First build, need advice

[haru-]

I had previously bought a pre-built PC and now I'm looking to upgrade.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor  (£125.00 @ Aria PC) 

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3P ATX AM3+ Motherboard  (£48.42 @ Aria PC) 

Memory: Kingston Fury Black Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory  (£62.20 @ CCL Computers) 

Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£41.46 @ Amazon UK) 

Storage: Seagate  1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Hybrid Internal Hard Drive  (£55.90 @ CCL Computers) 

Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 280X 3GB Dual-X Video Card  (£201.53 @ CCL Computers) 

Case: NZXT S340 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case  (£57.35 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Power Supply: Corsair CSM 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£61.19 @ Aria PC) 

Total: £653.05

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-04 03:14 GMT+0000

 

This is what I'm planning on building. It will be used mostly for gaming and maybe some streaming and will run windows 8.1. I'm just for other opinions on the quality of the build, ways I could save money, better alternatives etc. All feedback is appreciated.

[Rodneyg87]

 

I had previously bought a pre-built PC and now I'm looking to upgrade.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor  (£125.00 @ Aria PC) 

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3P ATX AM3+ Motherboard  (£48.42 @ Aria PC) 

Memory: Kingston Fury Black Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory  (£62.20 @ CCL Computers) 

Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£41.46 @ Amazon UK) 

Storage: Seagate  1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Hybrid Internal Hard Drive  (£55.90 @ CCL Computers) 

Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 280X 3GB Dual-X Video Card  (£201.53 @ CCL Computers) 

Case: NZXT S340 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case  (£57.35 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Power Supply: Corsair CSM 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£61.19 @ Aria PC) 

Total: £653.05

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-04 03:14 GMT+0000

 

This is what I'm planning on building. It will be used mostly for gaming and maybe some streaming and will run windows 8.1. I'm just for other opinions on the quality of the build, ways I could save money, better alternatives etc. All feedback is appreciated.

 

if you have a ssd dont go with a hybrid drive since you can easily cache 10-20 gigs of your ssd and get the same performance a little cheaper id say invest in a seagate 1tb 7200 or wd caviar blue 1tb 7200

[Epic_Nex]

upgrade the psu to 650w

[haru-]

upgrade the psu to 650w

I was going  to get the CS650M but I don't see why i need so much more power if the build only requires 479w of power

[Inception9269]

I was going  to get the CS650M but I don't see why i need so much more power if the build only requires 479w of power

I used to be confused on power usage as well, but from what I learned recently it doesn't really matter. Even if you have a 1000 watt psu, it would still use 479w, all a higher psu does is give you breathing room

[Inception9269]

Also, having a 550w cuts it a bit close

[haru-]

if you have a ssd dont go with a hybrid drive since you can easily cache 10-20 gigs of your ssd and get the same performance a little cheaper id say invest in a seagate 1tb 7200 or wd caviar blue 1tb 7200

Do you think it's better for me to get just the SSHD or a SSD and a HDD?

[Rodneyg87]

I was going  to get the CS650M but I don't see why i need so much more power if the build only requires 479w of power

having only 550w leaves no room for future expansion at all other than a couple extra fans

[Rodneyg87]

Do you think it's better for me to get just the SSHD or a SSD and a HDD?

if you want to save some cash to invest in other parts of your rig then go with the sshd if not go with the ssd/hdd combo

[Inception9269]

Do you think it's better for me to get just the SSHD or a SSD and a HDD?

What I prefer in my build is having an ssd and a hdd. ssd for system info and key items, that way if it ever dies or if you need to reinstall the OS, or whatever you won't lose important items.

[haru-]

Also, having a 550w cuts it a bit close

I was looking for a 600w psu also but I couldn't find a decent one that was as efficient. Do you have any recommendations or do you think I should just get the 650w one? 

[haru-]

if you want to save some cash to invest in other parts of your rig then go with the sshd if not go with the ssd/hdd combo

 

 

What I prefer in my build is having an ssd and a hdd. ssd for system info and key items, that way if it ever dies or if you need to reinstall the OS, or whatever you won't lose important items

Should I just use my current HDD and buy the SSD? 

