Help with very budget non gaming PC.

[Nothin]

Hello everyone,

Sorry for my first post being a question but I have been specing out a non gaming, very budget pc and was wondering if you could give me your opinion on the cheapest way to go?
As the most taxing thing it will be used for is probably HD online TV streaming I thought about going for an AMD A10-5800K.
CPU - AMD A10-5800K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor Processor with integrated Radeon HD 7660D Graphics £72.70
Motherboard - MSI A68HM-P33 Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard £33.22
Memory - Crucial 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory £26.18
Storage - Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive £37.99
Power Supply - EVGA 500W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply £33.59

Could anyone please give their opinion on whether I can get similar performance for less money with Intel hardware?

Thanks for any help,
Gary

[Bonebreaker777]

Used components?

I would say it's safe to buy second hand components with no moving parts (CPU + RAM).
Also don't forget to use reward websites (Topcashback,Flubit).

4GB DDR3 RAM from CeX for £18 (potential savings).
A8-5500 APU from CeX for £40 (for your purposes a lot better value).

[Domestic_Ginger]

How would the new raspberry pi do?

They have been talking it up?

[DanceswithUnix]

My daughter has a 5800K, it works well but on a Gigabyte motherboard the fans seem to run rather fast and it makes quite a bit of noise doing anything more than basic browsing.

I would say to look at the A8-7600, it is 65W rated, should be much easier/quieter to cool and you get a graphics system that is way more up to date than the old VLIW4 graphics in the 5800K (which matters for long term graphics driver support from AMD). On Scan at the moment the 7600 is 21p more.

[shaithis]

If the most demanding thing is going to be HD streaming, go AM1. Cheaper and quieter.

[rich835]

As others have said, you won't need anything special to just do HD streaming.
I had an AMD A4 4000 APU a little while back, and that didn't remotely struggle with streaming. I would advise going with the cheapest APU you can get, and spend any spare dosh on keeping the machine as quiet as possible, with a good silent cooler and a silent PSU.

[Nothin]

Thanks for the replies guys, really appreciate you taking the time.

Bonebreaker777
I see what you’re saying about non mechanical parts, you know as they’ve been through burn-in they should last but was looking to get as much trouble free life out of the machine as possible by buying new.
Might go with your suggestion on Ram though as it’s easy to change out and I can double up on the amount if I find some for the right price.
Thanks for the reminder about the cashback sites, I keep forgetting I have a Topcashback account until after I hit the confirm purchase button.

Domestic_Ginger
I love the whole concept of the RPi but I’m guessing there would be a fair bit of investigation/re-education involved in going this route?

DanceswithUnix
Thanks a lot for the excellent advice, this is just what I was hoping for in regard to APU selection.
I thought the 5800K used the same Kaveri architecture but I was wrong.
Had a quick look and there doesn’t seem to be much in it, in regard to the graphics, between the Radeon R7 of the A8-7600 and the HD 7660D of the A10-5800K, is this right?

Shaithis
Not considered that, will need to investigate further, thanks.
When I originally looked into the 5800K I thought it would be enough to keep up with any advancements in video streaming for a few years at least.

I’ve been leaning towards AMD as I read that at this end of the market you get the best price/performance but someone mentioned the Intel Pentium G3258.
Like the A8-7600 it was only released last year and is about £20 cheaper.
How would the G3258 perform with my requirements, HD video, internet browsing, email and running MS Office?

Thanks again for the replies so far.
Gary

[Nothin]

Thanks Rich, noise won't be an issue but will look into the AM1 APUs.
I just found the Hexus review of the G3258 which includes a comparison of the 5350 AM1 and the A8-7600.
Can't see the wood for the trees.
Will have a read through it.

[Domestic_Ginger]

I've had a quick look at the pi. You stick the os on a sdcard and away you go. Can't be anymore difficult than a PC.

This guy uses it to stream HD TV;
http://mymediaexperience.com/raspber...-with-raspbmc/
Note he is using the old model.

There is an app store with libreoffice available. Seems to be able to do most things; I think its pretty much a very budget computer. Would like one, really like the idea too; but will have to need one. We still have a CRT TV!

The pi is £32. Case, memory card and power supply; you're away!

[Dooms]

Personally I would avoid the Pi route (at least the Pi 1 A&B... not tried Pi 2) as while it is ok to get HD streaming working using various version of XBMC you get issues with the more demanding skins, menu lag, one of the three we have in the flat will frequently just fall over.

We use them because we bought a couple for pissing about with and have alternative media devices as main. Given the choice I wouldn't bother with them at all anymore.

The new Pi2 is A LOT more powerful so should solve most of those problem as long as Raspbmc / openelec / PiBMC have been updated

[Nothin]

Thanks a lot for everyone’s help, professional reviews are a good starting point but I always find opinions from people who’ve actually used the stuff invaluable.
It seems the G3258 and the A8-7600 will both do what I need for a good few years (hopefully).
I know I said the machine won’t be used for gaming but they always find a way on any PC so it just comes down to whether I think the extra power of the A8-7600 is worth the extra £20 bearing in mind that this was supposed to be a very budget new machine.

The RPi 2 will definitely be a project for another time though.

Thanks yet again,
Gary

[DanceswithUnix]

I once bought a <£20 video card for use in a server, and I went really low end as I figured it would never ever be used for gaming. Some months later my main video card died, and guess which was the only thing to hand?

The graphics can be used by video playback software to do image processing as well, so it can be relevant. People who are really serious about HTPC setups use fairly big graphics cards to do de-interlace, noise reduction etc as well as possible.

The Pentium only makes any sense if you overclock it. That is kind of a hobby in itself, but unless you heavily overclock the G3258 the AMD chip will do things like video conversion faster.

I would go the 7600 rather than the Pentium.

[Bonebreaker777]

Second vote on the AMD chip. For your universal purposes it's a lot better (plus the IGP will allow you to play more game that the Intel.If you ever fancy).

[Nothin]

Thanks guys.
Yeah, don't really want to overclock.
Pretty much settled on the 7600, just got to shop around for the best prices.
Thank you so much for everyones input, even if I didn't end up following your advice it was much appreciated,
I'd hit the thank you button for all of you but I'm to much of a lurker to get the option.

Cheers,
Gary