First build PSU decisions, need help.

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
K

kevakazi

Distinguished
Jul 3, 2012
38
0
18,530
I'm currently in the planning of building my first budget gaming PC and picking out different components to get an idea of my final build and i have hit a major snag. You see my pc's in the past and my current one really are super low end and just about manage to run the odd game so my experience with PSU's was very limited. Now starting to research on my new build i have realised wattage and reliability are 2 major factors when buying them and they do not come cheap, previously i had budgeted about £30 for a PSU.

So onto the question, if i list here the set of components i am debating between could someone be kind enough to help me with a choice of budget PSU which will not fry a new mobo.

Motherboard choices:
http://www.dabs.com/products/asus-amd-performance-bundle--includes-m5a78l-m-usb3--amd-fx-4300---4gb-corsair-xms3-ddr3-memory--926R.html?q=motherboard%20bundle&src=16
or
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Piledriver-1600mhz-Corsair-M5A78L-M-Motherboard/dp/B00F9EIZMC/ref=sr_1_46?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1390489957&sr=1-46&keywords=motherboard+bundle

Graphics card:
http://www.amd.com/uk/products/desktop/graphics/7000/7870/Pages/radeon-7870.aspx#2

I'm willing to downgrade the graphics card to budget in the PSU, though i would like to be able to play games released in the future such as Destiny and The Division, also i want to be able to record footage and play games.

If you look through these components and can suggest better ones for around the same prices please do.

Just want to add i found this PSU that has good reviews but am a little worried as to whether it could manage the 7870 hence why i am willing to use a less powerful card.

http://www.ebuyer.com/255454-cit-750w-power-supply-gold-12cm-fan-2x-sata-psucit750ugold

Thanks for any help.
 
Solution
Muku
FX 6300 is a better processor than FX 4300. So, its better to go with the second bundle.

With 7870 you can play most of the games at 1080p with decent FPS but at this point its better to get the new R9 270x. Its a re-badged 7870 with some extra features like mantle support which may not seem an improvement now but could easily be a few years later when Mantle supported games will come out.

For 7870 or R9 270x a good quality 500-550 Watts PSU is enough. No need to get a 750W PSU unless you are planning for a multi-GPU setup in the future.

If you wish to tell us your total budget for the build, we may help you a bit more on choosing the right parts
Sort by date Sort by votes
Muku

Muku

Honorable
Jun 19, 2013
420
0
11,160
FX 6300 is a better processor than FX 4300. So, its better to go with the second bundle.

With 7870 you can play most of the games at 1080p with decent FPS but at this point its better to get the new R9 270x. Its a re-badged 7870 with some extra features like mantle support which may not seem an improvement now but could easily be a few years later when Mantle supported games will come out.

For 7870 or R9 270x a good quality 500-550 Watts PSU is enough. No need to get a 750W PSU unless you are planning for a multi-GPU setup in the future.

If you wish to tell us your total budget for the build, we may help you a bit more on choosing the right parts
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
K

kevakazi

Distinguished
Jul 3, 2012
38
0
18,530


£350 - 400 there abouts for CPU, MOBO, RAM, GPU, PSU and HDD.

I was planing on purchasing a 7870 second hand for about £120 and a second hand HDD. Both to save a bit of cash.

Thanks.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Muku

Muku

Honorable
Jun 19, 2013
420
0
11,160


Then its fine... you will save a lot of cash by getting a second hand 7870 and HDD. So, for the rest of the system get the second bundle and the XFX 550W PSU mentioned in "markwp's" post:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor (£80.00 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: Asus M5A78L-M/USB3 Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£49.49 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£60.72 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£44.96 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £235.17
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-01-24 15:28 GMT+0000)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
K

kevakazi

Distinguished
Jul 3, 2012
38
0
18,530


Two final things, I see you put 1x 8gb stick of ram in your pc builder list does that mobo support 1x8gb or would it have to be 2x4gb. Secondly Do you think i would be better off buying the parts individually or just sticking with the bundle.


 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Muku

Muku

Honorable
Jun 19, 2013
420
0
11,160


According to ASUS website, the mobo supports up to 32 GB RAM in 4 slots, that means it will be able to handle up to 8 GB per slot.
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/M5A78LMUSB3/#specifications
You can add two 4GB modules if it costs less than a single 8GB. Otherwise a single 8GB gives more expandability in the future.

There's no difference between buying individual or bundle. The parts remain the same. Most of the people buy bundle to get some discount, nothing else. Just get the one which is cheaper.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom