First Custom Build

[Pachx]

Hello everyone,

 

Later this month, I am going to begin ordering parts for my first custom PC. I plan on using it predominately for moderate to heavy gaming on mid to high graphics settings, but also for some Photoshop and After Effects editing and rendering here and there. I would like to keep the total budget (PC and monitors) under or slightly over $1,500.00 USD. Here are the parts that I have chosen thus far:

 

CPU- AMD FX 8350 $169.99

Motherboard- ASUS Sabertooth 990FX r2.0 $167.99

GPU- MSI GTX 970 (already purchased) $348.66

RAM- x2 8GB Kingston HyperX Fury $112.14

PSU- EVGA Super Nova 750W G2 $126.99

Optical Drive- ASUS Blu-Ray BC-12B1ST $52.99

Hard Drive- 240GB Kingston SSD (OS and other programs) $129.99

Hard Drive- 1TB Western Digital HDD (mass storage) $82.99

Case- NZXT Phantom 530 $126.99

OS- Windows 8.1 $99.99

Monitor- undecided, $200 max cost

 

TOTAL: $1,618.72 ($118.72 over budget)

 

The prices listed above are all from Amazon (and Amazon is the preferred vendor for me), does anyone have any suggestions as to possible improvements (alternate parts, different vendors, etc.) to cut costs? I don't plan on doing any overclocking immediately, but I may down the road. I know in the event of doing so, I will most likely need a better CPU fan, but will the stock FX 8350 fan be sufficient for base-clock usage? Will this system be enough for what I need it for? Does anyone have suggestions as to a decent monitor (preferably 21") that can be mounted on a 4-screw mount that is $200 or less?

 

Any help with this would be much appreciated!

[1Scotty1]

For moderate/heavy gaming the 8350 will be a bottleneck for that GTX970... if possible, opt at least for a locked i5

 

@Pachx - follow your topics, so you see notifications

[Xaring]

Id recommend sticking to intel, a 4690K and a decent MB will make a big difference. The 8350 is a quite old CPU already.

[TheGeeker]

You could get a 1tb barracuda for half the price idk what that drive is. 

[Xaring]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($229.98 @ NCIX US) 

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  ($27.98 @ OutletPC) 

Motherboard: MSI Z97 PC MATE ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($88.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

Total: $346.95

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-05 01:48 EDT-0400

 

Also, that is a very good PSU indeed, but if you go over budget you might consider getting a cheaper one.

 

And for SSD a Crucial MX100 will (probably) perform better and be cheaper, 80USD for a HDD is quite a rip off (consumer grade)

[Pachx]

Id recommend sticking to intel, a 4690K and a decent MB will make a big difference. The 8350 is a quite old CPU already.

Will the 4690K be sufficient for multitasking while gaming? I would also like to have a few background programs running/a video streaming while in game if possible.

[SImoHayha]

Hello everyone,

 

Later this month, I am going to begin ordering parts for my first custom PC. I plan on using it predominately for moderate to heavy gaming on mid to high graphics settings, but also for some Photoshop and After Effects editing and rendering here and there. I would like to keep the total budget (PC and monitors) under or slightly over $1,500.00 USD. Here are the parts that I have chosen thus far:

 

CPU- AMD FX 8350 $169.99

Motherboard- ASUS Sabertooth 990FX r2.0 $167.99

GPU- MSI GTX 970 (already purchased) $348.66

RAM- x2 8GB Kingston HyperX Fury $112.14

PSU- EVGA Super Nova 750W G2 $126.99

Optical Drive- ASUS Blu-Ray BC-12B1ST $52.99

Hard Drive- 240GB Kingston SSD (OS and other programs) $129.99

Hard Drive- 1TB Western Digital HDD (mass storage) $82.99

Case- NZXT Phantom 530 $126.99

OS- Windows 8.1 $99.99

Monitor- undecided, $200 max cost

 

TOTAL: $1,618.72 ($118.72 over budget)

 

The prices listed above are all from Amazon (and Amazon is the preferred vendor for me), does anyone have any suggestions as to possible improvements (alternate parts, different vendors, etc.) to cut costs? I don't plan on doing any overclocking immediately, but I may down the road. I know in the event of doing so, I will most likely need a better CPU fan, but will the stock FX 8350 fan be sufficient for base-clock usage? Will this system be enough for what I need it for? Does anyone have suggestions as to a decent monitor (preferably 21") that can be mounted on a 4-screw mount that is $200 or less?

