Do I need a bigger PSU?

Honestly, for the price, looking at bang vs buck, and considering that you DO already have a motherboard that's capable enough for an 8 core FX chip (Do NOT even think about going with FX-9xxx series chips. They are extremely terrible, running hot and offering anything you can't achieve with an 8xxx series chip) then I'd probably say go that route.

Personally, no offense to Basroil, but I'd never, and won't ever, recommend that i5-6400 as even with it's newer architecture the substantially lower core clock seems to hamper performance to a degree that allows even same gen i3's with much higher clocks to outperform it.

Also, 32GB is a waste. Unless you're running some sort of VMs or extremely elite professional video or graphics applications, you're not going to see any benefits from more than 16GB on any current game or the majority of applications. If you run Photoshop, Vray, CAD applications, etc., then 32GB might make sense or if you have or intend to have a virtual machine(s) configured.

Are you currently using the stock CPU cooler? Are you ok/onboard with overclocking the CPU. This is perfectly safe and has pretty much become a standard procedure when trying to get AMD FX processors to remain at least minimally capable when compared to stock Intel configurations.


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor ($131.07 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Shadow Rock Slim 67.8 CFM Rifle Bearing CPU Cooler ($49.90 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($61.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 850W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $322.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-25 12:57 EDT-0400





I'd never purchase an FX-8350 (4Ghz) when the 8320 is 20 bucks cheaper, can EASILY be overclocked to the same speed as the 8350 (And is the exact same CPU anyhow, just binned lower and configured from the factory with a lower base clock, easily rectified with a few bios setting changes) or even faster. I've only ever encountered ONE FX-8320 that I couldn't gain a 4.5Ghz OC with as long as a good board was used and that most likely was simply a case of bad luck. It still was capable of being clocked to the same speeds as the FX-8350 though, for twenty bucks less.

Some will say that the price difference isn't worth it since the cost of a decent CPU cooler offsets that, to which I counter that I wouldn't run ANY of these CPUs, without a capable cooler. I know the FX series chips are supposed to start shipping with the "Wraith" cooler now, but whether or not that unit is capable enough for overclocking with remains dubious to myself and others that I have discussed it with.




Choice of case is entirely up to you, but I'd pay close attention to little details like cable management features, tool-less drive bay sleds, fan mounting sizes and locations and GPU card/CPU cooler height/length clearances. Some cases, even very popular ones, can't support long graphics cards without removing some of the drive bays which may not be an option if you plan to have multiple drives installed.