4690k, RX480 & S340 Black & Red Build UPDATED

[Sousuke]

Update, No longer is this build a "Budget Build" its now an NZXT S340 Build.

Click here to get to the NZXT Part of the Build!

 

1st Update: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/162387-amd-nzxt-s340-black-red-build/?p=4540356

 

2nd Update (9/08/15): http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/162387-intel-amd-s340-black-red-build-updated/?p=5723812

 

3rd Update (11/04/17): http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/162387-intel-amd-s340-black-red-build-updated/?p=9663229

Hey Guys,
 
I'm a new member of Linus Tech Tips forum, been a long time watcher. Recently I've been yearning to build my own gaming PC with Gaming being its one and only purpose as I own a 2008 MacPro as my daily workhorse as I just prefer Mac OS X over Windows for 90% of computing, How much hate will I get for that? Loads.
 
Anyway so I had a budget of £600-£700 (US$1000- US$1180 or C$1100 - C$1285) In which I only spent £530 (US£890 or C$970 as during the build I was constantly searching for different ways I could get the result I wanted for the best price.
 
So here are the Specifications of the build, I am currently 60% Completed the build and will be 95% Done by this monday when i get the GPU and the RAM.
 
AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz Hex Core CPU
Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3P
G-Skill 8GB Ripjaws X DDR3 2133 
640GB Toshiba 7200RPM HDD
XFX R9 280X 3GB GDDR5
 
I've already purchased all 7 key components.
 
1. Cheap Sharkoon VS3-V Case which is red, will fit all of my stuff in there with ease.
2. Coolermaster G-Series 700W PSU very good value without being cheap.
3. Arctic Cooler Freezer 7 Pro because the stock heatsink will be shit and I cba with even trying the stock heatsink.
4. AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz Socket AM3+ Very good CPU For the money, was a little bit more than I wanted to spend though.
5. Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3P AM3+ Same as the CPU Really.
6. XFX R9 280X 3GB GDDR5 Highly rated GPU and for just over £200 was well within my reach.
7. G-Skill 8GB Ripjaws X DDR3 2133 G-Skill memory has been well reviewed in the past and for the price of under £60 for 8GB, Couldn't pass that up.
 
Will be finishing up the machine by getting the following fans and a DVD-RW Drive just because I still have some games on DVD-ROMs that I'd like to load onto the system and play.
 
Be Quiet! Pure Wings 2 140mm
Be Quiet Shadow Wings SW1 92mm
Samsung SH-224DB 24X Internal DVD Writer
 
I've changed this build like 50 times since I Purchased the first parts was going to be based of the Athlon X4 to start with but that didn't last long when I looked at the benchmarks and did a little bit more research on the AMD FX-6300, Priced very well so went that route instead.
 
The Case is as cheap as they come, £21.78 however I was looking more for just a case and the front LED Fan added that little bit of rice to it :lol:
 
Anyway last thing to be chosen was the GPU, Was fighting between the R9 280X or a GTX 770 and price won it for me, so the R9 280X Won and the extra 1GB of VRAM.
 
So here is the build so far:
 
Stage One, PSU Installation and then forgetting that cable managing a system without a Motherboard is a dumb idea even when the cable management is 100% Useless :lol: (Yes that is Vista being installed in the background, Judge all you want).
 

 
Stage 2: Motherboard, CPU and CPU Cooler Install
 

 
First in boxes then like magic, POOF All in a case!
 

 
So yea ... Thats the build so far, a 100% AMD Build for costs more than anything! 
 
More updates to follow!

[the ginger gamer]

Thats pretty nice, how does it do in gaming, what settings and fps do you get? The reason why i'm asking is because i will soon have a very similar gaming pc. Hope you stay on the forum and enjoy it!

[Sousuke]

Thats pretty nice, how does it do in gaming, what settings and fps do you get? The reason why i'm asking is because i will soon have a very similar gaming pc. Hope you stay on the forum and enjoy it!

 

Thanks for the welcome, Currently the GPU and RAM is not with me at the moment, will have an update on Monday/Tuesday as will want to test the system a bit.

[Askew]

Really nice first post, machine is looking good!

 

Welcome to the forum.

[Sousuke]

This is a really thought out build for a beginner. Kudos.

