First Build, any advice?

[Zarkri]

Hey, just signed up, have to say I'm not seasoned at building computers.

 

Currently deciding on each of the parts for my £650/$1,100 (rough) build. Do you think theres anything I could improve about my build? Sorry for UK links.  :rolleyes:

 

• Asus M5A97 R2.0 Motherboard £60/$105 -- http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B008V9959O/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE
• AMD FX6300 Black Edition 6 Core  £70/$120 --http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B009O7YORK/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE
• HyperX Black Series 4GB Dimm - x2 £60/$105 --http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00AHWXS1Y/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE
• Zalman Z3 Plus ATX/M-ATX Tower Case Black £36/$61 --http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00DDC214K/ref=ox_sc_act_title_5?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE
• Sapphire PCI Express R7 260X 2GB Graphics Card £90/$155 --http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00GI2EZ7I/ref=ox_sc_act_title_10?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE
• Corsair CXM 430W Semi-Modular PSU £36/$61 --http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00ALYP208/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE
• WD 1TB 3.5inch Internal Hard Drive: Caviar Blue £40/$68 --http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0088PUEPK/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE
• LiteOn IHAS124-04 24x SATA Half Height Internal DVDRW Drive £11/$19 --http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B009GV7ZQG/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE
• TP-Link TL-WDN4800 450mbps Wireless N Dual Band PCI Express Adapter £25/$42 --http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B007GMPZ0A/ref=ox_sc_act_title_4?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE
•  AOC E2250SWDAK 21.5 inch Widescreen Multimedia LED Monitor (1920x1080, 5ms) £80/$138 -- http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0097HYR24/ref=ox_sc_act_title_7?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

+ £70/$100 for Windows 7

Subtotal: £640/$1,100 (rough)

 

So, I'm looking to reduce the cost of the build as much as possible. Not at too much of a detriment to the performance though.

I'm mainly wondering about which other variants of these parts, at different prices, will and will not greatly affect my build performance. For example: the M5A97 Motherboard and the difference in performance to the M5A78L Motherboard and whether on that lower end motherboard both the graphics card and the PCI-E network card will fit alongside each other in the tight space of both PCI-E slots.

Whether it's worth the $15 difference for the two extra cores on a FX6300 cpu compared to a FX4300.

Also if the wattage is enough, although at the back of my mind I do sort of know, to accomodate future upgrades.

Things like this etc.

 

Any help and advice would be nice 

[SAV1OUR]

here i'm using pcpartpicker because its faaaar easier to list and gives prices and locations use the quote button if you want my help

 

drop the 212 evo if you cant afford the extra cost 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor  (£97.00 @ Scan.co.uk) 

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  (£24.25 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-D3P ATX AM3+/AM3 Motherboard  (£71.18 @ Amazon UK) 

Memory: Kingston Fury Black Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (£60.47 @ Amazon UK) 

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£36.00 @ Aria PC) 

Video Card: Asus Radeon R9 280 3GB DirectCU II Video Card  (£169.98 @ Ebuyer) 

Case: NZXT Source 210 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case  (£30.25 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£67.99 @ Novatech) 

Monitor: Dell S2240L 60Hz 21.5" Monitor  (£119.88 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Total: £677.00

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

[Guest]

Adjustment to the monitor: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/aoc-monitor-e2460sd (OC E2460SD 60Hz 24.0" Monitor £107)

[Trik'Stari]

With that amount of money I'd go intel. Just my 2 bits, I've got an AMD and it's honestly terrible. Granted it is an APU which is pointless with my single GTX660 graphics card.

 

Edit: I didn't see that the monitor was part of your budget. I would still say that you should swap out the AMD mobo and cpu for a locked intel cpu, and an cheap h97 motherboard, along with an Adata 2x4 ram kit, which is cheaper than your current ram.

[harrynowl]

I have a collection of builds in my signature that might interest you. The £500 Intel rig with a nice IPS monitor will make for a very good gaming experience.

