New Build - Any problems before I buy?

petertr2000

petertr2000

petertr2000

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Was hoping someone would like to comment on a potential set up that I've been putting together over the last few nights. Its to be a general PC + gaming for a budget of £500.

ASRock 970 Extreme3 R2.0 Motherboard
AMD Piledriver FX-4 Quad Core 4300 3.80GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail
2x Patriot Viper 3 "Venom Red" 4GB DDR3 PC3-14900C9 1866MHz Single Module (P34G189UR)
MSI HD 7850 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards
Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD
BitFenix Merc Beta Gaming Case - Black
Corsair Builder Series CXM 430W Modular 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX/EPS PSU
Corsair Hydro H80 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler *Manufacturer Refurbished Unit

Although I've seen 2 "clearance motherboards" on OC that might be better, for the same price:
**B Grade** Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0 AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard
**B Grade** MSI 990FXA-GD65 AMD 990 FX (AMD AM3/AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard


Will also have a Crucial M4 64Gb SSD from my old system just for the OS and choice apps

I wasn't sure about the PSU, but I ran a few checks last night and it seems to come up around 350W, so with that being a Corsair PSU, i thought it was be pretty solid? Found it on a river-related site for £37 too, which makes it very appearling

Anyone got any comments?
TIA
 
The M5A97 is a brilliant board, OC's well and the ASUS package you get along with it is fantastic.

I can't speak for the other too but if it was my money I would say ASUS. B gradestill carry a warranty.

Josh
 
 
J05H86UK said:
The M5A97 is a brilliant board, OC's well and the ASUS package you get along with it is fantastic.

I can't speak for the other too but if it was my money I would say ASUS. B gradestill carry a warranty.

Josh
Click to expand...

Thanks for the comment. Would you say its even better than the MSI990FX board? Or should I ignore the "bigger number means better" bit ? :D
 
Doomedspeed said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 270X Boost OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Card £143.99
1 x AMD Piledriver FX-6 Six Core 6300 Black Edition 3.50GHz (Socket AM3+) Processor - Retail £89.99
1 x **B Grade** Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0 AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £65
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3K2/8GX) £61.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 500W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020047-UK) £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £43.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Beta Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x Thermalright True Spirit 120 REV A [BW] Performance CPU Cooler £24.98
Total : £512.93 (includes shipping : FREE).

Click to expand...


That's a fair departure from the spec I'd been looking at. Finding it hard to comment as I haven't looked at Radeon at all (simply because I've never had one).

The one relevant question I can take from that is the choice between the FX4 4300 and the FX6 6300.
Is it worth the lower clock speeds for the extra 2 cores in real world use - specifically gaming?
Also, which CPU is likely to be the best for OC?
 
RJC said:
The 6300 is a reasonable budget cpu, have a look at the rough comparison below;

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/699?vs=700

The 270 GPU is the newer version of the 7850 / 70 in your basket.

review:

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2013/10/08/amd-280x-270x-260x-reviews/4
Click to expand...

Thanks - the 6 core does look a touch better and worth the extra £10

I'm really not familiar with GPUs these days. But a quick search shows the cheapest 270 is £25 more than the 7850 that I've seen - so I think I'll give that amiss. Also, from the conclusion in the review you posted:
" Given how similar they are in every other regard, there is essentially no reason to choose one or the other, so if you're leaning towards it we'd suggest trying to snag as good a deal as possible on the outgoing HD 7000 series card."

Also, its too easy to just add "£10-£20" per component and end up costing another £150 for the build :D:D
 
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Not used this CPU but worse case you run the memory at the lower speed - the price point between the two memory speeds are minimal.
 
Any last thoughts on the PSU before I buy?

Current List is:

**B Grade** Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0 AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard
AMD FX6300 Black Edition 6 Core
2x Patriot Viper 3 "Venom Red" 4GB DDR3 PC3-14900C9 1866MHz (P34G189UR)
MSI HD 7850 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards
Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD
Crucial M4 64Gb SSD
BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black
Corsair Builder Series CXM 430W Modular 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX/EPS PSU
Corsair Hydro H100 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler

I have that for £491 (not including the SSD that I'm taking out of my old PC)
 
petertr2000 said:
Any last thoughts on the PSU before I buy?

Current List is:

**B Grade** Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0 AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard
AMD FX6300 Black Edition 6 Core
2x Patriot Viper 3 "Venom Red" 4GB DDR3 PC3-14900C9 1866MHz (P34G189UR)
MSI HD 7850 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards
Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD
Crucial M4 64Gb SSD
BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black
Corsair Builder Series CXM 430W Modular 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX/EPS PSU
Corsair Hydro H100 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler

I have that for £491 (not including the SSD that I'm taking out of my old PC)
Click to expand...

It's a B grade mobo so you might need some sata cables as accessories can be missing.

The H100 won't fit in the Bitfenix Merc case (which is pants as it only has one fan and no USB3 ports). Doomedspeed's spec is good I just hate that case, maybe look at the NZXT 210?? I too would shoot for the 270X GPU. Nobody wanted a 7850 or 7870 the 7870LE (tahiti core) was the bang for buck GPU at that price range (£150-160) and the 270X is spec'd slightly better than the 7870LE.

