Looking for opinions on my build.

[TheGreenGo]

I am getting ready to finish off a build next week so I guess it's a little too late for asking the following question: Will I get a good "performance-per-dollar" ratio out of the listed build?

CPU: AMD FX-8370 4.0GHz 8-Core Black Edition
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
MoBo: Asus Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 ATX AM3+
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866
SSD: A-Data Premier Pro SP600 256GB 2.5"
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Blue
GPU: Single Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 4GB WINDFORCE G1 Gaming
Case: Corsair 760T Black (I know I should of went with something cheaper; couldn't resist xD)
PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular

Other than a 35 dollar, TP-Link PCI-e wireless card, that's basically it as far as performance goes. Mostly I plan to get solid FPS at 1080p.

One more question that I dread to know the answer to. Will my CPU bottleneck my performance? Skimming through other threads I noticed that people are recommending Intel processors over the AMD's. Will my performance suffer a great deal from the specified CPU?

 

[THM01]

What is your intended use for this CPU? If you're doing gaming, it'll be fine. If you're going the professional video editing or 3D route, then I'd make some modifications.

I'm assuming gaming, so here's my opinion for what it's worth:

Overall, decent build with a few caveats especially yeah, you guessed it, the processor.

First off, I love the 760t case, I have it myself and it's great. My only beef with it is that if you put in a DVD or Blu Ray drive in the top bay without taking the little black panel off, it will constantly open and close because of how it's manufactured. But if you take the little black panel off its perfectly fine, it's an aesthetic choice and makes zero difference I actually like it better without.

Your research about the CPU is also correct. That processor is built on old 32 nm technology, Intel's newer processors are on 22 nm which makes a difference but I won't address specifically, if you want all the tech behind it go read up, lol.

The cooler master hyper 212 evo is great but if you're installing it yourself then take your time and be SUPER DUPER careful with the paste. Like, this is so important that it should be underlined especially if you haven't built before lol.

You could probably go down to Ballistix sport 2x4 gb 1600 mhz ram and not notice much of a difference at all for gaming to save a few bucks, I've had good experience with that ram. I would recommend the famed i7 4790k if you can get it; you could also skimp out on the motherboard a little bit if you wanted and get something like AsRock z97 extreme4 or something around there.

Never used that SSD, so no opinion there. Samsung has a good round of 850 Evo's for similar (but slightly more expensive) pricing that I'd recommend.

Also, right now I'm telling you completely trash that Seagate Barracuda and get a Western Digital or Hitachi. Seagates from both personal experience and professional benchmarks are absolute nightmares. Don't believe me? Check out these two well cited posts: https://www.backblaze.com/blog/best-hard-drive/
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/203478-backblaze-pulls-3tb-seagate-ssds-from-service-details-post-mortem-failure-rates
Every hard drive will fail at some point and it's really a shot in the bucket but WD and HT drives are less likely to fail than seagate.

The GTX 970 should be good especially for 1080 resolution.

 

[King Kevain]

Basically you have the best of cheap that you can buy!

For $10 more you can get the A-Data SP900 SSD 256GB which is far superior to the SP600 if you must stick with A-Data - for $20 to $30 more you can get the Samsung EVO 840 250GB SSD which is much, much better than A-Data. Since the 850's came out the other month the 840's are getting cheaper by the day (providing you can find them in stock ). I seriously recommend not cheaping out on your SSD - get the Sandisk Extreme II, or the EVO 850, or the Intel 730 series (but the 480GB not the 240GB in the intel 730- the 240GB is as bout as good as the A-Data when it comes to performance, the 480 is as good as the other top end SSDs)

You may want to add a second fan to the EVO 212 if you are going to overclock (though not necessary unless you push it)

If you can get a WD Green HDD for the same price, it will serve you better than a Seagate Blue as far as storage goes - Blues are designed for always on operation, Greens will sleep when you're not accessing the drive and in theory last longer....which will be pretty much all the time with this build (unless your going to run it as a media server or some such)

With the GTX970, the Windforce is a nice card, highest factory OC in the base Gaming Category before getting into Golds, Blacks and Special Editions etc, however a few points to consider
1. The Fans are always on on the G1, with the MSI Gaming 4G for instance, the fans only turn on over 50-60degC - most of the time they don't need to run unless gaming. Also note the Windforce fans are the noisiest when operating at 100% (which is to be expected as their are 3 fans vs. 2 fans on most of the other GTX970's)
2. The MSI Gaming 4G is built to Military Specifications, the G1 isn't - as to which military specifications, I cant tell you, but hopefully US rather than Zulu Military specs if you know what I mean

Zotac also have a very solid GTX970 gaming entry as well.

