Memory Advice \ Budget Build

scj6771

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Budget build, looking for memory advice, 8GB or 16GB and what make and model, moderate to occasional heavy gamer. Thanks all.

Motherboard: GA-970A-UD3P
CPU: FX-8320 FX-Series 8-Core Black Edition
GPU: ZOTAC GeForce GTX 750Ti 2GB GDDR5 PCI
PSU: Corsair CX600 CP-9020048-US 600W Power Supply
 
Solution
What do ya think of this? All good quality parts and should overclock pretty well with a cooler when you need it to.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-8320E 3.2GHz 8-Core Processor ($126.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($71.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Mushkin ECO2 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Toshiba P300 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R7 370 2GB PCS+ Video Card ($128.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Deepcool TESSERACT WH ATX Mid Tower Case ($40.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply:...

kwa-e

Admirable
Generally any brand will do, Gskill is a good brand for budget RAM and is pretty reliable aswell so that's a good choice. 8GB is the magic number right now so go for that.

Some suggestions;
>Switch the 8320 to the 8320e, much more efficient processor at a better price.
>Save a bit for a 950 if possible.
>Switch the CX unit to the better Seasonic S12II 520W or the EVGA 550w
 

scj6771

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Good stuff .. thanks .. I see the EVGA 600 B1 80+ bronze is roughly $45.00 on Amazon., I'll take a look at that 8320e.

 

scj6771

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That R7 370 looks sweet.
 

Gracodana

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I second all points here.
 

scj6771

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At this point my budget is as low as I can go, I'm already in the $500.00 range and still need memory. I play a lot of BF and other various shooters, big fan of TF2.
 

kwa-e

Admirable
What do ya think of this? All good quality parts and should overclock pretty well with a cooler when you need it to.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-8320E 3.2GHz 8-Core Processor ($126.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($71.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Mushkin ECO2 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Toshiba P300 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R7 370 2GB PCS+ Video Card ($128.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Deepcool TESSERACT WH ATX Mid Tower Case ($40.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($55.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $504.91
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-02-07 11:13 EST-0500
 
Solution


You know while this is a pretty good list, I'd say try an equivalently priced Skylake i3. AMD FX CPUs were competitive with up to 4th gen i3s, but Skylake i3s seem to beat them nearly everywhere at this point, and games are where this is most prominent. Plus with Skylake you get to have DDR4, which, while not being a huge benefit in games, is pretty much the new memory standard. An i3 would also be a lot cooler, and if you can find an equally priced Z170 board it'd be fairly straightforward to overclock it as well.
 

kwa-e

Admirable


I do agree with some of the points here but I'm afraid that a decent z170 board will bump the price up a bit and since he's tight on cash will not be an option.
 

scj6771

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That's an impressive list with a very nice price point, even better if I consider using my current HD and case.
 

Gracodana

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PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/9Ryjt6
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/9Ryjt6/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($124.48 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus B150M-A D3 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($72.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Mushkin ECO2 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Toshiba P300 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R7 370 2GB PCS+ Video Card ($128.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Deepcool TESSERACT WH ATX Mid Tower Case ($40.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 520W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($55.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $503.41
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-02-07 12:23 EST-0500

You dont need the Z170 chipset, you can get a B150 and get the same performance considering that the i3 can't overclock anyway. I really think this is the way to go personally with this build. You might consider looking at some used parts as you can find some really good stuff but this will get you playing games resonable well.
 

scj6771

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Hmm.. been at least two builds removed from Intel, you telling me that the i3 is still a better bang than the FX 8320? I mean I know that Intel is prolly the way to go but I really never had an issue with AMD, and is the i3 still considered a "gaming" CPU? Thanks for the input.
 


Yep the original architecture of the FX lineup is old as hell. At this point the FX series is mostly recommended as a cheap computing solution, not for gaming rigs. Zen will probably change that but of course that'll be released in the future so can't plan for that right now. Even 4th gen i3s were competitive with the FX CPUs for gaming, Skylake i3s are pretty much the last nail in the coffin of using FX for gaming.

As for B150 vs Z170, well, I'd still recommend the Z170 even if you have to pay a few more bucks for it. Z170 has features such as RAID which you might find useful in the future, and Z170 boards are generally better.
 

Gracodana

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I guess it's up to you whether you want to save with the B150 or go up to the Z170. I dont see most consumers using RAID really, especially in a budget build, but you can decide that for yourself.
 


RAID is just one example really. Z170 boards tend to feature other things as well, such as M.2 slots, many more fully functional PCIe x16 slots et cetera. But yeah, B150 will save a few bucks, Z170 would provide much more room for expansion (especially considering the B150 in the parts list is mATX lol).
 


Don't get why you keep suggesting mATX boards when the case supports ATX. Anyway, 10 bucks more for this beauty (which incidentally uses DDR4 as well): http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-motherboard-b150pcmate
 

Gracodana

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That case supports micro-ATX aswell. I would say the Gigabyte would be better to get, it uses ddr3 instead of ddr4 so you can save some money there. The motherboard also has crossfire support(not sure if I recommend two 370's nice to have the option if you saw one cheap in the future).