£800 First Build

[Morgan314]

I've posted individually in a few categories, however figured that posting here may be a good idea.
here is my build as is, please offer any suggestions or improvements.
Works out around £800 UK and that is my budget. I have chosen FX8350 over similar Intel i5 purely due to value for money in the UK. Have been deciding between GTX660 for £129 and a HD7870 for around £150. Also, is a 500W PSU sufficient for this build (Corsair, Semimodular) or is the 600w in the build list more suitable. As far as motherboards are concerned I have been deciding between Asus M5A97 Evo R2 and Asrock Extreme 4, both are almost exact same price in the UK. I belive the Sandisk SSD is good value for what ity is, however like any other parts alternative suggestions are greatly appreciated. Also due to both OSs being available for a similar price, Windows 7 vs Windows 8; I have never used windows 8 and would like your view on it. I am looking to build this machine for gaming at 1080p, aswell as extensive Photoshop and Video editing. Aside from this a general desktop for internet browsing and documents.
I am looking for any tweaks or alternatives for these build parts, or confirmation what I have selected is okay! All suggestions and comments are greatly appreciated.

Build:
CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor (£143.99 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£24.61 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: ASRock 970 EXTREME4 ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£77.17 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Sandisk Ultra Plus 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£125.00 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£59.99 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 2GB Video Card (£149.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply (£60.57 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NS95 DVD/CD Writer (£14.99 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) (£67.19 @ Aria PC)
Case: Sharkoon T28 ATX Midi Tower (£44.60)
RAM: Crucial BLT2CP4G3D1608DT1TX0CEU 8GB (2x 4GB) Ballistix Tactical Memory (£44.99)
Total: £813.09

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Once you get to 20 relevant posts you can get free postage from Scan:

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

I would get the following parts:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/amd-f...he-125w-retail
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Asus-M5A97-E...ywords=970+evo
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-BLS2...words=8gb+ddr3
http://www.amazon.co.uk/BitFenix-Mer...rds=merc+alpha
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...A3P5ROKL5A1OLE
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-p...-cores-1152-dv
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...A3P5ROKL5A1OLE
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/550w-...-quiet-fan-atx
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/256gb...0mb-s-73k-iops
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2tb-s...he-8ms-oem-ncq

The total should come to around £800 if you include the free postage at Scan. You can get Nectar points with Amazon purchases.

Edit!!

Also,consider the HD7950 too.

[flearider]

ok seen the others first so there answers you'll have to read ..
win 7 over 8 it's now mature and works ....
i'd go asus every time love my chv
ssd fine marvell controller
case wise as long as it's got good air flow (lots of fans and hidden wires) it's ok ..if you could go a little bigger well .... 8350 does throw off some heat ..well mine does at 5.4ghz

[Morgan314]

Thanks for the suggestions, based on that response would you say it is better for me to spend less on the CPU to have more for the GPU? And also does the DVD drive being 'half height' make a difference?

[flearider]

ok ..your going to look into overclocking .. so stay away from the 6xxx amd and get a 8350 .. asus boards are good .. simple
most people on here just run pc's plain ..no o/c .. hence cats suggestion .. so you will need more power tx 750 ..mem corsair is cheapish but make sure it runs at 1866 or above and 1.5v (the 8350 mem controller go's up to 1866 or more..)
cpu cooler .. get one with a few more pipes .. 6-8 if your o/c but I don't air cool so can't say to much more about that ...
ssd and hdd wise as long as it's got 3-5yr warranty and a marvell controller fine .. it wont live forever but 6-8yrs should do it .
again i'm a ati/amd fan so 7970
a dvd writer is cheap and they all do the same job ..

[Willzzz]

win 7 over 8 it's now mature and works ....

Win 8 works perfectly and is faster with many improved features.

[Morgan314]

Thanks for the suggestions, I think I'm going to go for Windows 8, still not certain on motherboards, can somebody suggest a specific recommended model to work with my spec? I'm looking to spend as little as possible to keep costs down however something stable with view to OC. Also I'd like a USB 3.0 header for my case to connect to. As for graphics cards, I really want to go Radeon but the multi screen setup is confusing me, I have 3 monitors none of which support display port. What do I need to do to connect them all simultaneously?

