My New Build

Hi everyone!

I'm just about to start a new build, the second one I have ever done but the first where I am old enough to know what I'm doing (king of)
Just want to hear people's opinions on what I plan on buying and give me advice if I'm buying something stupid/unnecessary or that will cause a bottleneck. I'm also hoping that this thread might help some other people thinking of building a moderate-price AMD gaming rig.

So, this is what I am thinking. Prices are from ebay.co.uk as of early January 2015:

CPU: AMD FX 8320 ~£100
GPU: AMD R9 280X ~£160-£170
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 2x 4GB ~£50
PSU: Corsair CS 650W Hybrid Modular ~£75
Case: Antec GX-500 ~£50
MB: ASUS M5A97 ~£60
OS: Windows 8.1 ~£60
Fan: 3-6 Noctua NF-F12 ~£20 each
CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS9500A ~£30

Total = ~£650

(don't have to read this, just my thoughts on the parts)
I got the FX 8320 as it was £40 cheaper than the 8350 and also I don't plan on overclocking (possibly to a low-mid level but nothing too much as I've never done it before).
The GPU is imo the best price-performance compromise and should work very well with the other components as far as i know.
I could get a Corsair HX 650W PSU for £20 less but it is refurbished, should I go for it or just buy a new one?
Motherboard should be fine as I don't plan on overclocking much (maybe up to 4MHz but I will see what you all think about this).
2x 4GB or 2x 8GB RAM? Cost is about the same per GB but it would save money in the short run. Don't plan on more than 16GB anyways as it's just for gaming.
CPU cooler because it looks cool and would let me overclock a bit with no problems. Might upgrade the motherboard in the future but not a priority right now.


Any tips and advice warmly welcomed, I also hope that even if people say it's good then it might help others decide what to get for 2015.

Really looking forward to building this! Been reading up on it all for the past half a year but needed to get money together.

Thanks for reading. Looking forward to responses

 

Nice specs, I just got an 8320 myself. I ran a Zalman 9700 in my old machine (just retired) and it ran perfectly since 2009. It kept my Core2Quad Q9400 cool and overclocked at 3.2Ghz for all those years. I agree with DavidGP go for an SSD as your primary OS drive 256GB would be excellent if you plan to use a mechanical drive as your data drive. It only takes a few clicks to redirect your personal folders to the mechanical drive. Windows 7/8.1 is of course preference.

 

LOL I totally forgot about the hard drive haha!

I was going to get a Kingston V300 SSD, 240GB as it costs about £75-£80 (120GB is about £50, so may as well go for the bigger one).

How about the Kingston Hyper X? Has slightly faster read/write speeds (500 MB/s not 450 MB/s) but it is a bit more expensive at £90.

Might get a 1TB or 2TB Seagate/Western Digital HDD but I don't know, this is going to be a dedicated gaming PC, so I might just buy a second SSD in the future when I need it, maybe a 480GB one.

Also, I'm now thinking of spending an extra £10 on a different motherboard: the Gigabyte 970A-UD3P as it has an "8+2 phase CPU VRM power design" which is better for overclocking than the 4+1 on the ASUS board I put earlier. What are your thoughts on this?

Thanks for the info on the Zalman CPU cooler aidan80 definitely getting it now.

Thanks for the feedback so far though both of you

 

Agreed with the opinions so far, but I can say I'm not big on Kingston right now. There has been a bit of scandal with firmware updates slowing down the speed of some drives. Not totally clear if it's more than the V series models though. Some users of HyperX drives have reported slowdowns over time as well. My OCZ Vertex 3 is still rocking along (530/500 read/write) and 100% "perfect" after 620 days of operation according to HDSentinel.

As far as an Asus board, my Sabertooth is still going strong, and the five year warranty is still in play. I highly recommend Asus as the way to go on a mobo. I paired the Sabertooth with an FX-8350 and it's been absolutely smooth sailing. Everyone has their preference on RAM, and mine would be Crucial's Ballistix series.

If you do choose to go with a mechanical drive, make sure the cache is at least 64MB and you may have a choice of 7200 or 10,000 RPM depending on the drive. There are also mechanical drives out there which are designed to handle video surveillance systems as well, and they tend to have a 128MB cache. Plus they are built like a tank to take the abuse from the insane amounts of reads and writes.

As always, check your QVL (Qualified Vendor List) with any motherboard. And, have FUN. There's nothing quite like that new hardware smell...

:major

 

Thanks for the advice on SSD's guys definitely going to spend that bit extra for a OCZ or EVO 840.

What do you think about mobo though? The sabertooth is sweet, but it is twice as much as the Gigabyte one I mentioned earlier (£140 instead of £70) and it wont affect performance that much (as far as I know). I have money to spend but there is a soft limit to how much I want to spend and getting the Sabertooth is going to put it slightly above this limit. Is it worth it though?

 

I went with the Sabertooth because when I build a rig, I build it to last as long as possible. Amortization and depreciation, mind you. My two prior builds lasted me 7, and 5 years respectively. The second is still running, I just upgraded to the current one and gave the second build to my mother to replace her dinosaur.

 

Well I want to make a desktop PC that plays Planetside 2, Farcry 3/4, Diablo 3 (not very demanding, but still) and other games like these with minimum 40 FPS, preferably 60 or more. I can't think of any recent titles that I want to play right now though but I want it "future-proof" to a certain extent.

