We're going for this $1,000 AUD gaming / media PC build. Its for 1080p gaming (UT4, CS:GO, KF2). I'm pretty happy with it but would appreciate some validation before we buy.
(https://www.pccasegear.com/wish_lists/591077/CodenameDjangoR1)
What is the TPD? Could we save some money on the power supply? Is the CPU a good fit? Is there a bottleneck in this system?
Also please link parts found on that site as your usual places such as Amazon often don't work well for Australia. Thanks :D
600W is a bit more than that system will need, you could probably get away with this easily, you're not saving much and they're both 80-plus gold rated.
https://www.pccasegear.com/products/35146/corsair-sf450-sfx-80-plus-gold-450w-power-supply
There are several web based power supply calculators, ASUS has one several PSU manufactures have their own etc. compare the results from at least two of them and see what they think you're specs will need in terms of power supply and as long as you get something 100W-150W greater than their recommendations you should be fine and be able to add additional hard drives or whatever in the future.
You could choose a kit of 2x 8GB modules for around the same price, it's nice if one module goes faulty to be able to remove it and run off the remaining one until you replace it or whatever, if it's one big module and it fails then you're stuck out of action until you get a replacement.
I remember seeing something about performance being better with 1 module as opposed to 2 or 4 in some cases though, didn't read much into it.
Don't buy the 960m wait like 3-4 days, so the new generation GPUs gets released and get 480, that performs better, or take 470 that also performs better for lower price. It is not worth to buy 960 now... Now i don't know what the pricing will be in Australia, but if it isn't worth it, you can get 960 then... Just wait 3-4 days and then choose...
Don't ever save money on power supply. You will not really need more than 350W, but just in case - 400-450 is perfect.
Thanks. I didn't know those calculators existed so that's really helpful. As for the SIMM, personally, I'd prefer to wait for replacement with failure if it gives me the upgrade path.
Yeah I was waiting for AMD's next release of GPUs, I didn't know it was so soon. We tend to get a big ass delay from actual releases and then sellers pay tax, currency conversion and shipping. Another reason I stopped waiting is that I heard AMD drivers on Linux are in a state of disarray. I'll start off putting Steam OS on this thing. Do you know if the 470/480 drivers will suck or not for Linux?
8gb rx 480 should be a bit over 300$. tried to get you as much headroom as possible. i suggest getting more case fans and a large hard drive down the road. and you may want to switch out the case, just picked a cheaped one that works and doesnt look horrible imo, but to each his own.
http://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/Xrm3Fd
oh yea tpd is 150 watts not including the gpu, and the 480 runs at little over 100 watts, but it can drain as much as 150 if you oc. the i5 has a turbo mode, and with that cooler you should be able to set it to turbo and leave it there forever on in your bios. the fan should keep it cool enough no problem, just be sure not to use stock. you should have 200-230 or so watts of headroom.
Should rock up on PCCG in the next 2 weeks apparently. Price will be announced then.
I'm gonna throw this out there:
https://www.pccasegear.com/wish_lists/597599
Wait and see what price the 480 or maybe the 470 comes in at, but I wouldn't be surprised if it is around $400-$450 for the 8gb 480.
I'm actually using a pentium and a 960 for my htpc, if you're willing to look into a pentium instead then you could throw more money at an ssd or the 480. But I generally play indie games with low requirements.