Feedback on these two first Gaming PC's for my son

[KalistoCA]

hi everyone;

i have been doing some reading and trying to put together two options for my son building his first low cost gaming pc. Please note that all monies are in Canadian Dollars excluding local taxes. The goal is to get as close as i can to 500 bucks with having upgrade path down the road.

Oh i'm buying the parts locally, simply because i like to stare retailers in the eye vs online

i'm looking for a little bit of feedback on the equipment, i'm also looking to shave some cost off both of these but i'm a bit confused on a few things. So here they are let me know what you think.

option #1 - AMD Based

Motherboard Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 $129.99
CPU AMD X6 FX-6300 $134.99
RAM Corsair XMS3 Classic 8GB $79.88
Video Card Radeon 265 $179.99
Case LEPA LPC307B-B $34.99
Power Supply Corsair Builder Series CX500 $39.99
HDD Samsung ST750LM022 & HM641JI $0
Monitor 24" 1080P HD TV in Room $0

Total: $599.83

For option 1, i've considered that i can put a lower cost cpu in for now, and upgrade down the road, but i'm unsure which cpu's will fit into this board that are a bit older or less expensive.

Option #2 - Intel Based

Motherboard MSI Z97 PC Mate Socket $114.99
CPU Intel Core i5-4670 Quad-Core Processor $229.99
RAM Corsair XMS3 Classic 8GB (2x4GB) $79.88
Video Card Radeon 265 $179.99
Case LEPA LPC307B-B $34.99
Power Supply Corsair Builder Series CX500 $39.99
HDD Samsung ST750LM022 & HM641JI $0
Monitor 24" 1080P HD TV in Room $0

Total: $679.83

Option #2, is really about showing my son, that for the money he has to spend AMD is his path for now. however, the motherboard here has pcie 3.0 slot which was interesting from a longevity standpoint. however the intel build is much more money, unless there is validity in going down to a low cost i3 processor but again, i'm not sure.

The HDD's are crap i know, but it's what we have around the house and i'm trying to save a buck, there will be a few dollars for 2.5 to 3.5 adaptors. I also have a spare 750gig 3.5 inch drive which i could use for now if needed. SSD's are not an option until he purchases his own.

Let me know your thoughts

Thanks

Gary and Nate.

 

[lowriderflow]

you do not need to worry about PCI-E 2.0 vs 3.0.. a $700 780ti wont saturate a pci-e 2.0 x16 slot.

Some of your prices are high... for instance, yesterday the fx8320 was on sale for $130 several places. that's a much better CPU for less money than what you have listed.

secondly... for your situation, an AMD 970 board makes sense.
something like the Asus M5a97 r2.0... which are generally around $70.
They dont have many 'bells and whistles', but it'll support any AM3+ cpu and 1 high end video card just fine.

 

[ubercake]

If you're going for a gaming build, Intel is the way to go. There are benchmarks all over the place comparing gaming performance with the same video card while varying the processor. In almost every case, the Intel is the better performer. In very few cases, the AMD performs the same and that's with an 8350.

Given those choices, I'd strongly suggest your son saves for the Intel build and I'd stick with the i5 listed.

 

[KalistoCA]

you do not need to worry about PCI-E 2.0 vs 3.0.. a $700 780ti wont saturate a pci-e 2.0 x16 slot.

Some of your prices are high... for instance, yesterday the fx8320 was on sale for $130 several places. that's a much better CPU for less money than what you have listed.

secondly... for your situation, an AMD 970 board makes sense.
something like the Asus M5a97 r2.0... which are generally around $70.
They dont have many 'bells and whistles', but it'll support any AM3+ cpu and 1 high end video card just fine.

yeah prices are going to be a bit high, again Canadian prices and shopping locally. Yeah i really wasn't sure about 970 vs 990 so i went high to see if it could make it fit. however my local shop has the ASRock 970 Extreme3 R2.0 for 69.99 after rebates which seems reasonable, thoughts on this board. Here is a link http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=26_1207_1205_335&item_id=042746

Thanks for your feedback refitting a 970 board will bring the price down nicely

 

[envy14tpe]

I like option 1 cuz it is $80 less and he could add a $30 cpu cooler and still get a really good overclock cuz thats a good mobo for doing so. You could get this GPU:
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 270 2GB TWIN FROZR Video Card ($169.98 @ Newegg Canada)

 

[KalistoCA]

i just wanted to thank everyone for the help.

i have decided on the 970-ASRock Extreme3 R2.0

i'll post some photo's of the finished product with some benchmarks after we are done.

Cheers,
G