Bryan Jackson12 said:Hey there. I'm having a hard time deciding on a new PC. I've been looking at the Future offers, but I don't really get the difference between the various i5 4460 processors and those R9 280 graphics cards. There seem to be 3 or 4 different versions with price gaps of $50-$33. Since I'm no expert, I'm worried about making a mistake. Is it better to just grab a pre-built from them or pick out individual components?
I want to squeeze in an Intel i5 (by the way, what's the actual difference between the i4460 and the i4440?) and an R9 280, but the pre-builts are hitting $2000 while my budget is $5000. From what I can tell, that combo is pretty much a best-buy for GPU and CPU.
Thanks in advance.
The fact that they have more 4460s listed on their site is just their business model. Honestly, the difference between the 4440 and 4460 is negligible, so just grab the 4440 since it’s cheaper. Same goes for the graphics cards—just take the cheapest one because they're basically all the same. Any variation is usually just an extra year of warranty, whether it's factory OCan, the heatsink quality, or stuff like that. Either way, go with the cheapest version and you won't go wrong. Here is roughly what it would look like using the parts you asked for:
1 x Intel Core i5-4440 soc 1150 CPU 1 x Crucial 4GB DDR3 1600 Mhz (PC3-12800) CL11 1 x Motherboard 1150 ASR H81M-VG4 1 x XFX AMD Radeon R9 280A 3GB DDR5 Graphic Card 1 x MS PHOENIX case without PSU 1 x Fortron Hyper 500W, 80+ 1 x HDD SEAGATE Barracuda (3.5",1TB,64MB,SATA III) Total: $1623
Keep a few things in mind. You'll only fit 4 GB of RAM with an i5 and R9 280 combo, so you really should add another 4 GB as soon as possible because most modern games will absolutely tank on just 4 GB. You could add another 2 GB now if it fits, then add another 2 GB later. You still have $50 of breathing room left in your $5000 budget, so you could maybe opt for a slightly nicer case like THIS. Now, that's all optional; you could also save that $50 and put it toward that 4 GB of RAM which is pretty essential for a build like this—it's up to you. If I were you, I'd try to stretch another $100 or so to just get 8 GB of RAM right away so the build is complete, and that case will serve you well too.
Yeah, it’s definitely a solid deal—the price is hard to beat. Just keep in mind that if you're buying from Canada, you'll probably have to cover shipping costs (unless you're picking it up yourself), and getting things sent to a repair shop could turn into a total headache. You're essentially shipping components across international borders to Canada; what are the odds that something doesn't get complicated along the way? That said, you aren't going to find a PC build like this for that kind of money here in the States. Also, there's the customs issue. Since they aren't part of the European Union, I'm not entirely sure how it works, but you might end up having to pay extra fees... it's possible, though I can't say for certain.
Is this actually any good? It's super cheap, but is it worth grabbing the G3258 now just to swap in an i5 or something later??
Yeah, considering the price, it's a killer deal—just the power supply is kind of meh. Don't try to overclock or anything like that; it's just a low-end Corsair series. If you can somehow swap in a different PSU (like a 400W EVGA), it would be a damn good deal. And yeah, you can definitely toss an i5 in there later without any issues.
Yeah, if you can grab a GTX 960 without blowing your budget, then sure, go for it if you're an Nvidia loyalist. On average, it'll run about $15 more than the R9 280, but honestly, stretching your wallet just for that isn't worth it. Lower power draw is always a nice perk, but having a gig less VRAMa is a massive headache these days. Personally, I still think the 280 is the real best buy in this price bracket.
Robert Rodriguez2 said:1 x ASUS B85M-G, LGA 1150 1 x Intel Core i5-4460 Processor (3.20GHz, 1MB, 6MB, 84W, 1150) Box 1 x DDR3 8GB (2x4GB) Kingston, 1866MHz, CL10, HyperX Fury 1 x MSI R9 280 3GB GAMING 3GB GDDR5 384bit, R9 280 GAMING, TF4
$1476
👍
crimsonstag84 said:A B85 with 4 RAM slots costs about $50 more, and they definitely won't be adding more than 2x8GB 😁
It's cheaper than $27 $150 😬 on Amazon vs. Walmart. Plus, having a little extra cash doesn't hurt, and you get a much better feature set from that chipset 😁
Your PSU is solid, so you don't need to worry about that. Like others have already mentioned, though, you're better off looking for an R9 280, 280X, or 290 if possible, paired with a B85 or H97 motherboard. There's really no need to go for a Z97 board.
Go back and read your own post again, please. Do you honestly believe anyone can offer a meaningful comment or even a shred of help when you dump this much vague "information" on us? For crying out loud, tell us what computer you're running, how old it is, when this started happening, and what triggered it... 🙂
I told him, if 24 inches feels too small, he should just go for a dual monitor setup instead—that’s where you actually see a real difference. A seven-centimeter jump in diagonal size isn't exactly going to be a "wow" factor.
Hmm, you know, I’m not entirely sure. I didn't look at a specific model, just noticed it was Micro-ATX, and most of those only have two RAM slots. Regardless, if your case isn't going to hold you back—and since you're just picking one up now, it shouldn't—I'd say go with the ATX version. 🙂
With a Micro-ATX motherboard, you're looking at just two RAM slots, whereas this one gives you four. As for cases, just grab a Z3 or Z3 Plus from Zalman—you really can't go wrong there.
Don't bother with CrossFire; in most cases, it just isn't worth the hassle. You're better off getting one powerful card instead of two weaker ones. It just generates massive amounts of heat and pulls way too much power. Honestly, I'm not even sure about the quality of your current Power Supply Unit, so I have no idea if it could even handle the load. Regardless, like you were already told, you'd be better off picking up something more modern. An NVIDIA GTX 7850 is basically on par with an R7 265—which is a decent card, but not really enough for next-gen CUDA tasks. And how is a 24" screen too small for you? I don't think you'll actually notice a huge difference switching from 24" to 27". There is a difference, sure, but in my opinion, it’s not worth the money. Just swap out the GPU and call it a day. If you did get a 27" monitor, you'd probably want a higher resolution, otherwise, you'd just end up with a 1080p screen that makes the 7850 struggle even more than it already does.
True, but it can still handle some light gaming. The R7 250 isn't bad, and you can easily overclock the Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 on this board, so there's definitely more life left in this setup. For 1500 - $533 it's a solid build for web browsing, multimedia, and the occasional game. 😉
Robert Rodriguez2 said:Don't talk nonsense, $1,300–$1,400 is way too high, especially since it looks like nothing from that GPU has any soot on it.
Break it down item by item. If we assume the case is roughly $23, then based on crimsonstag84's estimate, that comes out to $533. Honestly, this motherboard is actually quite decent (for an LGA 775 socket), and I wouldn't let it go for less than $50. You could definitely get $500 for it on eBay, at the VERY least.