Advice on 1st Home build

[dedbeats]

Hey guys,

New member here. Trying my first homebuilt rig and wasn't sure where to go for advice. Figured y'all would probably be the best to ask regarding this type of thing, so please give me a hand. I'm trying to build a 'budget' machine that's also futureproof. I don't want to go over $700 on parts, and I think I've done well to compile a bunch of parts under that threshold (including 2x $40 gift cards), however I have no idea if these parts are any good. Feedback, please?

Case: Rosewill Blackbone
Mobo: AsRock 990FX Extreme 4 AM3+
CPU: AMD FX 6100 3.3ghz 6-core
VidCard: Gigabyte Radeon HD 6950 1GB 256bit
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaw 8gb
SSD: Sandisk Ultra 120GB Sata II + Icy Dock 2.5" to 3.5" SSD converter

I have a 550w Rosewill PSU from my old rig that I'll move over to this one. Thoughts?

Really appreciate the help. Thanks in advance.

 

[longpig]

What's your timescale on this build? Maybe worth waiting for piledriver (Bulldozer mkII)
I would replace the psu with a good brand, especially if it's a few years old. If it blows up in 6 months it's not really futureproof
What's the pc for? Gaming,Web browsing, Video editing? IE, do you need 6 cores?

 

[sosofm]

Why you don't go with i5 2500k and one of this mobos : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157271
or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157279
If you wanna go with AMD is fine you choosed very good. Good luck.

 

[dedbeats]

What's your timescale on this build? Maybe worth waiting for piledriver (Bulldozer mkII)
I would replace the psu with a good brand, especially if it's a few years old. If it blows up in 6 months it's not really futureproof
What's the pc for? Gaming,Web browsing, Video editing? IE, do you need 6 cores?

Basically, I'm building the ultimate multitasking machine! :lol:

I'd like to play some games at high-to-max (Star Wars: TOR, for instance) but also do some light video editing, heavy photo editing, browsing etc. Is 6-core overkill?

@sosofm I went with AM3+ for its ease of CPU upgrade, which is what I gathered in my research crash course. Don't know how true that is though, it was a bit of a pain finding a resource that details the diffs between AM3+ and Z68.

 

[longpig]

Ok, stick with the 6 core.
But do look into a new PSU: Antec, Corsair etc

 

[sapphireman]

What's your timescale on this build? Maybe worth waiting for piledriver (Bulldozer mkII)
I would replace the psu with a good brand, especially if it's a few years old. If it blows up in 6 months it's not really futureproof
What's the pc for? Gaming,Web browsing, Video editing? IE, do you need 6 cores?

Also, with the GPU you chose you might consider a 650w PSU when you upgrade... It'd be shame to get another 550w only to find out that it isn't quite enough.

 

[dedbeats]

Looks like I can't get away with skimping on the PSU. How does this one look? Corsair TX650 V2

This is now bringing me close to $100 over my budget. Any recommendations for a ~$50 PSU or what I can do to cut costs elsewhere?

 

[sapphireman]

I wouldn't undercut the PSU... Lower watts/no-name manufacturer are typically poor ideas. At a glance, I would say perhaps the largest savings you could find would be going with a different GPU. You won't save quite $100, but near enough. Check this guy out.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102948

 

[longpig]

Go Here: http://extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine to calculate power requirements.
And add some headroom. I think you'll be fine with 600w such as http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139028

 

[AM2A]

saw this one for $60 after MIR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207014

 

[warmon6]

Basically, I'm building the ultimate multitasking machine! :lol:

I'd like to play some games at high-to-max (Star Wars: TOR, for instance) but also do some light video editing, heavy photo editing, browsing etc. Is 6-core overkill?

@sosofm I went with AM3+ for its ease of CPU upgrade, which is what I gathered in my research crash course. Don't know how true that is though, it was a bit of a pain finding a resource that details the diffs between AM3+ and Z68.

Well to shed a little light on the matter (normally hang out in the cpu section) after amd next cpu, code name "piledriver", from what we know of, future amd cpu's will not be using the AM sockets/cpu's. (So no AM4, am4+, ect)

The socket that we have so far been hearing about it the FM2 socket coming in the beginning of 2013. What is known about this socket is FM2 will not be able to run AM3+ cpu's.

