Complete Newbie, first time building, how does my set up look?

Tikidude75

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Hey Tom's hardware, I wasn't sure where to post it but her so anyways... This is my first time building a pc EVER! I have a bit of an idea of what to pick and what brands are reliable... But I need someone to look over my build before I am sure with it. Also I'm not making a whole ton of money and I will probably take about a year to buy all of this and start building, so do you think that all these parts will hold up with the next gen games? Also with all my parts, should I add a CPU cooler or a case fan? And following that what brands to look for? Anyways here is my build:

Intel core i5-4670 3.4 ghz quad-core processor

Gigabyte G1.Sniper M5 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard

Corsair 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1333

Western Digital WD Green 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive

Asus Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB Video Card

Corsair 400R ATX Mid Tower Case

Apevia 680W ATX Power Supply

Sony AD-7280S-0B DVD/CD Writer

ALL POSITIVE FEEDBACK WELCOME AND SUGGESTIONS/IMPROVEMENTS AS WELL
 
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all seems good one last thing for the same price of ram i would go with this...

Archie Griffs

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Oct 1, 2013
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Assuming you're gaming, you don't need 16GB of RAM, even 4GB is fine, 8GB is the sweet spot. Don't overkill it on RAM as there's no real benefit past 8.

I've never head of the Apevia brand, you might want to get a SeaSonic or a Corsair, those generally are the best quality, but it depends on the model. I'm being a hypocrite by judging based on brand when I said you should judge by individual model, sorry.


[strike]Your PSU will run that system,[/strike] your motherboard has the correct pins for the CPU, there doesn't seem to be anything critical, mostly just issues with what the best for your money and quality.

The 4670 is a beast, you don't need to worry about it underperforming or getting showed aside by new generation games for a long time, but towards the end of the year next gen Haswell CPUs will be coming out and they will be absolute beasts. I don't know how long it's going to take you to get all the parts for the PC, but if it's not for a while, both graphics cards and CPUs will generally have better deals and more bang for your buck, moreso GPUs, there isn't anything groundbreaking that's coming very soon in CPU technology.

The 7870 is a decent graphics card, but the 4670 can handle so much more. What FPS are you looking to get on games and what games will you be playing? This is generally one of the better ways to figure out if this build will be enough, overkill or just right.
 

Archie Griffs

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Is this the PSU you were looking at?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817148022

Quoting someone from another topic:
For a system using a single Radeon HD 7870 graphics card AMD specifies a minimum of a 500 Watt or greater power supply. The power supply should also have a combined +12 Volt continuous current rating of 27 Amps or greater and have at least one 6-pin PCI Express supplementary power connector.

Total Power Supply Wattage is NOT the crucial factor in power supply selection!!! Total Continuous Amperage Available on the +12V Rail(s) is the most important factor.

The Corsair Enthusiast Series VX550W (CMPSU-550VX), with its combined +12 Volt continuous current rating of 41 Amps and with one 6-pin and one (6+2)-pin PCI Express supplementary power connectors, is sufficient to power your system configuration with a single Radeon HD 7870.

Your PSU supports 12V24A, 27A is the required amount, I don't think your PSU will be able to run the 7870. Furthermore, 24A doesn't leave room for any upgrades. PSUs are meant to last for many many years, one of the few parts you shouldn't have to upgrade before it dies.

I would recommend any of these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139012
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151088

The one you picked out had a 1 year warranty, the Corsairs and SeaSonic have 7 year warranties, that should be a pretty big red flag. Being ensured that you're going to have a PSU for 7 years even if you have to send it in is worth spending the extra money on it alone, though I would easily get one of the for being a better quality PSU.

If you get 2 sticks of 4GB of RAM instead of 2 sticks of 8GB you have plenty of money to upgrade the PSU.

source for the 7870 PSU incompatibilities: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/328489-28-will-build
 

t21

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Jan 6, 2012
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i would go with i5 k series for extra 10 $ and for mobo i like asus or msi they build quality bords for in these case go with MSI Z87M and you would save to get cooler like cm evo and power supply seasonic as for the ram get something that is 1600 2x4gb make sure to check motherboard site for ram qvl they list all the qvl rams that go well with the mobo and gpu go for 760 oc
 
An Apevia PSU is not really up to the task. Brands like Seasonic, Antec, PC Power & Cooling and Corsair are more suited to what you need. Also, your rig is not really set up for gaming. As previously stated, 8GB of RAM is all you need. In addition to that, your rig is CPU-heavy and GPU-average. You should be GPU-heavy and CPU-average. Change your CPU to an AMD FX-6300 and with the money you save on that and the RAM, change your GPU to a GTX 770. With those changes your setup will be more inclined towards gaming.
 

