Suggestions for a R9 290/290x gaming build

Hardware Hub Build a PC
1

First time poster, short term lurker, looking for some guidance.

I'm wanting to invest in a gaming PC built around the R9 290 / 290x. This machine will be used solely for 1080p gaming as a console replacement in my home theater. I've been doing a lot of research and I'm really torn between the AMD and Intel CPU/mobo option.

My gut is telling me, go for the 6300 AMD option and when that proves no longer worthy in a year or so, re-evaluate the Intel question.

OR, I could go the i5 4690 route and not worry about it for some time.

The AMD option is obviously cheaper short term, but perhaps actually more expensive in the mid term if it were to then influence an Intel shift in a year or so.

I'm curious what the thoughts of the community are. Either way, I'm also stumped on the motherboard question and would greatly appreciate some suggestions for either scenario.

Cheers and I appreciate the input.

2

Maybe I missed it, but I think you forgot to mention what kind of budget you were looking at, however, based on your choice on those bidget CPUs, I think I can work with that. May I ask why you want a 290/X? A GTX 970 outperforms it in most situations and does so with better thermal output as well as less overall power consumption. I will take a crack at this.

The AMDFX-6300 will simply not suffice, as I am sure there will be slight bottlenecking especially in older games that use only 2-4 cores. Not to mention, the chip gets hot, especially for a home theatre PC.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/FM4Ht6
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/FM4Ht6/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1241 V3 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor

This CPU is priced similarly with the Intel Core i5-4690K, except it uses less power and has eight threads. In a small case, the thermals should be better as well as the power consumption. Keep in mind, it is not overclockable, but in a small HTPC chasis, I don't think you would want to.

Motherboard: ASRock H97M-ITX/AC Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard

This Motherboard is an inexpensive yet quality motherboard packed with several features such as built in WiFI while maintaining such small form factor.

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory

Great kit of high speed memory. 8GB is plenty, especially if your main use is gaming. What's more to say?

Storage: Kingston HyperX Fury 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive

This would be your boot drive and storage for large programs such as Adobe products that may take a while to launch. An SSD should have you booted in a matter of seconds.

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive

1TB of storage at 7200RPM. 'Nuff said.

Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 290 4GB TWIN FROZR Video Card

Nice card, but it generally runs hot. I would definitely switch it out for a GTX970. Will play all your games at relatively ultra high settings.

Case: Fractal Design Node 304 Mini ITX Tower Case

Great looking case as well as well built. Cheap and well worth the price.

Power Supply: SeaSonic 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply

SeaSonic makes great power supplies, and 520 watts will be plenty to have your system running stable.

Don't forget to grab a copy of Windows 8.1!

Personally, if it were me, I would go with this build but swap the 290 for the aforementioned GTX970. The Intel CPU will do wonders, but if you would like me to make a cheaper solution, I can get back to you in the morning as it is quite late.

Cheers,

-Abhorrence

PS: Not sure if I mentioned, but the architecture in the AMD FX-6300 is 2011 technology, whereas the Intel Xeon CPU is still fairly new.

If you want something cheaper, be sure and let me now and I can try my best to help you out. You didn't really give me a budget..

3

I appreciate the response and realize I should have included more details.

My goal for this build is high performance to price ratio, not absolute best performance.

I'm looking to spend under $800, preferably substantially less, as I mentioned, I'm not opposed to upgrading the system in the future - all it will ever be used for is gaming via HDMI to my TV. I have other machines for productivity tasks.

I mostly play Civ 5, Skyrim, Fallout, old school point & clicks, RTS, and flight sims. I loved the Metal Gear and GTA series on console. I'm not huge into FPSs but might play the odd one here and there, really enjoyed og Call of Duty when it was a fresh concept.

My rationale for the AMD vs nVidia choice is that I'm not a huge fan of the company and the price to performance ratio seems to favor the R9 290 opposed to the 970. I'm open to evidence of the contrary.

Thinking something along these lines: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ptk2Mp

What's missing in my logic?? Thanks!

((EDIT: I'll also add, even though I mentioned home theater, this is not going to be part of a component aesthetic, and doesn't need to be "pretty"- don't think "home theater PC" on display. I'm assuming a regular ATX mid tower build that will likely sit behind the sofa.))

4

if you can afford the i5 route, then i would definitely recommend that.

i did a little tweak to your build for an intel option.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/NRj6ZL

Ofc this setup is not realy overclockable, but its also not realy needed.
If you like to have overclockability you could also go with a 4690K and Z97 board,
but then the price will be slightly more of course.

5

I would just go with an i3 + 280x if I were you, since it sounds like you're trying to save money. The 280x shouldn't have a problem with any games.

6

Price performance it's Intel i5 and a GTX 970 hands down.
Thermal wise better. Performance better and quite frankly not much more expensive.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/GZBXt6

I just added a simple case with the NZXT Core 1000. Do remember with cheap cases thermal profiles are more important since cooling is often far inferieur to more expensive cases. So no I wouldn't suggest an FX6300 with R290 either.

The reason I chose the Scythe Shuriken as a cooler is that those fit many HTPC cases as well and yet it's still silent. If that's not important then another tower cooler would do I guess.

And yes 500 watt PSU will be more than enough.

7

Appreciate all the replies, fantastic ideas here.

Happened to check in on my Amazon wish-list yesterday evening where I'd placed several different CPUs. Jumped on a random price break for the i5 4690k @ $202 sold by Amazon. 3xCamel shows a lifetime low of $199. It was back up to $235-ish shortly thereafter - within 45 min - so it was likely only a modest inventory push.

I'll continue gathering parts together over the next few weeks as I watch prices. Definitely reconsidering the 290(x) route - 390 and 970 both compelling for different reasons.