sparkz89 :
Sup guys friend has this setup here.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1yag6
I told him that the PSU is bad and that he should upgrade his PSU to at least 600-650W and also that his CPU is bottlenecking his GPU. But I am not sure if he should get the FX-6XXX series or go with the 8350 ~ any suggestions? (All he does is game, no video editing/rendering)
The Zambezi/Bulldozer (FX-x1xx) architecture is pretty terrible for gaming, especially when compared to the superior Vishera/Pildriver (FX-x3xx) architecture. That CPU will end up being a bottleneck for that GPU most certainly. As for which to get, the FX-6300 or the FX-8350, I have an FX-6300 and a GTX 770 (about equivalent to an HD 7970), and I get bottlenecking with that. In all likeliness, the FX-8350 wouldn't help because the major differences between the FX-6300 and it are just the 2 extra cores, the higher clock, and the 2 extra threads. Games would not make use of the 2 extra cores and threads, at least not many, and the FX-6300 can be overclocked way past the stock clocks of the FX-8350 very easily. I have mine at 4.2 GHz and it was really easy to get it stable too.
So, if he has the money to spend on an FX-8350, there's no reason not to spend another $20 (while swapping out motherboards) for an i5-3570k which is vastly superior.
Oh, and
very importantly, WHY IS YOUR HDD $120?!?!?!?!? Here's a very popular 1 TB, 7200 RPM HDD for $60:
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/seagate-internal-hard-drive-st1000dm003
I couldn't possibly imagine what the hell he was doing about to spend another $60 for 500 GB less in an HDD. And he can save another $10 on that SSD:
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/kingston-internal-hard-drive-sv300s37a120g
And you're right, that PSU is
awful. It's only 530W, it has NO certification whatsoever, and worst of all, it's a Raidmax. Raidmax is a tier 5 (the worst possible) PSU maker. Your friend has seriously got to learn to do his homework better and research before he buys. Here's an infinitely better PSU:
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/rosewill-power-supply-hive650
UPDATE: I recommend that, if your friend can't afford an i5-3570k, he abandon the SSD completely to save some money for it. SSDs are very nice for great boot up times, but their high GB/$ pricing means you can't have more than an OS, a few startup programs (Anti-Virus, Steam if applicable, etc), and perhaps a few games unless you're willing to spend big bucks on a large one. Thus, they're more or less for bragging rights or if you have a work computer that needs to be speedy and efficient in everything. So if it means you're greatly dialing back on other components for it, you probably shouldn't think about getting it.
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