First PC Build: For mid range gaming and video capture/editing, need help!

Jon Crofts

Honorable
Aug 10, 2013
7
0
10,510
Hey guys, i've had my old system for a while now and have found it's no longer meeting my needs.

I use my current PC a lot but tbh I do little with it part from video editing and the usual web browsing, watching movies etc.

There are two main reasons for me wanting a new rig though.

One of them is that my current PC won't run FFXIV: ARR at all and i'd like to have something that could run it at decentish settings. I also have a few games on steam that I haven't been able to play on my current build.

Recommended System Requirements for FFXIV ARR: http://www.ffxivinfo.com/systemreqs.php

I also do a fair bit of video capture (mostly videogames) and video editing and have been wanting to upgrade from my Hauppauge HD PVR Gaming Edition to something like this that can capture video at 60fps.

Black Magic Intensity Extreme: http://www.amazon.co.uk/electronics/dp/B007CYJ4WM

*Note: From reading around about the Black Magic capture devices, they only seem to work on a limited amount of motherboards, I need to do more research on these devices.

I won't be buying the new capture device for a while but i'd like to build a rig that can handle that when I need it and i'd also like to build something that's easy to upgrade in the future (though I generally get quite a long use from my PC's).

Approximate Purchase Date: Within the next month.

Budget Range: £400 - £500

Are you buying a monitor: No

Do you need to buy OS: No

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: None, will shop around for lowest price.

Location: UK

Parts Preferences: None

Overclocking: No

SLI or Crossfire: No

Your Monitor Resolution: 1600 x 900

Here's some components i've been looking at...

Case: http://www.ebuyer.com/390898-casecom-cs-13-case-cs-13

Motherboard: http://www.ebuyer.com/398369-asrock-990fx-extreme3-socket-am3-7-1-channel-audio-atx-motherboard-990fx-extreme3

CPU: http://www.ebuyer.com/409186-amd-fx-8320-3-5ghz-socket-am3-16mb-cache-retail-boxed-processor-fd8320frhkbox

Memory: http://www.ebuyer.com/274035-corsair-8gb-ddr3-1600mhz-low-profile-vengeance-memory-cml8gx3m2a1600c9

PSU: http://www.ebuyer.com/433503-tesla-750w-psu-tesla-750w

Graphics Card: http://www.ebuyer.com/444425-evga-gtx-660-2gb-gddr5-hdmi-dvi-i-dvi-d-pci-e-graphics-card-02g-p4-2660-kr

Other: i will be using my hard drive and DVD Drive from my current PC, same for monitor, mouse, keyboard etc.

My knowledge is fairly limited as far as builds go and there's a few things i'm unsure about here...

1. The motherboard, i've read some fairly negative comments about the asrock ones. I was looking at the ASUS ones but they seem quite pricey.

2. The PSU, seems awfully cheap for 750w. I'm not even sure I need 750w, I did a rough calculation and seems like i'd need a little over 500w?

3. Graphics card bumped the price up quite a bit, was hoping to do a build on a budget but the current total is just a few pounds short of £500.

I hope I was informative enough, i'd really appreciate any advice here, even if it's a totally different build and if it's possible to get the price down a little that'd be great :)





 
Solution
Yes, you can get a SSD, but if I were you then I would rather spend the money in getting a better graphics card. I mean that would offer better performance.

SSD does not have any performance gains for gaming or Video Editing. It just makes everything feel snappy and fast. Other than that there is no real advantage of SSD. It makes opening apps, Booting and other things faster but has almost no impact on Gaming or Video Editing.

So there are two options for you :

Get a build with a SSD (not recommended)
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor (£143.99 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock 970 PRO3 R2.0 ATX AM3+...

drewhoo

Honorable
Apr 5, 2012
318
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10,860
What video editing software do you use? That will have an impact on what kind of graphics card you ought to get.

Here's a good resource on which power supplies are trustworthy:
http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/323050.aspx

As for video capture, you might be better served to use a PCIe device like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815100100 (I know the newegg link doesn't help you; just find this product or one like it in a newegg store)

that is both cheaper and more compatible with motherboards (all you need is a spare x1 slot)

Also, why the 990FX chipset? All you ought to need is a 970 chipset, if you're intent on using an AMD processor. If I were building a video editing machine, I would get the cheapest i5 I could find. As for the video card, I think I'd recommend the £160 Nvidia GTX 760 for a £500 overall budget.

