Valkyrie: Rationale and Details

A Very Dusty Valkyrie

So, I've had my current build for about 6 months, and have never actually written about it. So, I decided that with all the free time on my hands (I was recently fired), I might as well tell everyone about Valkyrie.

Valkyrie is definitely my idea of a budget computer capable of gaming better than a console. It has a quad-core CPU, An R9 270 GPU, 8GB of RAM, 1TB of HDD, and an Asus M5A97 LE R2.0 Mobo. And when I first built this, a lot of people asked me "Why'd you get this instead of that?" So that is what this post is about. Rationale.

Let's start with the CPU, a basic FX-4300. Why'd I get this instead of an FX-8350 or i5 of some sort? Well, for a few reasons. 1. It was cheap. I got it for $110 bucks after shipping and taxes. That's a really good deal. 2. It is unlocked and easy to overclock and doesn't run as hot as an 8 core AMD. I can slap a Hyper 212 Evo on and get up to 4.5GHz easy. That will come soon. 3. It won't bottleneck or be bottlenecked with other components. The GPU mixed with this is perfect, and neither of them are holding the other back.

Next, the GPU. I got an Asus R9 270 because, like the FX-4300, it was cheap. I bought it back when AMD GPUs were super expensive because of the Bitcoin miners, but you can get R9 270s for as low as $150. It is an amazing card for the price, and I think it will dominate the sub-$200 area for a long time.

I went with 8GB of RAM because that is what was in my previous computer. I just switched it over and saved a few bucks. It's 1333Mhz RAM, so it's nothing stupid fast, but it will allow me to play games well, cause it's 8GB. I still have 2 open DIMM slots, so upgrading in the future won't be a problem.

My Hard drive is also like the RAM, just swapped it out. I will be putting another TB or 2 into the rig later, when I get the money.

I went with an Asus mobo because I know they're reliable. It was about $100, and can really push the overclocking when needed. It doesn't have heatsinks over the MOSFETs or capacitors, but I have enough air going over the mobo to keep them cooled.

A lot of people have asked me what case I use. I'm not a major case snob, so I went with the cheapest ATX case I could find that had what I needed. Front intake, bottom mounted PSU, blue. That's all. This case is from LEPATEK, and I did a review of it when I got it, so check that out here.

My PSU is a Corsair CX500M. It powers the comp perfectly, and still allows me to upgrade because it has 2 6+2 PCIe connectors, so when I upgrade to an R9 280 or something, I'll have the juice.

So that's my current build. Not super powerful, not super weak. It's an insane budget build, and plays almost every game at high settings at 1080p at 50+ FPS. Mainly cause of the graphics card.

Thanks for reading, and I hope to see you soon.