Final Decision on Build

[Unilision]

So after the help from the community, I have but just one question left. Which would be, which is the more ideal GPU & PSU to get ?

 

I'm contemplating between the EVGA  GTX 750 2GB FTW ACX vs Gigabyte GTX 760 4GB Windforce.
& as well the PSU would be between EVGA B1 500W vs EVGA GS 550W

 

I'm unsure if the $150.00 difference of getting the 760 is worth it & the $50.00 difference for the PSU. What do you guys think?

 

My parts that I'll be using along with the GPU is:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($80.97 @ DirectCanada) 

Motherboard: Asus H97M-E Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($117.96 @ Amazon Canada) 

Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury White 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($59.99 @ NCIX) 

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($58.98 @ DirectCanada) 

Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 760 4GB WINDFORCE Video Card  ($330.50 @ Vuugo) 

Case: BitFenix Prodigy M Arctic White MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($99.99 @ Canada Computers) 

Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA GS 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($94.98 @ Newegg Canada) 

Total: $843.37

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-30 14:30 EDT-0400

 

[Mao_Zedong]

This would perform better and costs less. The 760 is outdated, so the 960 is a better option. The 960 performs a little better, uses less power, and is cheaper. The i3 4170 is better than the g3258, as it has hyperthreading. You could also get a cheaper motherboard, to cut down costs even more, but I haven't changed it here.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4170 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($144.98 @ DirectCanada)
Motherboard: Asus H97M-E Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($117.96 @ Amazon Canada)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury White 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($59.99 @ NCIX)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($58.98 @ DirectCanada)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card  ($227.00 @ Newegg Canada)
Case: BitFenix Prodigy M Arctic White MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($99.99 @ Canada Computers)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA GS 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($94.98 @ Newegg Canada)
Total: $803.88
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-30 14:34 EDT-0400

[SPG]

This would perform better and costs less. The 760 is outdated, so the 960 is a better option. The 960 performs a little better, uses less power, and is cheaper.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4170 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($144.98 @ DirectCanada)

Motherboard: Asus H97M-E Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($117.96 @ Amazon Canada)

Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury White 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($59.99 @ NCIX)

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($58.98 @ DirectCanada)

Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card  ($227.00 @ Newegg Canada)

Case: BitFenix Prodigy M Arctic White MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($99.99 @ Canada Computers)

Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA GS 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($94.98 @ Newegg Canada)

Total: $803.88

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-30 14:34 EDT-0400

would be better to get a r9 280x, its more powerful for cheaper/same price

[Mao_Zedong]

would be better to get a r9 280x, its more powerful for cheaper/same price

No, it isn't. This is canada, so prices are different. You can get a 280 for the same price as a 960, but a 280x costs $40 more.

[Prysin]

No, it isn't. This is canada, so prices are different. You can get a 280 for the same price as a 960, but a 280x costs $40 more.

and that is 40$ well spent.

[Mao_Zedong]

and that is 40$ well spent.

$40 for >5% more performance and over double the power consumption? no thanks.

[Unilision]

This would perform better and costs less. The 760 is outdated, so the 960 is a better option. The 960 performs a little better, uses less power, and is cheaper. The i3 4170 is better than the g3258, as it has hyperthreading. You could also get a cheaper motherboard, to cut down costs even more, but I haven't changed it here.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4170 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($144.98 @ DirectCanada)

Motherboard: Asus H97M-E Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($117.96 @ Amazon Canada)

Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury White 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($59.99 @ NCIX)

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($58.98 @ DirectCanada)

Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card  ($227.00 @ Newegg Canada)

Case: BitFenix Prodigy M Arctic White MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($99.99 @ Canada Computers)

Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA GS 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($94.98 @ Newegg Canada)

Total: $803.88

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-30 14:34 EDT-0400

Would an I3 really be better than the G3258 in terms of gaming? 

 

would be better to get a r9 280x, its more powerful for cheaper/same price

I have seen that the 280x beats the 960 though the lowest 960 is $227.00 and the lowest 280X is $287.00 so it's actually $60.00 difference

 

No, it isn't. This is canada, so prices are different. You can get a 280 for the same price as a 960, but a 280x costs $40 more.

Basically, though is it actually 5% difference in performance ?

[Mao_Zedong]

Would an I3 really be better than the G3258 in terms of gaming? 

Yes, anandtech tested it here.

 

Basically, though is it actually 5% difference in performance ?

It depends. For some things there is a bigger advantage for the 280x, and sometimes the 960 is better. It depends on the application, but I'd say 5% is a decent general estimate. 

[Prysin]

$40 for >5% more performance and over double the power consumption? no thanks.

5%?

