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Advice on 2nd build

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AlwaysMaybe

AlwaysMaybe

Member
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Joined
Oct 13, 2011
A while back, I built gaming computer and my wife liked it so much that she has staked claim to it. I was there by banished to a cheap laptop, which was fine at the time because I was working more than gaming. Now, I have more free time and figure it's time to upgrade from the laptop. The new build will be for gaming and general use with little to no OC (the current laptop with average 5-15 fps on lowest settings and that's being generous). I would like to keep it under $1000 including Monitor,Keyboard,OS, and Components (I'm kind of looking at the best Price/Performance build I can manage, so if something can do near the same for cheaper, I'm going to go with that). I have put together some stuff that caught my eye and figured it would be a good starting point (I kind of have my heart set on a SSD and I'm fine with the smaller size because I manage my storage regularly and never have needed more than 250 GB).

GPU: $214 - XFX Radeon R9 280 3GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150705

CPU: $159 - AMD A10-7850K Kaveri
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113359

SSD: $110 - Crucial MX100 256GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148820

Mobo: $66 - ASUS A78M-A FM2+
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132080

Power Supply: $50 - Corsair CX500 500W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139027

Memory: $50 - G.SKILL Ripjaws 4GB (unless you think I need more...)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231303

Case: $50 - Corsair Carbide
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139041

Heatsink: $30 - Cooler Master Hyper 212 plus
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065

OS: $100 - Windows 8
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832416776

Drive: $20 - Asus
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204

Monitor: $170 - Asus 23" 1ms
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236305

Keyboard: $50 - Microsoft sidewinder
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823109191

Total $1069

So, I am currently a little over what I would like my budget to be. Some advice on anything you might see that could be changed to make it cheaper, faster, more compatible, or any insight would be nice.

Edit: I would also like to keep it open for things in the future, upgrades and the like (maybe higher resolutions or additional monitors)
 
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First off the r9 280 takes a 750w power supply.

And I don't believe the 212 fits in the carbide. When I was looking into doing my budget build I had to switch cases for that reason. I'm still looking just to make sure that i'm not giving false info.
 
Yeah I was curious about needing to upgrade the psu and feared the heat sink might be too big. I'm not going to be OCing this build so anyone think I particularly need alternate heatsink?

Edit: I looked up a couple things and it said 750+ for crossfire with 500 being the bare minimum for one.
 
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If you are not going to OC then you will be fine with the stock heatsink. It may be a little louder but I would suggest to replace the thermal paste that comes on the stock heatsink with arctic silver 5 or something better.

And after looking around pcpartpicker states the 212 will not fit and some individuals have said the copper heatsinks rub the window on the side.
 
Also something I didn't notice you would be much better off going with 8gb of 1866 ram. G.skill makes some great ram.

And to save a few bucks since you are running a discreet GPU you could go with the 860k instead of the 7850k. Basically the 860k is the same other than the on board graphics of the 7850k.
 
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Yeah, I was trying to save some cash with a little less ram but was worried about "cutting myself off at the knees" so to speak; but if I don't go with a different heatsink, then I can live with some more ram.
 
You do NOT need a 750W power supply for ANY card. A strong 500W supply with enough amps on 12V will run any single card.

OP- change your CPU to the AMD FX 6300 and your MOBO to the Gigabyte GA970AUD3P and get a Hyper 212 CPU cooler.
Much higher performance that way. Also if you are in the USA you can get an R9 290, a MUCH more powerful card, for $250.
You can pick up a Corsair CX600 power supply or something cheap but decent like that to round it off.

If you're interested I'll put a full build together for you later when I am more composed.
 
It would be better than the stock heatsink but still wouldn't be able to OC very far on it. Your best bet would be the build ATM posted.

The 860k and FM2+ is the newer manufacturing process as well as support for PCI-E 3.0. The fx series are strong CPUs but the mobos only support PCI-E 2.0. Which is not a huge difference but you would be able to harness all of the power from the newer GPUs.

Also you can search around and look at comparisons of the Fx-6300 and the 860k and the comparisons show very little difference between the two performance wise.

Edit: Also, the 970 that ATM posted as well is also part of the new Nvidia lineup of GPUs and uses less power. This build would be more friendly to your electric bill as well.
 
Look at the heatsink on the build I linked. Better performance than the 212 EVO, quieter, same price.
 
I looked over all the suggestions and made my own list of things that looked good to me. I don't know if I stated that I will be buying all the stuff from newegg. A better way of saying my price range would have been maybe $800 for components (because people can suggest monitors, keyboards, etc all day long, plus I still have to find a place to put this stuff).

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/TJ94Jx

That is about $790 for the components (excluding monitor and keyboard)

as much as I would like an awesome GPU, I don't think it's quite in my budget. I am still open to suggestions.

Edit: As an added note, I don't intend to Overclock, so a super heatsink I don't think is necessary.
 
I'll tell you right now, that Xigmatek will be a LOT quieter than that tiny Cooler Master thing you added.

Check out this GPU instead:
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/evga-video-card-02gp42776kr
Faster than the 280, but doesn't cost as much as a 970. Also uses less power than the 280.

Again, I see no need for the DVD drive.
OS installs can be done easier and faster from a USB stick these days.
Drivers can be (and should be) downloaded, to get the newest versions.
 
I'm thinking you guys might have talked me into upgrading the gpu I was looking at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161459 (I didn't pick the one you linked because it was out of stock) because it's not much more. As far as sound, I'm not worried about it being a little loud. The dvd drive, I still buy disk of things every once in a while and i'm sure the second I opt out of getting one, I will find myself needing one.
 
I'd still switch to the Xigmatek cooler, simply because it's quieter.
Also going to be easier to get a consistent/solid mount.
 
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