What do we think of this gaming spec?

WalderX

WalderX

WalderX

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15 Oct 2013
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Hi all,

Put the below together for a mate, not looking to buy for a few weeks at least but just wanted to get peoples thoughts:

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Radeon R9 280X Gaming Edition OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Battlefield 4 PC Game £229.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8350 Black Edition 4.00GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £124.99
1 x Avexir Core Blue Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U24001004G-2CI) - Blue Light £74.99
1 x NZXT KRAKEN X40 AIO Water Cooling Unit - 140mm £65.82
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 650W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £61.66
1 x Cooler Master CM-690 II Lite Windowed Gaming Tower Case - Black £58.29
1 x Asus M5A97 LE R2.0 AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £49.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD10EZEX - OEM ** Single Platter ** HDD £39.99
1 x Roccat Kova+ Ultra Light 3200DPI Gaming Mouse £35.82
1 x Gigabyte Force K7 Stealth Gaming Keyboard £33.29
Total : £946.30 (includes shipping : £13.75).



The budget is pretty maxed out at this price but am open to alternative suggestions.

Thanks in advance :)
 
Oh and if you hadn't guessed he wants a black/blue theme. But blue + another colour would also be good, perhaps blue with some red LED's somewhere? dunno
 
Get the M5A97 Evo 2.0 and an 8320. Should work out around the price. Better mobo and the 8320 you can OC to 4.2-4.4+ on it.

For that money you should be able to get an intel build.
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Radeon R9 280X Gaming Edition OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Battlefield 4 PC Game £275.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-8 Eight Core 8320 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £119.99
1 x Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0 AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 650W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £73.99
1 x Cooler Master CM-690 II Lite Windowed Gaming Tower Case - Black £69.95
1 x Avexir Core Blue Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16000904G-2CW) - Blue Light £59.99
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £47.99
1 x Roccat Kova+ Ultra Light 3200DPI Gaming Mouse £42.98
1 x Gigabyte Force K7 Stealth Gaming Keyboard £39.95
Total : £877.31 (includes shipping : £13.75).

 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Radeon R9 290 OC WindForce 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (GV-R929OC-4GD) £367.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £169.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87-D3HP Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £107.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 650W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £73.99
1 x Cooler Master CM-690 II Lite Windowed Gaming Tower Case - Black £69.95
1 x Avexir Core Blue Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16000904G-2CW) - Blue Light £59.99
1 x Logitech G400s Optical Gaming Mouse (910-003426) £49.99
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler £49.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD10EZEX - OEM ** Single Platter ** HDD £47.99
Total : £1,014.37 (includes shipping : £13.75).



no idea on the keyboard
 
Lovely, cheers guys for all your input so far. My thoughts on your input:

The Asus M5A97 mobo seems good, he is only ever going to have a single GPU setup so that's why I didn't go for a higher end board.

The lower end CPU makes sense - I am competent in overclocking so I agree, why not save money there.

As for the CPU cooler, I think we do want to go for a liquid cooler, primarily to give more room inside and so it looks good through the side panel :) I imagine the K2 and H80i have similar performance temps wise? Perhaps the K2 even is better than the H80i - bearing in mind I will be dusting off my overclocking hat with this build, perhaps we should look at a 240mm rad liquid cooler?

We all seem to agree the case is ok? I just picked it because it had a big window, blue LED's and I know cooler master are decent brand.

I should add that he already has a 120gb SSD in his current PC so we will be using that in this build.

@Fowler - thanks for this spec, I had written off an intel build in my mind as I never thought we could get it in budget - looks promising though and I would prefer to put a 290 gpu in it over any other card as it has the best bang for your buck for sure.

Will probably stick some led strips and bitfenix braided power cables in there as finishing touches :)
 
Perhaps this could work:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Radeon R9 290 OC WindForce 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (GV-R929OC-4GD) £367.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £169.99
1 x MSI Z87-G43 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard - FREE Alpenfohn Civetta Cooler!! £86.99
1 x Cooler Master CM-690 II Lite Windowed Gaming Tower Case - Black £69.95
1 x Avexir Core Blue Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16000904G-2CW) - Blue Light £59.99
1 x BeQuiet Pure Power L8 500W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply - With 120mm Silent Wing Fan Built in £53.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD10EZEX - OEM ** Single Platter ** HDD £47.99
1 x Roccat Kova+ Ultra Light 3200DPI Gaming Mouse £42.98
1 x Gigabyte Force K7 Stealth Gaming Keyboard £39.95
Total : £954.82 (includes shipping : £12.50).



