[linglingjr]

^You realize that a lot of people that go to College, live in dorms or apartments don't pay for electricity so that's not an expense at all. I do agree with you that people that go out and buy a ton of GPUs just to mine is pretty silly but I think making a little bit of money with a rig you built for gaming (and would otherwise have zero return other than enjoyment) is a fine idea. 

 

[DefQon]

  Do know? That isn't true by the way. Many 'real' rig miners break even, make profit, and even make enough to re-invest into larger rigs.

But those are $100k+ mining farms, completely different to us regular enthusiast miners. Apples and bananas comparison.

 

[bowei006]

  ^You realize that a lot of people that go to College, live in dorms or apartments don't pay for electricity so that's not an expense at all. I do agree with you that people that go out and buy a ton of GPUs just to mine is pretty silly but I think making a little bit of money with a rig you built for gaming (and would otherwise have zero return other than enjoyment) is a fine idea. 

Many small miners like me seem to be in that predicament.
 
Most MEGA hashers I have seen dod not seem to be in those predicaments

 

[DefQon]

You're also forgetting what currency trades were like with some of those big hash miners, given that the difficulty for both Bitcoin and Litecoin are increasing (bitcoins almost impossible to mine without serious hardware). 
 
If electricity is not a concern then mine all you want. Unfortunate for some of us.

 

[Dillan]

Yea, spending money on doge is probably not that smartest thing.

However, of course if you aren't investing any (or "little" - relative to the person).. Then obviously it's a fun and safe project.

 

 

[DefQon]

Fold for team 33. DO IT, do it now.

 

[DonutDeflector]

  Give me the spec sheet again for the parts you want from pcpartpicker
 
Also, tell me what parts you have on hand already

Here is the list (it uses the same link and gets updated): http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2LFmK
I'm probably jumping my budget up to at least $500.

 

[ibob4tacoz]

Here is the list (it uses the same link and gets updated): http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2LFmK
I'm probably jumping my budget up to at least $500.

Get rid of the sound card. Dude, you're on a tight budget, you can't be spending on what you don't need. Plus, I recommendation on the case: the NZXT Source 210 or an Enermax Ostrog. You should bump up the PSU to 500W for future upgrades. (Sorry if I sound too bossy.)

 

[VXAce]

  Here is the list (it uses the same link and gets updated): http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2LFmK
I'm probably jumping my budget up to at least $500.

I agree with ibob4tacoz. With the headphones you are running, it won't make too much of a difference what you are driving it with, so the sound card is really going to be a wast of money and expansion space. Though it doesn't seem you are building a real budget PC, since you are spending on lights. You can also toss out the optical, it's useless in the long run, unless you have a BD player, or a ton of CDs/DVDs already. Though I usually just salvage it from some old PC. Another thing is get slower RAM. DDR3-2133 while it sounds nice, will really make no difference. Your rig in no way is a gaming rig (too lazy to scroll up), so that kind of RAM won't make a difference to you.
 
With all the money you will save, spend it on a case that will last you for years to come (so that on your next budget build, you can reuse it). And a PSU that will last you for years (ditto). I still keep my old budget rig running in a old case that I salvaged from the recycling bin at work, and moved my main rig to the old case, saved almost 100 right there.

 

[214324]

  Here is the list (it uses the same link and gets updated): http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2LFmK
I'm probably jumping my budget up to at least $500.

*sigh* I sometimes wonder if you're even listening to us. I quoted what I recommended again below.

  A8-7600 (run it in 65W mode; this thing will be released later Q1; $119?), some decent A78 or A88X motherboard (mATX or ATX; $50-70), 8GB RAM @ 1600MHz that has a reputation to be able to OC to 1866-2133 MHz ($50-70), Seagate/Hitachi/WD 500GB-1TB 3.5" HDD ($50-60), NZXT Source 220 ($30-50), SeaSonic S12II 430W or SeaSonic SSR-360GP 360W ($50-$54), some good inexpensive ODD.
 
I don't know if you need the mouse and keyboard. Don't get the stupid LED lighting from Xoxide. At the very least if you want lighting, go with NZXT or Bitfenix. Also, 16GB or RAM is pretty worthless in this situation.
 
Edit: Don't buy the Corsair CX power supplies. They changed their OEM from Seasonic to some garbage company so the quality has dropped like a rock. Refer to this list for good PSUs: http://www.overclock.net/t/183810/faq-recommended-power-supplies

Get rid of the sound card. Dude, you're on a tight budget, you can't be spending on what you don't need. Plus, I recommendation on the case: the NZXT Source 210 or an Enermax Ostrog. You should bump up the PSU to 500W for future upgrades. (Sorry if I sound too bossy.)

This, although I doubt there are going to be many future upgrades for an APU rig.
 
Anyways, ditch the sound card unless you can really afford it, and go with one of the NZXT Source cases (210, 210 Elite, or 220). PSU I would hover around 400-500W since I doubt you're going to be upgrading this rig anytime soon.

  Depends... After Effects will quickly yoink 16 of my 32. Sometimes more when rendering. If you are using Adobe products I would drop the RAM and pick up an Nvidia card with as many cuda cores as you can, scrubbing real time makes a difference in productivity rather than doing RAM previews all the time, especially if you do not have the raw CPU power to crunch. If your software supports OpenCL, well then it doesnt matter.

The question is why is he using this inexpensive rig for these applications? An APU would probably struggle with things like this.

