It's either RX470 4GB or GTX1060 3GB with your budget unless you top up a bit for GTX1060 6GB (Palit Dual or Zotac Mini).

As for cooler, just reuse the stock cooler, primary your budget in GPU upgrade instead.

Try to ask in Audiophiles.

https://forum.lowyat.net/Audiophiles

If you play CS:GO only then you can save more on the GPU, GTX950/RX460 is more than enough and focus more on the CPU part like getting an i7 instead of i5.

Depends on which brand you are getting.

HIS RX460 4GB is the cheapest RX460 now, RM 599 only, most of the shops in Lowyat Plaza are selling it now.

Otherwise Palit/Zotac GTX950 2GB is slightly cheaper than Sapphire/Gigabyte/XFX RX460 2GB/4GB.

If only for Dota 2/CS:GO, just get the cheapest one, they barely make a difference in games (in terms of frame rate in 1080p).

If so then I suggest you to go for cheaper mobo like H170/B150, you don't need a Z170 when you aren't going to overclock the CPU.

Change to performance RAM to value RAM then dump all the remaining money in the GPU (GTX1060/RX480 at least)

Both come with similar chipset, so that's only cooler design and clock speed difference. Sapphire Nitro comes with slightly higher factory overclocked clock speed but G1 version is nicer in my opinion (just my preference ). Either one will work fine, just don't overspend on a 4GB RX470 because GTX1060 6GB can be bought as low as RM 1128 (Palit Dual Fan), if you use voucher code in Lazada/GemFive, it can be even lower (subject to stock availability).

Gigabyte B150M-D3H (D4), remember to use the display output port of your GPU and not mobo itself, if not the dedicated GPU will be wasted because the graphics/display will be routed through the iGPU instead of dedicated GPU, if you don't know about this then most likely you aren't aware of the "useless" display output port(s) of the mobo for gamers yet, they are pointless for those who have dedicated GPU, only show their usefulness when dedicated GPU is dead or you want to do some troubleshooting jobs etc

Casing doesn't add performance, what you get is different design/look and airflow (which indirectly alters the temperature if airflow is not the same).

My suggestion is to spend the money in somewhere else first, Tecware Alpha is a decent high airflow casing, hardware > aesthetic for beginners.

No, I meant if you have a dedicated GPU then just use the display output port from your dedicated GPU, modern mobo will switch off the iGPU since it serves no purpose on desktop PC with a dedicated GPU installed (we don't need battery saving feature like laptop).

So it doesn't matter whether your mobo comes with HDMI port or not since you gonna use the HDMI port of your dedicated GPU, no?

Yes, you can even use adapter/converter if the GPU doesn't have HDMI port, i.e. DVI to HDMI adapter.

Asus Strix OC is more expensive than EVGA FTW, same goes to clock speed and memory speed, your call.

Since you put these 2 cards in your consideration list, then I don't think budget would be an issue anymore (few hundred more expensive than the other brands), so just pick the one you prefer (warranty, after sales services, design, aesthetic purpose like theme/color etc).

AFAIK, Idealtech, DotaTech, ETech they all do have Maybank installment plan, interest rate might apply though.

Intel Core i7 6700K - RM 1444
Asus Z170 Pro Gaming Aura - RM 820
Corsair Vengeance LED 16GB (8GB x 2) DDR4 3200MHz RAM - RM 479
MSI GTX1070 8GB GDDR5 Gaming X - RM 2105
Samsung 750 EVO 250GB SSD - RM 315
WD Blue 1TB HDD - RM 209
Superflower Leadex Gold 650W - RM 449
Corsair Hydro H100i V2 - RM 502
Corsair Carbide 400C - RM 485

Total: RM 6808 (ETech price inclusive of GST)

Intel Core i5 6500 - RM 835
Gigabyte H170-HD3 (D4) - RM 446
Kingston 8GB DDR4 2133MHz Value RAM - RM 151
Palit GTX1060 6GB GDDR5 Super Jetstream - RM 1265
Samsung 750 EVO 250GB SSD - RM 315
WD Blue 1TB HDD - RM 209
Superflower Leadex Gold 550W - RM 409
Phanteks Eclipse P400S - RM 349
BenQ GW2470H - RM 469

Total: RM 4448 (ETech price inclusive of GST)

Different color is having different price for the casing, I am using the base price as reference.

Your budget can fit GTX1070 (Palit Dual Fan, RM 1899) actually but you need to drop the SSD to cover up the money for it.

Better cooling + quieter, this is hard to please

The default fan curve is quiet (70% RPM at 70C only ) but cooling isn't that good compared to self-modified fan curve, but of course that's gonna create more audible sound, I am willing to exchange for more performance with the audible sound though since the music sound from my speaker will cover up the sound of the hardware eventually.

2 RAM slots - Gigabyte H110M-DS2 (D4)/Asus H110M-K
4 RAM slots - Gigabyte B150M-D3H (D4)

Tecware Alpha has better airflow.

If budget is tight, go for a cheaper SSD (Kingston UV400/Samsung 750 EVO etc.), it can save you RM 100+/- in just the SSD alone.

Most of the Pascal (I believe all) cards come with 0db feature, meaning the fan won't spin when the temperature of the card is below a limit (60 as standard), so leaving the PC on overnight won't generate anymore audible noise from the GPU cooler anymore

Acer R241Y/Dell S2316H/AOC I2281FWH/AOC I2481FXH

VGA is using old school analog signal and the signal can be affected by many external factors like cable quality.

