Advice on a upcoming build please

[Ahmi]

Hi people, just wanted to run my parts list past you guys see what you think. I've built a couple systems in the past and as well I have been doing my research into the best bang for the buck, on a bit of a budget as I am building two of these, one for me and the wife. We mainly game but as well do some video editing/encoding, sound production, Java development, anyways let me know what you guys think please? Much appreciated

Here is the rundown of the base components and explanation as to why I am picking these and maybe help give you guys an idea behind the choices.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/WDtwt6
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/WDtwt6/by_merchant/

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor
Because Zen comes soon and I do not see the point in an extra $50 pricetag for 2 extra cores.
CPU Cooler: Corsair H110i GTX 104.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
Because I would like to overclock to around 4.5 without worrying about temperature issues. Will be front mounted for fresh intake against the fins. Also picked this due to it being one of the CoolIT made not Asetek which have been not performing as well which I suppose why Corsair went to CoolIT.
Motherboard: Asus M5A99FX PRO R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard
Cheap 990fx that will get the job done and is ASUS quality.
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Tactical 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (
Pretty much the cheapest Cas 9 16GB kit available with decent reviews and specs.
Storage: A-Data Premier SP550 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Has some of the best Read/Writes (560/510 MB/s) for any SSD 240 GB under $75
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 2GB SuperSC ACX 2.0+ Video Card
Just overall my favorite 960 card for heat control, would like to get the 4gb version with a backplate if it goes back on sale again but at $200 it's abit steep.
Case: Thermaltake Core V31 ATX Mid Tower Case
One of the roomiest cases for the price range and easily fit everything as I will not be using hdd trays at all, the ssd above will be mounted behind the mobo or below the optical drive.
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA GS 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
I like EVGA can you tell? Anyways just a good and quiet psu that should easily cover my wattage and I do not plan on running dual GPU so should be good, actual wattage will look something like this (Upped the stats abit to hopefully cover overclocking) = http://outervision.com/b/R66bDI
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer
Just a drive I will almost never use.
Case Fan: StarTech FAN5X1TX3 8.6 CFM 50mm Fan
For the back of the socket, Told you I've been lurking
Case Fan: StarTech FAN7X10TX3 70mm Fan
For the NB area, Told you I've been lurking
Case Fan: Kingwin CF-014LB 58.0 CFM 140mm Fan
Case Fan: Kingwin CF-014LB 58.0 CFM 140mm Fan
These both will be on the top of case as exhaust.
Beyond that the case comes with 2 120mm fans one in rear as exhaust that will not move and one in front that will be moved to the bottom of the case as additional intake.

This will all be bought from Amazon due to prime free two day shipping, so the price total listed at PCPartPicker is not accurate.

That's the gist of it just waiting on my refund, so whatcha think?

 

[bassnut]

One thought you might want to concider ...... This board has a better power section.

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132713

Check out the review. ..........

http://www.overclockers.com/asus-970-pro-gaming-aura-motherboard-review/


Also for ram we have found that the AMD just seems to like GSKILL better. We have found here in the forums GSKILL ram has consistently had fewer problems with then any of the other manufacturers. That doesn't mean that the Corsair ram will not work I do have 2 sets of Corsair ram here that do play nice and work pretty good with my AMD System. Just some food for thought.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

+1 to what bassnut said.

Glad to see someone who has done their research.

Also, if you want to save some cash, you can easily hit 4.5 with an NH-D14 on the 6300.
You wouldn't need the 70 mm fan this way, just double check it will clear the heatsink on the motherboard.

 

[trents]

He's listed Crucial Ballistic for his RAM, not Corsair. But I've used Crucial Ballistic in several AMD boards lately without any issues. Seems to be mainly Kingston that causes issues with AMD chipsets.

Looks like solid choices to me, Ahmi. But you probably don't need 16gb of RAM and it may negatively affect your overclocking goal. 8gb is plenty.