 

[badboyrog2]

''If you can get a WD Green HDD for the same price, it will serve you better than a Seagate Blue as far as storage goes ''

what the hell is that? never never buy the green version , is not built to use as primary storage and run only at 5400 rpm
and seagate blue does not exist


your psu is a so so quality psu ...get the B2-G2 series
and get the samsung 850 evo instead of a-data ssd ...a-data still good but the samsung is defenitly the ssd to get

 

[King Kevain]

''If you can get a WD Green HDD for the same price, it will serve you better than a Seagate Blue as far as storage goes ''

what the hell is that? never never buy the green version , is not built to use as primary storage and run only at 5400 rpm
and seagate blue does not exist


your psu is a so so quality psu ...get the B2-G2 series
and get the samsung 850 evo instead of a-data ssd ...a-data still good but the samsung is defenitly the ssd to get

He has an SSD for primary storage so an "always on" HDD is unnecessary - so a Green will be perfectly fine for file storage (I emphasise "Storage") that is rarely accessed - as I said, if he's using it as a media server that is accessed often, a Green is unsuitable. 5400RPM.... ahuh... and you think that makes it slower? - sorry, but the WD Green has faster Read/Write speed than many 7200RPM drives... but whatever, your the expert eh?

Nothing wrong with that PSU - its a Tier 3, but its still a decent PSU for what your building - since the tier list came out everyone thinks that you have to have a Tier1 or Tier 2 PSU otherwise its crap...that's just nonsense though - http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html there's plenty of decent PSU's in Tier 3 though if your custom building a PC, stay away from Tier4 or lower - you can do better

With a Budget build A-Data is one of the cheapest 256GB SSDs - its ok, but there's better - EVO 850 256GB is much more expensive...that's why I recommend the 840 instead as its only $20-$30 more expensive and on review it's actually better value for money vs. performance over the 850 (And the OP is asking about Value vs. performance). If he's keen for A-Data, then the SP900 is the way to go instead of the SP600. $10 more, significant gain in performance.

 

[TheGreenGo]

Yeah, I just noticed that the HHD that I listed was a typo. Sorry :S. I did mean the WD Blue, lol. Thanks for all the replies, btw; They were very detailed and helpful. Unfortunately I already went with the A-Data SSD. For the next SSD I will definitely go with the Samsung though.

I have read in various reviews that the CM 212 EVO is a difficult install, which coincides with THM01's comment. What are some of the main things to keep in mind when installing this specific cooler?

Now when it comes to the GPU, I'm really torn between the MSI Gaming card and the Windforce Gaming card. I was considering the ASUS Strix which also didn't start the fans until over 50/60 degrees. My issue with the Strix 970 is the poor overclocking potential compared to the Windforce. I really didn't go in depth when it comes to research on the MSI Gaming 4G. Oh, and you guys that own a single GTX 970, have you seen much loss in performance because of that .5 Gbs less of VRAM?

 

[King Kevain]

Yeah, I just noticed that the HHD that I listed was a typo. Sorry :S. I did mean the WD Blue, lol. Thanks for all the replies, btw; They were very detailed and helpful. Unfortunately I already went with the A-Data SSD. For the next SSD I will definitely go with the Samsung though.

I have read in various reviews that the CM 212 EVO is a difficult install, which coincides with THM01's comment. What are some of the main things to keep in mind when installing this specific cooler?

Now when it comes to the GPU, I'm really torn between the MSI Gaming card and the Windforce Gaming card. I was considering the ASUS Strix which also didn't start the fans until over 50/60 degrees. My issue with the Strix 970 is the poor overclocking potential compared to the Windforce. I really didn't go in depth when it comes to research on the MSI Gaming 4G. Oh, and you guys that own a single GTX 970, have you seen much loss in performance because of that .5 Gbs less of VRAM?

Re MSI GTX970 G4 - mine barely gets of idle playing FarCry 4, Crysis 3, World of Tanks, Sims, CIV BE all on max settings 1920x1200 res. Performance wise - haven't seen so much as a stutter yet (apart from FarCry's and Crysis 3's usual crash issues)