So your in a catch 22 situation where both sockets will only last at least another round of cpu changes before they swap to another socket.

So im my opinion, if cpu upgrade ability is a concern, get a high end cpu for that socket as you wont be able to upgrade it in the next 2-3 years.



As for a six core being overkill for gaming? normally that would be yes but because of the way bulldozer is designed, it might not. As long as the OS/programs uses every other core in the cpu (1 core per module), you should be able to get max performance out of a game. (most games cant use 4 cores/threads yet).

As for multi-tasking, depends on how much you do, it's certainly not overkill.

 

[longpig]

Good one. Grab it.

 

[dedbeats]

Well to shed a little light on the matter (normally hang out in the cpu section) after amd next cpu, code name "piledriver", from what we know of, future amd cpu's will not be using the AM sockets/cpu's. (So no AM4, am4+, ect)

The socket that we have so far been hearing about it the FM2 socket coming in the beginning of 2013. What is known about this socket is FM2 will not be able to run AM3+ cpu's.

So your in a catch 22 situation where both sockets will only last at least another round of cpu changes before they swap to another socket.

So im my opinion, if cpu upgrade ability is a concern, get a high end cpu for that socket as you wont be able to upgrade it in the next 2-3 years.



As for a six core being overkill for gaming? normally that would be yes but because of the way bulldozer is designed, it might not. As long as the OS/programs uses every other core in the cpu (1 core per module), you should be able to get max performance out of a game. (most games cant use 4 cores/threads yet).

As for multi-tasking, depends on how much you do, it's certainly not overkill.

Thanks for clarifying. Seems like a crappy situation to be in. So knowing this, what would you recommend for mobo/CPU, keeping my budget in mind? Are my choices above good enough, or do you suggest I go for a better CPU?

While gaming, I'd also be planning on running encoding software from Livestream to stream gameplay, while recording a file locally. I'm guessing 6 cores can't possibly be bad for this type of set up, right?

@longpig which PSU are you advocating?

 

[longpig]

Sorry, meant the one you linked - the xfx.

 

[longpig]

Well to shed a little light on the matter (normally hang out in the cpu section) after amd next cpu, code name "piledriver", from what we know of, future amd cpu's will not be using the AM sockets/cpu's. (So no AM4, am4+, ect)

The socket that we have so far been hearing about it the FM2 socket coming in the beginning of 2013. What is known about this socket is FM2 will not be able to run AM3+ cpu's.

So your in a catch 22 situation where both sockets will only last at least another round of cpu changes before they swap to another socket.

So im my opinion, if cpu upgrade ability is a concern, get a high end cpu for that socket as you wont be able to upgrade it in the next 2-3 years.

ah heck. I was hoping to get 5 years out of my AM3+. But I suppose 3 years is not unreasonable as I usually rebuild every 3/4 years anyway.
Better start saving for Intel now.

 

[CaedenV]

OK, by multi tasking do you mean having a bunch of programs open at once (like it looks like), or do you mean that you will be rendering/transcoding video, while editing a photo, while watching a movie on a regular basis (true multitasking). If it is the latter then yes, give it all of the cores/modules you can afford, but if it is more like the first situation then save a little money and get a 4 core phenom2 to get you buy, with a Piledriver upgrade later. Current gen AMD CPUs simply do not play well with win7, this will hopefully be fixed in the piledriver/bull2 chips coming out early next year. Buldozer chips are great at true multi-tasking, what they have issues with is when not all cores are being used at once and threads are sent to the wrong cores, which then causes major performance bleeding.

You do not need more than 4 cores to max out games.

There are no moving parts in an SSD, plus they are very light weight. Just mount it in a regular HDD slot with screws in only one side and it will be fine (unless you move the case around a lot, in which case you should support it, but it is completely unnecessary for most people). For my wife's SSD I literally just hooked it up and set it in the legacy floppy drive bay. The cables are stiff enough where it is not going to go anywhere, and the case is touching the drive so it is grounded just fine. If her case suffers any G forces that would damage the drive then it will have much larger issues than a wrecked SSD.

