I was helping my friend put together a PC with a budget of around $1200 with gaming in mind. I put together two builds and I wasn't sure which one to choose from and was wondering if I could get some advice and feedback. All parts are being ordered from Umart.com.au
save some money on the psu. 650 watt for 145$ is a lot. with that money buy the fx 8350 and a 990fx motherboard. m5a99fx pro evo is pretty good in the reviews and if you want the top go with the asus sabertooth 2.0.
and you don't need a blue ray. find a cheap 15$-20$ drive.
and if this is more than 1200$. save some money on the gpu. amd gpu's are really cheap now and a 7970 is really good. find a 7970 or a 7950 on sale. sapphire is the best for amd.
i don't know if this build is for overclocking. ifso you need a cpu cooler. watercooling is cool but a 212 hyper evo is 30$ and wil do a good job.
if you don't overclock the cpu than don't buy the sabertooth. atm i don't know a good mobo if your not oc but a m5a99fx wil get that cpu to 4.5ghz for sure.
you can also save some on the case. a nzxt tempest 410 is pretty good for the airflow and the elite has a nice window in it.
I've been looking into M5A99FX PRO myself but am concerned with the information on the manufacturer and review websites about raid. Does the motherboard really not support it? Some people claim it does. I'm so confused.
i really don't know. but why you want raid for? i go for the m5a99fx pro 2.0 and the fx 8350. sabertooth 2.0 is €30 more in my country. i have just 1 hdd and a ssd so i don't care.
AMD SB950 controller : 6 x SATA 6Gb/s port(s), gray Support Raid 0, 1, 5, 10 ASMedia® PCIe SATA controller : 2 x eSATA 6Gb/s port(s), red
this is on the asus website.
now i'm confused:(, the website says cpu up to 140 watt!