About to finalize new build, any advise before I buy the parts?

[Willis Hall]

As stated above, about to finish off my new build before I buy in All the parts! comes in at less than £500 without peripherals; if anyone else can think of a better build for Guild Wars 2 on a similar budget, please let me know!

Approximate Purchase Date: e.g.: Tonight

Budget Range: (e.g.: 300-400) Before / After Rebates; Before / After Shipping: £500 all inclusive, unless you can give me a big boost for less than £100 more

System Usage from Most to Least Important: MMO Gaming, Strategy Games, FPS, Watching Netflix, General browsing

Are you buying a monitor: No

Do you need to buy OS: No

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: (e.g.: PC Part Picker UK (Amazon, ebuyer, etc.)

Location: Leeds UK

Parts Preferences: No preference, although seem to get more for AMD for the price

Overclocking: No

SLI or Crossfire: No

Your Monitor Resolution: 1280 x 1024

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading: Max out guild wars 2

Sorry, forgot to post actual build! it's:

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/MDi1
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/MDi1/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/MDi1/benchmarks/

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor (£99.98 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£50.39 @ Aria PC)
Memory: G.Skill Value Series 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1333 Memory (£26.60 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Toshiba 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£48.48 @ Ebuyer)
Video Card: Club 3D Radeon HD 7870 XT 2GB Video Card (£171.62 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Xigmatek Asgard II Black ATX Mid Tower Case (£28.58 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V Power Supply (£34.15 @ Aria PC)
Total: £459.80
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-03-27 21:59 GMT+0000)34.15

 

[TenPc]

You'd need an 800 watt PSU considering the high input of the video card, you also need a pair of ram, 2 x 4g @1600mhz.

 

[zooted]

You'd need an 800 watt PSU considering the high input of the video card, you also need a pair of ram, 2 x 4g @1600mhz.

? 800w? I agree that the cx430 may be pushing it a little (for overclocking and max efficiency) but a 500w(quality) would be just fine for the system.

 

[TenPc]

Well, the cx 430 v2 only has a total power output on the 12 v rail of 336 watts.
Your cpu might use as much as 125 watts, the video card at maximum output might use as much as 225 watts so those together is more than the cx 430 can handle.

An 800 watt PSU is not necessarily 800 watts on the 12 v rail, you might only get as much as 600 watts, enough for handling two video cards if required later, 16 gb of ram if you choose to upgrade, and other devices like blu-ray droive, multiple hdd's, and external devices should they be required.

The cx600 watt v2 has 480 watts on the 12 v rail, at least consider that as a better choice.

Usually, PSU manufacturers refer to the PEAK power of the unit for their labelling but peak powwer only lasts for a second or two, you can't run at peak power continuously otherwise you will fry the psu as well as your hardware.
Also, one stick of ram is going to give you problems.

 

[TenPc]

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4122#sp
The bus interface is only version 2.0 and the bus interface for the video card is version 3.0, you will encounter problems even though the gpu is backward compatible (hopefully).
http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/graphics/7000/7870/Pages/radeon-7870.aspx#/3
"500W (or greater) power supply with one 75W 6-pin PCI Express power connector "

1.4 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM sockets supporting up to 32 GB of system memory
2.Dual channel memory architecture
3.Support for DDR3 2000(O.C.)/1866/1600/1333/1066 MHz memory modules

It's your choice as to what you end up with, I'm only answering the Question asked.

 

[zooted]

Well, the cx 430 v2 only has a total power output on the 12 v rail of 336 watts.
Your cpu might use as much as 125 watts, the video card at maximum output might use as much as 225 watts so those together is more than the cx 430 can handle.

An 800 watt PSU is not necessarily 800 watts on the 12 v rail, you might only get as much as 600 watts, enough for handling two video cards if required later, 16 gb of ram if you choose to upgrade, and other devices like blu-ray droive, multiple hdd's, and external devices should they be required.

The cx600 watt v2 has 480 watts on the 12 v rail, at least consider that as a better choice.

Usually, PSU manufacturers refer to the PEAK power of the unit for their labelling but peak powwer only lasts for a second or two, you can't run at peak power continuously otherwise you will fry the psu as well as your hardware.
Also, one stick of ram is going to give you problems.

Yes, I understand how 12v ratings work, however gone are the times of requiring high wattage psu's for single gpu usage.

Here is a 7970ghz(OP's card consumes closer to 7950 on the chart.)

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=...
The bus interface is only version 2.0 and the bus interface for the video card is version 3.0, you will encounter problems even though the gpu is backward compatible (hopefully).
http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/graphics/7000/78...
"500W (or greater) power supply with one 75W 6-pin PCI Express power connector "

No, you will not have any issues regarding backwards compatibly. In fact today's cards are not fast enough to take advantage of the increased bandwidth.

I get that you are trying to help, and I even said the cx430 would be pushing it. However, it would still work technically.
It would be better to go with a 500/600w to ensure maximum efficiency and to ensure the unit doesn't get too much load causing a shorter than expected lifetime.

 

[n3cw4rr10r]

Dual Channel Memory (2 x 4gb)
Atleast a 500w PSU (I believe the Corsair CX500 is almost the same price as the CX430.

 

[zooted]

Dual Channel Memory (2 x 4gb)
Atleast a 500w PSU (I believe the Corsair CX500 is almost the same price as the CX430.

Agreed.