 

I've been making "Theoretical" builds for a while now, so I've spec'd out around 3-4 systems for my mates who wanted someone who actually knew what the heck FX-6300 or GTX 770 actually means as I am a massive tech head but been using Macs for years now, never got bothered with Hackintoshes as kinda killed the point of OSX in my mind.

 

This system is practically 4-6 months of research even though was a very different system when I started :lol:

[the ginger gamer]

Thanks for the welcome, Currently the GPU and RAM is not with me at the moment, will have an update on Monday/Tuesday as will want to test the system a bit.

cool, thanks!

[paulsterio]

If you're after a budget build, there's no reason to go AMD now with Intel's unlocked Pentium coming out. Push that to 5.0 GHz+ and it'll blow anything AMD has, at that price range, out of the water. It's also much cheaper too. 

[Sousuke]

If you're after a budget build, there's no reason to go AMD now with Intel's unlocked Pentium coming out. Push that to 5.0 GHz+ and it'll blow anything AMD has, at that price range, out of the water. It's also much cheaper too. 

 

At the moment the unknown capabilities of that Pentium CPU it was a better choice to go with the FX-6300, Even though it is an older CPU its been benchmarked and overclocked to hell and back, I wanted a system ASAP Without waiting for new tech to come out.

[NIGHTSHADE0]

me likey

[Sousuke]

me likey

 

I like it too, can not wait for the RAM and GPU to turn up now as it's on my desk and just beeps which is a good sign as its showing as that there's a RAM issue which is only a good sign as there isn't any installed :lol:

 

Should be getting the parts Tomorrow but will be going to a car show this weekend.

[Sousuke]

OS Installation is still a PAIN in the arse for Windows Machines, anyway got the Graphics Card and RAM in today, Now I was .... overwhelmed when I saw the size of the Graphics Card, the last graphics card I purchased was a ATi Radeon 5770 for my Mac Pro, so the size of the R9 280X was ... a massive surprise, was a bit of a challenge getting it into the case but I got it in.

 

So onto the pictures:

 

All the parts laid out ready for installation.

 

Once again all magically installed!! With the BIOS Screen showing.

 

My absolutely stupid way of getting the OS Installed as making a boot USB on the Mac is a task I couldn't be arsed with, tried using the Dell Machine but as its running a 32bit OS the Utility wouldn't make the USB Bootable and for some odd reason the DVD Drive in the Dell Optiplex system uses a small version of a SATA Power cable so had to have it on for the entire process and looking like its been through a war.

 

All up and running now though I'm off on a trip for the weekend so will need to wrap this up for now until then

[Sousuke]

So I've been playing games on this for the last 2 days and WOW I can see why people love playing games on PC, Playing BF3 on Ultra ... is absolutely amazing.

 

So did a benchmark test, now as a new guy to PC Gaming are these good results for the specs of the machine?

 

Valley Benchmark Results.

 

FPS: 57.8

Score: 2419

 

Min FPS: 20.8

Max FPS: 98.2

 

Platform: Windows 8 64Bit

CPU: AMD FX™-6300 Six Core Processor          (3516MHz) x3

CPU Model: AMD Radeon R9 200 Series 14.100.0.0 (3072MB) x1

 

Settings:

 

Render: Direct3D11

Mode: 1920x1080 fullscreen

Preset: Custom

Quality: Ultra

 

Been playing BF3 on Ultra and I have to say the Framerate is great, may get Crysis 3 now to see if I can get the machine to choke at all as at the moment I'm pushing every game I have onto Ultra and not getting any issues (Except screen tearing but I expected that).

 

Anyway anything I can do to optimise this this machine to get better benchmarks?

[CtW]

That case look s like a smaller, better built version of the Antec 1900!

[Sousuke]

So here is my finalised system and Pictures

 

I've decided to not get an optical drive as all my games are on steam now somehow, anyway I will be doing all my games through Origin (Sigh) and Steam (Woo).

 

 

 

 

Just going to shove 2 fans in there to make it cooler so will be allot better in the heat department.

 

Other than that the build is completed, If I do get a second R9 280X I will go with a full tower case as I would rather more fans than the 3 extra ones I can put in there at the moment.

[Sousuke]

UPDATE TIME IS FUN TIME.

 

I've hated this case in this build for a long time, Cable Management is impossible, no real radiator mounts that I'd like to use, no side window and the GPU Sag is stupid also the whole no fan filters ... 

