, you could put a high tier GPU in this thing and it will run. All parts are recommended.
The problem with pre-built PCs is that they always use the worst components, and the worst chipsets.
Thank you Berzerker. The chipset question is a clear issue that I can sort of understand, even with my inexperience (see original post, in case you missed that). Not clear to me yet what improvement was made, but I can see that the AMD 760G (on the pre-build) is three years older than the 970.
So... I'm 85% sold on a total self build now. I am still very nervous about doing the PSU myself. I'm told that this is very easy and expensive to cock up, and I'm too broke to afford making mistakes. I need this machine to work first time, and soon.
Related question: While I was trying to understand the difference between the prebuild options available, I noticed that the Asus and Gigabyte differed a lot in onboard audio (# of channels) and expansion slots.
PcPartPicker lists onboard video but says nothing about onboard audio that I can see. Am I missing something? Or is there an other (even more thorough) website I can use to compare motherboard specs?
It's really easy to build a pc. Plenty of step by step tutorials on YouTube. Without those step by step tutorials, I wouldn't have had the confidence to self-build, in all honesty. After your first build, it feels like you could build any kind of PC.
Even if you have to ask an experienced friend to help you, it's worth self-building. You can ensure that the components you choose are a good quality.
With concerns to onboard audio. The number of channels equates to the number of speaker systems you can run from the motherboard. My advice to you, if you want quality audio, is to purchase either 1. an expensive motherboard or 2. place a soundcard in your system.
The soundcard upgrade, being the obvious choice, can wait until a later time. The PC I proposed is good enough to upgrade, has plenty of power for a high-tier GPU, plus overclocking, plus additional devices.
If you need help with the build, you know where to post. It ought to be very simple to put together. And it's really where gaming starts. I can recommend other parts if you need to save a little extra cash. I wouldn't get a GPU less than the 7770Ghz. fantastic budget card.
Have fun
No doubt I'll be back with more questions soon!
Gx