I got a request on the blog for a Red-Black Themed Gaming PC by a guy named Daniel (Ill address him as Dan). Dan has a budget of $1000 max but prefer the PC to be $700-$800. So, let's begin with the build
Starting off the build we have the pocket friendly CPU, i5 6500. This is a great CPU for the price with an amazing power. A surprisingly low TDP of 65W makes it highly efficient and helps it stay cool. All these features made its choice unquestionable.
CPU- Intel Core i5 6500
Like every other budget build I will do on this channel, this Build too has the same CPU cooler; Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO. A "180W" Max TDP at just $20 is mind blowing. With the best price/performance ratio and amazing feedback from the users Hyper 212 EVO was a no brainer choice.
Cooler- Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
Getting a budget LGA 1151 Motherboard wouldn't have been difficult but keeping up with the theme made it sort of difficult. But MSI came to rescue with their beautiful Red and Black B150 Gaming M3 motherboard. Since we have a non-K CPU a Z170 board isn't required and hence we saved about 10-15 bucks with a more affordable chipset.
Motherboard- MSI B150 Gaming M3
Keeping up with the gorgeous Red and Black Theme we have an equally gorgeous Red pair of RAM sticks from G.Skill. Excelling in both performance and aesthetics, this choice too was made simple with the 2X8 GB kit being the most popular DDR4 kit on PCPartPicker.
RAM- G.Skill Ripjaws V DDR4 2400mhz 8GB (x2)
Selecting the right storage is always easy even for newbies. Get the cheapest one you can find for your required capacity. Here we have the Hitachi 2 TB HDD and an SSD from PNY. Now, Hitachi was a choice of price but PNY was more a choice of its aesthetics with its beautiful black and red color scheme.
HDD- Hitachi Deskstar 7K2000 2TB 7200 RPM 3.5"
SSD- PNY CS1311 240 GB 2.5"
The GPU was a difficult choice. Currently RX 480 has issues of its own with high power draw from PCIe slot, thermal issues and no overclocking potential with the AMD Stock Cooler. The card is great but not enough to get it over the GTX 1060, leaked benchmarks of the 1060 suggest it outperforms the RX 480, moreover, matches (or is near to) GTX 980 performance. Even if we consider the benchmarks wrong just like the RX 480 benches were still History of GPUs tells us to get the 1060 over 480.
Now, lets have a history lesson, shall we? An N60 card from NVIDIA has always outperformed A80 card from AMD. GTX 760 performed better than Radeon 280, GTX 960 performed better than Radeon 380. Also, an N60 card from newer Gen has always outperformed an N70 card from last Gen.
Power efficiency is another thing is which puts Nvidia ahead of AMD. From GPU History we know that an N60 card has been about 20% more efficient on average. The 760 was a whopping 25% more efficient than a 770. The 960 was about 18% more efficient than the 970 (we are just talking Watts here no performance). The 1070 has a TDP of 150W now from the GPU history we know that 1060 will be more efficient than that. If we take the efficiency to even 15-17% that too puts the 1060 at 125 Watts. 125 Watts of 1060 is a whopping 25% more efficient than the 170 watts the RX 480 takes (even when it is rated at 150W) with its power issues.
The history somewhat confirms the leaks, which say that 1060 performs near about 980 (over 970 as told in GPU History Para 1) and has a rated TDP of 120W (lesser than whats told in GPU History Para 2). If History repeats itself with this gen too then, a 1060 would perform better and be more power efficient than the RX 480.
Now back to the build, the 1060 is supposed to be released by the end of this month (July 2016), and be priced at around $250. There would be 2 versions 3GB and 6GB it is unknown which one will be priced at $250 but it is anticipated that it will be the 3GB one. The Aftermarket solutions will start shipping by the end of August (max). At this point it will be more beneficial to wait for a 1060 unless you are in a real hurry. For that instance, go with an RX 480. So in this build, I have added a GTX 1060 with an estimate price of $300. To match with the build the MSI GTX 1060 Gaming is chosen as it has a red and black shroud (Twin Frozr VI cooler).
GPU- MSI GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming Edition
The case is an interesting choice. It is unknown to many but Deepcool makes an amazing and beautiful budget case called Kendomen. To match with the theme I had previously thought of the Corsair Spec-02 case but the Deepcool Kendomen TI stole the spot when it came across my eyes. This case comes with 5 pre-installed fans, 2 of which are LED. A thing to note that the PC Part Picker listing did not have the TI version of the Deepcool Kendomen (TI is the newer version with added Radiator support) so I selected the regular one but the TI is available on amazon.com. If Dan prefers he can go with the Corsair Spec-02 case instead.
Case- Deepcool Kendomen TI Red
The power required for this build was a mere 350W but I added a more powerful PSU anyway. A thing to note is that PSUs of higher wattage don't consume more power than their lower wattage counterparts. So adding a slightly more powerful PSU won't harm anything in anyway. Power consumption will always be equal to power requirement no matter what PSU you get. A 1200W power supply will consume power equal to a 500W PSU on a PC that requires 450W power.
PSU- Corsair CXM 550W
This sums up the build at under $900.
A few notes for Dan-
If you want the PC right away go for RX 480 but if you can wait (or my TechTalk changed your mind) wait for the 1060 as the iGPU (GPU in the processor) can run games like CS GO, Rocket League, LoL etc at decent settings and FPS. If you currently have a GPU then build this right away and use the old GPU in this PC for 2 months until you get the 1060. If you have any other concerns, comment down below or e-mail me.
Thank you all for reading. What do you think about this build? Comment down below. Share this post and the Blog with your friends. See you guys next time with more awesome builds and other content.
Parts-
CPU- Intel Core i5 6500
Cooler- Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
Motherboard- MSI B150 Gaming M3
RAM- G.Skill Ripjaws V DDR4 2400mhz 8GB (x2)
HDD- Hitachi Deskstar 7K2000 2TB 7200 RPM 3.5"
SSD- PNY CS1311 240 GB 2.5"
GPU- MSI GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming Edition
Case- Deepcool Kendomen TI Red
PSU- Corsair CXM 550W
~APex
