build in need of review

[DDevine]

its my first build and im definitely no expert so feel free to be brutally honest

Case
InWIN GT1 BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD FX-6350 Six Core CPU (4.2/3.9GHZ - 8MB CACHE/AM3+)
Motherboard
Gigabyte 990X GAMING SLI: AM3+ (ATX, DDR3, USB 3.0, 6Gb/s)
Memory (RAM)
16GB HyperX SAVAGE DUAL-DDR3 2133MHz X.M.P (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
4GB AMD RADEON™ RX 460 - HDMI, DP, DVI - DX® 12
2nd Graphics Card
4GB AMD RADEON™ RX 460 - HDMI, DP, DVI - DX® 12
1st Hard Disk
120GB HyperX SAVAGE 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 560MB/sR | 360MB/sW)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W VS SERIES™ VS-650 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
PCS FrostFlow 120 Series High Performance Liquid Cooler
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Extra Case Fans
2x 120mm Apache Black Quiet Fan (fitted to extract from rear/roof)
Sound Card
Asus Xonar DG 5.1 SoundCard & Headphone AMP (Award Winner)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Google Chrome™
Monitor
ASUS VE248HR 24" LED DISPLAY
Monitor Cables
1 x 2 METRE GOLD PLATED V1.4 HDMI CABLE
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 3 to 5 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,114.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[Oussebon]

What's the build for? Gaming? If so you can do a lot better for the same kind of money.

AMD CPUs are greatly outmatched by Intel ones for gaming.
Dual GPUs are rarely the best answer compared to a single GPU at the same price point.
You probably won't get any benefit from a sound card. The onboard audio should be fine for gaming and general use.
The Inwin GT1 is sold as having 3 fans as standard. It's a good budget case and that should be all you need for cooling.
120gb won't get you very far for storage, especially if you're gaming.
You could get a nice, fast, high refresh rate Freesync monitor to go with your RX 480.


Case
InWIN GT1 BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-6600 (3.3GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® H110M-R: Micro-ATX, DDR4, LG1151, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM)
16GB Kingston DUAL DDR4 2133MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
4GB AMD RADEON™ RX 480 - HDMI, 3 x DP - DX® 12
FREE Civilization 6 CODE with AMD RX 480 Series GPUs!
1[SUP]st[/SUP] Hard Disk
240GB HyperX SAVAGE 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 560MB/sR | 530MB/sW)
1[SUP]st[/SUP] DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 450W VS SERIES™ VS-450 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Super Quiet Titan DragonFly Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Monitor
AOC G2460PF 24" LED 144Hz GAMING MONITOR
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 3 to 5 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,142.00 including VAT and delivery.

Unique URL to re-configure: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/intel-home-office-pc/ekGJuWYx6N/

If you need more storage than a 240gb SSD you could make room for an additional 1TB/2TB HDD as well by dropping the monitor down to an IIYAMA GE2488HS-B2. You could upgrade to the 8gb RX 480 with the leftovers, though the difference between the 8gb and 4gb RX 480 is often negligible to non-existent.



The 6600 is a touch slower than the 6600k, but it gives you a rough idea of the kind of performance difference between AMD CPUs in games. You can see the difference between an RX 460 and an RX 480 in the other graph.
I have found comprehensive benchmarks for the RX 460 in Crossfire (i.e. where you use 2 of them) but they seem generally barely able to match an RX 470 on a good day: https://imgur.com/a/ttUe0#BxBaADA and are sometimes a lot worse (not all games scale well at all for multiple GPUs).

 

[DDevine]

min requirements would be reliable 1080p 60fps online gaming at high settings and streaming movies in HD, am i lacking anywhere? and will this monitor do the dual gpus justice?

 

[Oussebon]

and will this monitor do the dual gpus justice?

Don't buy dual GPUs at this price range. That's my point. I'm saying a single RX 480 4gb would be better than a pair of 460s.

As for online gaming, certain online games will get sharp FPS drops in some situations no matter what hardware you throw at them. For those games, CPUs with strong single-threaded performance are often your best defence (i.e. i5 6600 is a lot better than the FX 6350 in those situations) to mitigate FPS drops.

However, depending on the game and what's going on at the time, the RX 480 would be a decent match for a 144hz monitor such as the AOC G2460PF, yes.

