Description

READ FIRST! The prices below are after promo codes and rebates at the time of when I purchased them.

So here is the story behind this build, I had a friend that came up to me and said that he all of a sudden fell in love with minecraft, and he was wondering if I could build a computer for him. I said ok what is your budget? He said around $200. When I first heard this, I laughed and said there is no way I can build a computer for that price! But after doing some research on super budget builds and Ubuntu, I finally came up with the price that he needed.

I researched into the new richland apu's amd recently released, and this one was an awesome deal for $40. A dual core at 3.0 ghz was plenty for minecraft, and possibly enough for a budget card in the future. The dedicated graphics card buit inside the apu is about as powerful as a geforce gt 620 which is great for the price.

Anyways, the reason why I got a $40 case ($30 after rebate) was because my friend wanted a cool looking case with led lights that wasn't to bulky. I might add that for the price of this case, it has some nice features. The psu is bottom mounted so its not top heavy, it has a slot for an ssd, a tool less design for the hard drive, and holes in the case for cable management.

The psu prices were going crazy at the time I bought this, so I wanted something that was reliable that wouldn't break the bank. This one fits the bill good enough.

My friend loves his new computer so far! This build can run minecraft maxed out with render distance turned down to normal at a steady 45-50 fps which suits my friends needs.

He has never played games on a pc before and he seemed very confused trying minecraft on my pc, so I got him a basic $10 keyboard that had red wasd and arrow keys.

The only complaint I had was installing the graphics card driver was very difficult on Ubuntu, but after a bit of research, I got it done and didn't have to worry about it any more.

Comments

  • 76 months ago
  • 7 points

I'm always curious how a computer like this would perform. I mean in normal computer use..like surfing net, movies, online games.

  • 76 months ago
  • 4 points

Works well. That's what he wanted it for was to do basics tasks and play games like minecraft and League of Legends. These apu's are actually really powerful if you get into the a8 and a10 series.

  • 62 months ago
  • 1 point

How much fps do you get in minecraft?

  • 62 months ago
  • 1 point

I have it in the description above. However since the recent updates have increased the maximum render distance, i wouldn't make it too high. Keeping it around 8 i believe would be around the same fps as in the description. Also, since this was made a little over a year ago, you can probably fit a little more power than what i could have back then. Maybe like an a6 or something.

  • 76 months ago
  • 5 points

This is pretty awesome. I love seeing budget builds like this.

  • 76 months ago
  • 2 points

Thank you.

  • 76 months ago
  • 3 points

You did some great research for your friend, a 200$ build is almost mental.

I always wanted to do a cheap as possible with decent performance build myself, however I don't need one at the moment. I am saving a build like that for later.

Why I like your build:

  • CPU: 40$ that is just awesome
  • GPU: none, well have you seen that budget WTF

  • PSU: Good choice, even a little bit overkill at the moment but now you can add a GPU with ease

  • MB: No complaints from my side

  • RAM: This is one of your best decisions, 4GB is more than enough (Ubuntu) and the APU likes fast RAM (faster RAM gives higher FPS in games)

  • Case: builds like this can even be build in a cardboard box and still work perfectly. Your friend wanted a nice looking case and you got him one for a very nice price.

Now a pro tip from my side:

APUs can work in crossfire with dedicated GPUs (the Motherboard you chose supports this function) have a look at this website whenever your friend wants to get some more graphical performance:

http://www.amd.com/us/products/technologies/dual-graphics/Pages/dual-graphics.aspx#3

  • 76 months ago
  • 1 point

Thank you very much. I spent months getting this build together for the right price that was also nice and reliable so this feedback is much appreciated. Also, on the dual graphics, I'm not sure this a4 richland can do that. I went to that website you shared and I did not see the 7480d in that section. Would the 6670 work with this? Or maybe something better if possible?

  • 76 months ago
  • 1 point

The A4 is very capable of doing so, AMD recommends a HD radeon 6450 to pair with the HD radeon 6410D APU. It is not possible to crossfire with GPUs more powerful than the HD radeon 6450.

Why isn't that possible? That is because of how crossfire works, crossfire can only work between two GPUs from the same series. The A4 has a HD 6400 series APU, so you can only crossfire it with another HD 6400 series GPU (the most powerful in the series is the HD 6450).

I just googled a little and you can already buy a 6450 for about 35$ (Amazon.com). When he wants a lot more performance he could always add a powerful GPU and skip the APU crossfire.

  • 76 months ago
  • 1 point

Thanks that really cleared up a lot. Since the one inside this one is a 7400 series, is it still backwards compatible to that one?

  • 76 months ago
  • 1 point

I do not get your question completely, you could send me a personal message if you want some more information on the topic.

  • 76 months ago
  • 2 points

Wow what a nice build!

  • 76 months ago
  • 2 points

Very nice! I love seeing APU builds, nobody ever does them :(

  • 76 months ago
  • 2 points

I know! I think its because they already have the graphics card built into them so people think its for everyday tasks. You could get an a10 or a8 richland or trinity and do some decent gaming on a budget build! And if you like it, upgrade later!

