$700 Gaming Rig - Opinions sought

Mr Stones · Dec 10, 2014

This is my first build, and I am wondering if anyone has any experience with the components I plan to use:

1 - ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM
$19.99

2 - Rosewill CHALLENGER Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case, comes with Three Fans-1x Front Blue LED 120mm Fan, 1x Top 140mm ...
$49.99

3 - Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 1TB 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive
$54.99

4 - ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Killer AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Gaming Motherboard
$134.99

5 - EVGA 02G-P4-3751-KR G-SYNC Support GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB 128-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 Video Card
$139.99

6 - APEVIA ATX-CW500WP4 500W ATX Power Supply
$39.99

7 - HyperX Fury Series 8GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model HX316C10F/8
$69.99

8 - AMD FX-6300 Vishera 6-Core 3.5GHz (4.1GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 95W Desktop Processor FD6300WMHKBOX
$109.99

Subtotal - $619.12 minus OS (Win 7) $99.99
Total - $719.91

williamcummins · Dec 10, 2014

Everything looks fine, but the power supply. I suggest you to go with something like XFX TS 550W http://pcpartpicker.com/part/xfx-power-supply-xfxts550w. It's much MUCH more reliable.

sadams04 · Dec 10, 2014

At $700 I think you are better off with something like the build below.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4150 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($97.27 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M Anniversary Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Mushkin Redline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($63.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($53.68 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 280 3GB WINDFORCE Video Card ($198.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Corsair SPEC-01 RED ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($16.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($99.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $710.87

Regarding your AMD build...

CPU Cooler - The AMD build will need an overclock to keep up with the comparable i3 build above. Don't forget an aftermarket CPU cooler... The Hyper 212 EVO is a great budget minded choice.
MB - The 990 chipset is a bit of overkill. The 970 is the better spend if you aren't going to be running multiple GPUs.
MEM - High latency (CL10) on those Fury modules. Look for DDR3-1600 with CL9 or lower, or DDR3-1866 CL10 or lower.
CASE - No front USB 3.0 on the Challenger.
PSU - No. Stick with XFX or Seasonic.

ohiou_grad_2006 · Dec 10, 2014

If I can make a suggestion as well.

Grab this board.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128651

That is a Gigabyte 970a-ud3p. Not the 990 series, but I believe it has 8+2 power phasing which should allow you some overclocking and be a solid board. I have the older version of that, I think the ud3, and have been running it over a year with no trouble, and have an FX 8120 clocked to 4.2ghz on it as well. Save yourself some money there, and then grab the better power supply suggested, and then maybe up the video card to a Radeon 270x or a GTX 760.

sadams04 · Dec 10, 2014

...your AMD build with a few changes.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($88.99 @ NCIX US)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($34.29 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock 970 Pro3 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($67.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Mushkin Redline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($63.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($53.68 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Superclocked Video Card ($139.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($16.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($99.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $675.87

Mr Stones · Dec 10, 2014

sadams04 :

Its my understanding that Windows 8.1 is unfriendly to gaming, as it has a tendency to be a bit of a resource hog, is that the case? Or have they improved it where it's not such a big deal?

sadams04 · Dec 10, 2014

Mr Stones :

No. Win7 and Win8 will game the same. I find Win8 to actually require less resources for the most part. The only reason to choose Win7 is because you are used to the interface and don't want to switch..

Mr Stones · Dec 10, 2014

sadams04 :

Mr Stones :

No. Win7 and Win8 will game the same. I find Win8 to actually require less resources for the most part. The only reason to choose Win7 is because you are used to the interface and don't want to switch..

Thank you for the clarification.

ohiou_grad_2006 · Dec 10, 2014

Ditto. Running windows 8.1 myself. Feels a little more efficient actually. Windows 10 is supposed to be out next year I think.

williamcummins · Dec 10, 2014

And there is more chances of DX12 being released on 8.1 and 10 only, tho there is nothing confirmed on that part. The new direct X will help performance of small rigs like the one you,re trying to build.

ohiou_grad_2006 · Dec 10, 2014

Yep, don't get me wrong, windows 7 is great, but at this point, time to start moving on. Windows 8.1, good news is, if you like Windows 7, toss on a utility like classic shell, and with some tweaking, it works similar to windows 7.

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$700 Gaming Rig - Opinions sought

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