First time builder - Which Build?

dwhalley95

Honorable
Jul 22, 2013
11
0
10,510
I have just been pricing up components for a computer i would like to build and cannot decide which build to go for;

the first build is this and comes to £447.32

----MSI 990FXA-GD65, AMD 990FX, S AM3+, DDR3, SATA III - 6Gb/s, RAID SATA, PCIe 2.0 (x16), ATX

----8GB (2x4GB) Corsair DDR3 Vengeance Racing Red, PC3-12800 (1600), Non-ECC, CAS 9-9-9-24, XMP, 1.5V

----500GB Seagate ST500DM002 Barracuda SATA 6Gb/s, 7200rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.5ms, NCQ

----CiT Wraith, Black Interior, ATX Case with 500W 12cm Black PSU

----Samsung SH-118AB/BEBE Black 18x SATA DVD ROM - OEM

----AMD FX 8320 Black Edition, Vishera, 8 Core, S AM3+, 3.5GHz, 16MB Total Cache, 125W, Retail

---- 1GB XFX Radeon HD 7770 Core Edition with Ghost Thermal, 4500MHz GDDR5, GPU 1000MHz, 640 Cores, DP DVI/HDMI +Free Game


the second build is this and comes to £461.99


----2TB Seagate ST2000DM001 Barracuda 7200.14 SATA 3 6GB/s 7200rpm 64MB Cache 8ms OEM NCQ

----500W Cooler Master Elite RS500 120mm Quiet Fan EPS 12V, Fan, ATX v2.3, PSU

----8GB Corsair DDR3 Vengeance Low Profile Jet Black PC3-12800 (1600), Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, XMP, 1.5V

----Fractal Design Define R3 USB 3.0 Black Pearl, Mid Tower Performance Case NEW Cable Routing Noise Absorbing w/o PSU

----Gigabyte GA-Z87-HD3, Intel Z87, S 1150, DDR3, SATA III - 6Gb/s, SATA RAID, PCIe 3.0 (x16), D-Sub (VGA) DVI-D HDMI, ATX

----Intel Core i5 4670K, S 1150, Haswell, Quad Core, 3.4GHz, 3.8GHz Turbo, 1200MHz GPU, 34x Ratio, Retail

I will also be getting a graphics card at some point for my second build, im looking for one between £80 to £100 which will allow me to do a little bit of gaming and also have 2-3 screens running.

the main uses of the computer will be to play Full HD movies, play music, surf the web and gaming.

which build do you guys suggest i go for and why?

Thanks
 

RaisingTheBarHD

Honorable
May 8, 2013
822
0
11,160
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£65.99 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock 970 EXTREME4 ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£72.63 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: PNY XLR8 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£38.06 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£49.32 @ Scan.co.uk)
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB Video Card (£163.96 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case (£47.98 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply (£49.98 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £487.92
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-07-26 14:55 BST+0100)

take a look at this also, it will run great, doesnt have as super as a cpu but it is still a great cpu. The gpu is where i went a little higher on the budget since you said you would be gaming and for 80-100 you wont be able to do gaming on low/medium. for 2-3 screens you can run off the card i selected but not all for gaming just one and the other for browsing.
 
Solution

MC_K7

Distinguished


Yeah tiny voices is right. Don't go cheap on the PSU. Never forget that this is what is going to power all your other components, you don't want unstable power damaging something.

 

goonbar79

Distinguished
Dec 31, 2008
213
0
18,860
I don't think anything less than a FX6300 is a good choice for a gaming system today. I think Phenom II X4 is past its prime, and I wouldn't get it unless you get it at a super discounted price. If this is the first step to upgrading to better components later, I would get system#2 with haswell, and buy a decent discrete gpu as soon as budget allows. If this is a final purchase (no upgrades planned), I would go for a modified system#1 (FX6300, aftermarket heatsink to OC it to 4.5ghz or higher, cheaper mobo, better gpu).