So I am looking at building a system based around the 2200G as that should be a pretty big upgrade over my laptop with an i7 quad (2xxx series) and a 540M GPU.
I am looking to play games like Stellaris, Civ 6, Path of Exile, Pillars of Eternity etc and to be honest my laptop does okay at 1080p but I have a 4k screen for work and I want to take better advantage of it. Looking at the 2500U that is around 4x faster than my 540m so an OCd 2200G should be a bigger improvement, if not I can just add a GPU in the future.
My budget is between £400 and £600 for the hardware. I already have an 850 Evo SSD in my laptop so I will just wipe it and build using that.
My current idea of the build is as follows:
Corsair 270r Case, no window. around £55. Would consider anything in this budget that is open main chamber, no window and no optical drives. I like the plain design of this and the Fractal Design Define Mini C, although the Define is more than I want to spend. Would also need to support a 240mm or 280mm radiator unless someone can convince me to go air cooled.
16GB 3600+ Ram, I am looking at Trident X or 8Pack (Team Data) from OCUK. The 8Pack is cheaper and has good timings, also guaranteed b-die. The price over the 3200 is just £10 so its not a fat lot of extra money to guarantee the memory will hit that speed, obviously the CPU might have other ideas.
Seasonic G-360 PSU, might look at the G-450 instead but I think the 360 should be more than enough for this build. Any other options that might be a bit cheaper but would do a good job? I have read mixed things about the corsair CX range and the EVGA range.
B350 motherboard, MSI Mortar or Tomahawk seem good from what I have read but any other options that have good ram compatibility? I could also wait for the 450s but it depends on when they will launch and on the Ram performance in the RR reviews on the 350. If 3600 speeds are relatively common then I am not sure waiting for the 450 is worth it to me personally.
Cooling I am looking at the CoolerMaster ML240L (non RGB), for the same price I can get the ID-Cooling FrostFlow+ 280 but no real idea on if that is any good or not, the only review I found suggested it performed about the same as the ML240L and with bigger fans I would guess it is quieter (no tests on this) but it also said the pump was noisy. I would also consider air but I want good performance and quiet operations for around £50 as that is what the two AIOs cost.
2200G, not sure it is worth upgrading to the 2400G, would rather put that extra money towards a GPU because if the 2200G can't cut it I don't think the 2400G will be faster by a large enough margin to make a meaningful difference.
Does anyone have any swaps or alternative builds that would do better for a similar budget? One thing I do quite like is that if I get the upgrade itch a year or two I could swap in Zen+ / Zen 2 and a GPU and have a pretty good system, perhaps that warrants going for the 450W PSU rather than the 360W.
Thanks in advance for any thoughts or suggestions.
I am looking to play games like Stellaris, Civ 6, Path of Exile, Pillars of Eternity etc and to be honest my laptop does okay at 1080p but I have a 4k screen for work and I want to take better advantage of it. Looking at the 2500U that is around 4x faster than my 540m so an OCd 2200G should be a bigger improvement, if not I can just add a GPU in the future.
My budget is between £400 and £600 for the hardware. I already have an 850 Evo SSD in my laptop so I will just wipe it and build using that.
My current idea of the build is as follows:
Corsair 270r Case, no window. around £55. Would consider anything in this budget that is open main chamber, no window and no optical drives. I like the plain design of this and the Fractal Design Define Mini C, although the Define is more than I want to spend. Would also need to support a 240mm or 280mm radiator unless someone can convince me to go air cooled.
16GB 3600+ Ram, I am looking at Trident X or 8Pack (Team Data) from OCUK. The 8Pack is cheaper and has good timings, also guaranteed b-die. The price over the 3200 is just £10 so its not a fat lot of extra money to guarantee the memory will hit that speed, obviously the CPU might have other ideas.
Seasonic G-360 PSU, might look at the G-450 instead but I think the 360 should be more than enough for this build. Any other options that might be a bit cheaper but would do a good job? I have read mixed things about the corsair CX range and the EVGA range.
B350 motherboard, MSI Mortar or Tomahawk seem good from what I have read but any other options that have good ram compatibility? I could also wait for the 450s but it depends on when they will launch and on the Ram performance in the RR reviews on the 350. If 3600 speeds are relatively common then I am not sure waiting for the 450 is worth it to me personally.
Cooling I am looking at the CoolerMaster ML240L (non RGB), for the same price I can get the ID-Cooling FrostFlow+ 280 but no real idea on if that is any good or not, the only review I found suggested it performed about the same as the ML240L and with bigger fans I would guess it is quieter (no tests on this) but it also said the pump was noisy. I would also consider air but I want good performance and quiet operations for around £50 as that is what the two AIOs cost.
2200G, not sure it is worth upgrading to the 2400G, would rather put that extra money towards a GPU because if the 2200G can't cut it I don't think the 2400G will be faster by a large enough margin to make a meaningful difference.
Does anyone have any swaps or alternative builds that would do better for a similar budget? One thing I do quite like is that if I get the upgrade itch a year or two I could swap in Zen+ / Zen 2 and a GPU and have a pretty good system, perhaps that warrants going for the 450W PSU rather than the 360W.
Thanks in advance for any thoughts or suggestions.
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