It might be tough to fit both that and an i5 into the same budget. Just get any quad-core i5; it doesn't matter if it's Haswell or Ivy Bridge, or even Sandy Bridge, and then slap it on an H-- chipset motherboard that has an accessible x1 slot for the extra video capture card.
 

Jon Crofts

Honorable
Aug 10, 2013
7
0
10,510


Cheers for the reply man.

I use Adobe premier for creating stuff like overlays but most of my actual editing is done in Windows Movie Maker, believe it or not :)

A PCI express capture card is probably a better choice tbh, more in line of what I had in mind but I just linked the Black Magic as a quick example as I knew their stuff capped at 60fps.

I wasn't set on the AMD CPU at all, I was originally going for an i5 but they seem quite pricey. That AMD was cheaper and had a higher cache than the i5 ones I saw.

I don't see a GeForce GTX 760 anywhere for £160?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/EVGA-Nvidia-GeForce-Superclocked-Graphics/dp/B00DMB6C4C/ref=sr_1_3?m=A568M49KGLGYM&s=merchant-items&ie=UTF8&qid=1376193336&sr=1-3&keywords=GeForce+GTX+760

Cheapest I can see from a quick browse.

I can go over £500 if I need to but i'd like to minimise what I spend where I can.
 
If you are not overclocking then this is the best gaming Pc for that budgdet :

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor (£143.99 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock 970 PRO3 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£46.10 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: PNY XLR8 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£37.92 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£45.59 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB Video Card (£154.30 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Zalman Z9 ATX Mid Tower Case (£32.10 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£49.86 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £509.86
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-08-11 04:58 BST+0100)

+ For Editing the 8350 is much better than the i5
+ Since you are not going to overclock hence go with the 8350 instead of 8320. 8350 is better at stock speeds.
+The PC would run well under 450Watts. So no need of getting the 750W PSU.

I hope this helps. Take a look at the build and tell me what you think about it. Your feedback would be highly appreciated.
 

Jon Crofts

Honorable
Aug 10, 2013
7
0
10,510


That looks like a nice build! I appreciate the help :)

Couple of questions though.

1. I already have a 7200rpm 1TB hard drive in my current PC that I intend to use on this new rig, do you think it'd be wise to instead purchase a solid state drive for my OS on the new rig?

 
Yes, you can get a SSD, but if I were you then I would rather spend the money in getting a better graphics card. I mean that would offer better performance.

SSD does not have any performance gains for gaming or Video Editing. It just makes everything feel snappy and fast. Other than that there is no real advantage of SSD. It makes opening apps, Booting and other things faster but has almost no impact on Gaming or Video Editing.

So there are two options for you :

Get a build with a SSD (not recommended)
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor (£143.99 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock 970 PRO3 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£46.10 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: PNY XLR8 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£37.92 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Kingston HyperX 3K 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£69.29 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB Video Card (£154.30 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Zalman Z9 ATX Mid Tower Case (£32.10 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£49.86 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £533.56
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-08-11 05:53 BST+0100)

2. Get a build with a better graphics card (Highly Recommended)
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor (£143.99 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock 970 PRO3 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£46.10 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: PNY XLR8 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£37.92 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card (£203.71 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: Zalman Z9 ATX Mid Tower Case (£32.10 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£49.86 @ Scan.co.uk)
Total: £513.68
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-08-11 05:57 BST+0100)

So get the one you prefer but my recommendation would be to go for the Nvidia 760 as it has better performance when it comes to using Adobe Applications and it has PhsyX. You can see youtube videos on that thing. And it is much more powerful than the 7870 Ghz Edition.

So go for the 2nd option in my opinion. But you are free to choose whatever you find best for you. Though I would stick to one thing that is to go for the 2nd build with a better graphics card.
 
Solution

Jon Crofts

Honorable
Aug 10, 2013
7
0
10,510


Ha, I didn't even think of spending that extra money to upgrade the graphics card. The second one seems like a really good build for the money, think i'm going to go ahead with this one but i might swap the tower case out for something along the same price but with a bigger side window (I forgot to clean my PC regularly and it may help remind me lol).