FlyinSpaghetti Posted October 7, 2015 Share Posted October 7, 2015 that 350 included the OS so its more like 250 or so. I thought about going with the Pentium G3258 and a fair graphics card as was suggested in a few budget builds, but just decided on getting the APU and dual it with a pretty good gfx card later. Im not sure how long the G3258 will remain relevant. Just wanted something initially that would run swtor and maybe some other games. You can only dual that APU with something like a 6670, ideally for gaming you want a strong gpu from the offset instead of messing about with half baked workarounds. As for the pentium it's not the ideal choice for a gaming system however it's still just as fast if not faster than the 5800k cpu wise, only 50 watts of power, cheap and easily replaceable by a stronger haswell cpu like an i5 down the line. With the 5800k setup you're pretty much limited to the FM2 socket unless you want to completely change your motherboard. It makes it much more hassle to upgrade later on if you feel the APU is not quite enough where as the pentium makes the perfect stop gap until you can afford to go all out for an i5. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ALaggyGrunt Posted October 7, 2015 Share Posted October 7, 2015 Stuff to think about: Unless you plan on getting Linux and fiddling with Wine, you need a Windows license. If you do plan to install Linux and fiddle with Wine, an AMD APU would be a very good thing to look at, because there is a way to run native Direct3D 9 on Wine if you have an AMD graphics chipset (GalliumNine and the Wine fork which uses it). It would be a learning experience full of "Wait what?" moments. Stick with integrated graphics in that price range. You can't get a graphics card which will give you a serious speed boost Motherboard and power supply are the most important parts. RAM is a close third, and you will want at least 8 GB. If you buy an OEM for System Builders copy of Windows, the Windows key will be bound to the motherboard, and you won't be able to move this copy of Windows to a new computer. AMD APUs require expensive RAM for good performance. Intel integrated graphics just need slightly cheaper stuff. Cost of power. Efficiency is important if power isn't cheap. Your parts list should read: Case. You can buy a bigger case (ATX) for a smaller motherboard (MicroATX), and it will fit. Just don't go the other way. You would have to look hard to find a motherboard/case which isn't some variation of ATX. Power supply if the case doesn't have come with one (check!) Motherboard. I like Asus, they've worked pretty well for me. CPU. Fast i3 or slow i5-or the fast. If you budget were in the $800 range, This would be worth a very hard look, because it fits SWTOR's performance demands pretty well: fast CPU cores, very fast integrated graphics, and very energy-efficient for the performance you get out of it. Or wait for AMD's next generation to hopefully shake things up a little. Heatsink and fan if the CPU doesn't come with one (check!) RAM. Make sure it will work with your motherboard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TX_Angel Posted October 7, 2015 Share Posted October 7, 2015 I think it's a raw deal IMO, I could probably build an APU based system for the faction of that. For around 80 us bucks more you could build a mini itx system with a nice strong dedicated gpu: https://pcpartpicker.com/user/fl2015/saved/#view=zzcscf Consider that it sounds like he is getting a complete, ready to go computer. If it is built for you, it will cost a bit more than if you do it yourself, most of the time (not always of course). It also comes with Windows, which isn't free if you need a legal copy. It will for sure be a nice upgrade over his older computer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TX_Angel Posted October 7, 2015 Share Posted October 7, 2015 that 350 included the OS so its more like 250 or so. I thought about going with the Pentium G3258 and a fair graphics card as was suggested in a few budget builds, but just decided on getting the APU and dual it with a pretty good gfx card later. Im not sure how long the G3258 will remain relevant. Just wanted something initially that would run swtor and maybe some other games. Honestly, the Pentium G3258 will likely run SWTOR faster than the AMD chip does. It has better single core performance and SWTOR doesn't use more than 2 cores anyway. That being said, for gaming, 4 cores is becoming "standard", more or less, so it will help in other things. But it depends on what GPU you could afford if you got the G3258 chip. If you can get an AMD card with 750ish streaming processors, it will be miles faster than the APU solution. The comment about upgrades has a point, you can drop an i5 into the Pentium system any time you want, but you will never really be able to upgrade the APU system without replacing the motherboard. But then how often do people replace the CPU? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikahrtwo Posted October 8, 2015 Share Posted October 8, 2015 Thanks for the advice guys. I am going to build my own going with AMD A10-5800 APU. Its going to cost me 350 for the entire build including windows OS. I've done a ton of research and the APU will easily handle this game and others at mid-lower settings from what I've seen. Later I can worry with a separate GPU. Edit: For people that find their selves in the same situation I did and looking to see whats involved in building a PC part by part, I found an awesome site: pcpartpicker.com to use. It allows you to pick out each part and checks for pricing and compatibility. As far as it being cheaper to build than buy pre-built, there really isn't much price difference when factoring in all that comes with a pre-built versus making your own, but pre-builts are limited in what can be upgraded later, and the price goes up substantially when looking at pre-builts that can more easily be upgraded, which will save me money in the long run when I need to upgrade again. Thats a decent choice if youre not too graphically demanding, just be sure to pick fast RAM (1866 for that APU), as its not any more expencive and it matters for APU. Going g3258 in setups like some suggested is the dumbest idea. All the good results you see around net is when its overclocked to 4,4-4,5 GHz which requires decent OC board and decent cooling. And since its vanilla dual core CPU it will run multi threaded things dreadful at stock. It has its uses but its overall bad CPU. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobs_YourUncle Posted October 8, 2015 Author Share Posted October 8, 2015 Thanks again guys. Yeah idk much about this stuff so if I end up having to get a new MB for a processor upgrade later on it's fine. Yeah I saw that about the RAM. There's a ton of building pcs for noobs guides on youtube so I think I've got it. I've ordered the CPU and case already. Two more paychecks and im golden. Here's what I've went with: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/R4YQJx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobs_YourUncle Posted January 13, 2016 Author Share Posted January 13, 2016 (edited) Well I finally got it built. I went with the AMD A10-5800k (7660D Radeon graphics), Gigabyte A88X MB, 2x4GB RAM, and am now able to play on high settings with 30 to 50 fps in most areas. Ultra settings runs at about 10 to 20 fps. 313 bucks, OS included. http://pcpartpicker.com/p/zV22hM Edit: Oh I see they are not including the price of the processor, which was about 80 bucks, so make that 400 bucks total. Edited January 13, 2016 by Bobs_YourUncle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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