Looking to buy a new PC, would love some advice

[helpMePlsFriend]

Hello all, hope your day is going well.

I am looking to purchase a new desktop PC and had a basic idea as to which components to get however I am hesitant and would love to hear some opinions based on my choices.

Please identify any worrying or problematic parts or suggestions for potential improvements.

My concerns are mostly surrounding compatibility and having sufficient power supply and cooling.

I'll follow the instructions of the sticky found here

Approximate Purchase Date: this month preferably, however I am in a rush

Budget Range: ~$1200

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, Development, Movies, General Surfing

Are you buying a monitor: No

Do you need to buy OS: Yes

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: http://evetech.co.za/ (local)

Location: South Africa, Cape Town

Parts Preferences: I am leaning towards the new AMD RX 480 8GB due to it's impressive price/value. However if there is a better GPU/component, please don't hesitate to suggest it as I am very open to suggestions.

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe (probably not)

Your Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080


My Build Choice:
My initial thoughts were those in italics, however the others are also options.
It is ordered from cheapest to most expensive.

Power Supply:
Antec 500W 80+
Antec Neo ECO II 550W Modular 80+
Antec 600W 80+
Antec 700W 80+

Processor:
AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz (6 x 4.1GHz Turbo) 14MB Cache Six-Core
AMD FX-6350 3.9GHz (6 x 4.4GHz Turbo) 14MB Cache Six-Core
AMD FX 8320 3.5GHz (8 x 4.1GHz Turbo) 16MB Cache Eight Core
AMD FX 8350 4.0GHz (8 x 4.2GHz Turbo) 16MB Cache Eight Core

Heatsink & CPU Fan:
Standard Heatsink & CPU Fan
Cooler Master Hyper TX3 EVO CPU Cooler
Cooler Master Hyper 212X Air CPU Cooler
Cooler Master Hyper 612 Ver.2 CPU Cooler
Corsair H60 High Performance Liquid Cooler

Motherboard:
MSI 970 GAMING AM3+ SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 MB
MSI 970 SLI KRAIT AM3+ USB 3.1
MSI 990FXA Gaming AM3+ USB 3.1

RAM:
8GB DDR3 1600Mhz High Performance Gaming RAM
8GB DDR3 1866Mhz High Performance Gaming RAM
12GB DDR3 1600Mhz High Performance Gaming RAM
12GB DDR3 1866Mhz High Performance Gaming RAM
16GB DDR3 1600Mhz High Performance Gaming RAM
16GB DDR3 1866Mhz High Performance Gaming RAM

GPU:
MSI Radeon RX 480 8GB GDDR5 256-bit Graphics Card

SSD:
240GB SSD Upto 500MB/s+ Speed Solid State Drive
2 x 120GB (240GB) SSDs In Raid 0 Upto 900MB/s+ Speed

Network Adapter:
Integrated Gigabit Network
300Mbps Wireless N Adapter IEEE 802.11b/g/n (WIFI)
1200Mbps Ultra-fast Wireless AC Dual Band Adapter (WIFI)

Operating System:
Windows 10 Home 64bit
Windows 7 Professional 64bit
Windows 10 Professional 64bit

I'm open to suggestions and welcome all comments, thank you very much for your time.

 

[jpatrick2]

Hello all, hope your day is going well.

I am looking to purchase a new desktop PC and had a basic idea as to which components to get however I am hesitant and would love to hear some opinions based on my choices.

Please identify any worrying or problematic parts or suggestions for potential improvements.

My concerns are mostly surrounding compatibility and having sufficient power supply and cooling.

I'll follow the instructions of the sticky found here

Approximate Purchase Date: this month preferably, however I am in a rush

Budget Range: ~$1200

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, Development, Movies, General Surfing

Are you buying a monitor: No

Do you need to buy OS: Yes

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: http://evetech.co.za/ (local)

Location: South Africa, Cape Town

Parts Preferences: I am leaning towards the new AMD RX 480 8GB due to it's impressive price/value. However if there is a better GPU/component, please don't hesitate to suggest it as I am very open to suggestions.

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe (probably not)

Your Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080


My Build Choice:
My initial thoughts were those in italics, however the others are also options.
It is ordered from cheapest to most expensive.

