Building an AMD FX machine

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Chaser52

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Aug 22, 2013
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10,510
Hey guys,
It's my first time here asking a question on the forum and it's regarding a certain build I wanna get.
The back story is I had an AMD Athlon x2 5600+ coupled with a Gigabyte board with two DDR2 sockets and it served me well for almost 7 years but now that one of the RAMs gave out and I finally moved to Win 7 I realized it's about time to upgrade ;)

Here's the build I'm looking at right now:
AMD FX-6300 tray/box
Asus M5A97 R2.0 or Gigabyte GA880MAUSB3
An old Nvidia GeForce 9600GT 1GB from my previous PC to be upgraded later
1 8GB DDR3 1600mhz RAM stick

I was wondering what you guys think about it and if you have any tips or you see any conflicts with the build.
The machine is supposed to be budget oriented (About 500$) and the main use is going to be gaming with a bit of music editing.

Also a couple fo question for you guys:
1.Is there going to be a need for a stronger PSU than 500W?
2.Do you see any reason to go above 8GB RAM at this time?
3.I intend to try OC for the first time. I assume I'm going to need a better cooler than a stock one. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance guys.
Serg


 
Solution
Tradesman1
I'd go with the Asus mobo ---if a good PSU then should be fine - 8GB is fine, but might shop a 2x4GB would give you a slight advantage performance wise over a single stick in single channel mode - also if it's an 8GB will prob want a 1.5 stick, there's beeen a flood of 1.35 8 GB sticks come out and many AMD mobos don't deal well with low voltage - for a cooler - look at the Hyper 212 EVO - $35 or so and one of the top air coolers available
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Tradesman1

Tradesman1

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Jun 5, 2013
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I'd go with the Asus mobo ---if a good PSU then should be fine - 8GB is fine, but might shop a 2x4GB would give you a slight advantage performance wise over a single stick in single channel mode - also if it's an 8GB will prob want a 1.5 stick, there's beeen a flood of 1.35 8 GB sticks come out and many AMD mobos don't deal well with low voltage - for a cooler - look at the Hyper 212 EVO - $35 or so and one of the top air coolers available
 
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Chaser52

Honorable
Aug 22, 2013
8
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10,510
Thanks a lot for the answer!
I've seen the name CM 212 Evo pop up under numerous circumstances and I'm definitely going for it.
As for the voltage of RAMs I've never heard of that problem so thanks for opening my eyes on this one! And yeah I'm going for dual chans.

I actually have a stock PSU with total output of 500W max. In the specifications it says:
+5V & +3.3V combined 130W MAX. +5V & +3.3V & 12V combined 480W MAX.

I have no idea what it means... Will this be enough? Any insights?
 
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sparkz89

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Sep 2, 2011
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May we also have the brand of the PSU to better appraise it's quality. But so far the FX-6300 sounds like a good chip as long as you dont plan to drop a strong card with it, if that is the case you may end up with some bottleneck issues, for just a mere $20-30 you could also get the FX-8320. But definitely a better motherboard, if you plan to overclock don't over look ASROCK, but if you are not really than ASUS/GIGABYTE 990FX motherboards are the way to go. You can find some great ones for $110-130.
 
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Chaser52

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Aug 22, 2013
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10,510
Sadly it's a rather generic PSU with a logo that is an image and not a name so I can't even make out the name of the brand. The only thing I know is it says "Model:ADK-A450" (A google search yields an ANDERTEK PSU verification and testing report or some such, and that's not it).

So based on the numbers above is it possible to work with this one and is it a good idea at all? Should I invest a 100$ or so more for an SPU or can I stick to this one? Keep in mind that I am going for overclocking.

Also I decided to go with the Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3 board. I heard it's a good board and it beats the Asus M5A97 R2.0 with VRM's (8+2 against 4+2).

The only question left is should I go for 2x4GB 1600MHZ Kingston RAM sticks or 1x8GB of the same brand? I understood that there's little difference nowadays and apparently only memory specific programs will actually benefit from the dual channel. I am going to play around with a music editing software which is RAM consuming...
 
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Chaser52

Honorable
Aug 22, 2013
8
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10,510
I'm from Israel and let's say I have around 80$ left for the PSU. I'd like to know how I should calculate the REAL wattage.
My PSU specifications:
+3.3 V +5V 12V1 12V2 -12V +5VSB
24A 8.16A 13.2A 13.2A 0.3A 2.0A

I understood that I'm supposed to use the formula Voltage*Ampers=Wattage and then just combine all the wattage on all rails. Is this correct?
Are there any voltages my PC won't be using at all?
Can anyone explain what type of hardware each voltage fuels?

I think I'll tag this thread under PSU as well :p
 
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Chaser52

Honorable
Aug 22, 2013
8
0
10,510
OK guys so this is the final build I'm getting to:

MB: Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3
CPU: AMD FX-6300
RAM: Kingston Predator 2x4
PSU: Zalman ZM500LE 500W
Cooler: MC 212 Evo
GPU: Gigabyte 7790HD 1GB OC
 
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Chaser52

Honorable
Aug 22, 2013
8
0
10,510
Could you post some examples of Kingstons that aren't 1.6? I really can't find any in the local market. Also I heard it just means the cards will drop their voltage automatically to 1.5 and I could OC them if I want to to 1.6....
 
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