Looking for advice/comments on my 800$ build before I buy. Thanks = )

[NeverEndingPieThrowingRobot]

Hello, I have not built a PC in 6 years so I would appreciate any advice or criticism of my build. I tried to keep the price around 800$ Please let me know if there is any obvious bottlenecks or if you think a park should be upgraded or downgraded. I am not sure if I should downgrade Video card and upgrade the processor. I am also very unsure of my motherboard choice.

Thank you for taking the time to look at my build


Part Picker Build Link http://pcpartpicker.com/p/pvjxWZ

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($99.99 @ Newegg)

CPU 2nd choice: AMD FX-8350 8-Core Processor I would like to upgrade to this CPU but the cost is out of my price range unless I downgrade the Video Card

Motherboard: Asus M5A97 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($85.79 @ Newegg)
I probably have learned the least about motherboards. If this wont work or if their is a more reliable board for a better price please let me know.

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($79.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($130.98 @ Newegg)

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 760 2GB Superclocked ACX Video Card ($199.99 @ Newegg)

Video Card 2nd choice: EVGA GeForce GTX 750Ti Superclock Video Card I almost want to get this card to save money. But I am worried I will lose a lot of performance

Case: Antec Three Hundred Two ATX Mid Tower Case ($57.99 @ Newegg)

Power Supply: Corsair CX 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.99 @ Newegg)

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) I heard I must purchase the 64 bit to utilize all of my RAM. IS this correct information?

Total: $837.70

Again Thank you for any advice you may have for me about this build.

 

[DonkeyOatie]

Your power supply is Tier 3 in our list. http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-1804779/power-supply-unit-tier-list.html

For a high performance gaming system, Tier 2 or higher is strongly recommended.

These two supplies are good choices.
https://pcpartpicker.com/part/xfx-power-supply-p1650xxxb9
https://pcpartpicker.com/part/xfx-power-supply-p1750bnlg9

650W is more than enough for this system.

You could save money at very little performance change by going to a Crucial MX100 256GB SSD. They are $109.00 at the moment. Crucial is owned by Micron, who make the chips.

Our GPU list http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-4.html

has a GPU like this https://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-video-card-gvr928wf3oc3gd as your best deal at the moment. The extra memory will allow for better levels of AA.

 

[Outlander_04]

Compromise

FX 8320 . You can overclock it yourself to 8350 speeds . In all other ways they are identical .

Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P motherboard . $10 cheaper , more power phases and theoretically cooler running and better overclocking

If you have another hard drive then trim the SSD to 120 gig . Saves you $40

Radeon R9 280's are a little cheaper and perform just a little below the GTX 760

Yes you must have a 64 bit OS .
You can add a start button to win 8 using Classic Shell . Its free

 

[DonkeyOatie]

If the OP overclocks, won't they need an aftermarket CPU cooler, which will push the price back up?

 

[NeverEndingPieThrowingRobot]

DonkeyOatie,

Thank you for your advice ! I will definitely change my power supply and will downgrade to 650 watts. I will look at the links you posted as soon as I get some errands done.

I have no problem changing SSD brands to save some money ! = )

As for the video card suggestion I like the one I chose because of the enormous amount of positive reviews it received more then the price point. Many people said the GTX 760 runs cool, quiet, and has little to no problems(Correct me if you have heard otherwise). But I will definitely do some research on the card you you suggested. I am definitely not against saving some money !

As of now I will not be overclocking so I wont have to worry about the extra money for the aftermarket CPU cooler, unless you suggest I buy one for just normal operation.

Thank you so much for the information!

 

[NeverEndingPieThrowingRobot]

Outlander_04,

Thanks for the advice I appreciate it.

Several people have mentioned to me I should upgrade to the FX 8320 with no reason. Thank you for giving me one. I am now seriously considering upgrading. My thought though is do any games currently use 8 cores, and since I am on a budget and since will not be overclocking, at least for now it makes it a tough call. Though I know it will benefit me in future games and its great knowing I could possibly over clock it.

I will definitely go with the Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P you posted. I was actually going to go with
a Gigabyte motherboard in the first place, the GIGABYTE GA-990FXA but i decided it was unnecessary for my mid range system without overclocking.To be honest I mostly looked at it because of the amount of reviews it revived. Didn't even notice the one you posted! Thanks!

I will definitely consider the Radeon R9 280's and dropping my SSD size to save some money. That is definitely some good money saving insight.

Lastly thanks for answering my OS version question!

Compromise

FX 8320 . You can overclock it yourself to 8350 speeds . In all other ways they are identical .

Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P motherboard . $10 cheaper , more power phases and theoretically cooler running and better overclocking

If you have another hard drive then trim the SSD to 120 gig . Saves you $40

Radeon R9 280's are a little cheaper and perform just a little below the GTX 760

Yes you must have a 64 bit OS .
You can add a start button to win 8 using Classic Shell . Its free

 

[Outlander_04]

The 8320 has the same cooler as the 8350 so you should easily get 8350 speeds without an aftermarket cooler . OCing to that level is simple using AMD's own Feature Manager software . Or Overdrive for advanced users .
Core speed does count with AMD processors for gamign performance .