Possibly the MSI board is no good for overclocking? It comes with a free Alpenfohn cpu cooler though so can save a chunk on that, allowing us to just about fit in the 290 gpu :)

EDITED: Changed the RAM back to avexir blue
 
Last edited:
you want the m5a97 evo not just the standard m5a97!! the one i linked above.
the case is fine and if you want to go for something like the corsair h100i people say this '' will fit in the top of the coolermaster 690 II with no modding (but depends on motherboard) '' so i would go for the h80i and stick it on the back fan mount, it will be fine
edit. i wouldnt go for a 500w with a 290 get atleast a 650w so you have some room for overclocking
 
Last edited:
WalderX said:
Perhaps this could work:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Radeon R9 290 OC WindForce 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (GV-R929OC-4GD) £367.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £169.99
1 x MSI Z87-G43 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard - FREE Alpenfohn Civetta Cooler!! £86.99
1 x Cooler Master CM-690 II Lite Windowed Gaming Tower Case - Black £69.95
1 x Avexir Core Blue Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16000904G-2CW) - Blue Light £59.99
1 x BeQuiet Pure Power L8 500W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply - With 120mm Silent Wing Fan Built in £53.99
1 x Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache WD10EZEX - OEM ** Single Platter ** HDD £47.99
1 x Roccat Kova+ Ultra Light 3200DPI Gaming Mouse £42.98
1 x Gigabyte Force K7 Stealth Gaming Keyboard £39.95
Total : £954.82 (includes shipping : £12.50).



Possibly the MSI board is no good for overclocking? It comes with a free Alpenfohn cpu cooler though so can save a chunk on that, allowing us to just about fit in the 290 gpu :)

EDITED: Changed the RAM back to avexir blue
Click to expand...

i second this build ^ if you went with a 770 gtx instead of the 290 you could also fit in a water cooler instead if he really prefers that, and it would run more comfortably on a 500w psu - so a better overclock and potentially save a few ££
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Radeon R9 280X Gaming Edition OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with Battlefield 4 PC Game £275.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £169.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87-D3HP Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £107.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 650W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £73.99
1 x Cooler Master CM-690 II Lite Windowed Gaming Tower Case - Black £69.95
1 x Avexir Core Blue Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16000904G-2CW) - Blue Light £59.99
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £47.99
1 x Roccat Kova+ Ultra Light 3200DPI Gaming Mouse £42.98
1 x Gigabyte Force K7 Stealth Gaming Keyboard £39.95
Total : £955.31 (includes shipping : £13.75).

 
Thanks for the continued responses :)

I see the 4670K and the FX8320 are fairly closely matched, performance wise (although the intel still beats the AMD in all but price):
http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i5-4670K-vs-AMD-FX-8320

One thing to consider here though is that AMD's Mantle API has been slated to be able to utilise more CPU cores in games. Whilst this may not really kick off until more game developers use mantle in their engines, this could result in the AMD 8-core build being considerably better for gaming...

I guess only once Mantle is released we will know for sure
 
AMD made a lot of noise about mantle with..... Kaveri.

So it's likely the 4670K's going to see gains with mantle, who knows how it'll compare with the FX83's until it actually arrives.

I would never use CPU boss personally.

If I was looking at an R9 290, I'd want a 4670K beside it, as opposed an FX8320.
 
Martini1991 said:
If I was looking at an R9 290, I'd want a 4670K beside it, as opposed an FX8320.
Click to expand...

Yeah I would too, but going AMD route allows for a 290 in there just about on budget. Intel route pushes it over a little. Perhaps I will have to convince him to spend a bit more... or we could drop the kb, mouse and hdd and reuse what he has got - allowing for an intel 290 build on budget...
 
fowler002 said:
What is the budget as you've not clarified it.
Click to expand...

Ideally £900 but £950 seems to be more realistic. As I said in previous post, lets drop the keyboard, mouse and HDD to see what we can come up with. He already has a kb mouse and 250GB SATA HDD for storage. Also he has a 120GB SSD which we are going to use.

His current PSU is a Combatpower 650W with something like 18A on the 12v (likely dual) rail. So reusing that is a big no-no!
 
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