My possible 480 8GB build, opinions!?

It's an apples and apples thing .... comparing reference designs with improved AIB designs is apples and grapefruits. The reference 10xx designs are also not recommended as the 1070 / 1080s throttle ... however the reference 1060s are too low power to cause heat related throttling.

The new link is also a reference design ... there is no difference between any of the cards of that single fan design with the word RADEON in red near the slot . The only difference between them is the logo sticker on the fan.

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/RX_480/29.html

The reference design, will all perform identically. TPU writes:

The RX 480 reference board comes with a 6-pin power input, which combined with the power from the PCIe slot is specified for up to 150 W power draw. The RX 480, however, consistently exceeds 150 W, reaching 163-166 watts in our tests. While this is a non-issue for most power supplies and motherboards, there are some (very few) that will run into problems with providing over-the-spec power for extended periods of time. I think AMD should have rather opted for an 8-pin power input instead of the 6-pin. This would also have allowed them to go for a higher board power limit, which would have resulted in better performance.

The weakest point of AMD's reference design is certainly the thermal solution. It doesn't use any heatpipes or other high-tech means to keep the card cool. Rather, there is a big slab of metal with a copper core that has the blower fan sending air across its fins. As a result we are seeing temperatures of up to 84°C, which has the card clock down further to keep cool. On average, our card ran 1239 MHz, which is in the upper range of AMD's rated 1120-1266 MHz clock window. What's even worse than the heat is the terrible fan noise. While idle noise is fine with 29 dBA (an idle-fan-off feature would have still been nice), in gaming, the fan ramps up a lot, emitting 41 dBA during gaming (not Furmark). This makes the RX 480 the loudest card launched in recent history, much noisier than, for example, the GTX 1080 (which is almost twice as fast). AMD has mentioned to us that the reference design is deliberately weak to leave room for partners to improve on their custom designs. To me, this sounds a bit like "let the partners deal with the problem".

However, overclocking potential on our sample was very slim. All we managed without causing stability issues was an increase of the GPU clock from 1266 MHz to 1335 MHz, which is a lousy 5%; again, the worst I've seen for years on a reference board. This is further complicated by the fact that the card will often clock down during OC because it a) exceeds the board power limit or b) runs too hot. If you increase the power limit using WattMan, you'll run into the thermal limit quicker.

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Now compare that rather dismal review with an AIB card

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/RX_480_Gaming_X/28.html

MSI's Radeon RX 480 Gaming X is the first Radeon RX 480 that manages to impress. Out of the box, the card is overclocked to a frequency of 1303 MHz, which is not a lot higher than the AMD reference of 1266 MHz, but throttling is reduced, which effectively increases clocks by 50 MHz when looking at the average clock in gaming states. As a result, the card is 4% faster than the RX 480 reference ...

Nearly all board partners have thus far either struggled to properly configure their fans or come up with a cooling solution that successfully manages to deal with the heat output of AMD's RX 480 GPU. MSI's RX 480 Gaming X, however, acts like most other MSI Gaming cards; unpack it, install it into your case, install the drivers, and you're done. No matter which game you throw at the card now, its noise levels are a quiet 31 dBA, which is still noticeable, but better than what most people expected custom RX 480 cards to deliver after the recent reality check. MSI also included the idle-fan-off feature we love so much since it provides a perfect noise-free experience during desktop work, Internet browsing, and even light gaming. Now, when you hear of such good noise levels, the first question you should ask is how good the temperatures are, and they are good as well, hitting around 73°C at most, which is a good balance between temperature and noise. Personally, I wouldn't have minded something like 75°C for slightly less noise to have the card compete with such super-quiet GTX 1060 custom designs as the MSI GTX 1060 Gaming X, which runs at only 28 dBA - truly whisper quiet. MSI has also included a metal backplate with their card, which improves the overall look and feel of the card and protects it against damage during handling.

MSI has quoted us a price between $259 and $269, so we used $265 for our performance-per-dollar charts. Given the reference design retails at $239, this $25 increase is not unreasonable if you consider how much better the MSI RX 480 Gaming X performs in every single test in this review. In my opinion, this is thus far the only RX 480 that looks like it can compete with the GTX 1060 and its custom designs.

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When searching for a GFX card, rather than lowest cost, you are better served searching for most bang for the buck. The reference design just has too many issues ... the power, reliability, heat, throttling, noise issues ... are they really worth the minimal price difference ?

Unfortunately pcpartpicker is way behind in their parts lists. The other issue is the AIB cards are just arriving on your side of the pond and lack of available stock is inflating costs

But as you can see here....

http://www.novatech.co.uk/search.html?s=xfx%20480

Reference card is £239.99
Add a back plate and its 10 more at £249.99 ...seems worth the price
Go non-reference and it's 20 more at £269.99 .... again worth the price

For a comparable 1060 with more speed £279.99
http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/nvidiageforcegraphicscards/nvidiagtx1060series/gtx1060armor6goc.html

The best we've seen so far is £299.99
http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/amdradeongraphicscards/radeonrx480series/rx480gamingx8g.html

But so is the 1060
http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/nvidiageforcegraphicscards/nvidiagtx1060series/gtx1060gamingx6g.html

If ya need to buy now.... I thing ya best choices are the MSI 1060 Armor @ £279.99 and the XFX non reference at £269.99 If you can wait a few weeks, I think prices will drop £15 - £20. Prices are already dropping here in US, should be ling before Europe follows suit.