Splitting main machine into dedicated gaming and work machines

Hardware Hub Build a PC
1

Long explanation ahead, for a quickie skip to the TL;DR at the end:

I want to seperate church and state. Meaning: I want to seperate gaming and "work". My reasoning is: Most of the time I do work on my computer (University work mostly so think of: programming .... writing scripts .... messing around with stuff that requires zero CPU power) while my GPU (AMD/ATI HD6870) is trying it's best to imitate a leaf blower. I already found the relevant fan-speed settings in the AMD driver to tell it to be the most quiet it can be (which is not really quiet). Since I recently upgraded my CPU to a FX8320E to have 8 threads to play around with I have my old FX-4170 just collecting dust.

Current config:
AMD FX-8320E on a Gigabyte GA970A-D3
16 Gigabyte of RAM
AMD/ATI HD6870
Thermaltake 500 Watt PSU
drives and peripherals are not important but present

Spare hardware:
AMD FX-4170
AMD/ATI R5 230 flex
Spare hardware currently in use:
WD Green 2TB in "meh" shape
ADATA 64Gigabyte SSD

Now I want to split that up and create two new machines: One daily driving work machine and a lean and mean (okay ... docile) gaming machine. The Working machine will be running Windows and the Gaming ... some kind of Windows, not sure but I have licenses for 7, 8.1 and 10 in professional or educational flavour.

Linux / Work
AMD FX-8320E with a noctua NH-U14S
motherboard to be determined
AMD/ATI R5 230 flex
16 Gigabyte of RAM
2TB harddrive to be determined
PSU to be determined

Windows / Gaming
AMD FX-4170 with AMD stock cooler
Gigabyte GA970-A D3
AMD/ATI HD 6870
WD Green 2TB
64Gigabyte SSD
Thermaltake PSU

So the list of parts I need is:
2TB Harddrive: must be 24/7 certified because I want to have fun with it for longer. I had to rescue data from a WD Green 2TB of a friend. Since spinnig rust is not dropping in price really I find the 10€/$ per Gigabyte premium for 24/7 capability a worthwhile investment. Budget is the 60-100$

AM3+ motherboard: I want a good AM3+ board. Compatible with the 8320E of course. There will NOT be any overclocking done
Must-have-features: USB 3.0 header, ATX form factor
Nice but not critical features: spare 4-PIN/PWM fan header, 6 SATA ports
utterly disinterested in: Gaming audio
Budget is 90-115$
alternatively If you find an amazing mATX AM3+ fitting everything but the ATX size above let me know

PSU: I would guess 400-500 Watts maximum
Must-have-features: quiet operation, 80+ something, plug fitting the motherboard CPU power (i.e. 4/6/8 pin)
Nice but not critical features: braided/sleeved 24 Pin cable, black cables would be cool
utterly disintersted: modularity, arcane USB control features, powder coated exteriour (blank casing is fine)
This one is a bit special since the PSU can be a system-builder PSU, which often lack the cables for SLI/Crossfire configs. My GPU will not need a PSU cable since it is entirely powered off the PCIe Slot (17 Watt peak power). A second SATA-power cable tree is not really nessecary since I have a bunch of Molex-SATA adapters. The Enermax PSU calculator recommends 321 Watt of Minimum PSU power so a 450 Watt will be fine. The system idle will probably be under 100 Watt.
Budget is 40-50$ ideally but willing to compromise

Hardware I already decided on but may be talked out of:
AMD stock cooler: If you know a cheap one for 125W TDP AM3+ let me know otherwise we will be running stock
Fractal core 2300: Depending on the CPU cooler I will shell out for the 2500. BUT! If you know an okay priced case looking like the fractal core series let me know.

Arcane/Strange Hardware I'm putting into the system:
PCI fan mounting solution to force-feed the GPU
PCI slot 2,5' HDD hot swap bay
5,25' slot 3,5' HDD hot swap bay

The ebay links are placeholders since they were in English and I did not want to confuse you with German Amazon links.

I do not have the money for the upgrade right now but I will be taking on a side job in the Semester break. Prices of all components probably won't move for the next half year (Socket AM3+ being old and HDDs and PSUs being stable in their pricing). So consider the budgets for the parts to be tolerant of moderate overspending.