 

[Bluefalcon13]

I like this guy. Done his homework! Alot of it looks great to me. I would definitely consider the 970 pro from Asus instead though. If you are concerned about the memory, check the QVL list for the ram. The 970 pro should show currently tested modules. +1 for gskill. They have been my goto for a while now.

 

[Ahmi]

Thanks for the information guys! So the 970 aura is better than the 990fx pro? I looked around and most of the information and articles i've read just said I was better off with a 990 board over a 970 but it's literally a 1 cent difference in price lol so I'll happily take which is better.

As for the cooler that's alot to do with I live in the midwest of U.S. and it gets just nasty hot here and my ambient temps can get a little warm. But if even then you guys don't think it would matter to much I by all means don't mind saving money, I just don't want to run hot at all. My ambients here have ruined the fx 4300's we run now, though they are stock coolers.

I had started with Kingston (Yummy Lifetime warranty) but saw you guys have had near endless issues with them. I then went to Corsair as thats what i'm running now(Not OC'd) but saw some people had issues with them as well so I switched to G.Skil and was ok but I was reading something from Johan about having issues closely resembling the Kingston issues with timings and such whilst overclocking. So I looked up the AMD brand ram but it's pricey so I ended up just picking the first cas 9 1866 ram I found that wasn't Kingston, Corsair, or G.Skil. But I'm totally open on this one. Now the Ram amount has mostly to do with we like the play Minecraft and our NinjaCat modpacks are huge, (312 mods for 1.7.10 about 5 GB ram usage/ 278 mods for 1.8.9 and like 6 GB Ram). Yea horribly coded game but we love it lol, but if we play it and like open a browser we're sitting at like 85% plus memory usage.


Thanks again guys really appreciate the advice!

 

[Bluefalcon13]

The VRM section on the 970 aura is 7+1 while the 990fx is 6+2. Also, the 970 aura is a much newer board with newer features.

 

[Ahmi]

Gotcha, ok well than Aura 970 it is, it has shiny lights too so that makes me happy . Then for ram i'm thinking it will probably be G.Skill 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3 PC3-14900 1866MHz Sniper Series (9-10-9-28) Dual Channel kit (F3-1866C9D-16GSR).

 

[Bluefalcon13]

I've had great luck with my snipers 2x4gb kit.

 

[Ahmi]

Awesome, well it seems I have done well with my picks than. Though a lot of those choices stem from information I learned from here Just need my federal return to show up now so you guys can help me overclock them lol, as again I'll be building two identical sets. Although I know they won't necessarily overclock the same.

And I am still up in the air for the cooler, I just don't want to worry about my heat as again we ruined 2 fx 4300's due to high ambient temperatures. But you are the guys in the know

 

[BoundByBlood]

Looking ahead to "future proof" your build - since you plan on getting a Zen - for a motherboard I would toss in your direction the same suggestions which were given to me: the Asus Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 or the Asus Crosshair V Formula-Z (newegg has a couple of open boxes for both which might save you a few bucks).

You really can't go wrong with either one and you're pretty much guaranteed compatibility when you do get a higher end processor.

For your CPU cooler I humbly suggest the Raijintek Triton. I did some research and cross referencing it with some tech sites the cooler received some favorable reviews so I thought I would give it a shot. So far I'm pretty impressed .

It has nice solid constructed parts and a universal mounting kit - Intel doesn't get any installation favoritism with this one - which was a breeze to install. I like it a lot and I would recommend trying it out.

Edit: You might have a problem with the triton in that mid-tower since you need to be able to accommodate a 240mm radiator with two 120mm fans.

 

[Ahmi]

Yea I would LOVE to have a kitty or crosshair but the pricetag is just to high for me, but that being said if I see an open box or refurbish in the $130 range I will grab one for sure. *Fingers Crossed*. I'll have to go have a look at the cooler though. Thanks for the info

 

[BoundByBlood]

Well there are some options, maybe not as cheap as you would ideally hope, but they might be manageable.

On Ebay:
[1] Asus Crosshair V Formula-Z $149 + free shipping. This is a used motherboard which the seller claims has been tested and is 100% working. Just the motherboard, no I/O shield.

