$500 Over Again, Not Making The Same Mistakes

[Acapella]

Hello! I am building my second computer. My first one I built in 2010 with little to no computer knowledge, and just told the guy at MicroCenter to find me something suitable for gaming with $500. Looking back today, I see that purchase as a colossal failure. I'm back here today with $500 looking to do it over, but way better.

Old Build:
Processor: AMD Athlon II X4 640
Motherboard: Asus M2N68-AM PLUS
Memory: 2x2GB DDR2 Off-Brand Memory(Start with 2G, added another 2G later)
Video Card: Radeon HD 4650
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 320 GB
Power Supply: Some Really Bad 300W Thing
Case: Idk some old thing I hate it.

New Build:
Processor: AMD FX-8350 Vishera
Motherboard: 880GM-LE FX 880G
Memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws 2x4GB 1866 RAM
Video Card: ASUS GTX660-DC2O-2GD5
Storage: Reusing my Seagate Barracuda 320 GB
Power Supply: RAIDMAX HYBRID 2 RX-530SS 530W
Disk Drive: Reusing old Disk Drive
Case: Thermaltake V3 Black Edition
Cooling: Stock FX-8350 and 3x Rosewill 120mm Blue LED Case Fans

When I bought my last computer at the end of 2010, my family didn't trust me to build it myself, so we spent $80 of the $500 having it built at MicroCenter. Now, I've taken apart and rebuilt lots of computers so I'm doing it myself this time around. My grand total comes to $533.36 and I'm personally satisfied with it. The games I usually play are Torchlight II, League of Legends, Neverwinter and soon Tom's Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist. Are there any comments or concerns that anyone has about my build? I'm so excited to get this done. I'll be making the newegg orders once the weekend sale and next month's MicroCenter ads are released. I'm getting the Processor, Motherboard and Case from MicroCenter during tax-free weekend here in Missouri and the rest from newegg.

MicroCenter
$24.99 - Case
$179.99 - Processor
$19.99 - Motherboard
$224.97 - Total
Newegg
$188.99 - Video Card
$40.49 - Power Source
$65.44 - Memory
$13.47 - Fans
$308.39 - Total

TOTAL - $533.36

 

[sadams04]

CPU - The 8350 is fine, but the 6300 will game very nicely as well.
MB - The ASRock is a good board, but lacks some features being a bit dated. USB 3.0 is a must have for a build these days...
MEM - Good specs and good modules, but the tall heat spreaders aren't needed and may get in the way of some aftermarket CPU coolers.
PSU - Antec, Corsair, XFX or Seasonic. The 650w below is overkill, but priced the same as the 550w.

How about something more like the build below (all from Microcenter except the case fans)? If you are overclocking then add a CPU cooler (Hyper 212).

CPU + Motherboard: FX-6300 & ASRock 970 Extreme3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($164.98 @ Microcenter)
Memory: Corsair XMS 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 1.5v CL9 ($59.99 after rebate @ Microcenter)
Video Card: ASUS GeForce GTX 660 2GB ($189.99 after rebate @ Microcenter)
Case: Thermaltake V3 ($29.99 after rebate @ Microcenter)
Case Fan: Cooler Master R4-S2S-124K-GP 44.7 CFM 120mm Fans ($7.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Antec VP-450 450w ($39.99 @ Microcenter)
Total: $492.93

 

[Acapella]

Hmm. How big of an issue will the motherboard I chose be? Like what drawbacks will I notice? I know I won't be able to upgrade memory on it, but aside from that and the USB 3.0, what else would I notice? The case doesn't have USB 3.0 on it, so I wasn't really worried about it. Plus, I don't have it now, and I don't think of it as a big deal. As far as the power supply, the one I chose has a lot of good reviews, however I've read a lot about lower brand quality power supplies so I'll definitely take you up on that. I'll look for one on newegg with slightly higher wattage maybe. I plan on getting a Hyper 212 Evo down the road. The FX 8350 says it supports 1866, so I was going for RAM to match that, but I don't know if that actually has any effect or not. Would the heatspreaders on the 1866 get in the way of the FX 8350 stock? Basically, I'd rather stay with the 8350 if the motherboard isn't a huge issue.

EDIT: What about this power supply?
EDIT2: Wait, that's the exact one you recommended. LOL. Anyway, yeah, still wondering about the motherboard thing though, because I'd rather keep the 8350 if possible, but I'm basically $5 from my spending cap, so going to the 6300 would open doors for other things.

 

[sadams04]

MB - Going with an 880 chipset misses out on USB 3.0 and also SATA III. If you don't use external drives / devices and never plan on using an SSD, then you would probably be fine. I would strongly encourage you to upgrade the MB to include these things. The 970 chipset would also overclock better. IMHO you are selling yourself short with the older board...

MEM - If you went with the Hyper 212 you will be able to move the fans up on the cooler to get around the clearance issues. Not that big of a deal, just not ideal. The stock AMD cooler will not have clearance issues in this respect (it is much smaller). DDR3-1866 vs DDR3-1600 is a wash for real world performance. Just make sure the latency follows... DDR3-1866 with CL10 is on par with DDR3-1600 CL9. Either of these are fine, or reducing the latency as the speed increases will put you into performance memory (I.E. DDR3-1866 CL9, DDR3-1600 CL8, etc).

CPU - If you want the four module / eight processing threads in the FX-8000 series, look toward the FX-8320. The FX-8350 is simply the same chip as the 8320 and since they both sport unlocked multipliers, you can get the same performance out of it. Modify the multiplier in the BIOS to match the 8350 specs and you are set. Use the saved money elsewhere in the build.

 

[Acapella]

So what are the actual advantages of going 8350 over 8320? Or is it just $30 more with no practical advantages?

EDIT: Is there a 5th Power Supply brand you'd suggest? How is Thermaltake? The 450w Antec one looks fine, however some websites are suggesting I go up to 500w for this build. Do you think it'd make a difference picking the 450w one?

 

[sadams04]

The clock speed coming out of the factory is the only difference between those two processors. Both are made the same.... Go with the 8320, change the multiplier in the BIOS from 17.5 to 20 and you "have" an 8350. If you want to overclock, the 8350 may be able to reach a higher max speed. That is due to those chips testing "better" from the factory and receiving the 8350 badge instead of the 8320. This makes no difference if you aren't going to take the chip past 4.5GHz...

No on the Thermaltake. Stick with Antec, Corsair, XFX or Seasonic. The 450w size should be fine, but stepping up to a 550w is perfectly fine and gives you a little more headroom to grow. The Antec VP550 is $70 after rebate at Microcenter, but at that price I would look at Newegg in this order...

XFX Pro550w => http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207013
Seasonic 620w => http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151096
Antec BP550 => http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371016
Corsair CX600 => http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139028

 

[Calvin7]

The 880GM-LE FX does not support any FX processor with over 95 watt TDP (Thermal Design Power). The FX 8350 has a TDP of 125 watts.
http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/880GM-LE%20FX/?cat=CPU

If you do try using a 125 watt TDP processor, the motherboard may fail after a few monthes.