PC build under $1,000 (no peripherals or PSU included)

Hello,

I have a quick question and need some advice. I am looking to build a gaming PC based on the following specs:

Processor: Intel Core i5-6500 and
Graphics Card: XFX Radeon RX 480 8GB Black Edition

As for components I already have—excluding peripherals—I have the power supply (an XFX Core 650W Pro 80 Plus), the CPU cooler (Arctic Freezer i30 CO), and a mid-tower case.

My question is whether it's possible to fit these items within my budget:

Motherboard with 4 DIMM slots and Crossfire support
A 1TB HDD for storage
An SSD for the OS
8GB of RAM
A 24" monitor

If you have any suggestions or component changes, I would appreciate them. Alternatively, if it isn't too much trouble, feel free to suggest a better configuration using a different processor and GPU, provided the CPU has at least a 3GHz clock speed and 6MB cache, as I am not particularly interested in overclocking.

Price is not an issue, up to $2.25 🙂

Daniel Brown68 said:Hello,

I have a quick question and need some advice. I am looking to build a gaming PC based on the following specs:

Processor: Intel Core i5-6500 and
Graphics Card: XFX Radeon RX 480 8GB Black Edition

As for components I already have—excluding peripherals—I have the power supply (an XFX Core 650W Pro 80 Plus), the CPU cooler (Arctic Freezer i30 CO), and a mid-tower case.

My question is whether it's possible to fit these items within my budget:

Motherboard with 4 DIMM slots and Crossfire support
A 1TB HDD for storage
An SSD for the OS
8GB of RAM
A 24" monitor

If you have any suggestions or component changes, I would appreciate them. Alternatively, if it isn't too much trouble, feel free to suggest a better configuration using a different processor and GPU, provided the CPU has at least a 3GHz clock speed and 6MB cache, as I am not particularly interested in overclocking.

Price is not an issue, up to $2.25 🙂

Centro.hr - konfa

AMD Radeon R3 SATA III 120GB SSD, 2.5” 7mm, SATA 6 Gbit/s, Read/Write: 520 MB/s / 360 MB/s
Kingmax 1x8GB DDR4 2133 GLJG, KIN-8GB DDR4 2133
Toshiba P300 1TB, 64MB, 7200rpm HDWD110UZSVA
Intel Core i5-6402P
MSI RX 480 Gaming X, 8GB GDDR5, DirectX 12
ASRock Z170-PRO4S, 1151
LG monitor 23MP68VQ-P Cinema screen(AMD FreeSync)

Total: $2342 Centro.hr - konfa

OC-ready UEFI ... and I probably wouldn't recommend CF, by the way.

Why wouldn't you just grab something from the GTX 1060 series instead of the AMD Radeon RX 480?

Thanks for the build suggestions, crimsonstag84, I'll definitely give that one some thought. 🙂

@Lawrence Phillips: I’ve actually considered that. Part of the reason is that I plan on adding a second GPU in about two years to keep the rig relevant for newer titles. Besides, the NVIDIA GTX 1060 doesn't have hardware support for 🙂
.

Daniel Brown68 said:Thanks for the build suggestions, crimsonstag84, I'll definitely give that one some thought. 🙂

@Lawrence Phillips: I’ve actually considered that. Part of the reason is that I plan on adding a second GPU in about two years to keep the rig relevant for newer titles. Besides, the NVIDIA GTX 1060 doesn't have hardware support for 🙂
.

Who knows what the world will look like in two years, right? 😁But if I'm not mistaken, the 1060 is actually a bit beefier than the AMD Radeon RX 480, so I bet it'll hold up for more than two years—and by then, I'm sure there'll be plenty of brand-new cards out anyway.

I don't know... it feels like forever since I was deep into all this stuff. I used to think just like you, buying motherboards and cards specifically so I could do SLI or Crossfire later, but I never actually pulled the trigger. I always ended up just selling the old gear and grabbing something new instead.

The NVIDIA GTX 1060 seems to hold a slight edge on average in DirectX 11 titles, though it tends to lag behind once you switch over to DirectX 12 / Vulkan / Mantle.

Actually, having the AMD Radeon RX 480 might be the better move since it supports AMD FreeSync monitors.

Lawrence Phillips said:Who knows what the world will look like in two years, right? 😁But if I'm not mistaken, the 1060 is actually a bit beefier than the AMD Radeon RX 480, so I bet it'll hold up for more than two years—and by then, I'm sure there'll be plenty of brand-new cards out anyway.

I don't know... it feels like forever since I was deep into all this stuff. I used to think just like you, buying motherboards and cards specifically so I could do SLI or Crossfire later, but I never actually pulled the trigger. I always ended up just selling the old gear and grabbing something new instead.

Regarding the bolded part, it depends on the game. For most DirectX 11 titles, there isn't much difference, or it might even favor the AMD Radeon RX 480 when using DirectX 12 / Vulkan / Mantle. They should check which card performs better in the specific games they actually play. Since DirectX 12 is the future, I’d personally give a slight edge to the AMD Radeon RX 480, but again, let them see what works best for "their" library. ☕

none said:I'm not sure... I spent years thinking along those same lines, buying GPUs specifically for SLI or Crossfire support, only to never actually set them up. It was always more practical to just sell the old gear and upgrade to something newer.

I've had similar thoughts. So, it might ultimately depend on 🙂

number47 said:Regarding the performance, it really depends on the specific game and whether it's running on DX11, Vulkan, or DX12; often there's no difference, or the RX 480 holds the edge. He should check which card performs better in his preferred titles. Since DX12 is the standard moving forward, I'd give a slight nod to the RX 480, but he should verify based on what he actually plays.☕

The workload would mostly consist of single-player titles like The Witcher, Fallout, various MMOs, and some RTS games.

Since this setup isn't strictly for gaming, it will also be useful for software development and video or image processing.🙂