Looking For Advice For First PC Build

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1

Hello everybody,

I already have had a laptop (Medion Erazer X6815) for over three years. I'm really pleased with it, but I think its time to build a gaming machine, because this laptop isn't keeping up anymore. So I want to build my own computer,  I've gathered a list of components. I was wondering if anyone could help me with confirming that these parts are good. I have around a €700,- budget and I live in the Netherlands. Some features I wanted with this pc were: Good astetics, and quality components, also I would really like to overclock my pc later, so i tried to pick parts that were good with overclocking. I'm going with a black and red colorscheme.

With this PC I would like to run most games on high or highest settings and maybe record the games as well. 

These are the components that I chose for this build:

PC partpicker link: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/mPgsMp. I couldnt find all the components I want but most of them are there. 

Here are all the parts:

- CPU: AMD FX-6300, around €100,-

I thought this would be a good CPU very good value for money, but I was wondering if a FX-8150 would be better. Or should I buy and Intel CPU, although there very expansive.

- GPU: MSI Radeon R9 280 Gaming 3GB, around €200,-.

I looked at some benchmarks this card looked very promising and also seemed to overclock good. I was also temped to pick the EVGA 760 superclocked, or the MSI Gaming 280x 3GB. So if someone could help me pick between those three that would be great :).

- Motherboard: MSI 970 Gaming, around €95,-

This motherboard seemed like it had a lot of features and good overclockability. I also looked at the Gigabyte-3dup, which is around €75,-. It also looked pretty good, but the MSI matches the colorscheme that I want to go with.

- RAM: G.Skill RipjawsX Red 8GB DDR3-1600 CL9 (2*4), around €75,-

I want to install a aftermarket CPU-cooler on this PC, so i'm worried the heatspreaders will get in the way. I dont know how I can test that, so it would be great if someone could help me with that. If I doesnt fit the Cruscial Ballistix sport 8GB DDR3-1600 Kit (around €70,-) might be pretty good as well.

- Power supply: Cooler Master GM 650M, around €65,-

I want to have some futureproof elements with this build. So I'd love to have crossfire in the future, when my MSI cant play the newest games anymore, I'd just buy another one and put them in Crossfire. So I'm not shure 650 would cut it, so I could also go with the 750W edition which is around €10 more.

- Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB, around €50,- 

Good Qualitiy drive, and plenty of space and I could always buy another one.

Cpu-cooler: Scythe Kotestu, around €30,-

I looked at some benchmarks and in the €30,- it looked like the best cooler. The case can handle a CPU-cooler of 160mm and this one is exactly 160mm so it should fit. Aslo with this I can hopefully overclock my fx-6300. But the Cooler Master Hyper 412s also looked nice, so I'm still not quite sure.

Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224BB/BEBE, around €20,-

I just looked for the cheapest reasonable optical drive.

Case: Sharkoon T9 Value Red edition, around €60,-

I wanted a case with a little flair, and when I saw this one I thought it looked really cool. I saw there was a red version and I already picked out the graphics card, and then I thought it would be really cool the make a red and black themed PC. It also has a window so it makes sense to do that. The features on this case seemed reasonable, just like the build qualilty. For the price it seemed really good.

So that was my pc build, I hope you guys can help me with the final choices. :)

PS.

I also looked at some peripherals like the monitor and keyboard. For the monitor im probally going to go with the Benq Gl2450 (24 inch), for around €110,- it seemed pretty good, and I looked at some review and everybody seemed pretty pleased with it.

For the keyboard I'm probally going with the CM Storm Quickfire TK (Blue switch). I really wanted a mechanical keyboard and this one seemed cheap and good qualilty.

And i already have a mouse (Sharkoon Fireglider Black), which I'm also very happy with, so the mouse doesnt need any changing. Although I might consider getting the Logitech G402 in the future. Which will also match my keyboard then.

 

 

 

 

 

 

2

Sounds like a good machine but ditch the optical drive unless you really need one for some reason and go with the new R9 285. It beats the 760 and has support for mantle, freesync, true audio and the never settle game bundle.

3

I agree with Braysive, pick up the R9 285 unless the R9 280 is on a really good deal.  Both are great cards, and should perform similarly(with the R9 285 usually a tad bit higher in terms of performance).

I do not know of any reviews on that power supply, so I can't comment on it.  Cooler master has power supplies ranging from awesome to complete crap, so I'd do a bit of research before purchasing.

Hyper 212 is my main $30 CPU cooler pick, but the Scythe looks close enough.

Consider picking up the FX-8320 and the Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P if you want more performance.

4

The r9 285 looks pretty good, but I'm also temped to pick this card: 

http://www.amazon.com/XFX-RADEON-1000MHz-Graphics-R9-280X-TDFD/dp/B00FSC5N66/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1409990044&sr=8-1&keywords=xfx+r9+280x

It's a little bit more expansive, but it comes with a lifetime warranty. The FX-8320 is also a good pick and I'll think I'll pick it up as well. 

So this will be the new build then:

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/L3nnXL

 

5

The R9 280X is more powerful than the R9 285.  It's a great card, and XFX has had pretty good RMA support.

Looks good to me.

6

More horsepower but less features. Its a leftover from the last generation of AMD cards (7950) so it doesn't have any of the new features. So in the event that mantle takes off you would actually be getting more power out of the 285. Just something to consider. It's a tough choice.

7

Mantle does also work on a 7950 / 280. i would go with the 280 probably, because its has an extra 1GB vram which could never hurt. further they have both 1792 stream processors, so i personaly dont expect a huge performance diffrence between both 285 and 280 cards.

Or grab a 280x offcourse.

8

I'm pretty sure the XFX 280x does support mantle, at least a lot of sites do say so.

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The R9 280X supports mantle, but the R9 285 supports that too.

The R9 285 supports TrueAudio, Adaptive V-Sync/FreeSync, which the R9 280X does not have.

10

The R9 285 supports TrueAudio, Adaptive V-Sync/FreeSync, which the R9 280X does not have.

+1 good info ... I learned something new ... thanks