does this build look good ?

Geordie-Boy69

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Jun 10, 2014
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hey everyone this is my first gaming pc so bare with me. i have always been a console gamer but finally gunna give pc gaming a try. i have already bought this pc. please let me know your opinions on this build cause if anything is majorly wrong i am gunna have to contact my supplier

Case: Zalman Z3 Plus Black
Power Supply: Corsair CX500 500W
Processor: AMD FX 8320 3.5GHz 8 Core
Overclocking: Moderate
Processor Cooler: Stock Manufacturer Heatsink and fan
RAM: 4GB Corsair DDR3 XMS3 1600Mhz/PC12800
Motherboard: ASUS M5A97 R2.0
Graphics card: AMD Radeon R9 270X 2GB
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 1TB Hard Drive 7200rpm 64MB Cache
2nd Hard Drive: None
3rd Hard Drive: None
Sound card: Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B5ST 24x DVD/CD ± Re-Writer Black
Network card: Integrated 10/100/1000Mbps
Wireless Card: Asus N10 150MBPS
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 Standard

any suggestions are all welcome thanks :)
 
Solution
If you already know your way around the insides of a computer it is pretty easy. Every part needs a connection for the PSU. One for every hard drive, two for the GPU, 2 for the motherboard, and one for any optical drive you may have.

The difficult part is, there are other wires in there as well, like Sata cables, case front panel connectors etc, so it can get a bit confusing in that sense. If you are the type of person who could put together a difficult lego set, then replacing the PSU isn't that hard.

Here is a decent how to: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/How-To-Replace-Your-Power-Supply/362

The other thing about your system to be aware of is the GPU. I edited my original post and put this in, but in case you missed me...
The two things that jump out to me are the PSU and the ram.

The PSU is an entry level PSU and not really designed for a high-end overclocked gaming machine. It has come cheaper capacitors in its construction.

And for the ram, 8Gb is what's typically recommended for today's games.

As a side note, they have given you what I'd call an entry level graphics card. For today's latest and greatest games, you will not be consistently holding 60FPS at ultra settings, you'll be turning down some eye candy. Just fyi.
 

EpicStarman

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Jun 9, 2014
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Get a better motherboard, that one is weak. The case is not great either. Also 4 gigs of RAM?! Gaming these days requires at least 8 gigs. I would get a mid tower case from either Corsair or NZXT because Zalman is a very ehhh brand and I wouldn't recommend it
 

Geordie-Boy69

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Jun 10, 2014
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do you think the psu will be a problem ? i know the ram is a bit low and i am planning on upgrading to 8 gb in a couple of month ass it looks pretty easy to do. upgrading the psu on the other hand lookslike a task for someone new to pc builds
 


SSDs are another type of hard drive that have much faster read/write times of conventional HDDs.

Unfortunately, they are more expensive per gigabyte than a conventional HDD. So what people typically do is buy a small SSD (128Gb or so) and load windows plus a few of their favourite games on it. The SSDs faster read/write times make windows boot up extremely fast, and game load times are also much faster. SSDs don't, however, affect FPS. So in a sense, they are kind of optional for gaming. It's sort of a luxury to have one. I love my SSD just for windows boot time alone.

 


That's the problem with cheaper PSUs is, you just don't know how they'll hold up. The fact that they overclocked and have a powerful gpu in the system with 500W makes me nervous. That is more than enough watts, but to have an entry level PSU working that hard... according to the PSUs stats it is sufficient, and there are some on this forum who would even say it's acceptable.

You just don't know. If it were me and I JUST bought the system, but don't have funds to get a new PSU I'd probably keep that one in and just risk it. But if you have the funds to spare ($50 in the USA for example), I'd switch it out personally.
 

Geordie-Boy69

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Jun 10, 2014
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yeah the psu is making me nervous too lol, thats the main reason for this post. thanks for your answers jim u have been a big help. how hard is it exactly for a noob to switch out the psu for a better one would you say and other than the psu and the ram would u say its a decent build? as for the case im not fussed about quality and looks as long as it does a decent job at keeping the components cool.
 
If you already know your way around the insides of a computer it is pretty easy. Every part needs a connection for the PSU. One for every hard drive, two for the GPU, 2 for the motherboard, and one for any optical drive you may have.

The difficult part is, there are other wires in there as well, like Sata cables, case front panel connectors etc, so it can get a bit confusing in that sense. If you are the type of person who could put together a difficult lego set, then replacing the PSU isn't that hard.

Here is a decent how to: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/How-To-Replace-Your-Power-Supply/362

The other thing about your system to be aware of is the GPU. I edited my original post and put this in, but in case you missed me saying it I'll say it again. They have given you what I'd call an entry level graphics card. For today's latest and greatest games, you will not be consistently holding 60FPS at ultra settings, you'll be turning down some eye candy. Just fyi. Like I said, for the newest greatest titles (BF4, Watchdogs etc) ultra settings.
 
Solution