Building a new and my first PC this christmas

[rolfcore]

hello, so its that most wonderful time of the year again. And this year i've decided to get a gaming PC, and have decided to build one myself to save price and get exactly what i want.

I'm no stranger to computers, i'm a student studying computer games development, but things get a little hazy when it comes to hardware. I'm confident i can do most of the assembly and for the parts i'm not confident on i have a few hardware nerds on standby.
Anyway, id like an opinion on my chosen components particularly in terms of 'will it all fit in the case' and 'will it work'.

So here goes!

Here the scan link for everything except monitor and case (ill post that in a second)

*edit*
Having to do this the long way since i cant post links, sorry.

CPU:
AMD CPU FX Series 6100 Black Edition Six Core Processor Bulldozer

Motherboard:
MSI 970A-G46 AMD 970 AM3+ Motherboard

GPU
MSI GeForce GTX 660 Twin Frozr III/OC NVIDIA Graphics Card - 2GB

HDD
Seagate ST1500DL003 1.5GB Barracuda LP Hard Drive - HDD

PSU
Powercool PCPC750AUBA 750W Power Supply (PSU)

RAM
Corsair Memory Desktop 8GB 2 x 4GB DDR3 1600 MHz CAS 11 Dual Channel Desktop

Case
Thermaltake Commander USB 2.0 Black (not available from scan, but is the same as VN40006W2N Commander MS-I Snow Edition)


So anyway, what do you guys think? will this all work together? will it all fit in the case? will there be any problems with using an AMD CPU with a Nvidia GPU? Can you suggest any improvements without a price increase?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

What is your total budget?? Do you have an operating system??

Also,if you get to 20 non-spam posts you can get free Scan postage too:

http://forums.hexus.net/scan-care-he...tup-guide.html

[Pob255]

all of it looks ok untill you get to this:=
Powercool PCPC750AUBA 750W Power Supply (PSU)
They are not as bad as they used to be . . . well sort of, they are still blatantly lying, just not on such a big scale, sort of.
The parent company is Jou Jye and some of their psu's have been 80+ tested, please note "some" not all e.g. their is no 750w model listed as of having been passed 80+ testing.
http://www.plugloadsolutions.com/80P...x?id=47&type=2
so let's look at the best one that has passed the 650w model
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/650w-...an-atx-v22-psu
2 rails at 14amp & 16amp max combined 30amp max, for a 400w unit that would be just about acceptable (should be 18a & 18a, max 30amp)


You don't need a massively powerful psu just a good one, a good 450-500w psu would be plenty for that build.
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/450w-...n-atx-v231-psu a good unit made by seasonic

[MrJim]

all of it looks ok untill you get to this:=
Powercool PCPC750AUBA 750W Power Supply (PSU)

Definitely agree with this. I made the mistake of buying a cheap Chinese no-name PSU once for a PC build, only for it to blow up taking my motherboard with it (luckily the CPU survived). The kind of mistake you only make once!

[MrJim]

Having used an SSD in every build I've made over the past three years, I personally wouldn't dream of building a new PC without one, but it does really depend on your budget. Still, even if I've got to save a bit longer for an extra £60 for a boot drive SSD, I think it's absolutely worth it

[rolfcore]

My budget was originally £500 but that has since been pushed to £550 due to the monitor. and yup i get free software from my university (MSDN Alliance or something) they give me free windows 7 professional or one of the windows 8s.

A guy on my course (dont really know him too well) looked this over and suggested a 1000W PSU since in the future ill want to go SLi (unless something better comes along in the next year). What do you guys think, get more powerful PSU or stick to the 600-750 mark?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The cards will probably be running in slots with different speeds in SLI mode and TBH,I would not bother anyway. OTH,if you do want the option,you can use a better motheboard.

[Pob255]

actually it looks like it'll be x8+x8 in sli, they've pull some cleaver to get that out of a 970 northbridge

getting a pair of 660 in sli with an fx6100 shouldn't need more than a good 750w psu, heck a good 600w should be fine, a lot of people forget that gpu power consumption is actually going down atm esp in the upper mid to low end, heck the top end cards have come down, a gtx680 uses less than a gtx580 did which used less than a gtx480 did.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would get ab FX6300 for around £100.

These PSUs are worth considering as they should have easily enough power to run a pair of GTX660 cards comfortably:
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/650w-...5mm-quiet-fan-
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/600w-...et-led-fan-atx
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/650w-...12v-fan-atx-v2
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Antec-Bronze...5520809&sr=1-1

However,this PSU is OTT,but is modular:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/750w-...eps-12v-atx-v2

OTH,around £70 for a modular Antec PSU which is made by Seasonic is not too bad!!

I do suspect,efficiency at low loads might suffer though!!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Actually I tried doing a components list,and cannot see how the OP could get the build to £550 with even a £45 PSU!

Edit!!

A few things. The OP can get free postage from Scan after 20 relevant posts:

http://forums.hexus.net/scan-care-he...tup-guide.html

Scan has special offers ever weekday:

http://www.scan.co.uk/todayonly/index.aspx





The total should come to around £572.

[rolfcore]

The £550 budget was with a monitor (Viewsonic VA2231WA-LED HD Black LED 22" Monitor Slim Bezel). My mistake, i think i worded it badly.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Even then that gives you a £10 saving,which pushes the build done to around £562.

[rolfcore]

i ran a power supply calculator (http://www.extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine) on my rig it came out to 474W (this is with only 1 GPU since i wont be going SLi for a long time, if at all). This is calculated with capacitor aging and one or two other things. So its safe to say a 600 or 650 will do just fine, right?