[Morgan314]

This is what I'm looking at now, I think...

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/1auXS
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/1auXS/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/1auXS/benchmarks/

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor Black Edition (£143.99 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£24.80 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Sandisk Ultra Plus 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£124.97 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£64.98 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7870 XT 2GB Video Card (£164.99 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply (£60.57 @ Dabs)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NS95 DVD/CD Writer (£14.99 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) (£67.19 @ Aria PC)
Other: Sharkoon T28 ATX Midi Tower (£44.60)
Other: Crucial BLT2CP4G3D1608DT1TX0CEU 8GB (2x 4GB) Ballistix Tactical Memory (£44.99)
Other: Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0 Motherboard (£77.64)
Total: £833.71

Any recommended amendments before I go ahead? I chose to stick with FX8350 for general multi thread performance and for overclocking potential. Keeping the cooler (unless any better suggestions for price?) Storage etc the same, Upgraded GPU, 600w PSU, Standard DVD Writer, Windows 8, Sharkoon Case, 8gb RAM (any better suggestions on this?) and then Asus Mobo.

-Morgan314

[flearider]

only thing I can say is mem 1866 ...but if your happy that's all that counts and you can always upgrade later ...

[vfdb]

I've come up with this: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/1aApq

It's a very nice build and will be perfect for you.

Or this: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/1aAPm if you want an SSD

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I really would avoid the CX600W,and the XFX PRO series are better PSUs.

Also,if you are overclocking get the FX8320 or FX6300. The FX6300 is less than £80 on Amazon ATM and my mate has one overclocked to 4.3GHZ with an HD7870XT and he was using a motherboard without LLC. It should be far easier to overclock higher than either the FX8320 or FX8350.

I would also look at one of these coolers:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/corsa...-am3-fm1-and-f
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/corsa...ator-plus-2-fa

They are on special offer,although you will need to see if they will fit your chosen case.

[teppic]

The FX6300 should go up to 5GHz without much effort. The 8350 just has a couple of extra cores and a higher stock clock, but few applications can use all eight effectively, and games generally won't benefit very much at all. So an FX6300 overclocked to 4.5GHz - 5GHz will already be outperforming the 8350 in almost everything, and it's half the price.

[Morgan314]

Okay, I understand what you are saying regarding the best processor to price, however I would like to have a good system at stock, with room to overclock. Knowing my luck, I'd end up with an FX6300 unable to over clock very high! With an FX8350 I'm guaranteed a decent clock, and hopefully some decent headroom. I'm happy to spend a little more on this. And in reply to CAT-THE-FIFTH about coolers, that looks like a great deal. I'm just concerned as to whether either will fit into a Sharkoon t28 I'm looking at, any suggestions for a better case for the price? (~£40)

[teppic]

The FX6300 and FX8350 are likely to have similar limits, i.e. you won't be able to overclock the FX8350 anywhere near as much, because of its higher clock. The latter is best for people who don't intend to overclock.

[Morgan314]

Okay, RE PSUs, what is recommended? I'm a little specific due to the way discount codes are falling so it needs to be in stock from Dabs, around £50-£60. here's what I've found. What's best?
http://www.dabs.com/products/corsair...CDC.html?src=2 Cheap price
http://www.dabs.com/products/corsair...758.html?src=2 More power
http://www.dabs.com/products/xfx-550...94963789&src=3 XFX but lower watts
http://www.dabs.com/products/corsair...94963789&src=3 'gaming' and looks awesome

[flearider]

The FX6300 and FX8350 are likely to have similar limits, i.e. you won't be able to overclock the FX8350 anywhere near as much, because of its higher clock. The latter is best for people who don't intend to overclock.

have you done it ?? plz do you use amd ? the 6300 will no way out perform a 8350 at the same speed ... or why would they bother to sell a 8350 ?? plus the 8350 is the tock from when they built the 6300 they are not the same chip ...
and most people have only got the 6300 to 4.2-4.5 with huge amounts of voltage .. where an 8350 will get to 5ghz with about 1.4-1.45
why do people say things the can't possibly know