AMD Build, need advice

[nidish7]

Approximate Purchase Date: e.g.: 1-2 Weeks time
Budget Range: $650 Tops After Shipping

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, Movies; Both at 1080, Music(FLAC), Encoding(FULL BD Isos to 1080/720p mkv rip.

Are you buying a monitor: No


Some parts I've chosen:

CPU: Phenom II X4 965 BE, $92 on ebay.

Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157280&Tpk=ASRock%20970%20Extreme3%20Motherboard, $85

GPU: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007HYIDTC/ref=ox_sc_act_title_5?ie=UTF8&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER, $205

HDD: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004VFJ9MK/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?ie=UTF8&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER, 100$. Will be used as primary hard disk for now for all purposes until I get a 120GB SSD in the future for os, apps,games.

RAM: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004QBUL1C/ref=ox_sc_act_title_4?ie=UTF8&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER, $45

PSU: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004RJ8EKI/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER, will this suffice for ocking the CPU+GPU? Or should I get a 650W PSU?
=, $66

Aftermarket heatsink: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005O65JXI/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER, $28



Do you need to buy OS: No

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Amazon.com, Ebay

Location: Mauritius

Parts Preferences: No off brands. Only good brands.

Overclocking: Yes

SLI or Crossfire:No

Your Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080

Additional Comments: I'm looking forward to my first build. I would like to play all the latest games or old ones at 1080p on high/ultra with 30+ FPS. I don't intend to do SLI/Crossfire, atleast not for the 1-2 coming years. Since I'm investing a bit, I'd like to get a nice cpu and gpu that will keep me running for a minimum of 1 year w/o need of upgrading. I wanted to go with an i3, but the phenom is atleast on par with the i3 when oced and it has advantage of being quad core.

The total is coming to roughly $621 whereas an intel i5 build would be around $700(i5 non k plus H77 mobo), Any chance someone could find a similar build for less?

Thanks.

 

[nidish7]

Nah, I can't buy from Newegg. I just put the link of the mobo for newegg for the specs. I'll be buying the CPU from a top rated seller.

Will the motherboard support overclocking of the phenom 965(now) and HD 7850(in future) fairly well? The ram is 1600 mhz, will it need to be oced as well?

And most importantly, i wanna know that there wont be any conflict with the hyper 212, ram and GPU?

 

[nidish7]

Any advice, please?

 

[manofchalk]

That XFX 550W should be fine as long as you dont try SLI/Crossfire. Will easily support an overclocked CPU and GPU.

Do not get a green drive as your OS drive, that is just asking for slow boot times. Get a proper 7200RPM drive.
Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM. $107
http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-ST2000DM001-Barracuda-3-5-Inch-Internal/dp/B005T3GRN2/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1348741351&sr=1-1&keywords=Seagate+Barracuda+2TB

Get a lower profile RAM. It wont conflict with the 212 EVO (good cooler BTW) now, but if you upgrade to 16GB it will become a problem.
G.Skill Ares 8GB (2x4GB) 1600Mhz CL9 1.5v. $48
http://www.amazon.com/G-Skill-PC3-12800-1600MHz-Profile-Channel/dp/B007BEJ5EA/ref=sr_1_9?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1348741392&sr=1-9&keywords=G.Skill+Ares+8GB

If the CPU you get is a Black edition, you can overclock. All AMD boards allow overclocking.
Nothing stopping you from overclocking the 7850, and its a great overclocker as well.
I wouldnt bother with trying to OC the RAM. Its the hardest thing to OC with the smallest performance boost.

It will all work together just fine.

 

[nidish7]

Thanks for the awesome reply mate. As I said, no SLI/Crossfire for now. So I shouldn't go for a 650W PSU(Also forgot to mentioned that I intend to add around 4 more HDDs and 1 SSD). I went green at this moment as I will get a 120GB minimum SSD in around 1 month for the OS and games. And then the green will be reformatted and used for storage purposes only.

I don't intend to add more ram. If I do in the future, like 2x4 gb more to fill in all the 4 slots, if I rotate the hyper 212, won't it fit also then?

As for the ram, I'm trying to go with red color. And what you mean by low profile? Like shorter than the corsair vengeance?

I've decided to go with a CM Storm enforcer chassis and the fan leds are red. I prefer red over blue coz it's not too hard on the eyes as the latter. So I'm trying to keep everything red if possible.

 

[manofchalk]

You can go for a 650W supply without issue, but you simply dont need that much wattage. Unless you are talking a ridiculous amount of drives, the power consumption from HDD's and such isnt really a concern.

It will, but it also means you cant put dual fans on the 212 EVO (which I did before I got my Watercooling kit, very nice temps for air cooling).

The RAM I suggested is orange, which more red than your blue Corsair RAM. The G.Skill Ripjaws are red and are pretty good.
Thats exactly it. Lower profile RAM doesn't have massive heat-fins on them, so them obstructing CPU coolers isnt an issue.

 

[nidish7]

I was planning to get the red version of the vengeance:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233180

Btw I found a *low profile* ram kit:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104292

But it's voltage is 1.65 volt as compared to the 1.5v you posted and the vengeance red. Is it recommended?

 

[manofchalk]

The 1.65v RAM is bad for Intel systems, but since its an AMD its fine. Though it is probably better to get 1.5v RAM due to the slightly lower power draw and ease of transfer to an Intel system.