DVI and HDMI (DP also) are using digital signal naturally.

HDMI is more preferred in TV industry because it supports HDCP feature. Another thing to be noted is the resolution and refresh rate support, dual link DVI supports 144Hz (1080p) while you need HDMI 1.4 for 144Hz (1080p) and so on, this isn't important for you because your monitor max refresh rate is 60Hz (but you overclock it to 7x-ish).

So in conclusion, use HDMI instead of VGA port of your monitor since it doesn't come with DVI port at all.

Please upgrade the CPU to at least i5 6400 if you want to game on a stronger iGPU (HD 530), i5 6402P is using the weaker HD 510.

Hard to notice the difference in real life usage and it is way overpriced for the PRO version, I would spend a little bit more on NVMe SSD if I were to get the PRO version

If we use Nvidia GPU as reference,

HD 510 is between GT710 - GT720.

HD 530 is between GT730 - GT740.

Medium settings in Dota 2 should be able to yield 50+ FPS (1080p).

So you need a new monitor and would like to board the 4K UHD train? Impossible to fulfill all requirements if this is true

Intel Core i7 6700 - RM 1289
Gigabyte H110M-DS2 (D4) - RM 276
Kingston 8GB DDR4 2133MHz Value RAM - RM 151
Palit GTX1070 8GB GDDR5 Jetstream - RM 1848
WD Blue 1TB HDD - RM 209
FSP Hexa+ 550W - RM 188
Tecware Alpha - RM 199
Dell P2415Q UHD - RM 1859

Total: RM 6019 (ETech price inclusive of GST)

The build list contains all the cheapest parts available in the market already but it is still over your budget , so you need to "downgrade" your requirements, I suggest you to go with normal 1080p monitor for now.

Medium 50+ is for HD 530, I personally tested it last year (yea I know it has been a while ), Vulkan Dota 2 build might improve the performance but I haven't had time to test it yet.

So HD 510 is expected to be able to run at lower settings with playable frame rate.

More than enough

Intel Core i5 6500 - RM 835
Gigabyte H110M-DS2 (D4) - RM 276
Kingston 8GB DDR4 2133MHz Value RAM - RM 151
Palit GTX1060 6GB GDDR5 Dual - RM 1128
Samsung 750 EVO 250GB SSD - RM 315
WD Blue 1TB HDD - RM 209
Superflower Leadex Silver 550W - RM 339
Tecware Alpha - RM 199

Total: RM 3452 (ETech price inclusive of GST)

GTX1060 is getting cheaper nowadays and it can handle triple A titles easily on 1080p high/ultra settings

http://www.lelong.com.my/merchant/easyit2u.htm

Physical shop is located in Kepong, they do have courier service.

Other shops that you can consider are DotaTech, Techview, Idealtech etc, they all provide shipping service.

If OS boot only then 60GB SSD is enough, but 60GB is nowhere to be seen in the market now due to massive price drop on 120GB SSD

Kingston UV400 120GB is not a bad option, price is around RM 160+/-, good enough (yet cheap) to use as a system drive for fast boot purpose

No idea on whether MacOS is better for architecture student or not but if you want to native Apple MacBook with MacOS then it is not possible with your current budget, you need to run Hackintosh for this.

Intel Core i5 6500 - RM 849
Gigabyte H110M-DS2 (D4) - RM 299
Apacer 8GB DDR4 2133MHz Value RAM - RM 149
HIS RX460 4GB GDDR5 iCooler OC - RM 599
WD Blue 1TB HDD - RM 209
FSP Hexa+ 550W - RM 199
<Casing of your own choice> ~ RM 200
BenQ GW2270 - RM 399

Total: RM 2903 (Viewnet price inclusive of GST)

Consider adding another 8GB if you open many apps at the same time, same goes to SSD, it improves overall system responsiveness and shorter boot time.

Intel Core i7 6700K - RM 1444
Asus Z170 Pro Gaming Aura - RM 820
Corsair Vengeance LED 16GB (8GB x 2) DDR4 3200MHz RAM - RM 479
Gigabyte GTX1070 8GB GDDR5 G1 Gaming - RM 2075
Samsung 750 EVO 250GB SSD - RM 315
WD Blue 1TB HDD - RM 209
Superflower Leadex Gold 550W - RM 409
Corsair Hydro H100i V2 - RM 508
NZXT S340 - RM 315
Acer XB240H - RM 952

Total: RM 7526 (ETech price inclusive of GST)

i7 is would be a great upgrade but some of the software you use might not be fully using it (not multicore), same goes to GPU, Nvidia GPU which comes with CUDA technology is more preferred in 3D modelling and rendering software, the current GPU picked in the list is an AMD card which doesn't have CUDA technology but with more VRAM, VRAM is used to store the data/elements/assets needed when you use to render (or any other process that uses GPU) so it doesn't have to keep on swapping the memory with the data needed (slow down the operation).

SSD doesn't add performance to the PC, it only improves the overall system responsiveness and shorten the boot time, apps launch faster = save more time.

RAM is very subjective, if you prefer to leave the app opened in background without killing it then you will need more RAM.

The rig comes with RX460 GPU, so yes it can handle gaming just right but not super advance graphics settings, Dota 2 and CS:GO max settings (1080p) shouldn't have any issue. As for sound card, the motherboard does come with basic sound card.

This post has been edited by terence_nwb: Sep 11 2016, 11:16 AM