I think the Sabertooth is a bit too much to spend on a mobo, so I'm thinking more

ASUS M5A99X EVO R2.0 (£105)
Gigabyte GA-990XA-UD3 (£80)

The case I am getting has USB 3.0 on the front so I would like a mobo with an adapter to allow these to be used but then again I would like a VRM better than 4+1 as I am thinking of overclocking very slightly (from 3.5 GHZ to 3.8, possibly 4.0). But no more than £105 for mobo (even that is a little bit much tbh).

 

Okay I've settled with various parts. I've attached an image of what I am going to buy. The graphics card isn't there but I'm deciding between:

ASUS AMD Radeon R9 290X 4GB ROG Martrix Ed Card (£350)
XFX AMD Radeon R9 280X 3GB Graphics Card (£210) Leaning towards this one!
ASUS AMD Radeon R9 270X 4GB Graphics Card (£185)

Any tips for deciding between these?

Also, for playing games like Planetside 2, Farcry 3/4, Dark Souls (and eventually Bloodborn) at 50-60 fps minimum, what processor should I go for?

AMD FX 4350 (4 x 4.2GHz but fewer L3 cache etc. but only £78)
AMD FX 8350 (8 x 4GHz but about twice as much money at £135)

Also, is 8GB DDR3 RAM enough or should I get 16GB (both 1600MHz)?

Last questions for me Many thanks for the help so far! Hope this helps other people building an AMD gaming rig too

 

Oookay, so after a looong time of looking at benchmarks and looking at prices I have actually decided to make some rather drastic changes:

CPU: Intel i5 4690K 3.5GHz 1150 Socket (extra £30 for a BIG boost in gaming performance)
GPU: ASUS nVidia GTX 970 4GB (about £30 cheaper than an R9 290X and a little bit better performance for gaming)
MoBo: ASUS Z97-AR (has everything I need without being overkill, within price range and looks cool)
RAM: Corsair Vengeance Low-Profile 2x4GB 1600MHz (should fit with the CPU cooler I'm getting :-D )
SSD: Samsung 840 EVO 240GB
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB
PSU: Corsair SX650M 80+ Gold (650W should be enough, right?)
CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS12X Triple Fan BEAST!
Case: Corsair Carbide SPEC-01 (not too expensive but looks nice, has a nice big window on the side and is big enough)
OS: Windows 8.1

Going to cost about £1100 in total lol! Luckily I can pay for it monthly otherwise I could never afford this.

Thanks again for all your input, it really helped me make my decision and actually stopped me making a big mistake with the FX 8350, I've heard from many sources that it's very disappointing and runs very hot.

 

Thanks for your input, has re-assured me I am making the right choices
Unfortunately I can't buy it until next month, unless I can magic up about £200-£300 lol. However I'll be sure to post here when I have bought, built and used it.

 

Just a final update to my situation: I have just finished building my new PC!! I'm currently writing this on it now My final specs were:

Intel Core i5 4690K CPU
Gigabyte nVidia GTX 970 (the non G1-gaming but OC'd edition)
ASUS Maximus VII Ranger MoBo
Corsair Vengeance 1866MHz CL9 RAM (Red)
Samsung 850 EVO SSD
Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm HDD
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo Cooler
NZXT H440 Case
BenQ 24-inch 1ms Full HD Monitor
Corsair K50 Keyboard + Sharkoon Drakonia Black Gaming Mouse
External Optical CD Drive (non-DVD, D'oh)
Arctic MX-4 Thermal Compound (I plan on overclocking slightly)

Here are some pics too
Super happy with it! So fast like I've never seen before! Haven't played games yet as they are still installing but if people are interested I can post my FPS and settings, just ask Sorry about the picture quality and that they are rotated, can't seem to "unrotate" them...

 

Ahhhh, that new hardware smell... :-D


Nice rig!

:major



I don't like to rain on a parade, but the 970 has some known issues which may or may not affect you.

http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphi...Full-Memory-Structure-and-Limitations-GTX-970

 

Nice job!
Be sure to image the drive as soon as you get all your drivers and preferences and updates. No telling when you will need to revert to where you are now.

 

Thanks guys/gals

Yeah I heard about the 3.5GB/0.5GB VRAM issue before I got it but I wasn't willing to shell out an extra ~£200 or so for the 980 (I got the 970 for £275), plus it is still faster than a R9 290x for the things I wanted to do for roughly the same price. I mainly game at 1080p but might go to 2560 x 1440 if I can, although my monitor might only be 1080p (only, lol). As far as I know, the VRAM issue mainly affects 4k and 2k gaming or maxing out games like Shadow of Mordor at 1080p, so for me it should be fine

Either way, I've played some Planetside 2 on full graphical settings (everything maxed) at 1080p with v-sync on and am getting a constant, smooth 60fps even in heated battles (my monitor is 60Hz so will never go above this). Temps have yet to go above 60 degrees too for GPU and CPU (after 2-3 hours of gaming, so far).

And thanks DOA for the suggestion, I didn't think of doing that lol. I really enjoyed building this beast, I want to make another haha!

Anyways, thanks to everyone for the help and suggestions. I hope this thread is able to help others think about the right components for their builds too as it was very confusing for me at the start.

 

When I was on one 970, I had no issues @1600p, nor two, or now three. But, that is just the games I've been playing. I don't play FPS (First Person Shooter) games. Mostly WoW (World of Warcraft) and WoT (World of Tanks).

Note, I got the 3rd 970 mostly for Folding@Home.

I'll say, until I go 4k, the 970 kicks butt @1080p :major
Kicks butt @ 1440p / 1600p