Your 550W PSU may be fine on a temporary basis, but those bulldozers eat a ton of power, as does the GPU, so you will want something a little fresher and bigger, but it could probably be fine for a month or 2 while you gather the money for a quality power supply. Just promise us that you will never buy rosewill again for any electronics (thankfully for you cases are not electronics).

 

[dedbeats]

OK, by multi tasking do you mean having a bunch of programs open at once (like it looks like), or do you mean that you will be rendering/transcoding video, while editing a photo, while watching a movie on a regular basis (true multitasking). If it is the latter then yes, give it all of the cores/modules you can afford, but if it is more like the first situation then save a little money and get a 4 core phenom2 to get you buy, with a Piledriver upgrade later. Current gen AMD CPUs simply do not play well with win7, this will hopefully be fixed in the piledriver/bull2 chips coming out early next year. Buldozer chips are great at true multi-tasking, what they have issues with is when not all cores are being used at once and threads are sent to the wrong cores, which then causes major performance bleeding.

You do not need more than 4 cores to max out games.

There are no moving parts in an SSD, plus they are very light weight. Just mount it in a regular HDD slot with screws in only one side and it will be fine (unless you move the case around a lot, in which case you should support it, but it is completely unnecessary for most people). For my wife's SSD I literally just hooked it up and set it in the legacy floppy drive bay. The cables are stiff enough where it is not going to go anywhere, and the case is touching the drive so it is grounded just fine. If her case suffers any G forces that would damage the drive then it will have much larger issues than a wrecked SSD.

Your 550W PSU may be fine on a temporary basis, but those bulldozers eat a ton of power, as does the GPU, so you will want something a little fresher and bigger, but it could probably be fine for a month or 2 while you gather the money for a quality power supply. Just promise us that you will never buy rosewill again for any electronics (thankfully for you cases are not electronics).

Yeah, pretty much I don't want to be limited when multitasking in the true sense. It won't happen often, but I can foresee some times when I'm exporting a 1gb video, while keeping photoshop open in the background, and listening to music, etc. Or running Star Wars: TOR at high settings, while playing music, and encoding the gameplay for online viewing while recording a local file of the session. If this type of thing can be done from time to time with a quad-core without issue, I'll move on to one of those instead of the 6-core.

What do you mean when you say AMD CPU's don't play well with Win7? The machine I'm building will be running Win7, so would it not be smart to build it around an AMD FX 6100?

Regarding PSU, I may end up going with one of the units linked in this thread by longpig or AM2A.

 

[warmon6]

Thanks for clarifying. Seems like a crappy situation to be in. So knowing this, what would you recommend for mobo/CPU, keeping my budget in mind? Are my choices above good enough, or do you suggest I go for a better CPU?

While gaming, I'd also be planning on running encoding software from Livestream to stream gameplay, while recording a file locally. I'm guessing 6 cores can't possibly be bad for this type of set up, right?

Certainly not a bad choice in the matter. it's just AMD's fx's are a little tricky to judge if it's right or not just due to the way they were made. (they are... unique.... that's for sure...)

Although for your situation, i think this setup is just fine in the CPU/MB combo for the next few years.

Happy to be of some help!

 

[warmon6]

ah heck. I was hoping to get 5 years out of my AM3+. But I suppose 3 years is not unreasonable as I usually rebuild every 3/4 years anyway.
Better start saving for Intel now.

Well you can get 5 years (or more) if you take care of your computer [:huntluck]

But yeah, both intel and amd have socket changes coming around, in 2013 for Intel with Haswell cpu's (rumored lga 1055) and Amd with Steamroller cpu's (sorry forgetting to put the name of the cpu earlier) with the rumored FM2 Socket.

So you at least got another year of waitting before a socket change for either side, just neither side is going to be compatible with future sockets. (like future cpu's on older sockets).

