Building a gaming PC need Suggestions!

Magadon · Aug 16, 2014

I am currently planning to build a new rig with the following hardware:

CPU - AMD FX-6300
MOBO - GIGABYTE GA-78LMT-USB3 AM3+ AMD 760G + SB710 HDMI USB 3.0 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
GPU - Sapphire VAPOR-X 100365VXL R9 270X 2GB 256-Bit DDR5 PCI Express 3.0 OC
RAM - 8GB DDR3 1600
Casing - The CybertronPC Borg-Q GM4213A Desktop case (It's pretty large, and could fit pretty much anything I wanted.)
PSU - 500W 12V 49A
HDD - 1TB Desktop HDD
Monitor - ASUS VS228H-P 22-Inch

I'm going to be making this rig for gaming mostly, and would like some feedback on how it would preform. I'm planning on playing games like Planetside 2, The WItcher 3, and Dragon Age: Inquisition. Please provide any tips or tidbits you might have to offer, because I'm relatively new to working with PCs.
It would be a great help if the suggestions to make my rig better won't break my wallet. I'm on a tight budget as far as how much I can put in a PC right now.

Thanks and have a great day!

Darkbreeze · Aug 16, 2014

All those components are a bit on the low side of things for gaming. That being said, for the games you listed it's probably ok but if you decide to play anything more demanding you will run into problems with that six core and low end card.

Magadon · Aug 16, 2014

Darkbreeze :

Hey, thanks for commenting. I'm curious what you would suggest I change with my setup here?

Darkbreeze · Aug 16, 2014

The CPU and the board. I have that exact board that I installed in a build for a friend. We had to RMA it three times to get one that worked right. They sent us two brand new replacement boards before we got one that didn't have issues. Even then, as I discovered, it is pretty limited and has poor power rails and VRM's.

I'd go a little better on the board and go with at least the FX-6350 which gives you 400mhz faster speed per core and can easily be overclocked to 4Ghz and even as high as 4.5Ghz without touching the voltage if you get a good chip, or a slight voltage bump if you don't. Of course you would need a good cpu cooler to do that, but it can be done down the road.

The stock clock speed is still better than the 6300 for twenty bucks more at the Egg. The 8320 would be an even better option, by far, but I know you're on a tight budget and an extra 40 bucks might be a deal breaker for you especially if you factor in a better board, which you definitely should. The board you have selected will not tolerate overclocks well.

Regarding the board, I'd go with this even if you don't upgrade the cpu. Best budget overclock and overall under $100.00 AM3+ board out there:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128651&cm_re=GA-970A-UD3P-_-13-128-651-_-Product

cmi86 · Aug 17, 2014

NO offense but shelling out extra cash for a factory OC'd CPU like the 6350 over the 6300 is kind of pointless. They are the same exact cpu with no physical difference what so ever. not even a higher bin just a little multiplier bump from AMD. You can very easily go in and bump up the multiplier yourself and have the same exact speed for $20 less. However I do agree on a better board. 6300 will hit 4.5ghz easy on a good board, junk board you will struggle to pass 4.0Ghz.

Magadon · Aug 17, 2014

Is it worth getting the OC'ed version of the Sapphire R9 270X 2GB DDR5 or should I get the normal, because that makes a $30 dollar difference. Which could be put towards a better processor, and/or a better MOBO.

Darkbreeze · Aug 18, 2014

Cmi86? You're the gaming expert.

davy rockstar · Aug 18, 2014

darkbreeze i'm agree with the mother board 760g is so bad that i wont put a phenom ii in it and expect to run it at 100%... also does that board ready fo piledriver?? i think you will need to updat the bios first... you could try at last a 880g chipset cose they support HT @ 5200MT/s which i dont really know how much limits the CPU pefrmance (970 chipst is 4800).

also the PSU is generic??? better o with a good one try t get a corsair CX 600 has a great price and a lot of headrom fo anything you could upgrade

Darkbreeze · Aug 18, 2014

Magadon :

If gaming is the priority, put it towards the card. In which case it's probably not worth upgrading unless you get the 4GB version. If everything else, or a happy medium is your goal, put it towards the motherboard and/or processor, with emphasis being on the motherboard. If you get the best board you can afford, it's leaves you a lot of room to upgrade things later. If you skimp on the board, you are limited in what video card, cpu, RAM and BIOS options you will have later.

