Budget build advice

[SMOKEU]

So a buddy of mine is looking at building up a cheap machine for his course work. We do get ripped off big time for hardware in NZ, and we don't get the big combo discounts like most of you guys get so keep that in mind.

He wants a platform that will last at least 3 years, so I was thinking of skipping a video card and using onboard graphics for the next year or so until he can afford a video card. He's not really into that much gaming, but he might do a bit of light gaming in the mean time. Without a video card that means more money to spend on the CPU as well. He might do some light overclocking later on, but not for now so I was thinking of an AMD setup. He wants a micro ATX form factor too. I was considering an AMD 7850K because at least that way he can do a bit of gaming while he waits to save up for a video card. So how does this build look?

A10 7850K with stock cooler for now
ASRock FM2A88M Extreme4+ or Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-HD3 or similar, depending on availability.
8GB DDR3 2133MHz (would the APU work much better with 2133 vs 1866?)
Corsair or Silverstone modular PSU 450W+
120-240GB SSD. Not sure which size yet, since it depends on his budget but it will have to be a cheaper model.
Antec One, Corsair Carbide 200R or BitFenix Prodigy M case, depending on budget and availability.

I know the budget Intel builds can't really be overclocked without a K series CPU, but I'm worried that will put the whole thing over budget. A 3570K would be nice, but that would have pretty bad onboard graphics for gaming. He probably wouldn't mind too much though.

He's never seen a proper gaming computer in action before and still thinks PS3 graphics look great lol. So how would a 7850K APU be compared to a PS3 in terms of gaming?

 

[Mandrake4565]

The AMD Apu's are pretty good for budget builds, that is the way I would go and you could always put in a discrete Gpu and crossfire it with the APU. The R7 250 and 240 can both be paired with it.

 

[SMOKEU]

Will a budget motherboard with a cheap cooler like a Cooler Master Hyper 212 be enough for a mild overclock, say another 300MHz on the CPU on a 7850K build?

He will also be doing some VMWare virtualization, but he will only be running maybe 3 or 4 VMs at the most, and won't be anything CPU intensive. I am aware that he will need more RAM for that, but he won't be doing virtualization for a while still for his classes.

 

[Mandrake4565]

I haven't played around with an APU so I can't say about the motherboard. That said I can't see a Quad core being that demanding where you would need a high end board for a mild OC. The CM 212 Evo is a pretty good cooler, as long as it fits in the case", it should be sufficient, but again I've never played with the 7850.

 

[SMOKEU]

So it looks like there's enough money for an Intel build. My mate will be happy with onboard video for now, so it looks like no video card for the time being until he can afford it. How does this build sound?

i5 4670K with stock cooler for now
ASRock H87M Pro4 or a ASRock Z87M Extreme4 if there's a good reason to buy the Extreme over the Pro version.
8GB DDR3 1600MHz CL9
Corsair CS450M (it will need to be powerful enough for a mid range video card in the future)
Samsung 840 Evo 120GB

I'm not sure about the case for now. It has to have good ventilation for a future single GPU video card upgrade, but not something too noisy. Dust filters are a must, and if it includes fans that's even better.

 

[SMOKEU]

I'm not really too sure on the motherboard either. He wants something that can overclock, but only a relatively moderate OC, like maybe 300-500MHz extra. So that's why I don't want to skimp out on the motherboard too much, but the budget is barely enough to cover what I've listed so far.

 

[Mandrake4565]

I'm not really too sure on the motherboard either. He wants something that can overclock, but only a relatively moderate OC, like maybe 300-500MHz extra. So that's why I don't want to skimp out on the motherboard too much, but the budget is barely enough to cover what I've listed so far.

If he want's to overclock then you will need a Z87 series motherboard.

 

[SMOKEU]

If he want's to overclock then you will need a Z87 series motherboard.

Good point; I'll check out the Gigabyte GA-Z87M-D3H since it seems like quite a well priced Z87 board.

 

[Mandrake4565]

That should work fine.