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New to Forum and Looking for help in building my first computer!

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  • Computers
  • Components
Last response: in Components
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December 7, 2013 11:57:19 AM

Hello everyone, thanks for taking the time to help me out. Let me give you some background on my situation.

Recently my desktop pc that I own, stopped working, I have had it over 3 years and have troubleshooted it to find out that my motherboard is now garbage (I was no longer receiving signals to my computer screen). I am taking this as an opportunity to upgrade and get a new pc. I stumbled across this forum when typing in "best gaming pc under $600" in the Google search bar. Time and time again I saw the same response to people with my similar question, "Build your own computer". So I am taking the advice others received and trying to build my own computer.

This will be my first build ever and I do not have extensive knowledge on the best "bang for my buck" when it comes down to the components or even how to put it all together. I know there is good links that will show me how to put it together but I am here for the first step.
______What components will best suit me for my needs which are gaming?_____
(World of Warcraft and League of Legends) I would like to stay under $600 and salvage parts from my current pc if possible (Hard Drive, Optical Drive, Power Supply, and anything else if possible.) I wanted to save my Processor but I think it may be outdated.

Below is a list I have compiled with the prices I found of some parts that I have seen good reviews about, if you guys can please look it over and recommend anything better please let me know....
Keep in mind I don't know half of what all the numbers even mean.(just basing my picks off of reviews and what I could afford.

MOTHERBOARD: ($74.99) ASUS MSA97 LE R2.0 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6GB/USB 3.0 ATX AMD W/ UEFI BIOS

PROCESSOR: ($199.99) AMD FX-8350 VISHERA 4.0GHZ . SOCKET AM3+ 125W EIGHT CORE

GRAPHICS CARD: (199.99) ASUS GTX 660-DC20-2GD5 GEFORCE GTX 660 2GB GDDR5 PCI EXPRSS 3.0 X 16 HDCP READY

OR

($199.99) MSI R9 270X 2G RADEON R9 270X 256-BIT GDDR5 PCI 3.0 CROSSFIRE X SUPPORT.

Can someone recommend something better? Is this stuff even compatible together? Any advice for a first time build?

Thanks again very much for anyone taking the time to look at this and help me out, I really appreciate it.

More about : forum building computer

December 7, 2013 1:35:10 PM

This is something you could look into

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2gCR0
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2gCR0/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2gCR0/benchmarks/

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor ($129.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock 990FX Extreme4 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($141.50 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Asus Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB Video Card ($169.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Rosewill Challenger-U3 ATX Mid Tower Case ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Rosewill Green 530W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $581.43
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-12-07 16:19 EST-0500)

I think you should go with the fx 8320, I don't think the 8350 is really worth the extra $70. i went with a 990fx motherboard, they are more expensive, but they would compliment your processor better. I went with an ASRock, but you could go with the Gigabyte board if you wanted.

For the graphics card i went for the HD 7870 ghz edition, while it might be a little slower the 270x, the are really close performance wise well within 5fps of each other, overclocking the 7870 would bridge that gap.

the ram is cheap, it's currently on sale so i say you should get it while you can,

now the PSU, case, and CPU cooler may or may not needed, if your current case can hold these things that saves you $25, I don't know what kind of psu you have right now, it would be helpful if you could locate the model number and brand, but i think you will most likely need the psu, and then the cooler is completely optional, it will just keep your cpu temperature lower and allow you to overclock a bit, but if you don't plan on overclocking id say the stock should do alright
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December 7, 2013 2:42:40 PM

scuba111223 said:
This is something you could look into

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2gCR0
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2gCR0/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2gCR0/benchmarks/

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor ($129.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock 990FX Extreme4 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($141.50 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Asus Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB Video Card ($169.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Rosewill Challenger-U3 ATX Mid Tower Case ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Rosewill Green 530W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $581.43
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-12-07 16:19 EST-0500)

I think you should go with the fx 8320, I don't think the 8350 is really worth the extra $70. i went with a 990fx motherboard, they are more expensive, but they would compliment your processor better. I went with an ASRock, but you could go with the Gigabyte board if you wanted.