 

Any help with this would be much appreciated!

Good build. However go with intel. AMD has nothing to add onto the plate when it comes to CPU's and it will bottleneck that 970. Go with an unlocked i5

[niofalpha]

A. Please use www.pcpartpicker.com for builds.

B. This http://pcpartpicker.com/p/VD2yrH

[SImoHayha]

Will the 4690K be sufficient for multitasking while gaming? I would also like to have a few background programs running/a video streaming while in game if possible.

Then get an i7 or maybe a xeon..however I think the 4690K will be good for multitasking. Just because it has more cores doesn't mean it can multitask any easier. Ok maybe to some extent however its better to have stronger cores over more cores.

[Xaring]

Will the 4690K be sufficient for multitasking while gaming? I would also like to have a few background programs running/a video streaming while in game if possible.

 

Yes, ive got that same config (board gpu and CPU) and i can stream(Nvidia Ncoding), listen to music(youtube), host a TS3 server, have like 15 Chrome tabs open and game GTA/witcher at the same time. The CPU is not even bothered by this load. 

 

Threads are overrated, most applications don't know how to make use of them. The only thing that 8350 beats even last-gen i5s is in Video rendering (which is a multi-threaded specialized process)

[Pachx]

One thing that i forgot to note, I am looking for a motherboard with as many PCI-e slots as possible. The Sabertooth quoted in the initial post has 4 2.0 x16 slots, a 5V PCI, and I believe an x2 slot. Basically, the more the better for me. I would like to have the ability to shove some more peripherals in there in the future.

[Bob Jim]

For a similar amount over budget, this would be MUCH better:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($325.99 @ SuperBiiz)

CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($99.89 @ OutletPC)

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-GAMING 7 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($158.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($95.99 @ Newegg)

Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($67.98 @ OutletPC)

Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($123.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card ($348.89 @ Amazon)

Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case ($79.99 @ NCIX US)

Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($69.99 @ Amazon)

Optical Drive: Asus BC-12B1ST/BLK/B/AS Blu-Ray Reader, DVD/CD Writer ($39.99 @ Newegg)

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (64-bit) ($89.99 @ NCIX US)

Monitor: LG 22MP55HQ-P 60Hz 22.0" Monitor ($139.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Total: $1641.67

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-05 01:56 EDT-0400

[Xaring]

One thing that i forgot to note, I am looking for a motherboard with as many PCI-e slots as possible. The Sabertooth quoted in the initial post has 4 2.0 x16 slots, a 5V PCI, and I believe an x2 slot. Basically, the more the better for me. I would like to have the ability to shove some more peripherals in there in the future.

 

You want something like this then http://pcpartpicker.com/part/msi-motherboard-z97sslikraitedition. 

 

Check for SLI compatibility (more dedicated PCI lanes) or get a more expensive MBO, 

[gastnl123]

buy a used i5 3570K it will OC with ease to 4.4 for me i had it on 1.152 vcore 4.5 i needed to bumb it up to 1.216.

[Pachx]

Ok, I went back and revised my setup with an i7 4790k processor and other parts to make it compatible, as well as upping the mass storage drive to 2TB because the price difference was very small for twice the storage capacity. I also got pricing from Amazon, Newegg, and NCIX, but limited it to these three to consolidate the order and shipping.

 

The list is here: http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Pachx/saved/jtxj4D

 

Will this setup be more capable of handling what I am wanting it for?