Help deciding on a gaming build

[slappy5star]

I am looking to build a new gaming PC and I have 2 different parts list and I am undecided on which would be best. (Also, if anyone has any potential money saving tips, or sees any imcompatabilities, a heads up would be great!)

And FYI, I have a fairly new 750W PSU, 1TB HDD, and a DVD burner that I plan to re-use.

Build 1: = $880

Roswell Blackhawk ATX gaming tower
SAPPHIRE Raedon HD 7850 2gig video card
Corsair vengance 16gig DDR3 1600 ram
Intel core i5-2500k sandybridge CPU (3.3 Ghz) quadcore
ASUS Sabertooth Z77 LGA 1155 Intel ATX mobo

Build 2: = $780

NZXT Gaurdian ATX mid tower case
ASUS Sabertooth 990FX AM3+ mobo
AMD FX-6100 Zambezi 3.3 Ghz AM3+ 95W six core CPU (much cheaper than the 125W version...thoughts?)
Corsair vengance 12Gig DDR3 1600 Ram
SAPPHIRE raedeon HD 7850 2Gig video card

Any thought on these?

Thanks for the insight!

 

[inzone]

Well build 1 would absolutly destroy build 2 no question. If you are building mainly for gaming then you do not need or ever use 16gb of ram , you won't go over 6gb in any game and in any game situation. I've had the resource monitor up on a second screen while gaming to see whar resources were being used and how much. I was surprised to see that I never used more than 5 gb of ram and that's with things running in the background.
So you can save some money with going with 8gb.
The Sabertooth board is a very nice board and has some good features but the tuf-stuf is gimiky and does not add to the performance of the Pc and you can get the same features in a less expensive board and save some more money there.
With the money that was saved I would get a 7870 video card.

ASUS P8Z77-V LE PLUS LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
$169.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131848

CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CML8GX3M2A1600C9B
$54.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233196

SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition OC 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card (11199-03-20G)
$309.99 and a $15 rebate makes the final price $294.99.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102983

The money saved from the motherboard would pay for this video card upgrade and you would still have the savings from the ram.

 

[aznshinobi]

You could do so much better. The Sabertooth boards are not even worth what they cost. As you see here the $200+ Asus board only performs as good as a $160 Asrock Extreme6 Z77
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/z77-extreme6-z77a-gd65-z77h2-a2x,3187-22.html

Check out my $850 build here:
http://www.squidoo.com/electronicandmore
Since you don't need a PSU and HDD -150
Switch the 7850 to the 7950 +100
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127667
Total: $796

You honestly won't need 16GB of ram, I edit heavily with Premiere Pro, After Effects and PS5 and don't feel like render times are slow at all.

 

[nekulturny]

Sabertooth boards have a 5 year warranty, thats one plus side to them, you won't get that with an Asrock board, EVER, or cheaper Asus boards for that matter. Although the warranty alone probably isn't enough to justify the extra cost of the board. However, I can fault anyone for buying a Sabertooth, they're pretty nice boards.

As far as which build to pick, the 2500K build is the superior choice, theres no debate to be had about it. And no a gamer will never need more than 8GB of DDR3.