I built my first PC yesterday. My parents helped buy me the parts I wanted and I am EXCITED!
My build:
Corsair Carbide 200R
Gigabyte nVidia GTX 760 Windforce x3 OC
ASUS M5A97 R2.0 motherboard
AMD FX-8320
Team Vulcan 8 GB 1866 MHz DDR3 RAM
Rosewill 630W Green Series
A generic CD/DVD drive (it works, rite?)
1 TB Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM HDD
Stuff I already had:
ASUS 1080p monitor
Dell 1024x1280 monitor
Logitech wireless mouse (small)
Microsoft Ergonomic keyboard
Logitech speakers with subwoofer
Sennheiser HD 280 Pro
So far I am enjoying my gaming PC. Though I'm getting frustrated trying to adapt to gaming on a keyboard. I constantly have to look down and remind myself which key is which and I am definitely not very precise with my mouse.
Another thing is that I don't get very consistent frame rates all the time. I have to be in Windowed mode on Crysis 2 to get 60 FPS on ultra. I think it is rendering to my second screen because that is blacked out but I'm not using it. And so is battlefield 4, but I think it's likely just high settings and BF4 just being unstable like that.
Also, my CPU heatsink is LOUD. I'm planning on replacing it with something quieter. If you guys have any suggestions, I'm all ears.
The controls took me a while to get used to as well... did you have a specific question, or is the only problem the frame rate thing? Normally for me there is like one setting on every game I play that destroys my framerate. Once I find that setting and turn it down, my frames skyrocket and I rarely notice a difference in how the game looks.
I can't be too critical of your build. I would have picked a motherboard with a higher power delivery for the 8320. However, it is a good motherboard, nonetheless. And a good build overall.
Keyboard and mouse can take a while to get used to. I played PC games briefly, switched largely to console gaming, then returned to PC. So I adapted quite quickly. I found that Max Payne 3 really helped with that development.
It's not a requirement to have all games running at 60FPS - nobody gets consistent frames. Anything above 30FPS, or sometimes 25FPS is playable. The 760 is a pretty good card for the money. You can play with a second monitor running, it won't tax your GPU, it will tax your RAM if you have internet tabs open.
A simple CM 212 Evo will keep the 8320 cool. The limiting factor in the overclocking potential of the CPU would probably be the motherboard.
I haven't ventured into liquid cooling yet, although browsing through the videos on LinusTechTips might offer up some ideas. For air cooling, most people recommend the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo. I have the Cooler Master TX3 because I was looking for something cheap and it works well, but isnt very quiet. This is the quietest one I am aware of, although it is kinda pricey: http://www.amazon.com/Noctua-Silent-Cooling-NH-U9B-SE2/dp/B0065SFEE8/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1386819483&sr=8-5&keywords=noctua
Definitely pick up a better mouse if you can. I switched from a standard Logitech mouse to a gaming mouse, the Storm Recon, which is a relatively cheap mouse, I got it for $30, and it is absolutely a world of difference. In BF4, most people experience fps drops for no reason, it's pretty common stuff. I've had my fair share of issues with Crysis 2 as well. Like _Phillip said, a lot of people recommend the Hyper 212 Evo, because it performs well and is cheap. I'm thinking of picking up one myself, to replace this loud FX 6300 fan
Yeah, I saw that and understood what I was getting into with this motherboard. It had all I needed, and I wasn't planning on going overboard with overclocking anyways. I'll probably just push it to be a little beyond the performance of an 8350 once I get a better heatsink. I was on a budget too with my family with this build. ($775 for it all including Windows 7).
Frame rate, yeah, I'm more of a sucker for stuff between 30 and 60 fps. Just it always dips constantly and my eyes notice (and I'm a console gamer; I didn't think it would bother me. Maybe just my OCD :P). Though I was impressed with the shadowplay feature; I accidentally left it on high with the shadow feature on and it was taking a noticeable hit on performance. It kept sinking to 30 fps. or less. Not that it was a bad thing, just that the quality was fantastic. I can't wait for Twitch streaming with this.
Is the CM 212 Evo quiet, or would it be better to consider something like the T4? One thing I learned is that the stock heat sink for AMD is absolute shit. It can keep it cool, but it sounds like a fighter jet taking off when it revs up. So now I want quiet because I can get immersed in games more and just enjoy the silence. I thought that some noise around 50-60 db wouldn't bother me, but now, I know better.
Yeah, I've been wondering about a gaming mouse. I seem to lack some precision with the current wireless mouse; bullets miss a lot of the time and I can't make my mouse follow the guy very well.