I'm trying to stay around the $500 area, and I game mostly, but I'll be doing rendering and music production in the rig from time to time. I'm planning to use Windows 7, since I already have a copy of it. I'm not looking for mind-blowingly impressive, 60+ at 1440, but I don't want most of the games I play to be at 720. I went ahead and made a build here: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1sZ3G
Is this a decent build for a first? The 7750 will be a "present" over the holidays, so I won't be going over until I get the 7750.
Well, since your budget for the CPU is $150, you might as well drop the intergrated graphics on the chip and go for an 8 core FX8320 which is 10 dollars more. But, there is a promotion right now for $15 off using this code EMCXMWT37. You have to hurry though cause it's only 'til Monday 8/19/2013.
Here's the link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113285
Of course, you need to change the motherboard as well. You can try the MSI 970A-G43 AM3+. It's $5 less than the one you chose and it has 2 PCIe slots for so you can crossfire that 7750 later on.
If you're going to go with the previously suggested motherboard you may want to check the supported RAM speeds and see if the motherboard supports DDR3 2400 speeds. Personally. I'm fine with DDR3 1600. My games and computer in general run pretty smooth. DDR3 1600 is a lot cheaper too.
As for the power supply, I'd go with one of these 2:
I personally have the Rosewill Hive750 and it is rock solid even under overclocked situations and stress testing. Either powersupply should give you enough headroom to upgrade and crossfire in the future.
I also highly recommend using this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820171667
It's a 32GB SSD that is used as cache for your mechanical hard drive.
I personally use Intel's SRT (Smart Response Technology) that is supported by my motherboard....a feature I did not know I had until a year later lol. It was a pain to set up and I had to wipe my hard drive to do it but it was worth it.
But I digress, although my setup is hardware supported, SanDisk's is software supported so any windows 7 or 8 PC can use it.
So far, if I remember correctly only 64BG SSD are supported for SRT and SanDisk ready cache comes with a 32GB SSD but it should be enough. Basically the way it works is that your most used programs, including all startup and boot software get loaded into the SSD for faster access times and faster boot times. It made a dramatic difference on my PC over my mechanical hard drive. Hence, why I'm recommending it. You get SSD-like speeds at a fraction of the cost.
The SSD is for cache and it's only $40. It supplements the hard drive. My SSD suggestion can be added at any time so he can buy that later if he chooses to do so. He doesn't have to buy it now so he won't go over his budget. It's more of something to keep in mind for later down the road.
To be honest I'm not sure. I know intergrated graphics has a certain ammount of VRAM on it's own but can use a portion of the system RAM as well. Generally, fast system RAM or not, it's going to be slower than dedicated VRAM. If you're going with the 8 core CPU, there's really no point in getting it anyway. But if you're going with the APU research some benchmarks to see if it makes a difference.
..whatever case/cooler/PSU you want. I suggest a 600-750W PSU.
From there you have high quality RAM, a processor with POWERFUL integrated graphics and enough storage for the normal user for under $500.
After getting these parts, you might want to save up for a dedicated video card and another 8GB ram if you are doing rendering. The setup I typed is more of a "will be improved soon" build.
You do not need more any more than 500, hell you don't need more than 400 watts with an apu build like that! just make sure the psu is certified, at least BRONZE certified. however if you get more like a 600 watt you could upgrade downthe road to a dedicated gpu and then a normal cpu like an i3-3220 or something, but even that doesn't need more than 400-500 watts :/
If you go the apu route get as fast ram as possible because the apu will use that ram and it will make a noticable difference between haviñg 1600mhz ram and 2400mhz ram. Logan made a video of it recently, you should check it out if youre going the apu route.