Damn, that is literally the exact setup for my rig
lol my very first post in this thread said it, but that's ok. It's 1,000-1,200$.
FX is okay for that price. Concerning the clock rate (frequency) difference in i5 and FX processors. Microchips do their calculations at a certain rate per second (hence the unit hertz as in Gigahertz, Megahertz) but the calculations differ from chip to chip. The architecture of Intel and AMD is different (as well as the architecture between Intel i5-4XXX vs i5-5XXX for example). Direct Megahertz comparison only works in the same processor generation and architecture (FX-8320E vs FX-8370E for example). The question is what the calculations are that your processor does 3 billions of per second. They differ ever so slightly from processor to processor (doing billions of them per second makes these slight differences become big enough to notice).
That's what benchmarks are for: To compare how well the CPU does the calculations needed in a given time (like real time in terms of games or minutes in handbrake and similar stuff).
Take the clockrate of a CPU more as a measure of how much performance they tried to get out of a given architecture. Think of it as a V8 engine: usually the rev limiter is at under 7000 rpm. You can raise that and produce more power, but the engine runs hotter and you have to worry about valves and injectors keeping up. Coming back to CPUs: One could theoretically build a CPU that does the same amount of work of a 3 Ghz CPU at 1 Ghz.
AMD has higher clockrates on their CPU because they use their architecture longer and performance gains are mostly seen by increasing the clockrate which increases heat output. Intels architecture is more efficient (due to it being newer) hence it can produce the same results in a shorter time.
Second to what @irnoob said. Although an SSHD has the flash and the hdd as two points of failure and provide too little benefits for what they are.
an SSD is totaly not needed in a budged gaming rig.
in fact a normal HDD will do just fine.
Its better to invest as much as you can in the GPU + cpu + mobo, instead of an SSD.
Also if you can afford a Haswell i5 without sacrificing on the GPU, then there is no reason to invest in an older "dead" AMD FX platform, for just gaming.
Haswell cpu´s have way better per core performance and ipc, and this still makes sense in allot of games,
especialy with a higherend gpu on lower res like 1080p / 1440p.
I do believe that this would be a great PC setup for you. It is slightly over budget, but i had forgot to add the OS till after i configured everything, lol.
What I did for my system is a 120SSD for OS and 2 1tb drives in mobo raid0 and two more 1tb drives in mobo raid0. install just the OS on SSD. then all programs including games on the first raid0, and store all working files/ including desktop and my documents to the second raid0. I call it the poor mans SSD. Then for Linux (Because I have windows on my SSD) I have one of those 2.5 hot swap bays, I just swap the SSD out with a old 7200rmp laptop HDD with Linux installed on it. I may upgrade it to a SSD eventually but because all my files are stored to the Raid's all that changes is the OS and no worrying about which OS to boot from because its set up to physically only use one at a time.
Nice build.
Maybe a R9-390 instead of the GTX970, depending on the games he is playing.
But still both cards are good choices.
Honestly. No.
I know it's convenent to wait a little less when booting up your system, but It won't kill you to wait a minute or two if you're on a budget.
For budget you SHOULD be able to get a good system without skimping on anything to get an SSD in, although an SSD is very very nice but its non-essential so it's not worth getting a cheaper PSU or worse GPU as an example to get one as you can easily save for a bit then get it later.
What I'd do is choose the components, get it how you'd want it, and then see what you end up with left if any. If you end up with an extra 100$ or so that can definitely go toward a nice 120gb boot dirve, if not then you can get it later as I mentioned before
For the budget you have, I'd expect a good 240gb to 256gb ssd minimum. With the prices on ssd's falling and the speed difference still monstrous, it only makes sense to include a ssd for your boot and key programs. Anyone who says there isn't a serious experience improvement and workflow optimization plainly doesn't know what they are talking about.
ditch the hundred dollars you pay for your operating system and get a 99 dollar samsung 850 evo 250gb
No an SSD isn't nessecary, however they are very nice to have and you should be able to afford one in your budget. Do you need to purchase peripherals and/or an OS with this build? If so is that included into your budget?
If you've used a computer with the OS installed on an SSD before: yes
If not: no
The slowness of non-ssd rigs is just unacceptable once you've experienced that kind of speed.
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thanks, you just laid out the build for me, hahaha! What a nifty tool that website is. I would only make a slight change to make the case the titanium window color, which will add on about 10$ but I'm willing to pay that. Thank you so much!
I'll just echo what a lot of other people have said. For gaming, a SSD will only help load times, and in some rare instances texture pop (large textures are able to load more quickly). So no, a SSD isn't necessary for gaming at all. Your OS will be more snappy, and anything you install to the SSD will load more quickly, but that's about it for most purposes.
If you want to get one, feel free. They are nice. But don't feel like you NEED to get one in order to improve your gaming experience, because it's not going to help much.
They only thing i have to say about it is... How much of your life are you willing to give up sitting around and waiting on stuff to load?
No prob, bob. The only thing i would consider, since you want a windowed case, is possibly changing the heatsink? i only say that because the motherboard and rAM are red, and the CPU cooler seems to have blue in it. but if that doesn't bother you, it is fine. Just asthetics lol
If the budget is sub 700 I opt out of an ssd above that go for it that's just my general rule of thumb, because once you get into that sub 700 range an ssd can mean the difference between owning an r9 380 vs an r9 390.
It's not necessary per se, but it's worth the investment.
yes. and i'll just leave this here, not all ssd's are expensive. this could fit nicely in a budget build.