 

[ringzero]

I just put together my first rig and kept it to right around ~$700, during Black Friday deals, no less. I'm using AMD Phenom II x4 955 and the GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3, same Ripjaws as you, and a Sapphire Radeon 6870. Not even close to future-proof. Granted, I also had to buy a monitor (~$105), keyboard, wireless adapter, etc. I assume you already have a monitor and another hard drive you're bringing over. Because 120GB is not going to be enough for Windows +games +video-editing.

I guess all I'm saying is be willing to go over-budget if those are the parts you want. You haven't mentioned much about the 6950. I haven't tried STWOR on my 6870 yet (obviously), but I think it should easily take on High settings. You could cut back there.

If you really want a budget comp under $700, iI don't think it'll be very future-proof.

 

[warmon6]

What do you mean when you say AMD CPU's don't play well with Win7? The machine I'm building will be running Win7, so would it not be smart to build it around an AMD FX 6100?

Well best way to put this....... Due to the AMD fx uniqueness, Current windows cant utilize these cpu's to there fullest....

Mainly due to the fact that amd didn't work with Microsoft before hand to optimized windows for this cpu....

That's sums up what caedenv is saying.

Although due to the fact that there is no optimized Windows for amd FX cpu's, it's a moot point. Microsoft has even said that they wont be able to optimize windows 7 for amd. It'll have to happen with windows 8 and that wont be released till late next year (beta wont even start till February).

Even then, the optimization previews that i have seen from microsoft and the optimized linux os's that can take full use of bulldozer haven't been all that impressive.

So basicly, you chose to decide what you want to do. Although i say your cpu/MB setup is just fine for your uses.

 

[dedbeats]

I just put together my first rig and kept it to right around ~$700, during Black Friday deals, no less. I'm using AMD Phenom II x4 955 and the GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3, same Ripjaws as you, and a Sapphire Radeon 6870. Not even close to future-proof. Granted, I also had to buy a monitor (~$105), keyboard, wireless adapter, etc. I assume you already have a monitor and another hard drive you're bringing over. Because 120GB is not going to be enough for Windows +games +video-editing.

I guess all I'm saying is be willing to go over-budget if those are the parts you want. You haven't mentioned much about the 6950. I haven't tried STWOR on my 6870 yet (obviously), but I think it should easily take on High settings. You could cut back there.

If you really want a budget comp under $700, iI don't think it'll be very future-proof.

I guess you're right about budget futureproofing. Pretty much I just want a solid rig to last 3 years at least doing what I need it to do: gaming on medium-high, running multiple processes, and zipping along. I may have to cut down on the vid card a bit in order to afford the PSU though. If you're confident about the 6870 (also mentioned by another poster) I'll strongly consider that, but do you think it'll get me a year of gaming on high-to-max, with another year or two of gaming at medium settings?

btw, already have a dual monitor set up, with an old keyboard and mouse that I'll refresh once I get some more money. The SSD will be primarily for the OS and running the games-du-jour (Star Wars: TOR and Skyrim) with an old HDD installed for the other stuff. That too will be refreshed when I get some more money.

 

[ringzero]

I guess you're right about budget futureproofing. Pretty much I just want a solid rig to last 3 years at least doing what I need it to do: gaming on medium-high, running multiple processes, and zipping along. I may have to cut down on the vid card a bit in order to afford the PSU though. If you're confident about the 6870 (also mentioned by another poster) I'll strongly consider that, but do you think it'll get me a year of gaming on high-to-max, with another year or two of gaming at medium settings?

btw, already have a dual monitor set up, with an old keyboard and mouse that I'll refresh once I get some more money. The SSD will be primarily for the OS and running the games-du-jour (Star Wars: TOR and Skyrim) with an old HDD installed for the other stuff. That too will be refreshed when I get some more money.

Dual monitor setup! Sweet! Sounds like you might be in pretty good shape then, with all those things you're bringing over. As far as the 6870, I've heard people say it runs Skyrim on max settings, and I think it will, but it also depends on your screen resolution. And SWTOR, for an MMO, seems to actually be fairly demanding. But new, bleeding-edge games a year from now? I don't think the 6870 will run them on max settings at 1900x1080. High, probably. (By the way, I expect to get into early gameplay on SWTOR in the next few days. If you want, I'll let you know how it's running on my 6870 when I get it.)