TL;DR: I need:
well equipped AM3+ motherboard for non-overclocking purposes
400-500W PSU with 80+ Bronze does not have to be SLI/CF capable
2TB 24/7 certified 3,5' harddrive
AM3+ CPU cooler for 125W TDP, non overclocking

2

So, this? Motherboard is a bit lower end

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/BfDNt6
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/BfDNt6/by_merchant/

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($28.59 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock 970M PRO3 Micro ATX AM3+/AM3 Motherboard ($56.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Hitachi Ultrastar 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($65.00 @ Amazon)
Storage: Hitachi Ultrastar 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($65.00 @ Amazon)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 5450 1GB Video Card ($27.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($39.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $283.56
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-18 07:43 EST-0500

-
-

WD greens suck, they're good for cheap archival storage that doesn't get used much

Also what was your budget for this? Because an i5 is going to beat out an 8350 for gaming

3

Reasons for the FX-8320E: Bought it about 3/4 of a year ago. Only 8 core compatible with my board. My reasons where: I need 8 threads for a total budget of 130$. An 8350 would have needed a new motherboard making the 25% more base clock and 5% more turbo clock cost around 115$ more due to the new motherboard. I.e. I would have had to pay double for 25% more base and 5% more turbo. Diminishing returns and so on.
I won't game on the 8-core. I will recreate my old machine with the FX-4170 and HD6870 which gamed okay and since my games tend to be somewhat older. I do not need to improve my gaming performance and do not want to.

To the HD5450: I already have the R5 230 flex. I probably should have been clearer to that point. So the pairings would be: 8320E & R5 230 & Linux and FX-4170 & HD 6870 & Windows

I bought the WD Green in 2010 as an external drive, it has 1year and 5 months of uptime but is otherwise in good shape. I will use it for game storage until It dies. In short: I know it's bad but it's okay.

Concerning PSU: EVGA is somewhat expensive here in Germany with the cheapest price at the equivalent of 52$. Must be something like beQuiet and Nanoxia being a good chunk cheaper here than in the states.

Total budget is around 360€
Subtracting 45€ for arcane/strange stuff
Subtracting 50€ for a Fractal Core case that matches my existing cases
Subtract 43€ for a matching 8GB Stick of RAM

That leaves around 222€ (~233$) for the: Motherboard, HDD, and PSU and maybe a CPU cooler. I came to the realisation that the motherboard HAS to be ATX since I forgot to mention my PCI (not PCIe) sound card I want to continue to use.

The price of the HDD seems somewhat strange to me since 2TB Ultrastars go for around triple of that. I only found refurbished drives that were that price.

4

Seems they are indeed used, more a gamble really, but they are cheap and backed up by amazon, at least on the shipping front

5

Yeah. But since it's not available in Germany that is not up for discussion anyway ;)

6

Right, germany country is a good thing to list first unless I missed it, same kinda deal over there I think, just a bit pricier

PCPartPicker part list: http://de.pcpartpicker.com/p/s4rfwP
Price breakdown by merchant: http://de.pcpartpicker.com/p/s4rfwP/by_merchant/

Motherboard: ASRock 970M PRO3 Micro ATX AM3+/AM3 Motherboard (€71.24 @ Mindfactory)
Memory: Crucial 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (€41.48 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Hitachi Ultrastar 7K3000 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (€120.49 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Hitachi Ultrastar 7K3000 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (€120.49 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: SeaSonic G 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (€83.51 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Total: €437.21
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-18 17:40 CET+0100

7

Does that ASRock board come in full size ATX? The PCI Slot is covered up by my GPU because it's dual slot. Memory should be a 8GB HyperX stick but that is not really important now.

Are SeaSonic PSUs good? I just need a basic one. A non-modular 80+ Bronze is fine, 83€ is basically double of what I would like to spend (and probably need). When I upgrade the Linux machine with something else I will upgrade the PSU as well, probably at a point when money is less of an issue: Meaning I won't invest for future upgrade ability here.

I only need a single 2TB drive. Do you know how the Ultrastars compare to WD Red drives? It's about 20€ more. Plus: Do you have any thoughts on the Seagate NAS drives?

8

That motherboard is just about the cheapest functional AM3+ board, you can mix and match RAM all you want the speed of it isn't going to affect much of anything

Seasonic, Super Flower, and XFX are all like the top PSU makers I think

never seagate, WD reds are probably fine too and they'd be new, it's just that hitachi/HGST tends to have the highest build quality, I've still got working 2.5" IDE hitachi drives