Better of the two builds?

[mprhead]

I am trying to figure out a good build for reasonable price, meaning that I am trying to keep it under 750€. Location is Finland. Main purpose of the rig is gaming. Mostly titles like World of Warcraft, Skyrim and maybe Thief and Assassins Creed. You get the picture. These parts have been picked with thought of upgrading some parts and maybe overclocking later.

First build, Intel:
Mobo: MSI Z87-G45 Gaming
CPU: Intel i3-4130
GPU: MSI Bundle GeForce GTX660 2GB Twin Frozr III
Memory: G.Skill 8GB Dual Kit Ripjaws DDR3 1600 Mhz
HD: Seagate 1TB Barracuda
Case: Cooltek Antiphon Midi
PSU: XFX 550W Core Edition 80+ Bronze

Second build, Amd:
Mobo: Asus M5A99X EVO R2.0
CPU: AMD FX-6300
GPU: XFX Amd Radeon HD7950 3GB GDDR5, DD Black Edition
Memory: G.Skill 8GB Dual Kit Ripjaws DDR3 1600 Mhz
HD: Seagate 1TB Barracuda
Case: Cooltek Antiphon Midi
PSU: XFX 550W Core Edition 80+ Bronze

Where I am, Amd build would be about 20€ cheaper. Now it would be nice to have some thoughts about these. Like are the motherboards worth buying, or would it be better to go cheaper or otherwise different model? How about case and psu? I really have no clue about those... So some pros and cons would be much appreciated.

 

[enemy1g]

Both builds have great motherboards, case I cannot comment on, but the PSU is great.

Of the two builds, I'm almost certain that they AMD build will give you the best performance and highest/smoothest frames in games.

That being said, if you happened to swap out the i3 in a few months for a i5-4670k and pair it with a GTX 770/780/r9 280x/290, you'd have a killer build.

But if that isn't in the near future, and you plan on sticking with the two builds for a while, I'd go with AMD.

 

[maurelie]

-For the Intel build, if you are not planing in the future to buy unlocked processor, you can save some money and buy H87 or B85 motherboards.
-For the AMD build, that motherboard is fine, but i find it better for FX8320 or FX8350. You may buy the M5A97 Rev 2.0 , it has less power phase than the 990 but still you can do light overclock on it and overall it is good board.

 

[mprhead]

Thanks for the answers. In both builds the idea was to swap cpu in next 6 - 12 months to something better, like some i5 model in intel build and maybe FX8350 in amd build. So if I would not oc, something like Asus H87-PLUS might be good option for intel build also? That would take the price down for about 40€ and that would allow better GPU for intel build. Or would in that case it be better to go for something like i5 3350P for CPU and couple that with a bit cheaper MoBo than in the original intel build? Any suggestions what would be good choice for that? On the other hand, in Amd build a little bit cheaper M5A97 MoBo would save enough to make getting FX8320 an option also and that would probably make upgrading not so urgent. Any thoughts?

 

[maurelie]

-Well if you go with H87 or B85 boards you will need Haswell CPU. For the 3350p you will need H77 or B75 boards.
-About the AMD build, FX8320 is good CPU, it can run on M5A97 Rev. 2.0, but you will have to do light overclocking, something like 4.1-4.2 Ghz, because that board has 4+2 power phase. On the other hand see if M5A97 EVO fits in your budget, because that board has 6+2 power phase and you will be able to have more stable and higher overclocking abilities.

Btw, can you give me some Finnish webpages for pc hardware so we can help you pick the right parts for your setup.

 

[mprhead]

Thanks, this will be the one I am planning to use. http://www.jimms.fi/