 

A R9 380 is 5% better... the 280X is leaps ahead of the R9 285 (read 380 is just a factory OCd 285)

 

 

 

R9 285 is similar to GTX 960. They perform almost 100% identical

 

So... since this bench tool doesnt have a 960, we will use the 285 which performs pretty much the same (the 960 and 285 trades blows by 3-5 FPS, back and forth)...

 

So 285 vs 280X

http://anandtech.com/bench/product/1041?vs=1333

 

With the 285 being beaten in EVERY damn benchmark. The 280X is actually faster.

Hell, if you can dig up a 7970GHz edt. somewhere, then that will be as fast or faster then most stock 280Xs

[Unilision]

Yes, anandtech tested it here.

 

It depends. For some things there is a bigger advantage for the 280x, and sometimes the 960 is better. It depends on the application, but I'd say 5% is a decent general estimate. 

Ohh interesting, thanks for that, I'll hop over towards the I3 than  

With the video that @Prysin posted, it seems the R9 380 beats the 960 overall. The usage for this computer is strictly gaming and the type of games is just F2P. I rarely consider playing heavy loaded games like Witcher 3, Batman and etc.

 

5%?

 

A R9 380 is 5% better... the 280X is leaps ahead of the R9 285 (read 380 is just a factory OCd 285)

 

 

 

R9 285 is similar to GTX 960. They perform almost 100% identical

 

So... since this bench tool doesnt have a 960, we will use the 285 which performs pretty much the same (the 960 and 285 trades blows by 3-5 FPS, back and forth)...

 

So 285 vs 280X

http://anandtech.com/bench/product/1041?vs=1333

 

With the 285 being beaten in EVERY damn benchmark. The 280X is actually faster.

Hell, if you can dig up a 7970GHz edt. somewhere, then that will be as fast or faster then most stock 280Xs

Interesting overall than, which one do you guys think I should go towards?

The one with the best price to performance

GTX 960 2GB/4GB - R9 280X - R9 380 ? 

[Mao_Zedong]

5%?

 

A R9 380 is 5% better... the 280X is leaps ahead of the R9 285 (read 380 is just a factory OCd 285)

 

 

 

R9 285 is similar to GTX 960. They perform almost 100% identical

 

So... since this bench tool doesnt have a 960, we will use the 285 which performs pretty much the same (the 960 and 285 trades blows by 3-5 FPS, back and forth)...

 

So 285 vs 280X

 

With the 285 being beaten in EVERY damn benchmark. The 280X is actually faster.

Hell, if you can dig up a 7970GHz edt. somewhere, then that will be as fast or faster then most stock 280Xs

Well one problem with that is that they don't have the 960 overclocked. With an overclock, the 960 can gain a ton of performance, around 20% for a normal OC. In this video, linus shows is beating the 285 in half the cases. The 285 is identical to the 380, besides very sligh clockspeed changes. With those anandtehch benchmarks you showed, the 380 always wins because there isn't the nvidia/amd optimization difference. I stand by my point, the 280x is very slightly faster, but not by much, and 5% is a good general number to give it.

[gavin.970]

For the first build option, I chose to go AMD for the purpose of givign you a 290. Second build is intel route where I was able to squeeze in a very solid i5 processor.. For the AMD build, you can hold off on the 212 evo to stay in budget, for the intel build you can hold off on the 212 as well and get a mechanical. Thirs option is a 280x with no evo, if you can squeeze it in the budget I would just go with the first intel build option BUT just get a used 290 off of ebay, they are a dime a dozen right now.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-8320E 3.2GHz 8-Core Processor  ($164.99 @ Canada Computers)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  ($33.98 @ DirectCanada)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard  ($134.99 @ Newegg Canada)
Memory: Mushkin Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory  ($59.88 @ Canada Computers)
Storage: Crucial BX100 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($80.98 @ DirectCanada)
Video Card: Club 3D Radeon R9 290 4GB Royalking Video Card  ($329.99 @ NCIX)
Case: Thermaltake VL80001W2Z ATX Mid Tower Case  ($46.95 @ DirectCanada)
Power Supply: EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($54.99 @ NCIX)
Total: $906.75
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-30 15:06 EDT-0400

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($245.98 @ Amazon Canada)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  ($33.98 @ DirectCanada)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($88.98 @ Newegg Canada)
Memory: Mushkin Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory  ($59.88 @ Canada Computers)
Storage: Crucial BX100 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($80.98 @ DirectCanada)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 280 3GB Black Edition Double Dissipation Video Card  ($266.98 @ Newegg Canada)
Case: Thermaltake VL80001W2Z ATX Mid Tower Case  ($46.95 @ DirectCanada)
Power Supply: EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($54.99 @ NCIX)
Total: $878.72
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-30 15:09 EDT-0400

