First Build, help?

[Palahniuk]

I'm building a gaming pc for the first time and wondered if anyone could check it over? Make sure everything's compatible, see if anything needs changing or improving. Everything at the moment can be bought from Novatech, and if possible I'd like to keep it that way!

 

Case:         Corsair Carbide SPEC-03

CPU:          AMD FX 8320

GPU:          Sapphire R9 280X Dual-X OC 3gb

RAM:          2x4gb Kingston 2400Mhz DDR3

HDD:          Seagate 1TB

PSU:          Corsair CX750 750W

MOBO:      GA-970A-DS3P

OS:            Windows 7 64bit Home Premium

[brownninja97]

fine to me, i think the power supply is overkill, a 600w psu would be more reasonable unless the 750 is on sale.

[sgrubmayr]

Buy a SSD

[jaffacakes]

I'm building a gaming pc for the first time and wondered if anyone could check it over? Make sure everything's compatible, see if anything needs changing or improving. Everything at the moment can be bought from Novatech, and if possible I'd like to keep it that way!

 

Case:         Corsair Carbide SPEC-03

CPU:          AMD FX 8320

GPU:          Sapphire R9 280X Dual-X OC 3gb

RAM:          2x4gb Kingston 2400Mhz DDR3

HDD:          Seagate 1TB

PSU:          Corsair CX750 750W

MOBO:      GA-970A-DS3P

OS:            Windows 7 64bit Home Premium

I'd change that motherboard, it's bad. Get a FX8320 and a 600w PSU and use the saved up money on a better motherboard. Can you tell me your budget and location?

[Archangel1994]

You went overkill on the PSU. Drop it to 550-600 unless you can get that thing at a discount. You also went a bit overboard on the memory. 2400 memory is not really useful at all for gaming. I would suggest going 1866 max as you can get quite cheap 1866MHz RAM and 2400MHz does tend to be on the expensive side. Also for gaming I really do recommend an i5 over anything AMD has since i5's are simply A LOT better.

 

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/processors/intel4thgeni3i5i71150/bx80646i54460.html

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/motherboards/intelsocket1150/z97chipset/z97pcmate.html

 

This is a Z97 motherboard with an I5-4460 which beats the FX-8320 in gaming scenarios (With a few exceptions where it will be quite equal). This gives space for upgrading to a K-series broadwell processor. And before people start screaming about putting a non-K in a Z97 motherboard, looking at novatech the Z97 and H97 motherboard were the same price so I figured I might as well go with a Z97. This is 40 pounds more expensive and quite a bit stronger in gaming.

 

Edit: What's your budget?

[Palahniuk]

fine to me, i think the power supply is overkill, a 600w psu would be more reasonable unless the 750 is on sale.

I wasn't sure on the PSU so decided to go safe, going to 600W would save me £20

 

 

I'd change that motherboard, it's bad. Get a FX8320 and a 600w PSU and use the saved up money on a better motherboard. Can you tell me your budget and location?

 

Motherboards is the one thing i'm clueless about D: any ideas on what would do? At the moment it's around £650, I wouldn't want to go more than £750. And i'm in the UK.

[Archangel1994]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£155.94 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Motherboard: MSI H97 PC MATE ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£61.57 @ More Computers) 

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory  (£61.30 @ Ebuyer) 

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£65.99 @ Amazon UK) 

Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 280X 3GB TWIN FROZR Video Card  (£222.34 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Case: Corsair SPEC-03 Red ATX Mid Tower Case  (£45.81 @ Amazon UK) 

Power Supply: Corsair RM 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£82.00 @ Ebuyer) 

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)  (£69.65 @ CCL Computers) 

Total: £764.60

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-07-29 16:09 BST+0100

 

If you can squeeze just a tiny bit more money you can get this which is a pretty good build. It has no SSD though.

[brob]

I wasn't sure on the PSU so decided to go safe, going to 600W would save me £20

 

 

 

Motherboards is the one thing i'm clueless about D: any ideas on what would do? At the moment it's around £650, I wouldn't want to go more than £750. And i'm in the UK.

 

I know it is at the top of the budget but it is also a better system. An Intel i5 cpu and an ssd make the difference.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£129.98)

Motherboard: Asus H97M-PLUS Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£79.99)

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  (£65.99 @ Novatech)

Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£44.99)

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£39.98 @ Novatech)

Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 280X 3GB Dual-X Video Card  (£209.99 @ Novatech)

Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  (£32.99 @ Novatech)

Power Supply: XFX 650W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (£64.99)

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit)  (£78.98)

Total: £747.88

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-07-29 16:33 BST+0100

[Palahniuk]

Thank-you for the help guys By the way you've all used Intel over the 8320, I'm guessing it's definitely the better way to go? Also what's the benefits in having SSD? (not too familiar with it, i know it's faster & much more expensive).

[brob]

Thank-you for the help guys By the way you've all used Intel over the 8320, I'm guessing it's definitely the better way to go? Also what's the benefits in having SSD? (not too familiar with it, i know it's faster & much more expensive).

 

It is hard to describe the benefit of ssd. For the most part it eliminates or greatly reduces the time a user has to pause and wait for the system.