[2] Asus Sabertooth 990FX R.20 $130 OBO + free shipping. Seller lists it as "in great shape" and I'm assuming it's the board only since there isn't any mention of accessories.

Just something to think about it.

Also, I've played around with the Triton quite a bit so if you have any questions about that specific cooler feel free to ask.

I'm also selling a Silverstone TD03-Lite AIO for $45 . It's new in the box.

 

[Ahmi]

I definitely would love to have either one of the two, since i'm still waiting at the moment it will probably just come down what is available at the time.

I've been super busy today so I haven't even had a chance to look at the cooler but I'm finally home and relaxing so I'll check it out now. And I can't see the other one but I wouldn't want to go less than 240mm and not more than 280mm. I mean I could moves things but I have the layout pictured in my head and a 120/140 or anything bigger than 280mm would just mess up my arrangement lol. Been expecting this purchase for sometime so I have rebuilt the part list like a thousand times hehe.

 

[bassnut]

With AMD their is no such thing as future proof looking toward ZEN as there is a brand new socket coming out for ZEN. ANY board available right now will only be good up the FX line ...... ZEN will require a new motherboard.

 

[Bluefalcon13]

With AMD their is no such thing as future proof looking toward ZEN as there is a brand new socket coming out for ZEN. ANY board available right now will only be good up the FX line ...... ZEN will require a new motherboard.

This is very true, if I was buying today out of need, I would go cheap. RAM shouldn't transfer either, as IIRC AMD is moving to ddr4.

 

[Ahmi]

True but even then I would still love either one of those boards as these pc's will be the only build for a few years. Though I am really excited if they produce close to what I read they are saying with Zen.

 

[Vishera]

Something I noticed is you have way more exhaust fans than intake. Afaik, that is negative pressure, which is no bueno. You want more intake than exhaust, i.e. 3 intake with one exhaust, or 5 intake with 2 exhaust. Just a little something I was informed on when I built my current rig. Basically more intake than exhaust is positive pressure, and that is supposed to help with cooling, even if the ambient temperatures are a bit warm.

 

[Ahmi]

I guess the two bringing air in the front through the radiator would no longer count as good intake meaning only the 120mm bottom intake would really count as good intake? Meaning 1I to 3E instead of 3I and 3E which is what I had thought.

I was thinking balance as there would be x2 140mm front with rad and 120 bottom next to psu intake. x2 140mm top exhaust and 120mm rear exhaust. So I should maybe drop the x2 140mm top and replace the rear 120mm with a nice 140mm is sounding like what I should do.

 

[Vishera]

Well remember, if the fans in front are on the rad, unless you have the rad between two layers of fans on either side in push/pull, the only air coming from those rad fans would be the warm air from your liquid cooler. Equal exhaust and intake is called neutral pressure, which is better than negative, but still not as ideal as positive.

The idea with positive, is the lack of exhaust means that cool air is in excess, so instead of the hot air heating the cool air, the cool air, well, cools the hot air. And since you only have one exhaust fan, or two, it takes a while for that cool air to be sucked back out, giving it even more time to cool your system. With neutral, you simply have a "breeze" running through your system over your components. My advice to you would be to consider a case that offers 5 fans or more. Two of them can be taken up by your radiator, with two still sucking in cool air from the environment, and one exhausting. Not sure if you'd be willing to go full tower JUST for the sake of having more fans. The exhaust fan in any case should be a 120, the intakes should all be 140's where possible.

Also keep in mind that you don't HAVE to do this, but you said cooling's a concern for you, and this is one of the better ways to arrange your case fans for that purpose. I'd find a mid-tower case with 5 fans or more, and really the ideal situation would be to jump up to full tower. With that case size you can get upwards of 7 to 8 case fans, meaning you can take up two fan slots with your rad and still have four to five intake fans with an exhaust fan. Also make sure you get static pressure fans for your rad. Those are just fans that are stronger and would do better at pushing and/or pulling air through the resistance of the rad fins.