[Inception9269]

I was looking for a 600w psu also but I couldn't find a decent one that was as efficient. Do you have any recommendations or do you think I should just get the 650w one? 

this is the one I plan on getting for my upcoming Intel pc build http://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-power-supply-120g10650xr

 

on another note, this is my planned Intel build http://pcpartpicker.com/p/vT9vmG

[Rodneyg87]

I was looking for a 600w psu also but I couldn't find a decent one that was as efficient. Do you have any recommendations or do you think I should just get the 650w one? 

EVGA 120-G1-0650-XR-$63.31 650w

EVGA 120-G1-0750-XR-$77.38 750w

[Rodneyg87]

Should I just use my current HDD and buy the SSD?

might as well as long as its in good condition and is at least a 7200rpm drive

[Inception9269]

Should I just use my current HDD and buy the SSD? 

You could keep your current HDD.

 

This is the SSD I currently use, which works just fine for me, and isn't too bad or expensive. http://pcpartpicker.com/part/a-data-internal-hard-drive-asp900s3128gmc

[haru-]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor  (£125.00 @ Aria PC) 

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3P ATX AM3+ Motherboard  (£48.42 @ Aria PC) 

Memory: Kingston Fury Black Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory  (£62.20 @ CCL Computers) 

Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£41.46 @ Amazon UK) 

Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 280X 3GB Dual-X Video Card  (£201.53 @ CCL Computers) 

Case: NZXT S340 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case  (£57.35 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£63.31 @ Amazon UK) 

Total: £599.27

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-04 03:46 GMT+0000

 

I've read everyone's comments and changed my build slightly. I upgraded my PSU to 650w and decided to use my old HDD since it's in pretty good condition and it means I don't have to spend time moving all my data to a new HDD. Thanks for all of your advice and I still appreciate any more advice that any of you have.

[Rodneyg87]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor  (£125.00 @ Aria PC) 

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3P ATX AM3+ Motherboard  (£48.42 @ Aria PC) 

Memory: Kingston Fury Black Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory  (£62.20 @ CCL Computers) 

Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£41.46 @ Amazon UK) 

Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 290 4GB WINDFORCE Video Card  (£242.28 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Case: NZXT S340 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case  (£57.35 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£63.31 @ Amazon UK) 

Total: £640.02

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-04 03:49 GMT+0000

 

here ya go i removed the hdd and changed the power supply which allowed enough savings to get a better video card and its still cheaper than your original build

[Inception9269]

This here is just a suggestion, but you could go for a GTX 970, it does cost a bit more, but i believe is stronger than what you chose http://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-video-card-04gp41970kr

[haru-]

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor  (£125.00 @ Aria PC) 

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3P ATX AM3+ Motherboard  (£48.42 @ Aria PC) 

Memory: Kingston Fury Black Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory  (£62.20 @ CCL Computers) 

Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (£41.46 @ Amazon UK) 

Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon R9 290 4GB WINDFORCE Video Card  (£242.28 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Case: NZXT S340 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case  (£57.35 @ Scan.co.uk) 

Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  (£63.31 @ Amazon UK) 

Total: £640.02

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-04 03:49 GMT+0000

 

here ya go i removed the hdd and changed the power supply which allowed enough savings to get a better video card and its still cheaper than your original build

 

 

 

This here is just a suggestion, but you could go for a GTX 970, it does cost a bit more, but i believe is stronger than what you chose http://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-video-card-04gp41970kr

Thanks for the suggestion. I went with this card since it's a little cheaper and has a better average user rating

[Epic_Nex]

I was going  to get the CS650M but I don't see why i need so much more power if the build only requires 479w of power

 

that is just an estimate, not a number to hold as truth. Plus you also have to consider fans, any overclocking you might do, and future upgrades. Plus you do not want your PSU to have to run at 100%, its not safe nor efficient