 

[DDevine]

oh cool thanks! yeah im tryna keep it as cheap as i can for now so i can get it in one paycheck, then i was gonna upgrade it next month with the second gpu and another ssd if i need it, but tbh i think i just wanted two gpus because im still ten years old in my head haha. i saw your other post about monitors after i made this and i can get the illyama black hawk for an extra £5 would that be good enough? oh and i only got the souncard for the headphone amp because ill be using a headset with it pretty much 100% of the time

 

[Oussebon]

Let me be clear:

Don't buy the build you posted.

Don't buy that CPU. Don't buy twin GPUs. You'll be spending more cash for less performance.

With regards to the sound card, you're unlikely to get much benefit unless it's pretty expensive gear and you're listening to studio quality FLACs / DSD files etc. If it's just mid-range headphones then I'd stick with onboard sound. You could get a USB DAC and Amp as a future upgrade if you decide it's inadequate but I don't see that as likely for gaming and general music streaming.

If you need to save money it would help if you post you target / maximum budgets and then we can go from there. I posted a spec aimed around the price of your original one but if you are looking to spend less it would help to have a figure to target. Then we can suggest the cheapest things you can get away with.

 

[DDevine]

yeah i wont! XD sorry i posted it like right as you did, yeah ill stick with one and ditch the soundcard maybe get a better display, what i was gonna do is i had my original build without the second gpu and only 2gb of ram that was around £800, so i could get my pc asap, set my stuff up then next paycheck i could replace the ram with some 8gb high performance sticks and unleash its true potential, or so i thought lol. if i want it this month it would have to be £800 ish but id like to be able to upgrade it

 

[Oussebon]

I'd strongly advise against buying the FX 6350 even on an £800 budget.

To be honest I think you're better off holding off on the purchase until you've mustered your full budget.

2gb RAM is barely enough for Windows, let alone when you try to open a few browser tabs or a PC game. Like, there's no point even having the PC in your house until you can get at least 8gb into it. It's just going to be sat there wearing off its warranty for no purpose.

And while you need 8gb RAM at least for things to actually run, it's the GPU and the CPU that governs game performance. An RX 460 won't run many games at high settings at 1080p (even a game like WoW it wouldn't be close)

Also some new CPUs and motherboards are about to be released (as in, in about one week) which are expected to cost about the same as the current Intel range but be a bit more powerful. Why buy a PC that's going to be obsolete before it reaches your front door?

One way to save cash on a PC build without compromising on components is not to buy a monitor and just use your TV (assuming it has an HDMI input, pretty much all modern TVs will) and just run it off that until you save up enough for a decent monitor. Another way is to stick to a regular HDD and only add an SSD in the future. SSDs do not affect FPS.

I'd suggest you hold fire until you can get the right system, even if that means a few weeks of waiting.

 

[DDevine]

wow damn thanks for the intel on the intel intel ;3 XD i had no idea and i cant order till the end of the month anyway, guess ill wait for the new stuff and see then.

 

[DDevine]

£800 rig for 1080p 60fps gaming and movies

Case
InWIN GT1 BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i3 Dual Core Processor i3-6100 (3.70GHz) 3MB Cache - SPECIAL!!
Motherboard
ASUS® Z170-P: ATX, LG1151, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM)
4GB Kingston DDR4 2133MHz (1 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
4GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1050 Ti - DVI, HDMI, DP
1st Hard Disk
120GB HyperX SAVAGE 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 560MB/sR | 360MB/sW)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 350W VS SERIES™ VS-350 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Super Quiet Titan DragonFly Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Monitor
IIYAMA GE2488HS-B2 24" Gaming Monitor
Monitor Cables
1 x 2 METRE GOLD PLATED V1.4 HDMI CABLE
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 3 to 5 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £800.00 including VAT and delivery.

is the i3 an appropriate cpu for a geforce gtx 1050ti, or is the gpu or cpu going to bottleneck the other significantly?
also pretty soon id be exchanging the ram for 8 or 16 gb of 2666hz and adding a second, larger ssd, would that put my power needs up to the 450w band?

 

[Oussebon]

I really have to recommend holding off. I can't stop you from just buying £800's worth of random stuff, but buying a system only to upgrade components within a few weeks is such a waste.

RAM is usually among the least important components for gaming.

You need it like you need a power supply for your PC to run, but other than that the speed and having over 8gb is less relevant than having a good CPU and GPU. Likewise the motherboard is broadly irrelevant for gaming performance.

Unless you have a very specific need of a Z170 motherboard, you should be sticking to the H110M-R. The Z170 is a lot more expensive and you're just wasting cash on it that you could be spending on a better CPU and GPU.

