First post. First build. Information inside. Looking for some feedback, please!

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ngarber

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Hello everyone! My name is Nathan.

Sorry in advance for the ridiculously long post...

I'm thinking about building a PC for the first time, never had any experience building one or about any PC components. I have, however, done a bit of research over the past few months looking at parts, prices, compatibility, and aesthetics. So, I think I have a greater understanding now.

After putting a parts list together on pcpartpicker, I think I've come to a conclusion.

I have a mouse, keyboard, monitor, speakers, and an operating system.

I've already spent about $150 on the case and RAM from the parts list, but I'd like to spend around $600-$700 on the entire build.

What I plan on doing with this PC is mostly some light to medium video and photo editing, little bit of gaming (not really into gaming, may decide down the road to get into it), general web browsing, YouTube videos, and that's about it.
Mostly just want to upgrade from this prebuilt AMD Sempron LE 1300 with 2GB of ram. I can't do ANYTHING on this rig...

I might plan on doing some water cooling and custom lighting later on (let me know if that's highly unnecessary).

If you have any ideas, for example... getting rid of the SSD, opting for a larger/smaller PSU, or suggesting a part instead of another for the same price. I kind of set it up for expand-ability but whatever, I just need the advice of some seasoned computer enthusiasts.

If you have any more questions let me know.

Thank you for your time, and here is the parts list!

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($119.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus M5A99X EVO R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($109.98 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Avexir Core series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (Purchased For $79.99)
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($59.99 @ Micro Center)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($51.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R7 260X 2GB Video Card ($111.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Enermax ECA3280A-BL ATX Mid Tower Case (Purchased For $69.99)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Case Fan: Cooler Master R4-L2R-20AC-GP 69.0 CFM 120mm Fan ($2.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $665.87
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-14 22:10 EDT-0400
 
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byza
I'd nix the SSD, they're great if you got the money but there is better ways to spend money in a budget build. They only boost load times but don't help with gaming performance. Also the CX series PSUs use cheap capacitors.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($119.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus M5A99X EVO R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($109.98 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Avexir Core series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (Purchased For $79.99)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive...
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byza

byza

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I'd nix the SSD, they're great if you got the money but there is better ways to spend money in a budget build. They only boost load times but don't help with gaming performance. Also the CX series PSUs use cheap capacitors.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($119.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus M5A99X EVO R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($109.98 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Avexir Core series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (Purchased For $79.99)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($51.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 270 2GB Dual-X Video Card ($154.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Enermax ECA3280A-BL ATX Mid Tower Case (Purchased For $69.99)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ NCIX US)
Case Fan: Cooler Master R4-L2R-20AC-GP 69.0 CFM 120mm Fan ($2.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $668.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-14 23:04 EDT-0400

If you're not buy it all right away, the XFX PSU's go on sale pretty regularly so i'd keep an eye out for them. There are other good quality cheap PSU's but the XFX tend to be the cheapest most often.
 
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ngarber

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I'm not going to buy it all right away, so thank you! I've just read a lot about the benefits of an SSD, thought I'd find a way to fit it in.

And I've read that XFX PSU's aren't the best, but I guess that's not true, since you recommended it over the Corsair?
 
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byza

byza

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Within any brand there are good and bad series and sometimes even within series some wattages have better components than others, so it's hard to blanket an entire brand (well any of the leading brands) with bad PSUs. The high end Corsairs are some of the best PSU's you can buy, but the CX series is just cheap. The XFX Pro's, as Blackbird said, are made by SeaSonic and are quite good.
 
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ngarber

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I really appreciate the feedback from you two! Thanks!

Is this build expandable in the future you think?
As far as maybe dual graphics cards, water cooling, lighting, or just plain upgrading?

Again, I just got into this PC building hobby, so any feedback is great. Thanks. :)
 
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scipio1200

scipio1200

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I remember when I was on the exact same situation that you are on right now. I have to say that for being your first time you've picked your parts very well, but I have one or two things to say that may help you and, as you said, sorry in advance if this gets too long because I'm giving you my thoughts on almost each part.

First, great CPU for the build, when it comes to budget for performance there is no way to beat AMD (consider that i like intel a lot, but by NO means I'm a FanBoy).

CPU cooler: again, for what you want and for the price, there is no way to go wrong with that one. You said that you wanted to do water cooling... for this particular build and, considering that is your first time, I think that is just not necesary. You can do thigs on a more simple way and save a couple of bucks for other things like a better GPU (wich i will talk abou later). If later on you want to upgrade I am no one to say no to you, but for now I will recomend you to stay with de 212 EVO.

I don't really now much about motherboards that run AMD sockets, but this one looks pretty solid and its ASUS. Again, not a FanBoy, but for what I've experienced Asus deserves its place as my favourite MOBO manufacturer, I really like features like the UEFI BIOS.

For the RAM, I don't see anything wrong here but I'm still not sure about it's height. I allways use the Crucial Ballistix Sport kit (8gb-2x4gb/dimn) because of its "low profile" that won't interfere with any aftermarket cooling solution. I'll leave a link to amazon where you can buy them for about the same price. *Iv'e just realised that you already bought it XD anyways, I'm still leaving the link.

For the SSD... here's where things start getting tricky cus for this particular one I've seen some preformance drops over the time (not long time, like 5-7 months or so) due to i'ts asynchronous memory that won't run in parallel after a while. If you want you can get rid of it but with one I can ensure you that your machine will literally "fly". If you look for a really good, fast and reliable SSD I would recomend the Samsung 840 EVO, although you'll have to pay like 30 bucks more for it but trust me... it is worth it (link also below).