Have a look at this RAM kit, its red and medium profile. Its the kit I use and it wont conflict with a 212 EVO.
G.Skill Ripjaws 8GB (2x4GB) 1600Mhz CL9 1.5v. $41
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231314

 

[nidish7]

Ok will go for the 550w psu but i hope it can power about 6 x2tb hard drives and 2 ssds along with all the components mentioned. As for the ram you posted, I can't find it on amazon. I found another one of the corsairs but it will be a better match than the blue one i posted:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004CRSM4I/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

It's even like $1 cheaper than the blue one DO you think it will be a good match to the mobo or should i just go for the red one?


Do you think the 2tb green 64mb cache hdd will be good for the os and my games for now? Will i be noticing a diff if i use an ssd instead of the green for my games? I'm not sure how much rpm the green is?

 

[manofchalk]

There you go.
http://www.amazon.com/G-Skill-PC3-12800-1600MHz-9-9-9-24-F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL/dp/B00339X1EM/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1348751603&sr=1-2&keywords=G.Skill+ripjaws

I have this RAM with the extreme4 mobo, so essentially the same aesthetically. They look pretty good.

I have a feeling you will run out of SATA power connectors before you run out of power. Might wanna double check (it has 9 SATA connectors, so thats your SSD/HDD's and an optical covered).

Green drives in general are pointless IMO. They are slower for minimal power savings, and often cost the same as 7200RPM drives. Seagate are actually dropping their Green drives as they figured out the power savings only lead to a 20c difference, with the potential for $100's in lost productivity.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I26OSN__36M
Skip to 2:26 for relevant info.

Green drives are typically 5400 or 5900RPM, though WD love to be ambiguous with theirs in that it will change depending on usage.

 

[nidish7]

Alright you convinced me for the hard drive. I think i'll go for a 1tb western digital caviar black in order to remain in the $100 max budget range. \


As for the PSU, I found one which might be better. It's 600w and modular:
http://www.amazon.com/OCZ-ModXStream-Modular-Performance-compatible/dp/B001EYV690/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1348755510&sr=8-1&keywords=OCZ+ModXStream+Pro+600W

Btw the ram is almost $50. The corsair(better brand) is just $43, I'm really turning towards the latter. Will i regret it later?

 

[nidish7]

lol budget went over a bit. I got the Corsair Enthusiast Series 650:
http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Enthusiast-Certified-Compatible-platforms/dp/B004LB5AZY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1348766358&sr=8-1&keywords=Corsair+Enthusiast+Series+650

I just hope it's the V2. I really didn't want to cheap out on the PSU and 550w even though if it was more than enough for my needs, my mind wouldn't allow me to buy it I just had to get something 650w or higher. I chose the corsair $78 over the antec $75 coz I'm in love with corsair's products.

I also got a WD Caviar blue 7200rpm 1tb drive with 64md cache for os and other stuffs until i upgrade to ssd:
Western Digital 1 TB WD Blue SATA III 7200 RPM 64 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Desktop Hard Drive

and the rest are the same.

I just hope I'll be able to play bf3 on ultra or high at 1080p with 30+ fps

 

[manofchalk]

Getting a Corsair PSU isnt cheaping out, DIABLOTEK is more along the lines of skimping quite badly. That Enthusiast 650W should be good.

Not the drive I would have picked (I prefer Seagate Barracuda drives) but itl do better then that Green.

With a 7850 you should be getting at least 30FPS in BF3, even more after you overclock (which you should do, the 7800 series are great overclockers).

Have fun with your rig.

 

[nidish7]

Thanks mate I would have gone with the 2tb barracuda but the 1tb was 83$, so i went for it. I WILL get the barracudas 2TB in the future for more storage. Btw the 30FPS u mentioned on bf3, it's on ultra or high? with aa turned on?

I see you overclocked your 7870, how much fps u get on ultra n high at 1080p?

 

[manofchalk]

Cant say for sure, look up some reviews on the 7850, BF3 is a common game used to bench hardware. Would guess maximum on most settings, with AA at around 4x.

http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/gigabyte_hd7850_oc_windforce_review,10.html
Pretty close, apparently a factory OC'd (So a very conservative clock) card at 1080p, 4x AA and Ultra preset will get 38FPS min. If you then overclock it yourself you can get expect a ~40FPS minimum, thats not even messing with voltage so you could get it much higher than they did.

I actually dont own BF3, so I cant tell you my 7870's performance in that. But in Crysis 2 (1080p, everything Ultra, DX11 patch and high res texture pack) I'm getting a min of ~40FPS. Though I havent run any proper benchmark on it to see what the true min/avg frames are, just what I see in the corner of my eye when I run FRAPS.

EDIT:
Just did a FRAPS benchmark on half a level of Crysis 2. Average FPS was 46. No idea of the min as it says zero, must have been a loading screen or something. But I did notice it get as low as 35 when lots of particle effects were happening (A highway collapsed, lots of dust and light shining through it).

 

[nidish7]

I'm all good I guess then. Coz I was hoping around 30+FPS at stock speed but turns out it's more like 35+ FPS. Though the HIS is not factory overclocked as opposed to the Gigabyte in the benchmark link u posted?

 

[manofchalk]

The Gigabyte card is clocked 105Mhz higher on the core than that HIS card, so the HIS' performance will be a bit worse than the Gigabyte OC card.
But again, you can just overclock the thing yourself. Its not that difficult. If the OC version of the HIS card means anything, you could hit 1Ghz on the core clock,