Suitable set up to OC a fx 6300?

[Rables]

Hi all

As a long time avid console gamer, I have recently been looking over the fence into PC gaming, thinking how green the grass looks over there!!

Certain barriers have put me off for years, but with the envy of the modding community and the longevity this can add to gaming experiences; specifically coupled with my love of x-com and Bethesda range of Elder Scrolls and fallout games.

I'm going to make the jump; please could I pick your collective brains as I'm intending on building a rig to keep a handle on cost and get as much bang for my buck as possible, ultimately oc an fx-6300

I don't know if this will let me post a link yet so I may need to try to re add the part list separately; could I have your honest and constructive opinions if the following build would work?
I don't know if I'm restricting the oc too much with an air cooler, albeit it may out perform some of the lower end all in one water coolers?!

I already have the case and RAM, but everything else can be switched out

Thanks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor (£78.77 @ CCL Computers)
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock 3 67.8 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler (£47.99 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard: ASRock 970 Pro3 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£53.83 @ CCL Computers)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£54.03 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£35.45 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£34.74 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 380 4GB Nitro Video Card
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case (£49.68 @ More Computers)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA GS 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£57.35 @ Aria PC)
Total: £411.84
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-10-16 11:47 BST+0100

[EndlessWaves]

From a performance perspective an £80 processor + £50 cooler + £50 motherboard isn't very good value for money. Spending that £180 on a £140 processor and £40 motherboard will result in a more processing power stock than the £80 processor overclocked.

That memory is rather overpriced. 8GB DDR3 can easily be had for £30-35.

I'd go for a ~250GB SSD personally, 120GB is a little small.

The power supply is a fairly expensive one too. eVGA do a basic 500W model for half the price. A few percent improved efficiency and no cables to tuck away isn't much value for another £25.

[Rables]

Thanks for this I see what you are saying, so I could stretch for a fx 8350 with stock cooler for the same money and not bother to overclock. It has more cores but I could reach higher speeds with the £50 cooler potentially

You are right about the memory I bought it from crucial direct though and it was £39 inc postage, not sure why it comes out that pricey on pc part picker. I was still trying to buy good quality components as far as I could too, plus the low profile of these would not interfere with the cpu cooler if I were to oc

The psu choice was something I wondered about as a lot people online have criticised psu's depending on the make and reliability and certificate.

thanks for the pointers

[DanceswithUnix]

I don't think a cheaper motherboard will take an overclock, the VRMs tend to be pretty cheap.

Is overclocking part of the fun? If that is the case, then I think you are on the right track.

If you just want something to plug together and get on with playing games:

£33 Intel motherboard http://www.ebuyer.com/662745-asrock-...ro-h81m-dgs-r2
£143 i5 3.2GHz http://www.ebuyer.com/641561-intel-c...-bx80646i54460

Can't overclock that, so stock fan should do.
Not the best motherboard in the world, but if you just want to connect a CPU to some RAM and a graphics card then it should do the trick nicely.

[Rables]

Yes tbh I wanted to get my hands dirty with an oc and learn something.

[EndlessWaves]

Thanks for this I see what you are saying, so I could stretch for a fx 8350 with stock cooler for the same money and not bother to overclock. It has more cores but I could reach higher speeds with the £50 cooler potentially

I'd probably go for a 4460 or 6400, the FX chips are typically at their weakest in gaming workloads.

Yes tbh I wanted to get my hands dirty with an oc and learn something.

Dirty? You're about fifteen years too late for that. It's all a very carefully planned part of the model range these days with carefully selected processors and motherboard chips where 'overclocking' is allowed. The days of graphite smudged fingers is long gone: http://www.motherboards.org/articles/guides/41_1.html

If you do fancy it then the cheapest four module FX (8320, 8320E) at around £100 is probably a good bet. A good mid-range cooler for £25-30 and a motherboard is suitable for overclocking should be within the £180 price of the setup you were considering.

You are right about the memory I bought it from crucial direct though and it was £39 inc postage, not sure why it comes out that pricey on pc part picker. I was still trying to buy good quality components as far as I could too, plus the low profile of these would not interfere with the cpu cooler if I were to oc

It's mostly bling rather than quality, although it probably slightly decreases your chance of getting a Dead On Arrival stick.

Most coolers are designed for the standard 30mm high memory sticks so as long as you avoid sticks with finials on top that wouldn't have been an issue. I believe the low profile (VLP) standard is designed for 1U rack servers and are generally found on RDIMMs but it's nice to see them in normal unregistered DIMMs for the odd combination of close memory slot placement and low cooler that might benefit from them.

The psu choice was something I wondered about as a lot people online have criticised psu's depending on the make and reliability and certificate.

I'd avoid the ones that mis-advertise, £10 600W units that can only deliver the same 12v current as a better quality 300W unit. Beyond that as long as it's had a decent professional review I can't imagine it'll be inferior in quality than the bundled PSU included with any other DC device. The people who insist that only all Japanese capacitors and gold efficiency at a minimum are acceptable seem to be going over the top.

[DanceswithUnix]

Yes tbh I wanted to get my hands dirty with an oc and learn something.

Problem with that is on an FX processor you need a very good VRM to get a really high overclock.

Asrock probably have the cheapest 220W TDP boards, but that is still half your board + CPU budget gone on just the board. And 220W isn't outrageous, if you overclock a big CPU then that is the sort of power draw you are looking at.

TBH, I haven't felt any need to overclock my 8350 though, so perhaps getting a 6300 up to 4GHz will be all you need and possible on a cheaper motherboard.

[Rables]

Thank you both for all the sound advice

[Rables]

Think I will play it safe for now with the 4460 and maybe look to oc a future upgrade when I have a better idea of what I'm doing!! Cheers

[EndlessWaves]

Might be worth going for the 6400 if you think you might swap hardware within a few years as you'll save the cost of the memory because it supports DDR4.