So if you're still looking to scrape off a few bucks, I pose this question to you: are you considering crossfiring?

If so, then stick with your current motherboard and get a 6870. In a year or two the 6870 should hopefully be under $100 and you could get another and have a setup that rivals the $500 cards that are around today. Keep in mind though that crossfiring apparently has its issues, like driver and game support, and something called "micro-stuttering" (although I don't know how big of a deal the micro-stuttering really is):
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-geforce-stutter-crossfire,2995.html

If you don't want to crossfire, then stick with the 6950 and get a less-expensive motherboard. Maybe something like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157280

or this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128521

or this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131767

You really only need the two x16 PCI-E 2.0 slots if you're crossfiring.

Also, I think you can find a good power supply for around $60. There's a couple of links up there in this thread. I personally got an Antec ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371031 ), but I hear Seasonic is the best. And the most expensive. Definitely go for around 600-650W. And if you're thinking of crossfiring, might want to think of going 700+. But whatever you do, don't buy a PSU without verifying that it's a good one. A lot of people consider the PSU to be the backbone of the entire system and some models that claim to pump 650W have been tested to deliver only half that.

I've had TONS of fun putting mine together. I hope you do too ;-)

 

[dedbeats]

Dual monitor setup! Sweet! Sounds like you might be in pretty good shape then, with all those things you're bringing over. As far as the 6870, I've heard people say it runs Skyrim on max settings, and I think it will, but it also depends on your screen resolution. And SWTOR, for an MMO, seems to actually be fairly demanding. But new, bleeding-edge games a year from now? I don't think the 6870 will run them on max settings at 1900x1080. High, probably. (By the way, I expect to get into early gameplay on SWTOR in the next few days. If you want, I'll let you know how it's running on my 6870 when I get it.)

So if you're still looking to scrape off a few bucks, I pose this question to you: are you considering crossfiring?

If so, then stick with your current motherboard and get a 6870. In a year or two the 6870 should hopefully be under $100 and you could get another and have a setup that rivals the $500 cards that are around today. Keep in mind though that crossfiring apparently has its issues, like driver and game support, and something called "micro-stuttering" (although I don't know how big of a deal the micro-stuttering really is):
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-geforce-stutter-crossfire,2995.html

If you don't want to crossfire, then stick with the 6950 and get a less-expensive motherboard. Maybe something like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157280

or this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128521

or this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131767

You really only need the two x16 PCI-E 2.0 slots if you're crossfiring.

Also, I think you can find a good power supply for around $60. There's a couple of links up there in this thread. I personally got an Antec ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371031 ), but I hear Seasonic is the best. And the most expensive. Definitely go for around 600-650W. And if you're thinking of crossfiring, might want to think of going 700+.

I've had TONS of fun putting mine together. I hope you do too ;-)

tbh Crossfire sounds like a whole new can of worms that I may not be ready for - though interesting at the same time. I was thinking about getting a mid-range card to crossfire with my current one, until I read that it would gimp the power of the newer card to match the older. If only it just added on top of it, oh well.

I've heard a ton of great things about Asrock, so I'd like to go with a mobo from them. So in layman's terms, can you tell me what I'd be missing out on if I went with the 970 you linked as opposed to the 990FX I had targeted originally? Will it be a noticeable difference for what I want to do right now? How bout in 2-3 years time?

Sure, I'd like to hear how TOR runs on your card. My current rig actually does a respectable job of running at low settings while encoding to web (footage at livestream.com/itsbog, if you're into that sort of thing) and recording to HDD. By respectable I mean it's awful, but it works.

Pretty sure I'll have fun building. I've bashed one together out of a half-build before, and it was pretty rewarding. I'm enjoying gathering all the info so far, you guys on this forum have been great and a wealth of information, so thanks to everyone.

 

[elayman]

I think you'd want to look for 750w PSU if you're considering crossfire in the future (not sure you can find a good one for <$80 though).. unless you don't mind buying a new PSU too.