Nothing to say about the HDD except that I use the Caviar Blue just for presonal preference (build up after years of good service and performance... but still PERSONAL preference).

Fist, let me say that I don't really know much about Radeon GPUs (specially R8 below series), but from where you are coming from this should be a good one (or at least enough). Now, if you want to get a better graphics card a GTX 660ti woud be a great choice since you are not going over the $200 barrier on GPU or the $800 budget and you probably won't have to upgrade in a while (and if you decide you can start getting into more "heavy" or demanding games if you want). For a RADEON alternative I'm pretty sure that there will be someone in this forum that can give you a hand.

In general Corsair PSUs are quite good and i totally recomend them so great choice.

Since you already have the case i don't have much to say rather than this really depends on your personal thoughts and preferences. About the case fan, its just fine. Besides, for this budget and build, it will be totally pointless to suggest something like a Noctua fan.

So there it is. I hope I've been helpful and I wish you my best on your "adventure" to this "new world" called custom PC building. Once you are in... you will never go back.

Links

RAM:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006WAGGUK/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2WUAYKFNC5Z65&coliid=IBHBSS6PODPLF&psc=1

SSD:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E3W15P0/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2WUAYKFNC5Z65&coliid=I1LDFHZKW54T54&psc=1

:D
 
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ngarber

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I really, really appreciate the time and effort you took to reply to me. Also, thanks for the praise about the parts I've chosen. :D
As far as the components, I think I'll be going with the parts that byza recommended.

The GTX 660 looks nice, but the R9 270 is just a little cheaper with almost equal performance. So for now, I'll go with the latter.

I might switch the HDD to a WD Caviar Blue as well, depending on price of course. Both were in my mind to begin with. :)

Again, thank you!
 
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byza

byza

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The R9 260 is on par with the GTX 660, it depends which game you play as to which performs better and their prices are similar. The 660 ti is about the same price as the R9 280x, which is on par with the GTX 770. Both of these cards are superior to the 660ti.

The Seagate Barracuda is faster and usually cheaper than the WD Blue, however some people believe WD to be more reliable. Honestly i'm not really sure if they are or not, as if you look at newegg reviews about an equal number of people seem to end up with dead drives from both companies. I've had a few drives from both companies over the past few years and had no problems with either, but you will see it touted on these forums that the WD is more reliable. Best thing to do is just back up your data on a safe external drive because really either could fail.

Also not a bad idea whether you decide to install your OS on an SSD or HDD is to create a partition just for the OS, and make sure you don't install anything else to this partition. This way if you need to, you can wipe and reinstall windows.

As for upgrading the PSU will support most single card systems however it would need an upgrade to run SLI/Crossfire (dual GPUs). The motherboard will support dual cards from either company. Lights/fans/water cooling are all ok on this PSU. If you are looking at this as something you want to upgrade, I might suggest going to an intel pentium build. You will lose processing power in the initial build, but will be able to get a much better CPU in the end.
 
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byza

byza

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PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor ($69.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97 Extreme3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($104.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Avexir Core series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (Purchased For $79.99)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($51.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 280 3GB Dual-X Video Card ($189.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Enermax ECA3280A-BL ATX Mid Tower Case (Purchased For $69.99)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ NCIX US)
Case Fan: Cooler Master R4-L2R-20AC-GP 69.0 CFM 120mm Fan ($2.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $654.90
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-15 04:33 EDT-0400

This build would suffer a little in CPU intensive games such as DayZ and Arma, but perform much better in GPU intensive games such as the Battlefield series. The motherboard will be compatible with the unlocked Broadwell chips when they are release, probably early next year. Here is a review of the pentium.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pentium-g3258-overclocking-performance,3849-4.html
 
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ngarber

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This PC is going to be mostly for photo/video editing as well as a little bit of gaming. With that said, wouldn't a CPU be the main focus here rather than a GPU?

And couldn't I, in theory, just get a better GPU like a R9 280x in the future and slap a better CPU like an FX-8350 or something for an upgrade?

Sorry if it seems like I'm pushing all of your suggestions away, I probably did too much research and now I'm bias...

Also, side note... earlier, when I said I thought XFX PSU's were bad, I meant EVGA.
 
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byza

byza

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No you are correct, for editing the CPU is more important and the equivalent (or even cheaper) priced AMD FX cpu's are better unless you go for a Xeon E3-1230 V3 or above or an i7. For gaming it really depends on the game as to whether the CPU or GPU is more important. For gaming machines AMD are better in the budget range but Intel are better high end. Also being a dual core the pentium would really suffer with editing.

With EVGA their B series isn't that good but their G2 and P2's are some of the best.
 
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ngarber

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Alright well awesome! Thanks for all the help byza, I'm glad you suggested all you did. I feel like I will have a better computer now than I ever would have. :)
 
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byza

byza

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Since it is an editing build it's probably worth putting an SSD in there, although in my personal opinion i'd still rather the 270 in the initial build and add the SSD as my next upgrade but I'm probably biased towards GPUs. The 270 is a great card and will last a long time for your needs.

If you do as I suggested and partition your OS, it's easy to clone it over to the SSD when you add it, if you really want the fast boot times. I use Acronis for my cloning and imaging needs, but there is other cloning software available.
 
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ngarber

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I think I'll start off with just the 270 in there. I'll keep the SSD in mind though. :)

That is a great idea with the partition though, I'll have to remember that when I get all the parts and boot it up.

I don't know how to partition, but I'm sure there are thousands of tutorials out there. :p
 
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