New Semi Budget Build with a FX 6300

[Hexxagon]

It's time for a new build. My first attempt into OC'ing was a few years ago with a Intel 8400 running at 3.87Ghz on a Gigabyte board. It's been running fine and continues to do so, yet I want a little more horsepower for encoding and such. I will not be playing games on this new rig. Yet i still want something powerful enough to be up to the task. I am going to salvage parts from the original rig, so I won't need everything this time around.

The AMD prices are the leading factor in choosing AMD over Intel. Having looked at some of the reviews and benchmarks it looks like the FX 6300 can handle a decent overclock and can stand up to some of the better Intel offerings. I'm not looking for bleeding edge advancements ( ie. Haswell ) and don't mind the mid life cycle of the products for the price vs performance advantages.

The Build

AMD FX-6300 Six Core Processor Socket AM3+ 3.5GHZ 14MB 95W $120 cdn
Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3 AMD970 ATX AM3+ DDR3 2PCI-E16 3PCI-E1 2PCI SATA3 USB3.0 $100 cdn
Sapphire Radeon HD 7790 OC 1GB 6400MHZ GDDR5 1075MHZ $120 cdn
G.SKILL Ripjaws X F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL 8GB 2X4GB DDR3-1600 CL9-9-9-24 $70 cdn
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo Direct Touch 4 Heatpipe Heatsink $30 cdn

Total Cost = $440 cdn

Already Owned

2 X BenQ GW2750HM 27IN Widescreen A-MVA LED Monitor 20M:1 4MS HDMI
Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower - 2 x 120mm TriCool blue LED front fans - 1 x 120mm TriCool rear fan
3 X Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA3 6GB/S 7200RPM 64MB Cache 3.5IN Dual Proc Hard Drive
1 X Western Digital WD Caviar Green 3TB SATA3 3.5IN 64MB Cache Intellipower Internal Hard Disk
Corsair TX750V2 750W ATX 12V 60A 24PIN
Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit

Any feedback or comments is much appreciated. For this price range, are there other options I should be looking at? Thank you in advance.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

I'd go for a 7870 instead of the 7790, but that depends on how soon you think you'll be gaming.

Other than that, looks awesome

Edit: FWIW, I'm running 4.4GHz on that CPU/mobo combo right now.

 

[Knufire]

What software do you use to encode?

If you don't game and don't have GPU acceleration in the encoding, you could get a cheaper GPU and get an octocore.

 

[Hexxagon]

Thanks for the responses.

I use Handbrake for encoding and PS3 media server for streaming to the PS3. I am usually transcoding full BD's and high bit rate MKV's, so I am hoping a new six core processor can help out with that.

The 7850 is still around $200, so I'm not sure if I want to put in the extra cash for this.

@ATMINSIDE. Good to hear about the 4.4Ghz on this cpu/mobo combo. That is where I would my OC to end up.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Thanks for the responses.

I use Handbrake for encoding and PS3 media server for streaming to the PS3. I am usually transcoding full BD's and high bit rate MKV's, so I am hoping a new six core processor can help out with that.

The 7850 is still around $200, so I'm not sure if I want to put in the extra cash for this.

@ATMINSIDE. Good to hear about the 4.4Ghz on this cpu/mobo combo. That is where I would my OC to end up.

I run 720p clips from Handbrake at ~75fps.

Either the 6 or 8 core will be a massive improvement over a Core2Duo machine.