Please help me choose between these two desktop builds!

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Guest

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Okay, I have a $350 max budget, and I have two builds I want you to take a look at.

Which one would you choose, not just for performance, but for value? Please don't list off any parts you think might be good. I just want your opinion on these two builds. I know the graphics card isn't the best, so please don't discuss that either.

AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE Quad-Core @ 3.2GHz
MSI 970A-G46 AM3/AM3+ Motherboard
ASUS NVIDIA GeForce GT 520 1GB GDDR3 DX11
100GB 5400RPM 2.5" Internal HDD + 1TB USB 2.0 External HDD
4GB (2 x 2GB) G.SKILL Ripjaws X DDR3 1333MHz RAM
OCZ ZS-Series 650W 80PLUS Bronze Certified PSU
MSI Interceptor Series Nighthawk ATX Tower
Cooler Master V6GT CPU Cooler

Comes to $350 after taxes and rebates.

OR


AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE Quad-Core @ 3.4GHz
Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 AM3/AM3+ Motherboard
ASUS NVIDIA GeForce GT 520 1GB GDDR3 DX11
100GB 5400RPM 2.5" Internal HDD + 1TB USB 2.0 External HDD
8GB (2 x 4GB) G.SKILL Sniper Series DDR3 1333MHz RAM
OCZ ZS-Series 650W 80PLUS Bronze Certified PSU
NO CASE
NO AFTERMARKET COOLER

Comes to $348 after taxes and rebates.
 
better than either for about $350:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD A10-5800K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor ($124.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A75M-DGS Micro ATX FM2 Motherboard ($65.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Mushkin Silverline 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($20.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Hitachi Deskstar 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 430 ATX Mid Tower Case ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($15.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $342.92
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

for an extra $55-60 over this you can add a HD 6670 and have a $400 gaming machine that can do most games at medium/high. even without the 6670, the on-board HD 7660D is better than a 520
 

AdrianPerry

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Presumably your looking at a "bundle"?

Or you are expecting not to have to build?

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If this build has no case, its not going to come pre-built so you will have to build it yourself anyway? Or get someone to do it for you?

....In which case there's no reason to buy either bundle, because some of those components are by no means the best options....

Whats the deal with 100GB internal HDD, and 1TB external :S? Seems a bit weird.
 
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Guest


Yes, I'm building this computer myself, and I guess I forgot to mention that I already own the graphics card and both hard drives, hence the weird setup. I can either save $3 and have to deal with a generic pre-built computer case, with more RAM, a better motherboard, and a bit of a better CPU, or I can get a still good CPU, a fairly good motherboard (from what I've read,) a little less RAM, but also a really cool looking case, and an aftermarket CPU cooler.

How much better of a motherboard is the Gigabyte one in comparison to the MSI one?
 

AdrianPerry

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So what you should have said is you have $350 to spend on: CPU, RAM, MOBO, PSU, CASE, COOLER?
 
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No, not really, because I already know the parts I want to go with. I more jsut want to know if the Gigabyte motherboard is really worth the extra $50 more in comparison to the MSI motherboard?

Will I lose gaming performance if I go down to 4GB instead of using 8GB?
 

wr6133

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Feb 10, 2012
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The gigabyte board is considerably better but its overkill for you if you need the 990 chipset features then an 990xa-ud3 would be enough from gigabyte and cheaper. From the GPU choice and rest of your build I think its safe to say you dont have need of a 990 so its probably not worth $50 to you.
 
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Will the MSI motherboard last me at least a year if I don't overclock the CPU? I may upgrade the GPU, but not to something even close to as extravagant as an HD 7970 or GTX 680. If I were to upgrade the GPU, I would probably upgrade to an older GTX card or even an HD 6850/6870, but that's about as high as I'll go in the next year, so, all things considered, will this motherboard last me at least a year with no problems, and is it worth getting a good CPU cooler and a better case over an overkill motherboard?
 
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All I'm going to be doing is playing video games, watching movies and TV shows, listening to music, and occasionally editing photos and videos, but I don't necessarily care how long it takes to render photos or videos, since I'm so used to having slow computers, but I do want to be able to game a bit.
 

wr6133

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Feb 10, 2012
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19,960


There is nothing wrong with that MSI board its just a less featured board/chipset and arguably slightly lower quality than the Gbyte. As long as you only go for normal overclocks and dont want to do some monster SLi setup in the future it should last you fine
 


Definitely do this. It will be much better than either of the systems you posted. The processor with no GPU will blow a gt 520 out of the water.
 

Kamen_BG

Distinguished
Since you already own the hard drives, i made you a build that is a bit overbudget, but it's performance is unmatched by the builds above.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($89.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-M68MT-S2P Micro ATX AM3 Motherboard ($49.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Mushkin Silverline 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($20.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7770 1GB Video Card ($119.98 @ NCIX US)
Case: Antec Three Hundred ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Antec Neo Eco 520W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($46.98 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($15.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $383.91
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)

It's actually a pretty big improvement even over ScrewySqrl's build (which is great btw)