APU Build for a Friend?

[Edge]

Hey guys,

I'm not particularly knowledgeable about APUs, but I want to help a friend put together a capable build for his gaming/recording needs.

He's going to be using it for mostly gaming & basic editing/rendering. Think Sony Vegas and Photoshop, and a mix of indie games/Minecraft/AAA titles.

I was thinking an APU could be very suitable for this, I can also sell him my old 6870 to go in it and give him the "Dual Graphics" if it's enough of an improvement.

Things to note:

- His budget is £350-450. Less is better. Prices based on http://www.overclockers.co.uk/ if possible, easier to get it all from one place.

- He will be using 720p. So, not too intense.

- He will be recording gameplay, so it needs to be able to game at 720p/30-60fps while capturing.

- Storage space = more is better, obviously. For recording, 2x HDDs is useful. 2x500GB could be ideal, but 2x250GB could also potentially work.

- Mid tower preferred. It's not going to be full enough to merit a full tower, and a mini case would be too tricky for a noob to play around with at first.



Ideas and help would be awesome! Not just limited to APUs either if you know of something suitable.

 

[cooperman]

A APU is not the way to go too underpowered + you need expencive fast ram.

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/2KWYy

CPU: AMD Athlon II X4 760K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor (£58.00 @ Ebuyer)

Motherboard: ASRock FM2A75M PRO4+ Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard (£54.22 @ CCL Computers)

Memory: Patriot Viper 3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£64.99 @ Amazon UK)

Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 60GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£39.41 @ Amazon UK)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£38.97 @ Amazon UK)

Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7770 1GB Video Card (£73.97 @ CCL Computers)

Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£33.41 @ Ebuyer)

Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£34.14 @ Scan.co.uk)

Total: £397.11

 

[WYP]

A APU is not the way to go too underpowered + you need expencive fast ram.

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/2KWYy

CPU: AMD Athlon II X4 760K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor (£58.00 @ Ebuyer)

Motherboard: ASRock FM2A75M PRO4+ Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard (£54.22 @ CCL Computers)

Memory: Patriot Viper 3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£64.99 @ Amazon UK)

Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 60GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£39.41 @ Amazon UK)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£38.97 @ Amazon UK)

Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7770 1GB Video Card (£73.97 @ CCL Computers)

Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£33.41 @ Ebuyer)

Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£34.14 @ Scan.co.uk)

Total: £397.11

That's not a bad spec to go for, that being said the 7770 and the 6870 are pretty much the same performance so he should buy Edge's old card instead.

 

[Feronix]

A APU is not the way to go too underpowered + you need expencive fast ram.

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/2KWYy

CPU: AMD Athlon II X4 760K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor (£58.00 @ Ebuyer)

Motherboard: ASRock FM2A75M PRO4+ Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard (£54.22 @ CCL Computers)

Memory: Patriot Viper 3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£64.99 @ Amazon UK)

Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 60GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£39.41 @ Amazon UK)

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£38.97 @ Amazon UK)

Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7770 1GB Video Card (£73.97 @ CCL Computers)

Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£33.41 @ Ebuyer)

Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£34.14 @ Scan.co.uk)

Total: £397.11

Pretty much what I was going to suggest as well.

Can shave some cash off by going for a 32Gb SSD, 500GB HDD or getting the 750k, although the price differences are so small I'd say it's worth it.

 

[Edge]

Thanks for the build lads, seems you are all agreed and it's a great price so I'll recommend that and set it up for him with my old card.

Now to try find somewhere that does all the parts at a good price xD