Building a gaming PC; How good's my shopping list?

[Inferius]

Hello,
This is my first time building a gaming PC, but I know a little here and there. I came up with a Newegg shopping list that I like, trying to maximize value. I especially like the AMD A10 APU.

So, I was just hoping I could get some other opinions and advise before I commit to this build. Thanks in advance!

In particular, I'm not sure about the power-supply. I got a well rated 380W, which I assume is enough. I didn't really do the math, since I have no idea how to do that well. The A10 is only 100W, and that's CPU and GPU, so I know the demand is pretty tame.

1 - CPU) AMD A10-5800K Trinity 3.8GHz (4.2GHz Turbo) Socket FM2 100W Quad-Core Desktop APU (CPU GPU) with DirectX 11 Graphic AMD Radeon HD 7660D
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113280

2 - Mobo) BIOSTAR Hi-Fi A85W FM2 AMD A85X (Hudson D4) HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138366

[strike]3 - RAM) (2x) G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)across the 4 slots. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231314[/strike]

3 - RAM) G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231568

[strike]4 - HDD) Western Digital WD Blue WD7500AZEX 750GB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" HDD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236338[/strike]

4 - SSD) Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2CCA 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148448

5 - Case) Corsair Carbide Series 300R Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139011

6 - Power Supply) Antec EarthWatts Green EA-380D Green 380W Continuous power ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371033

7 - CD/DVD) Best value, Asus 24x DVD/CD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204

TOTAL PRICE: $566.26, which includes tax and shipping

 

[Inferius]

Oh, fans are a good question. I don't really know how many I should buy, if any. The case comes with a 120mm exhaust and a 140mm intake, and then 5 empty slots I can add on my own.

Also, the CPU comes with a fan, but I know that they can be improved. Should I?

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been moved from the section CPU & Components to section Systems by Mousemonkey

 

[aznshinobi]

With your intention of gaming, your performance at the level of a budget you have, is pretty low.

You shouldn't be getting such an expensive case, for that matter an SSD at this price point. I'd focus on a general storage hard drive, you can always add a cache SSD later which doesn't require you to wipe your data but will give you a faster boot time. As great as the 5800K is, you really won't be gaming well on it. Also your RAM is WAYYYYY too much, 16GB is HIGHLY unnecessary. APU's rely on speed anyways NOT size.

Check out my $500-$650 build here:
http://www.squidoo.com/electronicandmore#module146695821
When you drop the 7870 down to the 7850, you only get a total of $570 before rebates which is well within your budget but gives you WAY more performance. A much better CPU and larger PSU as well as motherboard.

 

[Inferius]

You're right. I think I'll go with your build... I liked the 5800K, but I don't really know how it stacks up. If you say it's under-powered, then I believe you. Thanks man!

 

[aznshinobi]

Yes. By far. Kills it isn't even an close. You're focusing too much on "efficiency" in terms of TDP, your power bill isn't going to increase 10 fold if you go with a GPU/CPU combo, it'll only perform better. The difference in power bill will probably only be like a couple bucks more a year and but the performance differences will be VERY noticeable.

The FX-6300 crushes the A10-5800K in benchmarks and the 7870, well it destroys the 7660D. You should keep in mind the 7660D isn't discrete, it's on the die it can only perform so well...

FX-6300 vs A10-5800k
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/675?vs=699
The 7660D isn't really even comparable to a discrete card, but even giving the 7660D the performance of the 6670 is a pretty good amount of performance.
7870 vs 6670
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/613?vs=548

Your logic for 16GB? I still don't really get it, don't get me wrong. I understand the future proof, but does it really make sense to spend ~$20-$30 to get the extra 8GB? Just 8GB is enough to run most apps INCLUDING heavy Photoshop and video editing (that's what I do), but it's really up to you in your budget.

You're also thinking clock speeds. Clock speeds aren't all that matter, you should also be looking at architecture at which point the A10 is great, but the FX-6300 is better from the chip standpoint as shown above.

 

[Inferius]

I've learned a lot, mostly about AMD vs. Intel, because I was never really aware how annoyingly better Intel is. I've always liked AMD for being interesting and having good value, I never really feel like they're riding their brand name as much as Intel. But oh well, such is the way of the world.

That being said, I feel like I should approach this somewhat differently. I'd like to have this PC be a companion for me. I'm a computer science major, and I'll be using a desktop as my primary... well, as my life, really... for ever. So I need to think about upgradability. If AMD stops being attractive around $600 PCs, then I need to start with Intel and work my way up their line. I need to have a mobo that can last quite a few upgrades.

I appreciate your help a lot, Aznshinobi, and if you have any suggestions for that sort of motherboard or... idk, anything, I'm still getting notifications for this forum. I wont be making purchases for a pretty long while, so I have time to to think. I'll go into this much better prepared now.

 

[aznshinobi]

Well what I'm suggesting is all in my build guide I linked above for the $650 build:
http://www.squidoo.com/electronicandmore#module146695821

As for upgradability, then the FM2 or otherwise A10-5800K route is definitely not the right one AT ALL. If the trend follows, the APU chips from AMD will only be for that socket. IE A8-3870K was for the FM1, the newer updates are for FM2.

AM3+ or otherwise Piledriver/Bulldozer will be a lasting socket. AM3+ will stay for at least 1-2 more generations of chips AMD has said. Steamroller will be the next and Komoda (I believe) after that. Both should be on the same socket as Piledriver, that said Steamroller will be for sure.

It should be noted AMD predicts 10-15% performance increases for each upgrade. Piledriver did offer about a 12% increase over Bulldozer.