 

[VXAce]

 
The question is why is he using this inexpensive rig for these applications? An APU would probably struggle with things like this.

He plans to do what...? Play catch with Adobe? He's going to need one heck of a rig to do that in any capacity. Or just get himself an old Mac.
 
I don't know much about AE, but heck I just spent 11 hours watching CAD renders grow. I figure it's about the same. And while I don't have the best CPU (FX-8320) it still is quite powerful...
 
And that RAM... just no...
 
Edit: I was rendering with Solidworks, which has no GPU acceleration, at least Photoview 360 doesn't. So my GPU doesn't even matter. 

 

[Yazen]

  Here is the list (it uses the same link and gets updated): http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2LFmK
I'm probably jumping my budget up to at least $500.

I have the Xonar DG, its not very good.. 
From your list of parts it does not seem like you want to take the enthusiast route.  Stalk the Lenovo refurbs man
 
This here was under $300 tax included a little while ago:
Lenovo H520

1. ProcessorIntel Core i5-3330 Processor (4 cores / 4 threads, 3.00 GHz,6MB Cache)
2. Operating system Windows 8 Standard 64 - English
3. Memory8GB (2 X 4GB) PC3-12800 DDR3 1600MHz SDRAM UDIMM Memory
4. Pointing device USB Full Size Keyboard and Optical Wheel Mouse
5. Hard Drive2TB, 7200RPM Serial ATA 3.5" Hard Drives
6. Optical DriveDVD Recordable Serial ATA
7. Network Card11b/g/n Wi-Fi wireless
8. Warranty1 Year Standard Depot Warranty

 
 
 
Building a desktop is not cost efficient unless you are getting used/free parts and/or building a high end system.

 

[bowei006]

  Here is the list (it uses the same link and gets updated): http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2LFmK
I'm probably jumping my budget up to at least $500.

I agree with what most people are saying. Drop the sound card, and reduce prices in places that don't need it. Case, dvd drive, and cheaper Ram maybe.
 
However, if you really like that Zalman, go for it. Otherwise, there are cheaper cases that are well recommended from NZXT, CoolerMaster and Rosewill in the $29 price range to use. But of course, its only $10 less. If you really like that case, go for it.
 
I however, wouldn't think of spending more on Seasonic or any of that since you have such a low budget. Because really, cheap power supplies rarely are actualy that bad. You are using a very basic APU without much on it. Even if you want to OC this and that, it's not going to be a problem for a 'general' power supply. Most PSU's for computers in the world are literally of the same quality that enthusiasts call crap. And yes, they do have higher failure rates but even then, it's still very small in the whole sense of things. I for example, out of the 10+ cheap power supplies I have bought and put into client computers, have never had one fail within 2-3 years. One that I bought for $10 (bad mistake) was DOA, but that was literally because ...it was $10. And one made it past 4 years on another clients before it finally crapped out.
 
You can wait for the APU that Haiburi is referring to, or get what you want. Just keep in mind that reviews and benchmarks are generally perceived and interpreteded in weird ways in the human mind. The numbers aren't wrong, but we are interpreting them differently. Game performance also plays a schiit ton in this.
 
I don't run Far Cry 3 on full Max on my computer for example. I run EVERYTHING on max except for MSAA 8X. (this literally multiplies your screen resolution by 8X and then downsamples it to native to get rid of the jaggys). When I turn on 8X. My FPS is around 35FPS min to 42FPS avg....but oh gosh is it unplayable. The FPS counter isn't showing it, but there are lots of sudden spikes, drops, lags, texture pops, millisecond screen freezes etc at that. This right here is a problem that happens very often on APU systems in where even though reviews show a 30FPS....because of the intergrated on die APU and some other schiit, it will have some of those 'spike' issues. It happens to every APU I built to a certain extent. 

 

[linglingjr]

VXAce that's probably the most annoying part about SW, even the 2014 version doesn't use you gpu unless you have some workstation one in which case only like four are supported.

 

[bowei006]

  I have the Xonar DG, its not very good.. 
From your list of parts it does not seem like you want to take the enthusiast route.  Stalk the Lenovo refurbs man
 
This here was under $300 tax included a little while ago:
Lenovo H520

1. ProcessorIntel Core i5-3330 Processor (4 cores / 4 threads, 3.00 GHz,6MB Cache)
2. Operating system Windows 8 Standard 64 - English
3. Memory8GB (2 X 4GB) PC3-12800 DDR3 1600MHz SDRAM UDIMM Memory
4. Pointing device USB Full Size Keyboard and Optical Wheel Mouse
5. Hard Drive2TB, 7200RPM Serial ATA 3.5" Hard Drives
6. Optical DriveDVD Recordable Serial ATA
7. Network Card11b/g/n Wi-Fi wireless
8. Warranty1 Year Standard Depot Warranty

 
 
 
Building a desktop is not cost efficient unless you are getting used/free parts and/or building a high end system.

I would say that building a desktop is not cost efficent unless you have at least $700+ on JUST the desktop itself. 
 
I wouldn't call a $700 desktop high end. 
 
I saw AMD Mantle BF4's post the other day. And I loved how they called running a single 7970 to be Mainstream PC Gaming.......ahhh...lol
 
But yeah, that looks like an awesome deal for $300. If it has the ability/space to drop in a GPU, then its all set. Hopefully its not like Dell small desktops with the BTX boards and custom PSU's.