Budget Gaming Build round 2 - £700

[kurosagi01]

Hello all..so i have made 2 threads previously which one is upgrade for me which i decided to go for a RX580 for personal reasons and the other which was Last year February for my GF. That didn't fall through due to budget and personal reasons.
Here: https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/potential-upgrade-to-amd-ryzen.234348/
Feb 2016 thread :https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/new-budget-gaming-pc-1920x1080.220098/

Now Fast forward to today it is happening now which i'll be planning on building Next weekend but i would like to get some feedbacks on parts selection.
Purpose - 1920x1080 Gaming system again, overclocking is not required.
I will be re-using my GTX970 for this build so GPU is not an issue,Monitor and peripherals is sorted already.

I am currently looking at a MATX build as i fancy trying build something smaller and also looking at Ryzen 3. Now for value for money there isn't much benefits or gains between Ryzen 3 1200 vs Intel i5 7400(intel chip i was looking at) but i could be wrong..The Wattage are similar but price difference on the i5 is another £70 difference.

If i was to go Ryzen path here is build i am looking at £590 at the moment:


Now my question is the Motherboard is okay as i have 0 knowledge on AMD boards and i have never used Asrock before but again i have heard good things from everyone on here.
Also is there anywhere i can save money on selected parts,Wireless is a requirement for this build.

 

[R00kie]

So is this not for you but for someone else? I'm asking is because you already have a good enough PC.
What's the total for all of this comes down to(cba to calculate it myself )?
And can you stretch it a bit and get at least a Ryzen 5? These R3's are not really up to snuff if you want to play something like BF1

 

[kurosagi01]

So is this not for you but for someone else? I'm asking is because you already have a good enough PC.
What's the total for all of this comes down to(cba to calculate it myself )?
And can you stretch it a bit and get at least a Ryzen 5? These R3's are not really up to snuff if you want to play something like BF1

Its for the GF buddy =) And potentially can but would like to keep the cost down as much as possible,only intensive game she wouldn't be playing any intensive games like BF1 or something. Most intensively probably something like Witcher 3 but she already played it and finished on PS4.
For £700 i can fit in Ryzen 5 or even the i5 7400 but again is the performance gain worth the extra £s as i would prefer to try keep the cost down.
Edit:
That build at top comes upto £590

 

[R00kie]

I would say it is worth it, if down the line that 970 is gonna get changed to something with a bit more oomph, and also the extra threads will be able to help keeping the minimum framerates high.
I wouldnt've picked an R3 myself, unless I was building an HTPC.

 

[kurosagi01]

I would say it is worth it, if down the line that 970 is gonna get changed to something with a bit more oomph, and also the extra threads will be able to help keeping the minimum framerates high.
I wouldnt've picked an R3 myself, unless I was building an HTPC.

I would of thought quad core with 4 threads is still sufficient still for gaming as i am still running quad core with 4 threads aswell?
Looking at the benchmarks on TPU review on the 1200 in most cases the 1200 vs 1500 is about 5fps difference.

 

[Vya Domus]

in most cases the 1200 vs 1500 is about 5fps difference.

That doesn't tell the whole story , minimums are better with more threads , you also get more consistent frametimes.

 

[R00kie]

I mean, it's your money, it's up to you if the extra 5 fps is worth it for you. If I were you, i Would've went for the R5 just because it has those extra threads that will help in extreme circumstances.

 

[kurosagi01]

That doesn't tell the whole story , minimums are better with more threads , you also get more consistent frametimes.

I mean, it's your money, it's up to you if the extra 5 fps is worth it for you. If I were you, i Would've went for the R5 just because it has those extra threads that will help in extreme circumstances.

A fair point taken,probably will consider it and sob my eyes knowing she will have a overall better system than me lol
Anyways what about the choice of motherboard and also is it better still to go for dual channel 8gb or single 8gb kit these days? Reason im asking is it seems lot of "youtubers" budget builds like using single 8gb kit purely for reason if you have only 2 ram slots it give you option to upgrade to 16gb which i don't think 16gb is necessary still. But it isn't a big concern as most B350 boards comes with 4 ram slots but there is still a bit of savings getting single 8gb vs 2x4gb kit.

 

[R00kie]

The more memory bandwidth the Ryzen gets, the better it will perform. Not only that its better to go for higher clocked kits. Your motherboard choice is fine.