Montblanchill · Aug 18, 2014

In terms of The Witcher 3 and DA:Inquisition, that setup is likely to be able to play them both on around medium settings at 1080p. On lower resolutions you might be able to increase things. I am not sure on how well optimised those games are likely to be, however it is possible that you might run into some bottlenecking with the 6300. Whilst the system is quite balanced, I think the 6300 may tap out in terms of performance before the 270X, depending on the game.

If you have a consistent income, I agree with darkbreeze. Look at getting an 8320 with a slightly better board if possible, knowing you then have room to upgrade your GPU only, if not you may just be setting yourself up for a fall if you cannot cope with the new generation of games. With that chip and the best GPU you can afford with the leftover cash, you will deal with those games just fine with some reduced settings, and have room to throw in a better card at some point and play at maximum settings with no issues.

Astic · Aug 18, 2014

Ummm, How Much is ur budget? If u want a high end pc then I have this build I made on pcpartpickers it costs 2,000 us dollars but it can probably run all the games u listed in max settings so here u go:
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/94B7sY

cmi86 · Aug 18, 2014

Magadon :

I am never quick to advise factory OC graphics cards unless they are actually something special hardware wise, Like kingping/classified/lightning models that actually offer thicker PCB's, upgraded voltage regulation hardware, upgraded cooling solutions, Ln2 switches, dual BIOS switches. Things that actually make the card a high end dedicated overclocking board not just a vanilla card with some factory clock speed bumps. Unfortunately 99% of "OC Edition" cards do not fall in to this class. Good thing is that with some reading you will find almost every graphics card is overclockable to some degree, often quite a bit higher than the factory OC/Superclock models while saving money as well. Hope this helps.

cmi86 · Aug 18, 2014

The Giagbyte motherboard darkbreeze suggested is a great board at a great price. It has beefy VRM circuits for overclocking, FX is very picky when it comes to this.

In regards to the 6300 tapping out when paired with 270X...umm no. The 6300 is very often underestimated in a gaming capacity. At the stock 3.5Ghz it may slightly bottleneck some ultra high end single graphics cards and significantly bottleneck very high end multi-gpu set ups. Overclocked to 4.5Ghz there will be relatively zero bottlenecking of ANY single GPU configuration and slight bottlenecking of ultra high end multi GPU configurations, then again who pairs 2-3 $600 GPU's with a $110 CPU anyways ??

That said I paired my 6300 @ 4.5 Ghz with 2x 7870 XT overclocked to 7950 performance levels and saw ZERO bottlenecking playing Crysis3, BF3, BF4, Assasins Creed Black Flag, Metro LL all maxed out @ 1080p res w/ 60 FPS v-synced.

Unless a title is specifically coded to use 8 threads you are going to see marginal FPS differences between the 2 as the 63XX and 83XX are the same exact chips just + or - a module. MY advice would be to take the cost difference saved on the 6300 and non OC version 270X and invest in to a solid motherboard and good cooler to clock the 6300 to 4.5+ as it will be significantly faster than an 8320 at stock clcoks in 99% games and applications as they are not coded to use 8 cores any how.

And last but not least please do not use some off brand fire hazard power supply as a place to save some cash. This is a mistake many beginner builders make and some learn the hard way that the PSU is the one component capable of killing your entire system. Always spend the extra cash and select a well reviewed power supply from a well known manufacturer such as Corsair, Antec, Rosewill, Seasonic.

Darkbreeze · Aug 18, 2014

cmi86 :

And not just any model from the reputable PSU manufacturers, because they all make both good and bad PSU's. Make sure the model you get is a good model, by asking first or in most cases by getting something off the top three Tier's on the Tom's PSU tier list located at the following link. There are others that are not on the list that may be fine but the one's listed are known to be where they are on the list for good reason.

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1804779/power-supply-unit-tier-list.html

zeyuanfu · Aug 18, 2014

If you're only gaming, then a Core i5-4690K would be better. But then, you would have to stretch your budget a bit

davy rockstar · Aug 18, 2014

well right now i hve a very low budget costumer... he asked me to build a FX6300 base gaming pc but with that budget he couldent afford a good motherboard neither a good PSU... you know what i told him "with that i can boild a pc based on intel G3220" so IF he wants better performance and IF he really needs it he could upgrade to an i5 any time...

you dont need an ultra fast CPU to get a bottleneck past 60 FPS even the pentium will bottleneck with 40FPS (a very joyful speed to play) with the most demanding games maxed out, always that your GPU can handle those speeds. supr ultra xpensive CPU for gaming its no needed, and its better to think in architecture intead cores or speed. with n intel pentium you wont need to worry for getting an aftermark cooler also.