  • 76 months ago
  • 1 point

Glad you were able to fit his needs with a constrained budget. Well done.

  • 76 months ago
  • 1 point

Thanks. Yeah it was a pretty tight budget. I would have wanted to spend like $150 more so it would have been a budget gaming pc. oh well

  • 76 months ago
  • 1 point

I would have gone with two RAM sticks. You're reducing your memory bandwidth by using a single stick as it's going to have to run in single channel mode. This is really important for APU builds that use the system memory as video memory.

  • 76 months ago
  • 2 points

I would have too, but this works for now, and it leaves better room for upgrades down the road if needed.

  • 76 months ago
  • 2 points

I completely agree, but 1 stick is usually cheaper than 2 sticks. Besides, he can eventually upgrade and get 2 sticks for a total of 8, and not be constrained to 4. Good that people notice, though.

  • 75 months ago
  • 1 point

So cool! I want to build myself one like this, only to play old computer emulators. I wonder if is enough... Of course it is hehehe. Good job!

  • 50 months ago
  • 1 point

nice, love the thought of installing ubuntu, giving your friend a easy to use os and a faster game experience.

  • 49 months ago
  • 1 point

Nice build man! We got the same mobo lol

  • 27 months ago
  • 0 points

10/10 cable management

  • 76 months ago
  • -3 points

even as this is for net surfing and minecraft, i recommend that you get some kinda graphics card, not anything too expensive, just somthing in price range of 100-150 dollars, radeon hd 7850 ghz edition from sapphire is very good, for example

  • 76 months ago
  • 2 points

I will if my friend wants to. The graphics built on to this apu is pretty good for the price. It is able to get 50 fps maxed out with render distance turned down to normal. Also, my friend just came from ps3 so I will let him get a feel from minecraft, and see if he wants to upgrade his gpu, and buy windows 7/8. I plan on getting a 7870 or something like that for my pc, then giving him my GTX 650 that's already in mine.

  • 74 months ago
  • 2 points

Minecraft is in no way graphics dependent. That was my first mistake when buying my first computer: Minecraft is not what we think of when we say gaming. It is like a simulator; pretty much no graphics, high gHz CPU, and decent amount of memory will do the trick for Minecraft... in fact you really don't need any of that. as long as you keep the cpu above 2 gHz and the memory about 4 GB then you're fine

  • 73 months ago
  • 1 point

i play minecraft on a mcabook air and get 70 fps then again a macbook air costs 1200 dollars i get mine all four years of highschool for 50 dollars

  • 73 months ago
  • 1 point

Yeah. I play minecraft on an ultra-low-voltage i5 ultrabook with integrated graphics and standard 4 GB memory and I get 40 FPS on max settings... :)

  • 76 months ago
  • 1 point

Not sure how much of a step up a GTX 650 will be. It might be better to get him a 6670 so he can crossfire with the APu.

  • 76 months ago
  • 2 points

Also, the score on the a4 gpu is around 400 or something like that, and the 650 is around 1800 so yeah it would be upgrade.

  • 76 months ago
  • 1 point

True I didn't think of that before. Still, I would just give it to him for free anyways,

  • 76 months ago
  • -1 points

Are you crazy? You could play LoL on Intel Integrated Graphics 4000 and not break a sweat. 7850 ghz could play Crysis 3 on Medium to high settings. If he ever gets a graphics card, he could play Hawken (the only thing I can accurately say) with a GT640 on medium settings. Dude, you've been wasting your money. I feel sorry for you. Also, to everybody, ifyou ever to a budget GAMING build, use the AMD Athlon X4 750k. it's basically the A10 6800k without the graphics chip, and it's like 80 bucks.

  • 74 months ago
  • 3 points

I don't get what point you are trying to get across.

  • 74 months ago
  • 0 points

tryin to save someone like 500 bucks. whenever I try to help people in real life i accidentally just do whatever I was trying to help them with, and online apparently I sound a slight bit screamy sorry about that... but yeah AMD Athlon II X4 is best budget processor, based on the relatively recent trinity architecture. I was also trying to say that Minecraft and LoL weren't worthy of a gaming computer. I mean, Minecraft could definitely benefit from 8 GB of ram and a overclocked processor, but graphics? nah, you don't actually need it. LoL is you know... however you want your computer to overkill

  • 60 months ago
  • 1 point

To quote him: "even as this is for net surfing and minecraft" He is saying that this build is more than enough for Minecraft and stuff, but if he ever wanted more power, like if he was running more graphically-intensive games (of which there are plenty) at higher resolutions and/or higher FPS, he might consider this/that graphics card as an upgrade. Obviously, just get 4 GTX 980s in Quad SLI and you have more than enough power for any game, unless you're running 3 4K monitors. P.S. I know I'm 16 months late, but whatever.

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  • 69 months ago
  • 1 point

i actually plugged in a wireless adapter and it immediately worked without having to install anything.

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