My First Build/Scrapyard Wars Build - RATCHET (BUILD UPDATE 1.3 - be quiet! Shadow Rock 2 Unboxing)

caffeine · March 12, 2015

BACKSTORY

So here's the rub, I've got a dying i3 laptop. A real piece of crap that I've been nursing from death for months now. I'm sure the motherboard is going now and I need to find a replacement.

Luckily I live in a town with a Airforce Base and people are constantly selling their electronics when they move - Pawn Shop paradise. Anyways I've opted to digging through the garbage of ebay and craigslist rather than shell out several hundred that I don't have on a PC.

So here's my current needs/parameters

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Quad Core or Better CPU (I do tons of video editing, and the i3 has been killing me)

Adequate CPU cooling

4GB+ of RAM (8GB preferred)

Decent Graphics Card (However I don't need a GTX 980 if I'm running a CPU from 2009)

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My Current Build List - CODENAME: Ratchet - King of the Scrapheap

CPU - AMD FX 6100 OC to 4.0GHz (Freebie! Kindly donated by GzeroD) - eBay
MOBO - (New!) Asus M5A97 LE R2.0 - ($47 Shipped from eBay) -
GPU - AMD R9 280x ($150-ish on eBay) - eBay
RAM - DDR3 8GB (Yet to find a good deal, maybe 4GB dimm X2)
Case - Bitfenix Neos Red/White ($34 On Sale ends 3/11/15) - NCIXUS
CPU Cooler - be quiet! Shadow Rock 2 (39.99 from Newegg) SHIPPED!
PSU - Thermaltake TR2 500W ($37 Clearance @ Radioshack RIP)

DVD Drive - free (from previous repair)
HDD - SATA3 2.5mm 320GB drive (free from previous repair)

be quiet! Shadow Rock 2 Unboxing Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EILf9sU9ayY

This is my "tech" YouTube channel. (I have more than one for SEO reasons) Please subscribe, it means a lot, and you guys are awesome. Also check out my other stuff on the sister channels. Thanks!

MOAR videos coming as soon as I get the parts in!

Conclusion

With my new parts this build costs an estimated total of $370 (USD) out of my $350~$450 budget. Now I haven't bought a GPU or RAM so this is the last part of the race where I can Min/Max as much as I can to turn that $370 into a $350 or even a $340.

So this is where I wait and find the best deal and pounce. I've already created followed searches for the R9 280X and 7970 on eBay and check my craigslist once-a-day. I'm planning on getting some kind of performance RAM most likely second hand.

Special thanks to forums user GzeroD for donating his AMD FX 6100 toward this build! Although he says it was just gathering dust in the corner, it means a lot and I greatly appreciate it. This truly is a great group of people here at LinusTechTips. Let's all give him some good karma and keep the vibes flowing. Can you dig it?

Tell me what you guys think? Decent? Leave your thoughts in the comment section.

This is what my locals have to offer at the time.

MSI 970A-G46 Motherboard $50.00

AMD Phenom II x6-1035t 2.6/3.1 Turbo Core 6 core Processor $100.00

And this guy has a fully built and tested PC

Processor: Intel i7-930 Quad Core @ 2.8Ghz Stock Intel Cooler

Motherboard: Asus Rampage III Extreme

Graphics Card: Asus GTX 650 Ti Boost 2GB OC Edition

RAM: 8GB GDDR3 Gskill Rampage

HDD: 500GB Western Digital 7200RPM HDD

Disc Drive: Standard DVD-RW Disc Drive

Power Supply: 80 Plus Bronze Certified Corsair CX500 500W

Windows 8.1 Professional

- $450

What do you think? Questions? Comments? NOTE - You may have seen this thread here. I have moved the post so the topic could stay relevant and more people could enjoy it.