 

So I've been planning to get an NZXT Source 340 for a while and eBay just sent me a 10% off code so now was better than ever to pick it up (Got it for £54) will be with me on friday and a good thing its my week off work so will be able to get this sorted and It will be living on my desk as it will look good

 

Just to ensure that I would like it I watched Linus's Review of the case and even with the shortcomings of the case I don't think they will be an issue:

 

 

Also this allows me to free up my current case for a server build I will be doing soon as I need to replace my PowerMac G4 Media Server as well ... ITS A POWERMAC G4 :lol: so that will be in another thread.

 

Anyway thats it for now

[stalker1900]

Hello , nice build, I have mostly the same parts as you do and was thinking of buying the Gigabite R9 280x in a couple of days or so , are you running into issues with 2014-2015 games in 1080p ? Or you can just max them out and it will run above 60fps ? 

[Sousuke]

Hello , nice build, I have mostly the same parts as you do and was thinking of buying the Gigabite R9 280x in a couple of days or so , are you running into issues with 2014-2015 games in 1080p ? Or you can just max them out and it will run above 60fps ? 

 

I've ran Watch Dogs with absolutely no slow down in its max settings on this machine, I am surprised that I could get such good performance from a sub £550 which is only £200 more than a PS4/Xbox One! So I think i've built a console smasher here :lol:

[Sousuke]

Update, am I impatant or what? New case won't arrive till Friday and I've already ripped the system out of its old case!

 

So here are the pictures of how much dust built up within 10 Months and removal of my current components and also outlining my plans for the current case..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So now all of my parts have been removed (Except the PSU* and ODD) *= Will be removed.

 

Here is the motherboard outside its case, looking good!

 

 

Here is my new motherboard for a small storage server (Will be about 4-6TB) Its an LGA 775 Motherboard, I did get a CPU however I don't think that its compatible. (Pentium E2200) and Intel Desktop Board D945GCNL 

 

 

 

So thats that for now, Will be getting the NZXT S340 on Friday so expect a rebuild then or Saturday!

[Sousuke]

So guys, I have to say that both Scan and DPD are awesome, delivered 1 day earlier than expected expected! 25hrs from Order and it arrived!

 

Anyway time for pictures

 

Unfortunately this is just the box :lol:

 

Here it is with all my stuff in there:

 

Here is the cable mis-management so we will never see this again.

 

Almost done! Pre-test shot (Plastic was only removed once EVERYTHING worked!

 

And Done I am liking this case quite a lot a few annoyances but other than that It was a good build!

 

The other plans are now to install an AIO Water cooler in the front and do some Overclocking 

[Sousuke]

So I've been waiting for some red cables to arrive but so far no luck however my LED Strip arrived ... so here it is

 

 

Once the red cabling arrives and I replace the CPU Cooler with an AIO it will look awesome!

[Sousuke]

So the red cables have arrived and even though they were a PAIN to fit as I have a non modular PSU:

 

 

 

I love these cables now they are fitted ... makes the system look awesome!

[Sousuke]

Here is the last update on this build ... 

 

Oh but its a good one! Did someone say Corsair H110? Oh yes they did!

 

So here she is on the operating table with her heatsink removed, the old one was good for the price however this Corsair one should a lot better!

 

 

So just letting the ArctiClean Thermal paste remover get to work. Even on the old heatsink as in about 12-14 Months the Motherboard, CPU and GPU are being retired perhaps the ram also if I decide to go for DDR4.

 

 

So heres another inside shot with the parts removed, I did have to remove the backplate and the 2 black bits around the cpu area.

 

 

First Power Up ... all went well the Corsair H110 makes some really strange noises when first powered up however all I can hear now is the sound of the fans

 

 

Here she is all closed up and first power up with all finalized parts and fittings done

 

 

 

 

And that is what we call that! Hope you enjoyed this thread as much as I've enjoyed building this system!

[stoka]

Lighting makes it look really good nice build man

[Sousuke]

Lighting makes it look really good nice build man

 

Thanks Stoka! This is the first system I've done quite a bit to make it look as good as it performs but I've gone a tad overboard with the Looks so I'll need to upgrade a few other things but thats for another year. No other upgrades to this system til 2016. 

[The-youri]

that air cooler you had in there was so freaking ugly the water cooler fits the pc more .

 

Looks great !