First Gaming Pc

[matson651]

Hi There, looking at building my first gaming PC, wondering if anyone could see if these are half decent specs.
Thanks in Advance
CPU: AMD FX 9370 Black Edition
CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS10X Optima
Operating System: Windows 8.1 (64-bit)
Motherboard: Gigabyte 970A-DS3P
RAM: 8GB DDR3 1333mhz (1x8GB)
Hard Drive: Samsung 120GB 840 Evo SSD
Secondary Hard Drive: 500GB S-ATAIII 6.0Gb/s
Optical Drive: 22x DVD±RW DL S-ATA
Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 2GB
PSU: 18047 - 650W Corsair VS

 

[maurelie]

Hi,
There are many balancing issues.
-Firstly the FX 9370 is not worth it, and you will be better buying FX 8350/8320. The price is lower and it uses less power than the FX 9370 and generates less heat. Plus FX 9000 series are not compatible with all motherboards, there is tight selection of motherboards which can support the FX 9000 series.
Btw what is your budget and where do you live, maybe me and some members here can suggest you better hardware for the money.

 

[JOHNN93]

i would recomend droping the amd and going with a i5
http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i5-4670K-vs-AMD-FX-9370
better preformance per core and lower power consumption.
also i whould advise you to split the ram into 4 gb dim modules so you can enable dual chanel memory.

 

[matson651]

Hi there, thank you for the advice, i am looking to spend around the £900 mark. i live in Peterborough UK. Any advice will be great been a console person for so long and want to take the step into pc gaming.

 

[jameyscott]

I would suggest against getting the 9370. Also, that board would probably blow up the second you put a load on that CPU. 😛

I would advise using the money that you were going to spend on a better motherboard such as the ASUS Crosshair IV or the Gigabyte UD5/7 and getting an 8320 or 8350.

Also, get a 2x4GB kit versus the 1x8 kit. Having dual channel ram would offer better perfomance. I would also suggest spending the extra money and getting at least 1600mhz ram. I assume you are waiting until you have more money to upgrade to 16GB?

If you have the extra money, 1TB to 3TB drives are much, much better as far as size for you dollar. For instance, a 3TB Seagate is only 105-110 dollars on Amazon depending on the day.

Everything else looks fine, but maybe upgrade the cooler as well. Something like a Corsair H105 or Noctua D15 would be awesome and let you push that CPU as far as you can. That may not be in your budget, and in that case. Hopefully someone else can suggest a better CPU cooler, because I personally don't know the best options available at lower price points. You will definitely have to get one of the coolers I suggested if you decide to stick with the 9370, those things get hot!

 

[maurelie]

Hi there, thank you for the advice, i am looking to spend around the £900 mark. i live in Peterborough UK. Any advice will be great been a console person for so long and want to take the step into pc gaming.

Here is something sub 750 that will destroy any game at 1080p on high resolution

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor (£104.39 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£25.45 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: Asus M5A99X EVO R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard (£93.74 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Patriot Viper 3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£49.98 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Crucial M500 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£52.98 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£40.99 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 770 2GB TWIN FROZR Video Card (£239.72 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: Cooler Master Storm Scout 2 Advanced ATX Mid Tower Case (£69.97 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 620W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£59.34 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer (£11.79 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £748.35
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-09 10:51 BST+0100)

Or an Intel build for around 800 with better core performance
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£160.79 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£25.45 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Extreme4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£103.95 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Patriot Viper 3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£49.98 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Crucial M500 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£52.98 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£40.99 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 770 2GB TWIN FROZR Video Card (£239.72 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: Thermaltake Chaser A31 ATX Mid Tower Case (£62.87 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 620W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£59.34 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer (£11.79 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £807.86
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-05-09 10:54 BST+0100)