Buying a customised gaming PC - would love some advice

[CaptainUseful]

Hey,

I'm shortly going to be ordering a new customised gaming-oriented desktop (from cougar-extreme, who I've used before), but I'm one of those unconfident people who's never sure they're doing it right.

Basically, I'd really appreciate it if a knowledgeable person could give the following system a quick glance-over and tell me if there's anything I could do to improve the system, or if the PSU won't support it, or anything like that.


. AMD Piledriver FX 8350,
. Gigabyte GA-78LMT-S2P,
. 8GB DDR3 Kingston 1333 (2 x 4Gb),
. Integrated Sound Card,
. Manufacturer Supplied Cooler,
. DVD+/- RW - 22X Samsung SATA,
. 1000Gb SATA Hard Drive SATA 3,
. No Secondary Hard Drive,
. ATI HD 7850 (2048MB PCI Express DDR DVI),
. No Monitor,
. CiT 2206 Black Midi Case with 500W PSU,
. CiT 700W Black Edition PSU,
. Windows 7 Home premium 64 bit,
. No Additional Software,
. 12 Months Warranty


I have a decent monitor and all that stuff already.

Thanks a huge amount in advance

 

[johnvonmacz]

Hey,

I'm shortly going to be ordering a new customised gaming-oriented desktop (from cougar-extreme, who I've used before), but I'm one of those unconfident people who's never sure they're doing it right.

Basically, I'd really appreciate it if a knowledgeable person could give the following system a quick glance-over and tell me if there's anything I could do to improve the system, or if the PSU won't support it, or anything like that.


. AMD Piledriver FX 8350,
. Gigabyte GA-78LMT-S2P,
. 8GB DDR3 Kingston 1333 (2 x 4Gb),
. Integrated Sound Card,
. Manufacturer Supplied Cooler,
. DVD+/- RW - 22X Samsung SATA,
. 1000Gb SATA Hard Drive SATA 3,
. No Secondary Hard Drive,
. ATI HD 7850 (2048MB PCI Express DDR DVI),
. No Monitor,
. CiT 2206 Black Midi Case with 500W PSU,
. CiT 700W Black Edition PSU,
. Windows 7 Home premium 64 bit,
. No Additional Software,
. 12 Months Warranty


I have a decent monitor and all that stuff already.

Thanks a huge amount in advance

It's so baddd. Forget cougar and get your desktop get build by NCIX instead. Get this parts off of their website then just add $50 for them to build it for you. It also has 1 year warranty.


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($189.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($134.98 @ Outlet PC)
Memory: Corsair XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($61.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($69.98 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card ($294.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (White) ATX Mid Tower Case ($84.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XFX 750W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($98.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($16.97 @ Outlet PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $1072.84
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-03-23 21:58 EDT-0400)

 

[Proximon]

Nope.

I'll just go visit their website and see what is available, but that's not a good mix.

 

[CaptainUseful]

Nope.

I'll just go visit their website and see what is available, but that's not a good mix.

Okay, so I get that the initial reaction by people here is 'yuck'. Could you be more specific on what's wrong with the system?

 

[Proximon]

£715.96 is what I came up with for your configured system.

That's almost $1100 in the US.

Some of the bad points in your build:
FX 8350 is not a good value unless you happen to be doing a lot of other things, like video rendering. It's not a strong gaming CPU for the money.
The selected motherboard is a 760G chipset board... two generations old, and very cheap.
The CiT PSU is very poor, as is the case that has very little ventilation.

 

[CaptainUseful]

£715.96 is what I came up with for your configured system.

That's almost $1100 in the US.

Some of the bad points in your build:
FX 8350 is not a good value unless you happen to be doing a lot of other things, like video rendering. It's not a strong gaming CPU for the money.
The selected motherboard is a 760G chipset board... two generations old, and very cheap.
The CiT PSU is very poor, as is the case that has very little ventilation.

Alright, thanks a lot. Could you recommend a more cost-efficient CPU, motherboard and PSU that would make the system less cringeworthy?

 

[Proximon]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3350P 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor (£139.49 @ Dabs)
Motherboard: ASRock B75 PRO3-M Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£57.61 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£45.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£52.25 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7870 2GB Video Card (£166.07 @ Aria PC)
Case: Fractal Design Core 3000 ATX Mid Tower Case (£42.73 @ Ebuyer)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£47.93 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-222BB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£12.22 @ Dabs)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£68.30 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £632.59
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-03-24 02:24 GMT+0000)

There you go. Pay someone to build it, and you have a better computer, for less.

 

[johnvonmacz]

Nope.

I'll just go visit their website and see what is available, but that's not a good mix.

£715.96 is what I came up with for your configured system.

That's almost $1100 in the US.

Some of the bad points in your build:
FX 8350 is not a good value unless you happen to be doing a lot of other things, like video rendering. It's not a strong gaming CPU for the money.
The selected motherboard is a 760G chipset board... two generations old, and very cheap.
The CiT PSU is very poor, as is the case that has very little ventilation.

Alright, thanks a lot. Could you recommend a more cost-efficient CPU, motherboard and PSU that would make the system less cringeworthy?

3570k is just $20 more than 8350 and is a much much better gaming CPU. Get an ASUS Z77 LK or A Gigabyte Z77 UD3H. For the PSU, XFX 750 watts comes to my mind as a reliable PSU as it is a seasonic build just rebranded.

 

[CaptainUseful]

Alrighty, thank you both a huge amount - I'll take all this into account and revise the system considerably.

 

[johnvonmacz]

Alrighty, thank you both a huge amount - I'll take all this into account and revise the system considerably.

Glad to help mate