 

[Vya Domus]

A fair point taken,probably will consider it and sob my eyes knowing she will have a overall better system than me lol
Anyways what about the choice of motherboard and also is it better still to go for dual channel 8gb or single 8gb kit these days? Reason im asking is it seems lot of "youtubers" budget builds like using single 8gb kit purely for reason if you have only 2 ram slots it give you option to upgrade to 16gb which i don't think 16gb is necessary still. But it isn't a big concern as most B350 boards comes with 4 ram slots but there is still a bit of savings getting single 8gb vs 2x4gb kit.

I recently upgraded to 16GB RAM and Deus Ex : Mankind Divided actually runs a little better , I heard this was the case with this game but I couldn't believe it before I have seen it with my own eyes. Of course most are games run exactly the same but this does rise some question on the amount of RAM. I would personally go for 16GB for a new build , but that's just what I would do it is still not 100% necessary.

 

[thebluebumblebee]

• A lot of people have complained about build quality and noises with those "Air" cases. May I suggest the Define Mini C (TG)?
• Frequency is king for a gaming system. The 1300X is not that much more money, nor is the 1500X.
• RAM speed really matters for Ryzen. Get the fastest that you can confirm works with this motherboard. Oh, and 16 GB.
• SSD's are nice, but for a budget build, I'd spend a little more for the 2TB of storage of a FireCuda.
• Maybe consider a G4560 build????
• Surely you can find W10 for a LOT less.

A fair point taken,probably will consider it and sob my eyes knowing she will have a overall better system than me lol
Anyways what about the choice of motherboard and also is it better still to go for dual channel 8gb or single 8gb kit these days? Reason im asking is it seems lot of "youtubers" budget builds like using single 8gb kit purely for reason if you have only 2 ram slots it give you option to upgrade to 16gb which i don't think 16gb is necessary still. But it isn't a big concern as most B350 boards comes with 4 ram slots but there is still a bit of savings getting single 8gb vs 2x4gb kit.

On the Intel side, there does not seem to be a real penalty for going with single channel. I would think that the performance penalty might be higher for Ryzen??????

 

[kurosagi01]

• A lot of people have complained about build quality and noises with those "Air" cases. May I suggest the Define Mini C (TG)?
• Frequency is king for a gaming system. The 1300X is not that much more money, nor is the 1500X.
• RAM speed really matters for Ryzen. Get the fastest that you can confirm works with this motherboard. Oh, and 16 GB.
• SSD's are nice, but for a budget build, I'd spend a little more for the 2TB of storage of a FireCuda.
• Maybe consider a G4560 build????
• Surely you can find W10 for a LOT less.

On the Intel side, there does not seem to be a real penalty for going with single channel. I would think that the performance penalty might be higher for Ryzen??????

It was either the Corsair or a Bitfenix phenom M case,the case has to be white and doesn't seem to be any Define Mini C white available.
I'm pretty happy with just a 240gb SSD alone for now as she won't be installing that many games nor need a big storage anytime soon.
I've bumped the ram to a 2666mhz kit and 8gb is still sufficient for the build and don't see need for 16GB just yet.
I did consider the G4560 but id still probably prefer something quad core at least for the budget when i'm not factoring in cost of a GPU.
Been trying find legit W10 for cheaper price for awhile but i don't entirely trust any of the vendors that sells just the key on its own.
Updated list:

 

[Static~Charge]

Been trying find legit W10 for cheaper price for awhile but i don't entirely trust any of the vendors that sells just the key on its own.

FYI - I took a chance and bought 3 Windows 10 Pro license keys from SCDKey in the past few months, and they activated without any issues. I don't know where they get the keys, but I'm loving the price!

 

[kurosagi01]

FYI - I took a chance and bought 3 Windows 10 Pro license keys from SCDKey in the past few months, and they activated without any issues. I don't know where they get the keys, but I'm loving the price!

Any problems so far? It activate yeah thats cool its just the after activation after few months of running the OS that concerns me a little whether it deactivate the code or not.

 

[Static~Charge]

Any problems so far? It activate yeah thats cool its just the after activation after few months of running the OS that concerns me a little whether it deactivate the code or not.

My oldest key has been in use for 3 months now without issues. At those low prices, I was willing to take the risk. So far, it has paid off handsomely.

