New build in 7 years need some input

Hey everyone,

I am currently going to build a new machine since well i have been gaming on a laptop and to be honest its now an abacus. The Asus g60vx. Anyway I am looking to go AMD and I haven't built a new computer in about 7 years. I wanted to know if I should go with the FX series processor or go with the A series? I am really just gaming, listening to music and browsing the web. I do want some kind of upgrade path or at least not worry about upgrades for about 2 years max.

Games I play and or look to play.
WoW (yes I still play)
starcraft 2
Battlefield 4
Diablo 3
Assassins Creed
and Will be playing steam games as well.

Here is my build so far please let me know of any changes I should make and I already have the case and ram.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2673O


Thank you for your help!

hmmmm..... unless you are set on that case, there are tons of beast cases that are cheaper. i'm partial to the Fractal Arc midi R2 (had a friend get it, he loves it) and it is only like $109 right now (had my friend get it like a month ago, it was on sale at amazon for $64-$68!!)

then maybe drop $27 more on the SSD and bump it up to a Samsung 840 evo 120gig (currently $95 on amazon)

i assume you will be overclocking? perhaps ditch the h80i in favor of a $50 air cooler?

also thinking you would be more than fine with a 650W PSU and perhaps with all the money saved, bump the GPU up to a GTX 770?

 

Thank you for getting back to me so quickly. I actually already have the case. I got it from a co-worker for $50 bones and ordered the ram the other day when it was $60. I will def drop down the power supply a bit and see if that helps with getting a better card. What are thoughts on the R9 280x?

hmm... idk. it's a re-branded 7970. it's good. and you said you want to play BF4, which, the 280x will support MANTLE when it comes out in December. whether or not Mantle really makes a difference is yet to be seen, but both are fine option.

 

Go with an FX 6100, Also I would personally drop the SSD and grab a better motherboard. Here is the one I will be going with http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128514 . If you aren't planing on upgrading soon after you get the PC then I would also go with a 650 watt power supply.

R u crazee

Seriously, FX-6100 is old AMD architecture.  That board had analog VRMs and won't allow for precise overclocks as well.  An FX-8350 will kick the butt out of an FX-6100.

Yeah, if not upgrading, a decent 550W psu would even work.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/26fw6

Stuff Changed:

RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory.  Should have the same performance, but cheaper.

SSD: A-Data Premier Pro SP900 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk.  Larger SSD, and is still pretty fast for the price.

HDD: Western Digital RE3 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive.  Cheap right now, and is covered by a 5 year warranty.

GPU: Sapphire Radeon R9 280X 3GB Video Card.  More powerful than the 760, and is also cheaper.

Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (White) ATX Mid Tower Case.  But you bought a case already, so this doesn't really matter.

PSU: Corsair CX 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply.  Semi-Modular, and cheaper.

for only $15 more, he can get a samsung 840 evo. great performance, and very good reliability.

a 280x very well may be a good option for him, especially when factoring in 3gigs and mantle at that price. 

as far as the power supply, i still think 650W will be fine for his setup. 

The 840 Evo is a great SSD.  If he can stretch his budget a little bit, that would be the SSD to go with.

I picked up a 750W PSU if he wanted to crossfire.  If he doesn't, any decent 550-600W PSU will easily do the job.

Old or not I have it and it's still good. Old doesn't mean bad, the 580 is old , by your standards, and it is still a great card. He doesn't need an 8350 but if he can afford it he can get it. I was trying to help him get good performance and still keep it cheap.

I will ditch this into here: Xigmatek Dark Knight Night.

yeah, that is what i want actually. it's only $49. very good performance. 

So im guessing that the water block closed loop isn't good? I was going to try to O.C.  to around 4.5 or so and thank you all for all this feed back. I can stretch the budget a little but it would delay the build until 12/15 when i got paid again. I do want a bitchin machine. I wish i had the cash now because of the deal going on a microcenter 199.99 for the i7 4770k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMB93_upUmI

That for the cooler.

 

And if you do not have a need for Intel for any specific reasons, then the 8350 is where it's at.

Edit: But shame on the deal.