 

£500 Comfort Rig - Intel

 

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/ygDQcf

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£127.00 @ Aria PC) 

Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£29.77 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Memory: Patriot Signature 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (£52.98 @ Ebuyer) 

Storage: Crucial M500 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£52.94 @ Aria PC) 

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£36.00 @ Aria PC) 

Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 270X 2GB Dual-X Video Card  (£119.00 @ Amazon UK) 

Case: NZXT Source 210 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case  (£30.25 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply  (£31.43 @ Aria PC) 

Other: Windows 8.1/7 From either G2A or /r/softwareswap (reddit) (£10.00)

Total: £489.37

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

 

 

Strengths: With an Intel i5 quad core this system will deliver a great gaming experience for £500 and will beat out both the PS4 and Xbox one while adding additional features such as an SSD to provide a true desktop experience.

 

Weaknesses: The motherboard is low end and doesn't offer much expansion or many features- but it has the ones you need. System will beat the AMD in 90% of games however has a crappier motherboard.

[Thony]

Dont buy PCI-e wireless card, u will be stuck with the signal where your PC is. 
I have this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-TL-WN822N-300MBPS-Wireless-Adapter/dp/B00416Q5KI/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1405706278&sr=1-1&keywords=tp-link+wireless

£10 cheaper, has 1.5 meters long usb cable, 2 antenas, supports 300mbps. Have had it for 1 year now, no complaints just happiness. Getting 20-40 ping on CS:GO, 35-50 in League of Legends (very satisfying for wireless adaptor). My room is on 1st floor and hub is on the ground floor, getting 5 bars signal strength

[Thony]

I have a collection of builds in my signature that might interest you. The £500 Intel rig with a nice IPS monitor will make for a very good gaming experience.

Nice build, i5 will deliver much better performance than fx-6300, also includes better GPU, but not sure how legit is the OS from websites you mentioned.

[harrynowl]

@Thony I've used OSes from both with no problems. They might be from other regions where it's cheap but I'd rather save money on Windows and get better hardware.

 

Still better than piracy.

[Thony]

@Thony I've used OSes from both with no problems. They might be from other regions where it's cheap but I'd rather save money on Windows and get better hardware.

 

Still better than piracy.

Well if it works for such a funny "donation" (hence its just £10) then absolutely fine and ofcourse its silly spending £70 on OS. 

[nick99n]

build seems fine to me 
just take your time ,make sure you are static free Have fun

[Zarkri]

Thanks for the replies! 

Dont buy PCI-e wireless card, u will be stuck with the signal where your PC is. 
I have this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-TL-WN822N-300MBPS-Wireless-Adapter/dp/B00416Q5KI/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1405706278&sr=1-1&keywords=tp-link+wireless

£10 cheaper, has 1.5 meters long usb cable, 2 antenas, supports 300mbps. Have had it for 1 year now, no complaints just happiness. Getting 20-40 ping on CS:GO, 35-50 in League of Legends (very satisfying for wireless adaptor). My room is on 1st floor and hub is on the ground floor, getting 5 bars signal strength

Is it really slower? I've never heard of that, or do you mean that the antennae for the PCI-E card wouldn't be as strong because they wouldn't get as good signal being under a desk? 

[Thony]

Thanks for the replies! 

Is it really slower? I've never heard of that, or do you mean that the antennae for the PCI-E card wouldn't be as strong because they wouldn't get as good signal being under a desk? 

I never said its slower. I am sure u dont have 450mbps internet connection at your place (that would be too expensive) so 300mbps will be totally ok. Well signal baunces of different stuff and gets blocked by different stuff. I would rather have option to move my antena then get stuck in case theres bad signal. You never know. Also u wanted to cut the costs and I think £25 is not neccesarry in this case.

[Zarkri]

A question I've got, the Windows 7 key available on Amazon is an OEM version. I'm under the impression this means I can't reuse it on another motherboard, it's a "system builder" version.

 

However, it says it has to be used with the same motherboard, so if i changed my hard drive but kept the motherboard the same, would the key still work?

 

Also, is Windows 8.1 an OEM version? (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Microsoft-Windows-8-1-Full-Version/dp/B00FRAE7MU/ref=dp_ob_title_sw) Is it worth getting Windows 8.1 instead if it isn't an OEM version?

:lol:

I never said its slower. I am sure u dont have 450mbps internet connection at your place (that would be too expensive) so 300mbps will be totally ok. Well signal baunces of different stuff and gets blocked by different stuff. I would rather have option to move my antena then get stuck in case theres bad signal. You never know. Also u wanted to cut the costs and I think £25 is not neccesarry in this case.

Thought so, think I'll do just that.