Games like BF4 , Crysis 3 etc can all use the available cores . More cores and greater parallelism can only be a good thing .

 

[DonkeyOatie]

You are right, the GTX760 does run cool and has no problems.

you are looking to play demanding games and although the extra memory in the Radeon card won't give you FPS or better resolution, the extra GB of memory will allow you to play with better affects and anti-aliasing, if that matters to you.

The card will run hotter than the GTX760.

 

[NeverEndingPieThrowingRobot]

Again thanks for the info, its great to know what the memory on the video card can help with. I think I am going to stick with the GTX760 although now I want to upgrade to the 3gb model haha.

I have chosen a new power supply based on the information you showed me. I have chosen the Rosewill CAPSTONE-650-M 650W Power Supply. Its the cheapest 2nd tier gold rated 650 w I could find and its partially modular. If you have heard anything bad about these please let me know.
Link: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/rosewill-power-supply-capstone650m

Thanks again!

You are right, the GTX760 does run cool and has no problems.

you are looking to play demanding games and although the extra memory in the Radeon card won't give you FPS or better resolution, the extra GB of memory will allow you to play with better affects and anti-aliasing, if that matters to you.

The card will run hotter than the GTX760.

 

[NeverEndingPieThrowingRobot]

You have officially sold me on the FX 8320, I will definitely be using that in my build instead of the FX 6300. I don't plan on overclocking now but I may in the future but I definitely want the extra performance for future games that utilize all cores.

Thanks again

The 8320 has the same cooler as the 8350 so you should easily get 8350 speeds without an aftermarket cooler . OCing to that level is simple using AMD's own Feature Manager software . Or Overdrive for advanced users .
Core speed does count with AMD processors for gamign performance .

Games like BF4 , Crysis 3 etc can all use the available cores . More cores and greater parallelism can only be a good thing .

 

[NeverEndingPieThrowingRobot]

Outlander unfortunately that sale ended I believe as of today, I think the 10$ rebate still stands though. But anyways I found a cheaper model of the mobo but I cannot figure out what is the difference between them. Would you know whats different about them?

GIGABYTE GA-970A-D3P ATX AMD Motherboard $79.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128627

GIGABYTE GA-970A-UD3P ATX AMD Motherboard 99.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128651

As always thanks!

Compromise

FX 8320 . You can overclock it yourself to 8350 speeds . In all other ways they are identical .

Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P motherboard . $10 cheaper , more power phases and theoretically cooler running and better overclocking

If you have another hard drive then trim the SSD to 120 gig . Saves you $40

Radeon R9 280's are a little cheaper and perform just a little below the GTX 760

Yes you must have a 64 bit OS .
You can add a start button to win 8 using Classic Shell . Its free

 

[NeverEndingPieThrowingRobot]

New current build (http://pcpartpicker.com/p/CX6trH/by_merchant/)
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor ($124.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($130.98 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 760 2GB Superclocked ACX Video Card ($199.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Antec Three Hundred Two ATX Mid Tower Case ($57.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Rosewill Capstone 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($102.98 @ Newegg)
Base Total: $864.90
Combo Discounts: -$15.00
Mail-in Rebates: -$55.00
Total: $794.90

 

[Justin van Dongen]

Hello, I have not built a PC in 6 years so I would appreciate any advice or criticism of my build. I tried to keep the price around 800$ Please let me know if there is any obvious bottlenecks or if you think a park should be upgraded or downgraded. I am not sure if I should downgrade Video card and upgrade the processor. I am also very unsure of my motherboard choice.

Thank you for taking the time to look at my build


Part Picker Build Link http://pcpartpicker.com/p/pvjxWZ

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($99.99 @ Newegg)

CPU 2nd choice: AMD FX-8350 8-Core Processor I would like to upgrade to this CPU but the cost is out of my price range unless I downgrade the Video Card

Motherboard: Asus M5A97 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($85.79 @ Newegg)
I probably have learned the least about motherboards. If this wont work or if their is a more reliable board for a better price please let me know.

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($79.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($130.98 @ Newegg)

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 760 2GB Superclocked ACX Video Card ($199.99 @ Newegg)

Video Card 2nd choice: EVGA GeForce GTX 750Ti Superclock Video Card I almost want to get this card to save money. But I am worried I will lose a lot of performance

Case: Antec Three Hundred Two ATX Mid Tower Case ($57.99 @ Newegg)

Power Supply: Corsair CX 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($79.99 @ Newegg)

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) I heard I must purchase the 64 bit to utilize all of my RAM. IS this correct information?

Total: $837.70

Again Thank you for any advice you may have for me about this build.

Sorry i am a big fan from intel & nvidia, your GPU is good but i should take something like a i5 - 4460 & GTX 750TI Superclock Video Card. you can run with that the most games on high / ultra (with the rest of the specs)

 

[DonkeyOatie]

I think this thread is past its Best-By date. It needs to rest in peace.