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($245.98 @ Amazon Canada)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($88.98 @ Newegg Canada)
Memory: Mushkin Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory  ($59.88 @ Canada Computers)
Storage: Crucial BX100 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($80.98 @ DirectCanada)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 280X 3GB Double Dissipation Video Card  ($304.98 @ Newegg Canada)
Case: Thermaltake VL80001W2Z ATX Mid Tower Case  ($46.95 @ DirectCanada)
Power Supply: EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($54.99 @ NCIX)
Total: $882.74
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-30 15:12 EDT-0400

[Prysin]

Well one problem with that is that they don't have the 960 overclocked. With an overclock, the 960 can gain a ton of performance, around 20% for a normal OC. In this video, linus shows is beating the 285 in half the cases. The 285 is identical to the 380, besides very sligh clockspeed changes. With those anandtehch benchmarks you showed, the 380 always wins because there isn't the nvidia/amd optimization difference. I stand by my point, the 280x is very slightly faster, but not by much, and 5% is a good general number to give it.

FIRST OFF ALL

 

NOT EVERYONE WANTS TO, OR IS COMFORTABLE WITH OVERCLOCKING A GPU. THAT IS A FACT AND IT SHOULD BE RESPECTED.

 

You should ALWAYS suggest the fastest OUT OF THE BOX card, but you should HIGHLIGHT that option B,C,D or E may beat option A through overclocking.

 

HOWEVER, you are also completely ignoring the fact that AMD cards can be OCd too and that due to this, things ARE NOT as black and white as you present it. The R9 380 starts 5-10% ahead of the GTX960. That means when you OC the 960, you first gotta catch up to the 380, THEN beat it. The 380 however just need to OC as much as it can to be great value.

There is also the silicon lottery. You may end up with a terrible 960 that wont go over stock or hardly OC at all, and get a great 380. Or the other way around.

 

 

anandtech shows 280X ahead of 285/380.

 

Also note that outside of the 285, GTX 970 and two or three more, ALL anandtech cards are REFERENCE.

 

If you take cards like the completely insane R9 280X TOXIC version, which is so out of this world OCd from sapphire, then things start looking a bit different.

[Prysin]

double post, sorry

[Unilision]

FIRST OFF ALL

 

NOT EVERYONE WANTS TO, OR IS COMFORTABLE WITH OVERCLOCKING A GPU. THAT IS A FACT AND IT SHOULD BE RESPECTED.

 

You should ALWAYS suggest the fastest OUT OF THE BOX card, but you should HIGHLIGHT that option B,C,D or E may beat option A through overclocking.

 

HOWEVER, you are also completely ignoring the fact that AMD cards can be OCd too and that due to this, things ARE NOT as black and white as you present it. The R9 380 starts 5-10% ahead of the GTX960. That means when you OC the 960, you first gotta catch up to the 380, THEN beat it. The 380 however just need to OC as much as it can to be great value.

There is also the silicon lottery. You may end up with a terrible 960 that wont go over stock or hardly OC at all, and get a great 380. Or the other way around.

Basically I agree. I'm not planning to overclock unless it's absolutely necessary. Or unless I feel bored and want to see how much I can push it. Aside from that.

It's simply what @Prysin said. What would be an ideal GPU out of the box to use strictly for gaming? Right now it seems the GTX 380 is in the lead though i'm unsure still. Sorry for the long post  

[Mao_Zedong]

FIRST OFF ALL

 

NOT EVERYONE WANTS TO, OR IS COMFORTABLE WITH OVERCLOCKING A GPU. THAT IS A FACT AND IT SHOULD BE RESPECTED.

 

You should ALWAYS suggest the fastest OUT OF THE BOX card, but you should HIGHLIGHT that option B,C,D or E may beat option A through overclocking.

 

HOWEVER, you are also completely ignoring the fact that AMD cards can be OCd too and that due to this, things ARE NOT as black and white as you present it. The R9 380 starts 5-10% ahead of the GTX960. That means when you OC the 960, you first gotta catch up to the 380, THEN beat it. The 380 however just need to OC as much as it can to be great value.

There is also the silicon lottery. You may end up with a terrible 960 that wont go over stock or hardly OC at all, and get a great 380. Or the other way around.

 

 

anandtech shows 280X ahead of 285/380.

 

Also note that outside of the 285, GTX 970 and two or three more, ALL anandtech cards are REFERENCE.

 

If you take cards like the completely insane R9 280X TOXIC version, which is so out of this world OCd from sapphire, then things start looking a bit different.

Well if they aren't comfortable with overclocking a GPU, they shouldn't be installing one in the first place. I know that the 380 can overclock, but not nearly as well as the 960. The 960 can be overclocked by 20% from around 1200mhz to 1500mhz basically all the time. PCper actually tested this.

On the other hand, the 380 generally can't be overclocked very well, and doing so only gives a 5-10% performance boost.

 

Basically I agree. I'm not planning to overclock unless it's absolutely necessary. Or unless I feel bored and want to see how much I can push it. Aside from that.

