Help With Components For First Build

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Hi all,

I am doing my first computer build and would like to know, will the AMD FX 8350 CPU be compatible with the Asus M5A97 LE R2.0 Motherboard?

If the CPU I wish to obtain is incompatible with my chosen motherboard, what motherboard would you suggest?

The reason I ask is that I am building a computer for around the £600 - £800 mark as I will be getting, a 750w psu, GTX 660 Graphics card, Creative Soundblaster fatality pro and a Logitech Z906 which i want to include in the build, in addition to the CPU and Motherboard I have listed above.

Although I will be using the Nvidia GT 610 temporarily during the build until I save up enough cash after paying for the CPU and motherboard

I already have the Hard Drive and RAM of which will work with the motherboard.

Suggestions Welcome.

Thank you in advanced,
 
Hello & Welcome to the Forum

Have you bought any parts yet?

If not, I would recommend this over the AMD, for the £800 you mentioned in the OP:

YOUR BASKET
1 x HIS HD 7950 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H795F3G2M) £233.99
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD256BW) ** Cash Back Promo ** £189.95
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £189.95
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x XFX Pro 550W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £54.98
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £29.99
Total : £800.84 (includes shipping : £10.00).



The CPU & Motherboard would be better compared to the AMD, as the AMD runs hotter and is less power efficient. The motherboard is the best budget board around and has been given multiple awards for this.

For a single GPU, a 500-550w will be fine. If you are looking to x/fire SLI, 750 would be recommended. If you can hold onto your current GPU untill October, AMD will be releasing their new cards bundled with BF4.

Stock coolers can be noisy, so I've added the Matterhorn cooler & the 256gb SSD would make a great addition to your build, you also get some cash back on it.

Does this help?
 
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As of yet no but I will be starting to get the parts over the next few months around july this year and the first load of parts will be the motherboard and CPU and from then on slowly adding to it as i have a spare PSU which i'd be using for a temporary measure, until i can afford a new PSU etc etc.
 
Hello & Welcome to the Forum

Have you bought any parts yet?

If not, I would recommend this over the AMD, for the £800 you mentioned in the OP:

YOUR BASKET
1 x HIS HD 7950 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H795F3G2M) £233.99
1 x Samsung 256GB SSD 840 PRO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7PD256BW) ** Cash Back Promo ** £189.95
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £189.95
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x XFX Pro 550W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £54.98
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £29.99
Total : £800.84 (includes shipping : £10.00).



The CPU & Motherboard would be better compared to the AMD, as the AMD runs hotter and is less power efficient. The motherboard is the best budget board around and has been given multiple awards for this.

For a single GPU, a 500-550w will be fine. If you are looking to x/fire SLI, 750 would be recommended. If you can hold onto your current GPU untill October, AMD will be releasing their new cards bundled with BF4.

Stock coolers can be noisy, so I've added the Matterhorn cooler & the 256gb SSD would make a great addition to your build, you also get some cash back on it.

Does this help?

Thank you for your help and what is the highest i can OC to
 
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the highest oc you can get depends on lots of things. it mainly depends on how good the chip is.

all i5's are equal but some are more equal than others. you could get 4.7ghz on one chip but another may only get 4.5

its a lottery on how high they will go
 
the highest oc you can get depends on lots of things. it mainly depends on how good the chip is.

all i5's are equal but some are more equal than others. you could get 4.7ghz on one chip but another may only get 4.5

its a lottery on how high they will go

Awesome and would you recommend a good air cooler or an all in 1 watercooling block
 
the highest oc you can get depends on lots of things. it mainly depends on how good the chip is.

all i5's are equal but some are more equal than others. you could get 4.7ghz on one chip but another may only get 4.5

its a lottery on how high they will go

As well as the motherboard. Changing for one of these would give an advantage to Overclocking further and a better cooler too. I'll re-spec based on your OC'ing requirements.

This would give you a good base to overclock as above:

YOUR BASKET
1 x HIS HD 7950 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H795F3G2M) £233.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £189.95
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £112.99
1 x XFX Pro 550W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £54.98
Total : £603.91 (includes shipping : £10.00).



There are multiple choices of coolers, here are the top 3 air coolers and the best 2 Closed Loop Coolers:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £103.99
1 x Antec Kúhler H2O 1220 Series 4 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (LGA1155 / LGA1156 / LGA1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM2+ / AM3+) £97.58
1 x Phanteks PH-TC14PE CPU Cooler - Blue (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £69.98
1 x Noctua NH-D14 Dual Radiator CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £62.98
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £59.99
Total : £406.52 (includes shipping : £10.00).



I've obviously removed the SSD as it's not in your initial OP, but since you required OC'ing capabilities, it freed the budget for this. You could however, if you have the cash, squeeze in a 128gb.
 
As well as the motherboard. Changing for one of these would give an advantage to Overclocking further and a better cooler too. I'll re-spec based on your OC'ing requirements.

This would give you a good base to overclock as above:

YOUR BASKET
1 x HIS HD 7950 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H795F3G2M) £233.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £189.95
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £112.99
1 x XFX Pro 550W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £54.98
Total : £603.91 (includes shipping : £10.00).



There are multiple choices of coolers, here are the top 3 air coolers and the best 2 Closed Loop Coolers:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (Socket 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £103.99
1 x Antec Kúhler H2O 1220 Series 4 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (LGA1155 / LGA1156 / LGA1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM2+ / AM3+) £97.58
1 x Phanteks PH-TC14PE CPU Cooler - Blue (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £69.98
1 x Noctua NH-D14 Dual Radiator CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £62.98
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011 / AM2 / AM2+ / AM3 / FM1 / FM2) £59.99
Total : £406.52 (includes shipping : £10.00).


The issue though I don't think my case is big enough for one of the aftermarket case i have from my dad's multi media pc which he had built for him and this is the case i have is an micro atx case which i obtained from a family member

also would all the parts fit in this case with the addition if the air cooler if not what would you suggest.
Sorry in advance if it seems im being a pain or picky as I am gathering suggestions on what people recommend and make a final choice on what parts suite my gaming needs most
 
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Noctua is the best air cooler followed by the K2 and then Phanteks.

The closed loop water coolers are about on par but can be hit and miss on how quiet they are.

Fair enough but would the air cooler fit in my case as link shown in link above with all the parts inside inc the sound card into a micro atx case
 
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I would remove competitive links before an admin see's it.

Best thing to do would be to download the pic & host it using TinyPic or some other free hosting site and add the URL & img to the thread.

Update:

And yes, all 3 air coolers should fit.
 
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I would remove competitive links before an admin see's it.

Best thing to do would be to download the pic & host it using TinyPic or some other free hosting site and add the URL & img to the thread.

Update:

And yes, all 3 air coolers should fit.

links removed and because of the size of my case would you say it would be a tight fit to get all the parts in
 
links removed and because of the size of my case would you say it would be a tight fit to get all the parts in

If you'd had an m-itx, I would have said yes, but micro atx and atx are well spaced. The only issue you may have with one of those coolers would be added additional RAM as they can cover the 1st and possibly 2nd slot (DIMM 4 & 2).

I hope your not using the PSU in that case either?!
 
If you'd had an m-itx, I would have said yes, but micro atx and atx are well spaced. The only issue you may have with one of those coolers would be added additional RAM as they can cover the 1st and possibly 2nd slot (DIMM 4 & 2).

I hope your not using the PSU in that case either?!

Yes I have an micro atx case and how would i overcome this issue?

Also unfortunately yes the PSU will be in the same case down side is that it is mounted at the top of the case will this be an issue
 
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