EDIT:
you can got with the intel pentium aniversary edition which is overclockable and you can do it with budget motherboards

Darkbreeze · Aug 18, 2014

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor ($69.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($71.74 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI Z87-GD65 Gaming ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($160.98 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($79.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 620W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($88.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $471.69
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-02 17:57 EDT-0400

That's with a 620w modular psu included. All indications are that this board and cpu combo will NOT bottleneck while gaming with a high end card in all but the very most recent and demanding games if the cpu is decently overclocked. If you have a sufficient power supply that's definitely reliable already you can subtract 89 bucks off the price which leaves you with a very decent rig for only 382.00. Now you've got room to do some other things with the build if you so desire. Heck, you could even drop the Noctua cooler and buy an extremely high end liquid cooling system and still be hundreds of dollar lower than most builds.

cmi86 · Aug 18, 2014

Darkbreeze :

Sorry not trying to insult but I am not quite sure if I am following this build.. You want to take a $70 value oriented pentium that can be overclocked with a $60 motherboard and the stock cooler and pair it with an air cooler costing more than the CPU it's self and a motherboard twice as much as that ?? It's not that you chose bad parts t(he DH-14 is the greatest air cooler of all time) it's just that you chose very mismatched parts. Swap the pentium for an i5k or i7k and you have sourced a very nice high end enthusiast configuration. Drop the board and cooler for a basic motherboard and you have sourced a capable value gaming solution, mixed together they make no sense. Just those 3 parts come out to $300 and change, for that price you could source a 3/4th gen i5k and a decent mainstream motherboard. Even with the stock cooler would still be a far better option than the pentium, heck even the 6300. Unfortunately I don't think the OP is looking to go that high... speaking of the OP he hasn't commented for a while.

Darkbreeze · Aug 18, 2014

Sorry, that build was for somebody else. I'll fix it and put the correct one there. That build was based on choices they made and I pasted the wrong build in there. Heh. My bad.

davy rockstar · Aug 18, 2014

cmi86 :

darkbreeze i'm agree and thats my point... a reliable pc who will last even with the most demanding use 24/7 maybe we can save some bucks with corsair CX sries PSU and a cheaper thermal solution (hyper 212+ or even hyper tx3) and maybe some modest mother board some budget chiset will be capable to overclock the non "k" CPU remember that we are talking about "low budget" and also a GPU and a case but with 600USD could be enough...

the i7k cost like 8times more and surely couldnt generate 8 times more FPS ratio itself, also for overclocking those CPU at all their expresion you need water cooling even without OC you will need an aftermark cooler for gaming better expend that money on a wicked GPU. also we are talking about gaming not hardcore rendering machine....

Darkbreeze · Aug 18, 2014

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor ($69.29 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 V2 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($55.99 @ Mwave)
Memory: Kingston HyperX 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($79.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 270X 4GB Dual-X Video Card ($198.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $404.26
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-18 22:05 EDT-0400

That setup will game just as good as almost anything out there under 1000.00 if you overclock it and throw a 35.00 212 EVO cooler on it.

zeyuanfu · Aug 19, 2014

Darkbreeze :

The G3258 won't work on a 8-series mobo without a BIOS update...

Darkbreeze · Aug 19, 2014

Funny thing, this is actually an even newer version than the setup used here http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pentium-g3258-b81-cheap-overclocking,3888.html and they don't mention a thing about needing to update the bios. Plus, this is a Version2 board and it specifically states that it DOES support that cpu. If there is any doubt though, THIS board apparently has been verified by multiple sources to post using the anniversary edition cpu without a bios update.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128667

Magadon · Aug 19, 2014

Thanks a lot guys the community on here is great. I would have been totally lost without you. With a bit of research, and your suggestions I feel confident that the rig I plan on making is sound.
btw thank you darkbreeze, and cmi86 for some really great information.

Magadon · Aug 19, 2014

Astic :

Sorry friend I'm not planning on dumping 2,000 on a PC right now, but maybe later on down the line.

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