First Build - $1300 (aud)

[JABotage00]

I'm building my first gaming PC and was looking for any improvements/changes to make it better value for money without going over $1300. I'm not looking to overclock or anything like that. i don't want to water cool either.

 

At the moment I'm looking at:

• Intel i5-4460
• MSI H97 gaming 3 ATX
• Kingston HyperX Fury 16gb
• Kingston SSD V300 series 60gb(for os)
• WD Caviar Blue 1TB 7200rpm
• EVGA Gforce GTX 960 4gb FTW 
• Corsair Spec-02
• EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze
• Windows 8.1

[The Official Czex]

That SSD is very bad. Go with an OCZ or Crucial alternative.

 

A R9-380 will outperform the 960 by 5-15% despite costing around the same price.

 

I would not buy a Bronze rated PSU, but instead buy a cheap XFX or SeaSonic Gold PSU.

[Bazilias]

you don't really need 16GB for gaming.

 

Link: http://au.pcpartpicker.com/p/fcYwWZ

 

I made some changes

 

• Intel i5-4460
• MSI H97 PC Mate ATX
• Kingston HyperX Fury 1600MHz (2x4GB)
• Samsung 850 EVO 250gb (for os)
• WD Caviar Blue 1TB 7200rpm
• MSI R9 380 4GB
• Corsair Spec-02
• EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze
• Windows 8.1

[JABotage00]

Thanks, will be sure to implement the changes.

[Droidbot]

That SSD is very bad. Go with an OCZ or Crucial alternative.

This. The Kingston SSD was great, had rave reviews, then they made (in their infinite wisdom) the flash chips lower quality secretly, therefore lowering the SSD's performance but keeping the reviews showing its speed. Sneaky move. Grab a SanDisk, OCZ, or Samsung SSD and you will notice the difference. 

 

Source: I owned one. Returned it to Amazon. 

[JABotage00]

Thanks, some really useful options there.