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Opinions on new gaming rigs for a friend.

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  • Gaming
  • Amazon
Last response: in Video Games
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September 24, 2014 4:00:15 AM

Hello everyone,

A friend recently asked me if I would help him build a good gaming rig.
Nothing fancy, but enough to keep up high details at 60 fps on 1080p, at least for the immediate future (1 to 3 years).

The request was as stated above, while trying to keep the budget as low as possible and absolutely under 1000€. OS or other peripherals are unneeded on his account, so I came up with these two solutions.

N.1
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor (€157.41 @ Amazon Italia)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (€45.08 @ Amazon Italia)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P ATX AM3+ Motherboard (€74.47 @ Amazon Italia)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (€77.51 @ Amazon Italia)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (€67.31 @ Amazon Italia)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 2GB WINDFORCE Video Card (€312.83 @ Amazon Italia)
Case: Corsair Graphite Series 230T Black ATX Mid Tower Case (€61.19 @ Amazon Italia)
Power Supply: XFX 650W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (€77.51 @ Amazon Italia)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer (€21.65 @ Amazon Italia)
Total: €894.96
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-09-24 11:27 CEST+0200

N.2
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4440 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor (€167.31 @ Amazon Italia)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (€45.08 @ Amazon Italia)
Motherboard: ASRock H87 Pro4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (€76.64 @ Amazon Italia)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (€77.51 @ Amazon Italia)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (€67.31 @ Amazon Italia)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 280X 3GB Black Edition Double Dissipation Video Card (€285.25 @ Amazon Italia)
Case: Corsair Graphite Series 230T Black ATX Mid Tower Case (€61.19 @ Amazon Italia)
Power Supply: XFX 650W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (€77.51 @ Amazon Italia)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer (€21.65 @ Amazon Italia)
Total: €879.45
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-09-24 11:50 CEST+0200

As you may have noticed, they're substantially the same framework with a different MoBo, CPU and GPU combo. I feel like they should be ok for what he asks, but I'd like the opinion of someone else before I actually give him the go.
Thoughts on improvements or ways to decrease cost without too much of a performance hit?

Thanks in advance!

More about : opinions gaming rigs friend

September 24, 2014 4:07:37 AM

Few things pop to mind.

I would wait a week or two for more sales on older Nvidia card due to the new 9xx series that just came out.

I would also aim for the newer H97 chipset if going with an Intel chip.
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Best solution

a b 4 Gaming
September 24, 2014 4:14:10 AM

I assume you'd want to OC if possible. FX 8 proves very slightly better with OCing, vs i5 non-K. Also, no need for WD Black series unless you're after the 5 year warranty. Good choice everything else. But, GTX 970 should be available in Europe soon and its considerably better than both GTX 770 or 280X, even 780 or 290, while being in ~330-350 Euros price range. I'd wait for that. Other than that, FX 8 looks like a solid build to me :) 
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September 24, 2014 9:44:10 AM

Thank you both. I did think about 900 series from Nvidia, but I don't see prices dropping soon, nor the piece being cheaply available here soon either, as they're brand new cards. 700 series and Rx 200/HD 7000 series will probably still have a huge potential for a while, and they've all been confirmed to support Dx12 (for when it'll come out), so I'd say they're good for another two years, with due sacrifices and hoping they don't break down :p . He's not going to max out anything anyway. That sums up why I went for that choice.

@menkes
Is the difference between 87 and 97 chipsets so significant when it comes to games? I'm talking about at least a 15~20% increase in performance on the motherboard's side, because otherwise the former will still do nicely and allow him to save some extra bucks.

@meteors
The WD is a "customer request" so to speak, as I'd have put in an equivalent Seagate ;) 
He's just biased against them, so there's really nothing I can do there.
As a matter of fact, I do intend to OC that Fx, but since it's not going to be my rig I just plan on giving a slight stable boost to it.
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a b 4 Gaming
September 24, 2014 10:33:42 AM

Great choice on MoBo actually, great power phases for some serious OCing, I'd like such a system! I'd rather opt for WD Blue and save some bucks, just saying.
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September 25, 2014 5:10:53 AM

I'll try to let him consider the blue, but it's not going to be easy...thank you anyway.

Anyone else willing to give his/her thoughts before I go for assigning the best answer? I'll check back in a couple hours.
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