First Build £600 (Need advice)

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1

So here's my progress so far: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/gj6rpg

TLDR; Casual gamer build to last. Anything you would change?

Kind of budget build. Its my first time, so I have lots of questions.

My 5 year old Dell XPSL502x laptop is finally starting to show its age. So I'm going back to a desktop PC, and keeping this old guy for when I need to be portable.

I mainly play CS:GO (1080p) - not too intensive, but I play on pretty low settings and rendering smoke can be slow at the moment. It would be nice to have something more powerful for when I try out new games like Tower Wars, Planetside or Battlefield, so I don't just give up because the game is too jittery - it really takes the fun out of the experience.

I use Photoshop on a weekly basis, so having the SSD, and extra RAM should be nice.

The main idea I try to keep in mind for this build is future proofing - when the next 5 years rolls around, I want to be able to just stick in another 8Gb of RAM, or switch out the CPU.

I would like to be able to over clock the CPU a bit to squeeze out as much performance/£ as possible.

I would also like to have the option to water cool in the future.

The only things I'm unsure about are the motherboard and RAM  - I hope you guys can recommend me something. 

Rough requirements 

Motherboard: USB 3.0 (for front case sockets, and rear), ATX (or micro ATX?), 4 memory slots, max RAM 16Gb+. <£70?

RAM: 8Gb, match motherboard colour? <£70

1. Is there any disadvantage for a micro ATX form factor in my case? Such as will it look strange in an ATX case, will the cooler/ future water cooler fit on. They seem to be cheaper.

2. How much of a difference will lower CAS make?

3. What are the advantages or disadvantages of clock speed in my case?

4. Is the r9 280x overkill, or good for the future?

5. Is it worth getting a FX-8320 instead of a FX-6300. £72 to £104. I think it's unrequired

6. I may need to stick a wireless network card on the mobo too as we don't have wired connection set up yet. Any recommendations? The speed is 170Mb/s on a good day.

7. Anyone had experience with the MSI 970 Gaming motherboard? Being MSI, I am naturally concerned for build quality/stability.


I'm using Amazon.co.uk for pricing because the postage is usually free - so you know what you're paying.


Any improvement suggestions welcome. 

Thanks in advance,

Dan

2

The FX-6300 will do you fine if your budget is tight but if you can get an 8 core you may as well.

Get a single 8GB stick of RAM as opposed to two 4GB so when you have money in the future you can throw in another stick or 3.

Don't sweat the CAS.

Always get the best graphics card you can afford. That being said I personally feel that the 285 is a better deal that the 280 and the 280X which is just an overclocked 280. The 285 has the latest GPU and mantle support and is more power efficient but it has a full GB less vram onboard. It's your call.

Have you considered powerline? I have the 500Mb kit from TP Link, I get a great connection anywhere in my house I plug it in.

3

And the m-ATX do look a little funny in a standard ATX case but it will accept all the same coolers, it just has less card slots.

4

Future proof - the weakest link will always be the gpu, always has, always will probably. 

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/deejeta/saved/Z4t9TW - 8320, will oc just a little, but dont push hard as it has limited power phases available. If you could source one of the latest low power 8 core FX chips get one over the hungry 8320.

Dont worry about ram speeds / latency it will have next to zero impact on general performance.

5

EDIT: ... I have never heard of the GPU manufacturer they must not sell in US

VTX3D AMD Radeon R9 280 X-Edition Graphics Card (3GB, GDDR5, PCI Express 3.0) ......... £149.99

that would explain the price .. I hope it holds up for you.         \m/

 

+1 nice build ... & great price!  ....

just need this .it does NB & SB & GPUs and CPUs and nonconductive

Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra 0.15g Thermal Paste

£8.59

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/coollaboratory-thermal-paste-900100264

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just keep this in mind if you go this way  ... it's no worries though

Some AMD 970 chipset motherboards may need a BIOS update prior to using Vishera CPUs.