It's simply what @Prysin said. What would be an ideal GPU out of the box to use strictly for gaming? Right now it seems the GTX 380 is in the lead though i'm unsure still. Sorry for the long post

Well the 960 would still perform well if you don't want to overclock. OVerclocking is that hard anyways, you just install MSI afterburner and raise the clockspeed a bit and then you're basically done.

[Prysin]

Basically I agree. I'm not planning to overclock unless it's absolutely necessary. Or unless I feel bored and want to see how much I can push it. Aside from that.

It's simply what @Prysin said. What would be an ideal GPU out of the box to use strictly for gaming? Right now it seems the GTX 380 is in the lead though i'm unsure still. Sorry for the long post

The ideal option is a HD 7970 GHz edition (280X) on dirt cheap sale... but other then that... R9 380 or GTX 960 is both good options with the R9 380 being slightly ahead.

 

Better yet is if you can find a R9 290 for little money. As it is MILES ahead of the R9 380 and GTX 960

http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/video-card/#c=112,152&sort=a8&page=1

 

like that one... tripple slot cooler should keep it nice and cool and allow for easy OC if you ever decide to OC it...

[Prysin]

Well if they aren't comfortable with overclocking a GPU, they shouldn't be installing one in the first place.

And with that statement, you should have just packed your sack and left.

 

That is an insult, not towards me, but towards every person who own a computer.

You sir, is just a kneejerk. And such an attitude does not belong any place. Be it on or off the internet.

[Unilision]

Well if they aren't comfortable with overclocking a GPU, they shouldn't be installing one in the first place. I know that the 380 can overclock, but not nearly as well as the 960. The 960 can be overclocked by 20% from around 1200mhz to 1500mhz basically all the time. PCper actually tested this.

On the other hand, the 380 generally can't be overclocked very well, and doing so only gives a 5-10% performance boost.

 

Well the 960 would still perform well if you don't want to overclock. OVerclocking is that hard anyways, you just install MSI afterburner and raise the clockspeed a bit and then you're basically done.

Yeah I know it's simple though I just don't find it completely necessary to overclock it constantly. 

 

The ideal option is a HD 7970 GHz edition (280X) on dirt cheap sale... but other then that... R9 380 or GTX 960 is both good options with the R9 380 being slightly ahead.

 

Better yet is if you can find a R9 290 for little money. As it is MILES ahead of the R9 380 and GTX 960

http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/video-card/#c=112,152&sort=a8&page=1

 

like that one... tripple slot cooler should keep it nice and cool and allow for easy OC if you ever decide to OC it...

Yeah though if I lived in the states I'd probably get a R9 290, but canada too op, prices are ridiculous. 

[Mao_Zedong]

And with that statement, you should have just packed your sack and left.

 

That is an insult, not towards me, but towards every person who own a computer.

You sir, is just a kneejerk. And such an attitude does not belong any place. Be it on or off the internet.

It wasn't an insult, I'm just saying the truth. Now stop using a fallacy and address my point.

 

Yeah I know it's simple though I just don't find it completely necessary to overclock it constantly. 

Its not like you always need to mess with it, it's just a five minute one time thing. If you don't need the extra performance now, you can run it at stock, and overclock it if you need more power later. 

[Prysin]

It wasn't an insult, I'm just saying the truth. Now stop using a fallacy and address my point.

 

Its not like you always need to mess with it, it's just a five minute one time thing. If you don't need the extra performance now, you can run it at stock, and overclock it if you need more power later. 

Your point is non-existent.

 

OP has stated he or she does not WANT to OC. And in that case, your comment towars the OP holds true. If you do not want to OC now, oyu can grab the 380 because its better out of the box, then OC it later to make it even better still.

out of the box, 380 is better.

If OP decides to set up a crossfire setup, then AMD is still better.

 

The only time a GTX 960 is justifyable, at this point, is if you are using a low power CPU, like a Athlon 860k or FX 6xxx. As the CPU overhead in Nvidias drivers would greatly help these CPUs, but with a intel CPU, you do not notice that overhead that much.

[Unilision]

It wasn't an insult, I'm just saying the truth. Now stop using a fallacy and address my point.

 

Its not like you always need to mess with it, it's just a five minute one time thing. If you don't need the extra performance now, you can run it at stock, and overclock it if you need more power later. 

Yes I agree with your point, though let's end this post once and for all because it seems like it's getting out of topic.

 

Ideally speaking right now after reading everyone's discussion. 

The R9 380 is ideal for out of the box while, the GTX 960 out performs if overclocked, if that's the case i'd more than likely just fall into the 380. Since the user of the computer, won't be the type to overclock it at any given time. 

I appreciate all the advice and post you guys put, I made my decision and the changes to the build as well is much appreciated