For the graphics card i went for the HD 7870 ghz edition, while it might be a little slower the 270x, the are really close performance wise well within 5fps of each other, overclocking the 7870 would bridge that gap.

the ram is cheap, it's currently on sale so i say you should get it while you can,

now the PSU, case, and CPU cooler may or may not needed, if your current case can hold these things that saves you $25, I don't know what kind of psu you have right now, it would be helpful if you could locate the model number and brand, but i think you will most likely need the psu, and then the cooler is completely optional, it will just keep your cpu temperature lower and allow you to overclock a bit, but if you don't plan on overclocking id say the stock should do alright



First of all, thank you soooooooo much scuba for your quick response and breaking down everything I would need. You've made this process so much easier. Could you explain "overclocking" to me a bit, how it works and how to do it?
What would you say are the biggest differences in ASRock and Gigabyte board as far as cost and performance?

As far as my PSU in my now dead PC it is a LITEON Model: PS-6301-08A. Idk if that helps, the computer I had that has a bad motherboard was a DX4320 Gateway Desktop Series w/ AMD Phenom II x4 onboard graphics, and I was planning on salvaging anything that wasn't too outdated from inside
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December 7, 2013 5:14:59 PM

Well I'm sure videos on youtube would describe it better, but overclocking is running your cpu or gpu at a faster speed to gain additional performance, and how to do it i'll just link a video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MckeAmnDeTk its for a different brand motherboard so it wouldn't be the same, but it should give you an idea what you would need to change to overclock, its not necessary for you to overclock, its just something you can do to squeeze more power from your cpu.

For your graphics card overclocking you can just use a program called GPU tweak, i'd recommend looking up what ever graphics card you plan on getting and see what the safest voltages you can go up to, YouTube will be way better at showing you what you need to do to overclock things and im sure there are some guides on this site somewhere.

you probably wouldn't notice much difference between the Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 and the ASRock 990fx extreme4 performance wise if you don't overclock, if you were to they both would do fine, but the ASRock would probably do better, as for features, the gigabyte board has 10 usb ports while the ASrock has 8, the asrock has 2 ps/2 ports while the gigabyte has 1(i don't really see a problem with this since there are a lot of keyboards and mice are usb), and the asrock has more sata ports which means you can have more hard drives or optical drives. if you want to you could the best of voth worlds and spend $7 more and get the next gigabyte board up and grab the GA-990FXA-UD5

If I was you I'd probably go with the cheaper gigabyte to save some money, its a good brand. looking at the specs of that pc of yours it looks like if you want to you could probably reuse the ram, if you have less than 4GB I'd say buy the G.skill ram, it's faster, you probably wouldn't notice it much though and its pretty cheap for 8GB of ram.

I'd say to be safe you should get a new PSU for two reasons, one is that im not sure how many watts your current PSU is. you could have a 500w which would work, that comes with another problem, if it was a 500w psu it only has 1 pcie cable and the 7870 need 2, you could buy a molex to pcie adapter but i think its better to get a brand new PSU that has the right connectors
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December 8, 2013 3:46:59 PM

I think I will go with the cheaper gigabyte board and get the new psu like you recommended. The only thing I'm sure I'm missing is the OS. What would u recommend? And do u have a link or know of a reputable site the would show me step by step instructions to the actual assembling of my new PC.
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Best solution

December 8, 2013 4:06:59 PM

Sorry i was thinking you had an OS for some reason, here http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004Q0PT3I/?tag=pcpapi-20 its home edition it does limit the amount of ram you can use to 16GB but that's fine since you won't need that much anyway.

and there are plenty of videos that can walk you through it, one second. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPIXAtNGGCw&list=PLR_YoB... the first three videos of this playlist should help you, i believe these might of been the ones i watched when i built my first computer
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December 8, 2013 4:24:53 PM

Awesome, that seems like a good choice. I didn't like windows 8 so much. And i will watch the videos and start ordering the parts. Thanks again for all your help.
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