College Student $485 Budget Build w/ Some Gaming and Watching Blu Rays

Intel Pentium G3258, MSI Radeon R7 250, DIYPC Gamemax08-G - System Build - PCPartPicker
$85 already went towards the OS so I needed to come up with a build for $400. How does it look and any recommendations? I need a PC for my school work and also some gaming and watching Blu Rays. Any changes for the better would be appreciated, thanks!

Looks pretty good, assuming it's all compatible. At first glance, it looks like it is.

You wouldn't need a Z97 board for "schoolwork and some gaming", but since it's a part of a combo deal, go ahead. I assume you have no intention of overclocking.

Have you tried to see what you can come up with in an Intel i3 or lower end i5 build? You can go to Passmark.com and look at their benchmarks to get an idea of the raw horsepower of any CPU. I haven't looked at the Pentium line lately.

Power supply is generally considered one of the better low priced units.

I'd guess you could do slightly better at the $485 level on a pre-built from Dell, but you've already bought the OS and that would just duplicate the OS you'd get from Dell--which would be pointless.

Does that particular motherboard have all the features and ports you want?

You can always nitpick anyone's build, but I don't see any major mistakes.

Yeah the motherboard seems to have everything I want. I am considering overclocking in the future so I want to be able to have a build right now with a good option to upgrade and overclock in the future. Would you make any changes? I am new to building so I may not have made the best build.

I just looked. That Pentium scores 3943 on the Passmark test.

There's a bunch of i3s and a few i5s that are within say 10 percent of that score.

I'd at least investigate them. I'd want to know how many of them are quad-core rather than dual-core like your Pentium choice.

And I'd probably ask in the gaming forum for their opinion on which would be better for gaming (Pentium or i3), at the same price level. Not sure if gaming is of more importance to you than anything else, but the rule of thumb on that is to spend less on the CPU and more on the video card.

I don't see a monitor in your list, but I assume you've got that covered.

You won't get far with overclocking on the stock cooler, but I have no idea how well you can overclock that particular CPU anyway. You can certainly change coolers later on.

Ok thanks for your help, I was also considering a barebones kit from Tigerdirect but I am not sure how good they are and how they compare to my build. There seems to be some decent options for the budget I want.

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Tiger Direct is generally a good source for parts, but it's incumbent on you to investigate the individual pieces--particularly the CPU, case, CPU, and motherboard. You don't want to get locked into a dead-end or problematic case or a dubious power supply. Stay with the top 3 or 4 motherboard brands (Asus, Asrock, Gigabyte, MSI). Most likely at your price level you'd want an Intel CPU.

Ask on gaming forum and keep your eye on Passmark.

I'd get an ordinary ATX or micro ATX motherboard and case. More compatible with more stuff in the future.

I'd particularly look out for a bogus power supply on any bargain combo or bare bones deals.

Look at Newegg too. Sign up for email deals from them as well as Tiger Direct. Amazon is sometimes worth a look, but I don't know if they do bare-bones.

I'm not sure about bare bones systems these days--are they pre-assembled or just a box of parts? If you want to get into building, you might lean toward a box of parts just for the learning experience.

I think your best bet will be this monster, then add another ram stick to match for 16gb. This would be a great barebones and great upgrade potential later when funds return for SSD later for OS, software and select games.

AMD FX-8320 Eight-Core 3.5GHz AM3+ Processor/Gigabyte AMD AM3+ Motherboard/PNY XLR8 8GB Memory/WD Blue 1TB Sata 3.5 HDD/Kingwin 120mm LED Case Fan/SolidGear 650W PSU/Cougar Gamer Case in Black Bundle at TigerDirect.com