 

[krusha03]

I would go for something like this. In my opinion it's better to go for a cheaper case but better CPU

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor (£188.94 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350M Pro4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£74.19 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2666 Memory (£63.59 @ Aria PC)
Storage: ADATA - Ultimate SU800 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£77.99 @ Ebuyer)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 970 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card
Case: Element Gaming - HYPERION MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£38.48 @ Ebuyer)
Power Supply: Corsair - CX 500W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£62.23 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Pro Full - USB 32/64-bit (£69.00 @ Amazon UK)
Wireless Network Adapter: Edimax - EW-7811UAC USB 2.0 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Adapter (£16.96 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £591.38
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-08-08 07:49 BST+0100

 

[kurosagi01]

I would go for something like this. In my opinion it's better to go for a cheaper case but better CPU

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor (£188.94 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350M Pro4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£74.19 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2666 Memory (£63.59 @ Aria PC)
Storage: ADATA - Ultimate SU800 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£77.99 @ Ebuyer)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 970 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card
Case: Element Gaming - HYPERION MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£38.48 @ Ebuyer)
Power Supply: Corsair - CX 500W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£62.23 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Pro Full - USB 32/64-bit (£69.00 @ Amazon UK)
Wireless Network Adapter: Edimax - EW-7811UAC USB 2.0 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Adapter (£16.96 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £591.38
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-08-08 07:49 BST+0100

More the money i would very much would prefer it to be a new system for myself lol but its already going to be better than my current setup,while i agree it be better to go for cheaper but better CPU unfortunately because its not for me the aesthetics of the case matters in this situation hence why i picked the Corsair Air 240 case,i was looking at the Bitfenix phenom M but the GF didn't like it.
If i was to go Ryzen 5 then 1400 would be plenty for her needs or even if i was to stay on R3 then perhaps the 1300x instead of 1200 if i wanted save more pennies which could go towards games or something.

 

[R00kie]

What about a switcharoo? She gets your old stuff, and you get to upgrade?

 

[kurosagi01]

What about a switcharoo? She gets your old stuff, and you get to upgrade?

Would need invest in a matx board for my CPU haha which could equate more money on top of the ryzen haha.

 

[R00kie]

You can get mitx boards for like 40 quid on amazon

 

[kurosagi01]

You can get mitx boards for like 40 quid on amazon

No..i promised her a new build lol,oh wells..i'll be using it aswell so it makes no difference to me at the end of the day. When we move in together then it won't matter haha..i'll be looking at upgrading my whole system next year most likely with Ryzen or even next Intel platform.

 

[krusha03]

No..i promised her a new build lol,oh wells..i'll be using it aswell so it makes no difference to me at the end of the day. When we move in together then it won't matter haha..i'll be looking at upgrading my whole system next year most likely with Ryzen or even next Intel platform.

Does she has the know how to distinguish a new build from a new case?

Joking aside well for cases it's a matter of taste. What about:

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/B8Jkcf/raijintek-case-0r200026

or

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/QVYWGX/bitfenix-case-bfcaeg300rkwn1rp

 

[kurosagi01]

Does she has the know how to distinguish a new build from a new case?

Joking aside well for cases it's a matter of taste. What about:

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/B8Jkcf/raijintek-case-0r200026

or

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/QVYWGX/bitfenix-case-bfcaeg300rkwn1rp

She will when i tell her haha and i agree it is hence why i'm rocking a Fractal design Define R4 over other cases still. As for those sadly i'm not fan of those and she won't be either lol case need be white as it matches the desk and white PS4.

 

[kurosagi01]

So just an update on this..i have made the purchased i am really excited to build a machine that be better than my own for my partner haha but its okay its still technically mine..*cough* i mean ours. Also my 2nd AMD Desktop and first time building on AMD platform.

Want thanks everyone for advice here is what i went with at the end..pics will follow:
CPU - AMD Ryzen 5 1400
CPU cooler - Stock/Wraith cooler
Motherboard - ASrock AB350m Pro4 MATX
Ram - Corsair Vengeance DDR4 8gb kit 2666mhz
Graphics card - my old EVGA Nvidia GTX970
HDD - Kingston UV400 240GB SSD
Power supply - EVGA 550W B3 bronze modular
Add-on - Asus AC wireless card
Case - Corsair Carbide Air 240 in white
OS - Windows 10 Home premium

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

Shes a lucky lady.

My wife is such a technophobe, if i built her a PC she would probably try and warm a pie up in it.