Best of luck with the build. Remember to update the firmware on that SSD if you haven't already to avoid the 5200 hour bug :)
 
honosuseri said:
It's a B grade mobo so you might need some sata cables as accessories can be missing.

The H100 won't fit in the Bitfenix Merc case (which is pants as it only has one fan and no USB3 ports). Doomedspeed's spec is good I just hate that case, maybe look at the NZXT 210?? I too would shoot for the 270X GPU. Nobody wanted a 7850 or 7870 the 7870LE (tahiti core) was the bang for buck GPU at that price range (£150-160) and the 270X is spec'd slightly better than the 7870LE.

Best of luck with the build. Remember to update the firmware on that SSD if you haven't already to avoid the 5200 hour bug :)
Click to expand...

Since I only have 1 HDD, 1DVDRW and 1 SSD, I think I'll have plenty of spares in the original box - hopefully I'll be ok. But its a good point, thanks.


I switched to the alfa version of that case when I noticed there was a H100 instead of the H80 for only £5 more - 2 x 120 fan grills on the top of the case:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-010-BX

That'll be ok, right?


I don't think I have ever used a USB3 port deliberately in my life. I don't really connect anything to my PCs. I prefer to connect everything at the back of the PC anyway - and that's where the USB3 ports will be if I ever need them. I only ever use front ports for the occasions USB memory stick stuff.


The 270X GPU seems to be a leap ahead of the 7850. From what I can see, the 7850 sites pretty much imbetween the 260X and 270X, whilst costing a few quid less than the 260X and a lot less than the 270X
http://www.hwcompare.com/15679/radeon-hd-7850-vs-radeon-r9-270x/
http://www.hwcompare.com/15503/radeon-hd-7850-vs-radeon-r7-260x/


I'm not seeing a compelling reason to go for either, not while I can pick up a cheap 7850, anyway?
(In truth, I'd rather have spend <£100 on the graphics card, but that £112 MSI card seems too good to turn down)



& Yeh, I knew about the SSD bug - I spent hours looking into them before I bought the M4. Mind, looking at the samsung evos, they are flying machines compared to mine (500 read/write vs 450 read, 90 write - ouch)





My final decision is whether to pay the extra £32 and jump from the FX 6300 to the FX 8320. I've already jumped from the FX 4300 for all of £5.

I was hoping to build this for about £400. But its already £500 and I'm talking adding another £30
I wonder if the 8 core is overkill?
 
Having eight cores is brilliant, however i've heard bad things about the AMD architecture so its probably equivalent to a 4-6 core intel cpu. Another con is that not all games or programs support all eight cores and will only use max 4.

You're looking at atleast 600 for a decent gaming rig, but you already have an SSD which can be costly, so you may just be able to brave 500.
 
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Males said:
Having eight cores is brilliant, however i've heard bad things about the AMD architecture so its probably equivalent to a 4-6 core intel cpu. Another con is that not all games or programs support all eight cores and will only use max 4.

You're looking at atleast 600 for a decent gaming rig, but you already have an SSD which can be costly, so you may just be able to brave 500.
Click to expand...


Well, I'm up to £530 if I go with the 8-core, and the SSD would take it up towards the £600 figure if I didn't already have it (tbh, I keep looking at the 256Gb Samsung Evo - I don't need much storage as I have NAS for all my media - but I really can't afford that - damn!)
 
petertr2000 said:
Any last thoughts on the PSU before I buy?

Current List is:

**B Grade** Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0 AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard
AMD FX6300 Black Edition 6 Core
2x Patriot Viper 3 "Venom Red" 4GB DDR3 PC3-14900C9 1866MHz (P34G189UR)
MSI HD 7850 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards
Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD
Crucial M4 64Gb SSD
BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black
Corsair Builder Series CXM 430W Modular 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX/EPS PSU
Corsair Hydro H100 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler

I have that for £491 (not including the SSD that I'm taking out of my old PC)
Click to expand...


Just because a psu says 430w on the label does'nt mean that it can deliver that wattage on the 12v rail where it is needed most. The CX430M only has 384w on the 12v rail while the CX500M has 456w on the 12v rail. See here for a list of who makes what psu, 12v rail wattage/ampage plus links to reviews. It is a invaluable source of information. Personally i would never buy a CX series psu. They are little better than a cheap and nasty budget psu and have cheap internals.
 
honosuseri said:
It's a B grade mobo so you might need some sata cables as accessories can be missing.

The H100 won't fit in the Bitfenix Merc case)
Click to expand...


It did - the IO Shield was missing. I can live without, I guess.


As for the cooler - DAMN. I mis-read the thread at the time, and thought you were referring to the BETA version of the case (which I'd originally posted), which doesn't have the top vents. The ALFA case does, but still doesn't have enough clearance to fit the H100 - which I've just found out :(:(:(

Have filled out a return request for it.

Would the H80 fit? I've seen other closed-loop water coolers fitted in the rear exhaust fan position, and its the same price...
 
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