Edit: But brrrrrrr, I would still get the 8350. Lol

(edit, sorry long post... )

I have used a H90 (single fan 140mm corsair AIO rad) in a recent build with a i7 4770 and it cools AWSOME. It does much better than most air coolers as it can either draw cold air from outside the case, giving better CPU cooling than using the hotter air in the case or alternately you can run it as I do in an exhaust configuration (I still get lower than 30 degree deltaT at synthetic loads), this way it draws hot air to outside of your setup meaning it doesn't heat up your case as an air cooler would.

The other reason AIO units can cooler better than air coolers is simple physics, you can get 140mm to 280mm of area, much bigger than most air coolers that will fit in your case. Unlike air coolers AIO units have little to no chance of obscuring RAM, which is a pain as you have to remove your cooler to change it at the best of times, at the worst it can stop you using some PCIe (particularly graphics cards with back-plates) and ram slots or cause overheating of a component it covers due to hot environment and reduced airflow. Finally I don't personally like having as much weight as many air coolers hanging off my motherboard... this can cause damage is you move\know over your system, AIO coolers avoid this by mounting all the weight to your case.

The only reason I'd go with a air-cooler again after having used AIO units is they are MUCH cheaper for a given cooling performance, so you can dump the extra money someplace else where its needed (normally graphics) and get better gaming that way. And I do want to make it clear, I'm not actually biased here, I own stock, air and AIO cooled systems, in fact I'd say either air or AIO will do well enough for your purposes and is unlikely to cause trouble either way, its just after having used both I would highly recommend the AIO route to if you can justify the cost of the setup. Its also worth noting normally a i7 4770 with stock cooler will still beat nearly any I5 in terms of performance, and not only will it use less power\make less heat doing so, but the cost of a Z series mobo compared to the H, the more PSU capacity  and the cooler actually makes the cost fairly similar. However I get overclocking\tinkering is fun, I've done it on my machines, and that once you have a better mobo/cooler/PSU swapping the CPU out when you can afford it is a simple upgrade (a 8320 or i5 4670 will run most games fine anyway, so you may decide not to even bother), its really do what suits you most. I will also note despite what some claim the AMD and Intel chips seem to overclock about the same in terms of performance gains, and neither will create any issue with gaming, so both are fine choices.

Even the FX-9370 (or 9390) isn't a bad Idea if you want to run those speeds, it's stock speed is higher than that stock, so it'll do what you want with its warranty still intact, no stability issues and no risk of getting a bad chip that won't overclock that high. Besides to overclock you wanted a decent motherboard anyway so its not more expensive there, and you can get it (9370 only) bundled with a h80i equivalent (AMD brand) which is a very good deal (cheaper than FX-8350 + h80i normally), it is however more money to buy than the other options. The FX-9390 will also overclock higher, and make less heat at a given speed (over 4.5ghz), than any other CPU you can buy... its a bit too much money to be considered cost effective however.

Also the Xigmatek Dark Knight Night is very good for the money if you go air cooler route...

not saying it's not good, it's just something like the Dark Knight II has a much better price to performance ratio. also, air coolers last longer. the pumps in the All-in-One coolers will die at some point, and then the whole thing is useless. on an air cooler, the only real point of failure would be the fan. and those are an easy fix.

it's up to you, but that $30 could really be put somewhere else i think =) unless you really want an AIO. it really comes down to preference, as both air and AIO units work.

wow looks like im sold on that air cooled unit! thats great i will totally have to rock a dual fan set up... should it be a push pull set up on that cooler or should both fans be pulling air on to the heat sink? sorry Cooling isnt really my strongest.

Push-Pull.

Make sure you follow the airflow in your case.  For example:

Intake fan in front of the case, exhaust at the back.

Make sure the CPU cooler is vertical(heatsink), and make the CPU fan(the one closer to the exhaust case fan) pull air through the heatsink, and blow air towards the case outtake fan.  Then make sure the fan on the other side is pushing air through the heatsink, so the airflow over the fins toward the fan on the other side is better.

Dunno if that made any sense lol

sweet thank you guys. I also see now that microcenter has 199.99 for the FX 9370 now... ahhhh so many choices. I'm too excited been looking everyday for microcenter black friday ad leak. Also other than tiger direct, newegg, microcenter, are there any other really good retailers for parts?

NCIX has some decent deals.

All the retailers on pcpartpicker.com should be reputable.