Tikidude75

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Tikidude75

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So this is my new set up:
Intel Core i5-4670 3.4GHz Quad-Core Pro

Gigabyte GA-B85-HD3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard

Corsair 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory

Western Digital WD Green 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive

Asus Radeon HD 4670 1GB Video Card

Corsair 400R ATX Mid Tower Case

SeaSonic G-750 750W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply

Sony AD-7280S-0B DVD/CD Writer

So what do you think, better? Do I need a case fan or CPU cooler?
 

Tikidude75

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So this is my new set up:
Intel Core i5-4670 3.4GHz Quad-Core Pro

Gigabyte GA-B85-HD3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard

Corsair 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory

Western Digital WD Green 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive

Asus Radeon HD 4670 1GB Video Card

Corsair 400R ATX Mid Tower Case

SeaSonic G-750 750W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply

Sony AD-7280S-0B DVD/CD Writer

So what do you think, better? Do I need a case fan or CPU cooler?
 

t21

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wait what ! no way hd 4670 gonna handle next gen gaming you probably gonna play @ low settings in bf4 i mean your original build was far better than this (except the power supply brand )
 

Diamond-HP

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"Assuming you're gaming, you don't need 16GB of RAM, even 4GB is fine, 8GB is the sweet spot. Don't overkill it on RAM as there's no real benefit past 8."

Well that's just not true.

4 GB is not fine for gaming, when I play Battlefield 4 my RAM usage is at 4.5gb to 5gb usage.

I have 8 GB which is the sweet spot for gaming however it depends on if you do rendering, editing or heavy multi app work?

The rest of your build looks good and marries up well however the guy's are right, get a better PSU.

EDIT: Dude what have you done by changing the GPU?? you want to head straight back to the HD 7870 that new one your listing is garbage.
 

t21

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look keep your original setup and just swap to 8 gb of ram if possible get 1600mhz speed would be nice and i would go with r 270x it offer better performance within same price range of 7870 ghz but better performance and also features mantle which be released soon and get 550 watt powersupply like seasonic (they don't make 500 wat ) or 500 if you going for Corsair they both gonna run your system just fine


edit : almost forgot you probably gonna save cash from swapping ram so get CM evo cooler some games make your cpu heat so quick so it will be handy as max temp for your cpu 72 which it's easy to reach with around environment while gaming with stock cpu fan so after market cooler is a must thing
 

Tikidude75

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Well I changed my video card back to the 7870, but as I've asked does anybody think I will need a CPU cooler or a case fan? And what brand? So now will my build be able to hold out on next gen games and not necessarily on the highest settings but maybe at pretty high settings?
 

t21

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yes 600 watt is a good choice as well for upgrading but with his setup i doubt he will overload 500 watt he is ruining stock speeds which gonna give it longer cycle life and in worst case he will lose around 10 % of power supply efficiency so he would be left off with 450 which is still a acceptable his total system won't reach 400 watt
 

Vacka

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Hey man! I can see lots of areas where you can improve and I have made a build for you :) Here you go! http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2xxj6 I saved you money in some areas and used it to enhance other components like gpu. If you want a break down of why I chose each part just ask :) Hope I helped! Enjoy Building! :) You won't be needing any extra case fans with this case and you can throw in a cooler like the cooler master hyper 212 evo.:) Enjoy!
 

t21

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well as i mentioned r9 270x is as same price as ghz but it offer better features and performance so 270x will last longer if not by far from the ghz as it also has better memory clock so i would really recommenced r9 270x but it's your choice and yes you really gonna need cooling for the cpu cooler master evo offer cheap price with nice cooling performance
 

t21

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that's another good setup as well but with a budget range i think 270x would be better and getting cpu cooler and also the ram is not supported he would still change it to this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231461
 

Tikidude75

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Ok hopefully these will be my final changes, I added the Enermax ETS-T40 and changed the video card to the R9 270x! Is everything good and ready to go? Is everything compatible? And finally is this good enough to keep up with tee next gen games I want to play? If you're wondering what those games will be they are games like Elder Scrolls Online, BF4, Watch Dogs and a few other titles, but that's the main idea... Will I be able to play all these in 1080p? I have an awesome monitor so I don't have to worry about that, but can my bold handle it? Thanks for everybody's feedback, I will choose one user soon for the person who was able to "solve" my problem
 

t21

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all seems good one last thing for the same price of ram i would go with this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231568 if you want to go big it's better to be fast as well ;) it will improve your overall performance in gaming especially next gen gaming will use those 1600 speed

yes you gonna play games on 1080p high settings in bf4
check these
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-r9-270-review-benchmarks,3669-4.html

Edit: you still gonna have to get a good power supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817438012

or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151094

or

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139050
 
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