First PC Build [REVIVED]

[Stewie521]

ANNDDDD a revive! That's right, this thread being brought back to life! Just a mere 2 years later.... and still no PC but none the less the dream continues!!
So onward we go into the vast unkn... I mean yea I did my research.
But I digress.

So the goal here is to build a solid, long lasting Gaming build, on a bang for buck budget. I'd like to spend under $1800 but it can be upped. My main course of posting here is to get some more experienced opinions on the builds I have saved and dreaming towards. So let's Set up some parameters!

1. AMD is a serious option right now, however I was dragged onto the Intel boat by some tech peers of mine, so it is a relatively unknown topic to me. The reason I am looking into AMDs is because from my research, I gathered that AMD performs almost exactly the same as Intel, and the only difference to games will be a couple of fps, which is unnoticeable to the human eye. Again from what I gathered is that AMD lacks largely in stuff such as 3D editing and rendering which I will be doing little to none. Also if I can reduce the price on the CPU then I can get higher better gaming optimized parts such as video cards.
2. The final question is which card type would be better for an AMD setup; AMD or Nvidia? I am aware of Nvidia's PhysX engine thing built in but I'm not too sure of the benefits of it because nowhere is really supplying it. Also would it be better to run 2 lower quality GPUs or would it be a better choice to go for a solid single card?

Now with the parameters and questions out of the way I present my two favorite builds!
Intel

Case: Zalman Z11 ATX Mid Tower Link
CPU: Intel i7-4790 Link
MOBO: Gigabyte GA-Z97X Gamiing 5Link
RAM: Kingston HyperXFury 8GB Link
Storage: SanDisk 128GB SSD (Boot Drive) Link
               WD 1TB Black HDD Link
Optical: A Cheap Optical Drive
Video Card: Asus GTX 770 Link
PSU: Corsair CX750M Modular PSU Link
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium


AMD

Case: NZXT Phantom 530 Tower Link
CPU: AMD FX-8320 Link
MOBO: Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 Link
RAM: Kingston HyperXFury 16GB Link
Storage: SanDisk 128GB SSD (Boot Drive) Link
               WD 1TB Black HDD Link
Optical: A Cheap Optical Drive
Video Card: MSi R9 290 Raedon Link
PSU: Corsair CX750M Modular PSU Link
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium

^{*Please note that the CPU and MOBO for each build are offered as a bundle at MemEx so they will be bundled to save money}

So yea that is the current update at the my builds. I am open to advice, suggestions, criticisms anything. So in case any of you tl;dr that novel;
Need advice on AMD CPU and GPU
Need advice on whether AMD build would be better overall than my Intel
Need advice on whether AMD build would be better paired with Nvidia or AMD
Need a second opinion on my builds.

PS for anyone wondering if this will actually become a reality and whether or not they should give said advice for fear that it might be wasted time. The spending power I have right now puts this a month out, very near.Sooner if we manage to cut back on costs but still keep good performance.

[Melbosa]

Nice put together for your first try.  Very well indeed.  You won't have any problems playing any games with that rig.

I've been in the game a long time, and built many gaming, non-gaming, systems and servers.  So I will impart my computing knowledge on your build as I know best, and you can take it however you want.

CPU Heatsynk: While it was kewl to overclock and play back in the day... today I would say don't bother.  You can stick with the factory heatsync and fan now, no need to buy those parts unless yours canks out, and with the new safeguards in CPUs it isn't so bad when it does.

RAM: I would say if you can, especially dropping the heat sync, go at least 12GB of ram.  Its cheap and its good to always have more than you need!

HD:  While SSD are nice to have, don't break your bank on it.  Most 7200RPM drives are all you are going to need.  I highly recommend the Seagate Hybrids if you want some SSD, and they give you the some advantages of SSD with a better price point http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX36731.  You will definitely need more than 128GB of HD space if going to play more than Minecraft (games eat up a lot of HD space these days).  Can always add the SSD later on if find a good sale.

Case:  Nice one!  Zalmans are never a bad buy, although the Antec Gaming cases are usually a pretty sweet deal for what you get.  But if you can, stick with your choice.

GPU (Video):  From experience MSI video cards aren't the most reliable over time.  But they could be better now (haven't owned one in a while).  If going nVidia I would recommend eVGAs more myself.

CPU: Looks good to me.

MoBo: Looks good to me.

PSU (Power): Looks good to me.

