Lucidium's new build

[Pemalite]

Gilgamesh said:

Pemalite said:

Gilgamesh said:
Hoping this isn't too off topic but since there's some pretty smart PC builders here I was wondering for a budget PC build is a APU the best way to go?

I'm not a huge PC gamer but I do enjoy the occassional game, it will be connected to my tv.

There are allot of variables that need to be considered.

Such as...
* 1. Your budget.
* 2. What resolution are you gaming at? (I.E. 1366x768 or 1920x1080 which are the common TV resolutions.)
* 3. Form factor. (ITX, I.E. Shoe-box sized, Micro-ATX, ATX etc'.)
* 4. Upgradeability.
* 5 .Performance, I.E. Intel are faster than AMD in the CPU space, AMD are generally faster in the GPU space at any given price point, are your workloads/games more CPU or GPU heavy? (RTS games generally favor the CPU, FPS generally favors the GPU.)
* 6. Noise. (AMD stock coolers, put jet engines to shame.)
* 7. Overclocking.

1.$500 (been looking at the new 2014 budget gaming pcs and they look really interesting.

2. 1920x1080 is my next TV.

3. This is sometihng to do with the motherboard, I haven't got much thought into that (never built a PC before always wanted to.)

4. Some, but I'm not overly worried (I proabably see myself playing a lot of older games on my PC, and most of the new ones would the PS3/PS4.

5. The only workload would be the games and like I said I'm not looking to maxed out all settings, maybe around high. (I don't play current RTS games)

6. Quiet would be nice for a living room computer, I don't want to be cranking the volume on the TV because the PC get's to loud.

7. Doubtful.

So pretty basic. 

You *Could* Sacrifice some of the Powersupply to save some money and bring it under the $500 mark, but personally I would stick with the Corsair TX, it will probably outlive the entire system so you can use it in the next, IMHO it's the most important component in a PC, it can save you money on energy, it supplies cleaner energy so your components last longer... And has protection mechanisms to protect your PC.

I would also look at spending an extra $100 and get a Quad-Core Haswell if you wan't your system to last longer.
On Average in Single and Dual threaded scenario's the Pentium would be anywhere from 30-60% faster than an AMD APU, which sadly is still what the majority of games still target.
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116895

With Mantle the CPU is less of an issue in games that support it however and the Dual-Core is more than adequate for most games today even.

AMD FX CPU's, all of them... Are pretty bloody horrible. (I type this from my AMD FX machine.)