New build advice, replacing an aging system.

DigitalKitsune

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Jul 17, 2008
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18,510
I built my computer back in the glory days of the Phenom II and it has gotten to the point where I can no longer avoid it. I'm sad that the days of AMD are kinda trailing but maybe when Zen rolls around it might start to catch up. Sadly, I can't wait till Christmas of 2016 to replace my unit.

My unit will primarily be used for gaming with game and mod development and programming. I also tend to run Firefox notoriously with over 100+ tabs. I could cannibalize parts from my older PC such as my 750w Corsair Power supply or my SSD/Hard drives but I'm tempted to keep it as a fall back. That and I'm not sure if I could transfer my copy of upgraded Win7 to 10 to this new PC. My initial budget was 1000. I'd like to keep as close to that as possible but realistically if I had to make some compromises to make valued purchases, I can understand fudging it.

The technicalities aside the main purpose of this was to show two builds I have wrestled together for both AMD and Intel. Overclocking is something I want to try and I'd love to fit it into that Corsair Air 540 case. So the main goal is to compare these builds and see what people recommend switching out, whether to push it closer to the budget of 1000 or making more cost effective selections of parts. I'm looking to order this and build the following week but will wait for some proper replies. Thanks again in advance.

Intel Build

AMD Build
 
Solution
First, the Intel will run circles around the AMD build. But you have blown your budget by $362. For this reason I would suggest looking at a Haswell build, tends to be cheaper with only slightly lower performance.

Tried to squeeze it as hard as I could but could only get it down by about $180. One thing you could do to drive the cost down is move from a 240mm AIO to an air cooler, say the Hyper 212 EVO. That takes another $75 bucks out of the equation but there would be a difference in performance. Whether you need that performance is a question of how much you want to overclock.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/YjXf3C
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/YjXf3C/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core...
First, the Intel will run circles around the AMD build. But you have blown your budget by $362. For this reason I would suggest looking at a Haswell build, tends to be cheaper with only slightly lower performance.

Tried to squeeze it as hard as I could but could only get it down by about $180. One thing you could do to drive the cost down is move from a 240mm AIO to an air cooler, say the Hyper 212 EVO. That takes another $75 bucks out of the equation but there would be a difference in performance. Whether you need that performance is a question of how much you want to overclock.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/YjXf3C
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/YjXf3C/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($226.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H110i GT 113.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($105.10 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus Z97-A ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($139.99 @ NCIX US)
Memory: Mushkin Blackline 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($68.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($84.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 390 8GB Double Dissipation Video Card ($304.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Define S ATX Mid Tower Case ($79.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA GS 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.99 @ NCIX US)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) ($87.95 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1178.97
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-01-28 16:50 EST-0500
 
Solution