Please check a build I am doing for a friend.

He will be surfing web, playing games like Diablo 3, Star craft 2, cs go, mass effect, civ4, and hooking it up to his TV as a home theater pc.

Here are the parts I have put together. With MIR and my email codes I have calculated the cost at $799.84 I have a max budget of $800

I would love any input. Did I forget anything that would complete this build besides peripherals?


case: Antec NSK4100 Black SGCC steel ATX Mid Tower
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129197


Storage SSHD: Seagate Hybrid Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822178380

OS drive: Kingston SSD 120GB (Thinking about Patriot Blaze for $45 PB120GS25SSDR)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820721107

mobo: MSI 970a (maybe gigabyte ud3 for same price)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130637

PSU: antec true power (seems like a solid psu for the price)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371073

RAM: G.SKILL 16GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231606

CPU: 8350 (no surprises here. Solid performer at a great price)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113284

GFX card: R9 280 3GB (it is on sale, why not) Figure 3GB will help it not become outdated looking at current trends.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202099

Fan: Extra fan for case. Fill her up and be done with it.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835345029

Thank you for checking my build.

-Pinky

These are my opinions for the build,
#1 - I would not use an SSHD for a storage drive, stick to a standard quality 7200rpm (WD Blue for example)

#2 - Kingston does GREAT in the RAM sector, but I would advise steering clear of their SSDs, they have been caught using bait&switch tactics with the V300 line of product

#3 - Out of curiousity on the cpu, why not grab the 8320? Far cheaper and can be pushed rather easily.

Thank you.


1. the sshd will also hold a lot of games. Will the SD part help games load faster? One of the reasons for SDHD is the budget allows and he only wanted 1GB anyay. So 2GB and faster?

2. Good to know. I will see how much more I can afford.

3. I don't know. I just looked at both and am amazed how close they are in power. Thank you. I agree that it is not worth $25 more for 8320. With the switch to 8320 I can put some $ for a better SSD.

Thanks again.

Steer clear of MSI for AMD.

ATMINSIDE said:

Steer clear of MSI for AMD.

Click to expand...

why?

they tend to blow up!!!!
for what you want to do go lower/mid intel, or at least just get an fx 6350, 8 cores is a lot of heat to fight and boards that will make it go are costly.
I would rather see you go with an intel 4690 or something along those lines.

Gigabyte 970 ud3p
FX 8320
Generic decent 30$ cooler
8gb g skill
1tb hdd
That r9 280 is pretty good
250gb Samsung 850 evo
Quality psu, 600-750watt

Should be well south of the 800$ mark, even with your case.

revised build.

My friend has requested AMD 8 core or i7. AND 12GB or more of ram. I could go cheaper with video card and use money towered somethign else, but I don't see why.

case: Antec NSK4100 Black SGCC steel ATX Mid Tower
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129197


Storage hdd: Seagate 2TB Barracuda (how noisy is this)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148834

OS drive: Kingston SSD 120GB (Thinking about Patriot Blaze for $45 PB120GS25SSDR)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820721107

mobo: gigabyte D3P (can not find a reason to pay more for ud3p)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128627


PSU: antec true power (seems like a solid psu for the price)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371073

RAM: G.SKILL 16GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231606

CPU: 8320 (no surprises here. Solid performer at a great price)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113285

CPU cooler: hyper 212 plus ( tired and true, and on sale!)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065

GFX card: R9 280 3GB (it is on sale, why not) Figure 3GB will help it not become outdated looking at current trends.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814202099

Fan: Extra fan for case. Fill her up and be done with it.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835345029

So apparently you want advice and are ignoring every piece lol. Have fun with your build mate.

Ask your friend why he wants 12gb of ram, I'd love to hear that answer. I7 doesn't fit in the modest budget. Ud3p was recommended for a reason. Kingston Ssds are junk compared to the Samsung models.

What does he need an i7 or AMD octo and 16GB of RAM for? None of the reasons in the OP are screaming "I need more threads and memory!" For the usage you described, I'd go with a locked i5 on an H97 board, grab up that 280 and get a GOOD SSD and 8GB of RAM.

The 8320 is pretty old now, and AM3+ isn't likely to get another generation of processors, so if you go with that build, they're pretty much stuck with it until they get another PC. At least with the i5 route, there're i7's that you could pick up used later on if they need it, and you can always get a matching 8GB kit of RAM if they decide they need 16GB.

pinky33 said:

revised build.

My friend has requested AMD 8 core or i7. AND 12GB or more of ram. I could go cheaper with video card and use money towered somethign else, but I don't see why.

mobo: gigabyte D3P (can not find a reason to pay more for ud3p)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128627

Click to expand...

There's a very GOOD reason to get the UD3P over the D3P. The D3P's power section is woefully inadequate to run an Octo-core, it's only a 4+1 VRM section. That isn't nearly enough to support an Octo-core, probably barely enough for a Hexa-core, if that. The UD3P has a much better power section, and is instead a 8+2 VRM phase design.

And I would say no to that MSI 970A board for the same reason. I understand you're trying to cut costs for your friend's build, but the motherboard power section is not a good place to cut costs. That'll just cause the PC to fail sooner than necessary.

Also, Kingston SSD's should be avoided for the time being, they don't perform well. They changed out certain internal parts and the more recent versions perform considerably worse than the pre-production samples that were sent to reviewers.

Look at Samsung, Crucial, Corsair, or Intel for SSD's (in my opinion). There may be other good manufacturers out there, but those are the ones that I could think of off the top of my head. OCZ maybe if their quality has improved (has it?).

Personally I'd recommend a Western Digital Caviar Blue or Caviar Black (Black, if funds permit, as it has a longer warranty and performs better than the Blue typically) over a Seagate SSHD (or any Seagate product for that matter (I've had terrible luck with them)).