Remember as well that the day will come when you'll want to upgrade your GPU. I'm no expert but my basic understanding is that the CPU feeds instructions to the GPU about what it needs to render, which the GPU then carries out. When the CPU feeds instructions slower than the GPU would be able to carry them out, it's called a bottleneck. Even if an i3 6100 (or i3 7100 if waiting for Kaby Lake) doesn't bottleneck a GTX 1050 ti in some games, it's just about guaranteed to bottleneck whatever you replace your GPU with in ~3 years time.

The GTX 1050 ti is often not a good buy, because it's a bit cheaper than an RX 470 or RX 480 but a lot weaker.

The i3 6100 and GTX 1050 ti is a valid combo for a £600 gaming rig, not an £800 one to be frank.

Monitor
IIYAMA GE2488HS-B2 24" Gaming Monitor

Remember that Freesync only works with AMD GPUs.

and adding a second, larger ssd

If you look at the SSD sizes and the speeds written next to them, you will see that the HyperX Savage SSD at 120gb is slower than all of the others. This is because of how they're built: http://lifehacker.com/opt-for-the-larger-ssd-capacity-to-also-get-a-speed-boo-1770691500 So if you order an SSD now and then a larger one later, you'll end up with your OS and programs installed on the slower of your SSDs. If you want an SSD you are generally best off just buying a single larger one rather than a pair of smaller ones.

Remember too that SSDs make no difference to your FPS in games: http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013/12/10/hdd_vs_ssd_real_world_gaming_performance/5#.WCieG-Ro2Hs

If you are going to upgrade the PC anyway almost as soon as you get it, then just hold off until you can afford what you're going to buy outright.

 

[DDevine]

thanks again man, i was just seeing what i could getfrom intel on a budget but thats not a phrase that works lol. and i thought as much with the i3 1050 combo being for a lower end pc, if my goal is a 800 ish pc is an i5 pretty much the lowest end chip id get away with? what about the amd athlon 880k, i read some good reviews on that (though they werent expert reviews i dont think)

 

[Oussebon]

amd athlon 880k

Don't buy that. It's old and is horrendously outclassed now. Even the FX build you originally posted would be a better idea.


And that's the kind of performance difference you'd get with a card equivalent to a ~£200 GPU now. Nevermind in 2, 3, 4 years when you upgrade your GPU. Buying a CPU that bottlenecks performance that badly is just mad. Plus for £800 you ought to be buying an i5, really, not the i3 in that bench.

i was just seeing what i could getfrom intel on a budget but thats not a phrase that works lol

This winds me up. People say "Oh, for a budget gaming PC you want AMD! Intel's only for top spec" except that for gaming and general office use Intel is just better than AMD for the same £. It might have been true a few years ago, but not right now sadly. Like the i3 6100 vs the FX 6350 for gaming.

That may change again when AMD release Zen, their new CPU lineup maybe in a couple of months, which is expected to offer very competitive performance against Intel. But for now there's no real point to buying an AMD CPU based system for gaming.

also pretty soon id be exchanging the ram for 8 or 16 gb of 2666hz and adding a second, larger ssd,

if my goal is a 800 ish pc

You seem to be aiming at £800, but with the objective of almost immediately upgrading components. This is basically a waste of cash, it makes far more sense to just get the system broadly how you want it from the outset.

For your kind of budget area I'd suggest something like:

Case
InWIN GT1 BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-7600 (3.5GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® H110M-R: Micro-ATX, DDR4, LG1151, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM)
8GB Kingston DUAL DDR4 2133MHz (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
4GB AMD RADEON™ RX 480 - HDMI, 3 x DP - DX® 12
1[SUP]st[/SUP] Hard Disk
1TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 32MB CACHE
1[SUP]st[/SUP] DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 450W VS SERIES™ VS-450 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Super Quiet Titan DragonFly Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 3 to 5 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £811.00 including VAT and delivery.

Unique URL to re-configure: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/intel-home-office-pc/D9q2F4CUb5/

Depending on your budget, you could get 16gb RAM, a 240gb SSD, etc.

You could use a TV as a monitor pending on getting a dedicated monitor, or hold off on the purchase until you've got enough to get the monitor at the same time.

The AOC G2460PF 24" monitor is a good choice at ~£220. Otherwise something like the GE2488HS-B2 at about £130 (not currently sold by PC Specialist, but you can find it on google).