OS:  I wouldn't recommend Ultimate unless you really want the Multimedia stuffs it has.  You can easily game with Enterprise/Professional version, just don't get Home edition (your dad will be thankful if you don't when trying to network everything together).  There is just some things Home can't do which frustrates when trying certain things over the network.  And doesn't your dad have a MSDN/Technet subscriptions ?

Any more questions, keep 'em coming.  If cost is an issue, you can always go with an APU (AMD) as well and save on the video card for now - add it later.

[Tom]

If you're really dead set on an SSD, rather large SSDs have been going on sale rather regularly now. $200 for 240G or better. We're talking better, and sometimes /much/ better than $1/GB. Slightly older models tend to get put on sale fairly often, so its always good to keep an eye out.

This weekend NCIX has a 320G SSD on sale for $200 after MIR. ($220 before MIR)

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=68930&vpn=AGT3-25SAT3-360G&manufacture=OCZ%20Technology&promoid=1223

Killer price for what should be a really solid drive.

[Mr. Analog]

I was running an SSD as a primary drive for my OS and it was fast as lightning, the downside was stability over time, in a year I had a lot of issues like random restarts and disk read errors.

I still have it, but I use it as cache for Windows 7.

I agree with Melbosa for overclocking, a few years ago I set up a fairly tweakable system and while it was kind of fun to kick the CPU in the pants I wasn't really getting much out of having the extra cycles. Then there was power and heat issues, I went through 3 expensive cooling systems before I found the right balance of noise to cooling.

Watercooling kits are everywhere these days but again, take maintenance, are a bit fussy and these days you don't really get a whole lot of benefit from overclocking, so other than the gee-whiz factor you're not really getting much (and potentially frying everything!)

One thing I'd recommend though if you aren't going to buy an SSD is striping a RAID array, it speeds up read performance quite a bit, which if you are gaming is a big plus. The down side is that if either drive fails (or your RAID controller kicks the bucket) you lose everything. But you should be doing regular backups of important stuff anyway.

[Thorin]

Just looking at this build, and I'd be happy with it   Some of the parts appear especially useful if overclocking, but I agree with the comments already said - overclocking is an unnecessary and risky proposition these days (imagine losing your three hundred dollar processor to a wrong setting).

So if he's not overclocking, does he still need the Z68 chipset mobo?  Could he look for a cheaper mobo?

Also, the CPU supports memory at 1066MHz and 1333MHz, so 1600MHz isn't required.  But man, RAM is cheap these days!

The SSD he's picked out is the same price as the 1TB Western Digital Caviar Black I just bought for my Drobo.  Dollars per GB it's 8 times more expensive, but I don't think he could get a quality mechanical HDD for much less than what that SSD would cost.  So there isn't necessarily cost savings there, but there is a storage penalty.  I'd still be gunning for a striped RAID array myself, though, as the combination of speed and space is worth it.  But yeah, backups

MSDN/Technet?  Nope, only had that for the one year I was consulting from home.  He can have Vista 64-bit from that, but...

[Lazybones]

Microsoft published a report on the cause of windows crashes found something interesting about overclocking..

1. Overclocked systems had very high crash rates compared to stock.
2. Systems that where Overclocked and returned to stock speed still had higher crash rates indicating it can cause damage.

A gaming rig that crashes all the time isn't any fun. I am with melbosa on basically all his recomendations.

[Stewie521]

So I revived the thread. I changed the first post to be updated so you guys don't have to scroll down! So if you scrolled all the way down here... Im sorry

[Lazybones]

First off I would suggest putting your build into http://ca.pcpartpicker.com it is going to give you pricing on every part.

You probably don't want to purchase the parts from different places so it can be a good tool for price matching.

AMD vs Intel... Is a budget / reliability decision in my opinion and it has more to do with the motherboard / chipset than the CPU.  Your motherboard MUST be reliable. Check reviews and keep an eye on how many different chipsets are needed for USB, Network, SATA. The fewer the better, intel has a very solid driver set.

Nvida vs AMD will depend on your game preference. Find your most demanding game and figure out which is the preferred platform for that game. The card should run everything else fine.


Sent from Tapatalk

[Mr. Analog]

It's also worth mentioning that nVidia has gotten in trouble for working with developers to make sure that certain games perform better on their architecture than others. So AMD users are "unfairly disadvantaged"

http://games.slashdot.org/story/14/06/04/0039214/amd-nvidia-and-developers-weigh-in-on-gameworks-controversy

Evil yes, for sure, but better performance in games? Your conscience will have to decide if it's worth it.