Power Supply:
Antec 500W 80+
Antec Neo ECO II 550W Modular 80+
Antec 600W 80+
Antec 700W 80+

Processor:
AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz (6 x 4.1GHz Turbo) 14MB Cache Six-Core
AMD FX-6350 3.9GHz (6 x 4.4GHz Turbo) 14MB Cache Six-Core
AMD FX 8320 3.5GHz (8 x 4.1GHz Turbo) 16MB Cache Eight Core
AMD FX 8350 4.0GHz (8 x 4.2GHz Turbo) 16MB Cache Eight Core

Heatsink & CPU Fan:
Standard Heatsink & CPU Fan
Cooler Master Hyper TX3 EVO CPU Cooler
Cooler Master Hyper 212X Air CPU Cooler
Cooler Master Hyper 612 Ver.2 CPU Cooler
Corsair H60 High Performance Liquid Cooler

Motherboard:
MSI 970 GAMING AM3+ SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 MB
MSI 970 SLI KRAIT AM3+ USB 3.1
MSI 990FXA Gaming AM3+ USB 3.1

RAM:
8GB DDR3 1600Mhz High Performance Gaming RAM
8GB DDR3 1866Mhz High Performance Gaming RAM
12GB DDR3 1600Mhz High Performance Gaming RAM
12GB DDR3 1866Mhz High Performance Gaming RAM
16GB DDR3 1600Mhz High Performance Gaming RAM
16GB DDR3 1866Mhz High Performance Gaming RAM

GPU:
MSI Radeon RX 480 8GB GDDR5 256-bit Graphics Card

SSD:
240GB SSD Upto 500MB/s+ Speed Solid State Drive
2 x 120GB (240GB) SSDs In Raid 0 Upto 900MB/s+ Speed

Network Adapter:
Integrated Gigabit Network
300Mbps Wireless N Adapter IEEE 802.11b/g/n (WIFI)
1200Mbps Ultra-fast Wireless AC Dual Band Adapter (WIFI)

Operating System:
Windows 10 Home 64bit
Windows 7 Professional 64bit
Windows 10 Professional 64bit

I'm open to suggestions and welcome all comments, thank you very much for your time.

Hi! Exciting time for you, building your own PC!

Question - have you considered Intel processors at all? With $1200 you could build a pretty decent PC, you don't really need to buy a budget processor. AMD will release new chips either this year or early next year, so you would basically be buying older technology.

 

[helpMePlsFriend]

Question - have you considered Intel processors at all? With $1200 you could build a pretty decent PC, you don't really need to buy a budget processor. AMD will release new chips either this year or early next year, so you would basically be buying older technology.

Yes I would be willing to consider using an Intel processor, is the gap between Intel and AMD processors a noticeable difference?

I originally thought that an AMD CPU would work best with an AMD processor, however I am not too knowledgeable on the topic.

This is my first time building a PC and I'm trying to be as careful as possible to get compatible components as I would not like to risk damaging anything with any underwhelming parts.

Note that $1200 is my ceiling and I would be very happy if I could get a well-priced good value for money PC for less, allowing me to put more funds towards a new monitor and peripherals.

Thank you for your kind help.


EDIT:

Would love some input on this setup: http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/pcs/1404883/chillblast-fusion-everest-review-meet-the-gpu-from-the-playstation-neo

Processor: Quad-core 4.4GHz Intel Core i5-6600K
RAM: 8GB
Memory Type: 2,133GHz DDR4
Motherboard: Asus Z170-K
Motherboard Chipset: Intel Z170
Total storage: 250GB SSD, 1TB SSHD
Graphics card: 8GB AMD Radeon RX 480
Graphics/video ports: 2x HDMI, 3x DisplayPort, 1x dual-link DVI-D, 1x HDMI
Operating system: Windows 10
Price: £900 (~$1200)

 

[jpatrick2]

Question - have you considered Intel processors at all? With $1200 you could build a pretty decent PC, you don't really need to buy a budget processor. AMD will release new chips either this year or early next year, so you would basically be buying older technology.

Yes I would be willing to consider using an Intel processor, is the gap between Intel and AMD processors a noticeable difference?

I originally thought that an AMD CPU would work best with an AMD processor, however I am not too knowledgeable on the topic.

This is my first time building a PC and I'm trying to be as careful as possible to get compatible components as I would not like to risk damaging anything with any underwhelming parts.

Note that $1200 is my ceiling and I would be very happy if I could get a well-priced good value for money PC for less, allowing me to put more funds towards a new monitor and peripherals.

Thank you for your kind help.

AMD and Intel each have their pros and cons. The biggest reason I am suggesting Intel for you now though, is because AMD will release new CPU's soon. You would be buying older parts mere months before the prices on them drop. The Intel Skylake CPU's are the newest, and they're quite good, so you would not have that problem.

I don't know if you can source parts yourself, but if you can, you could probably build something comparable to this build for under $1200: http://www.evetech.co.za/Computer-systems/intel-6th-generation-core-i7-overclocked-gaming-pc-583.aspx

If not, I would look at the PC's on that site in the range of the one I posted. Something like that build will be a powerhouse and should handle your needs for many years.

 

[jpatrick2]

Question - have you considered Intel processors at all? With $1200 you could build a pretty decent PC, you don't really need to buy a budget processor. AMD will release new chips either this year or early next year, so you would basically be buying older technology.

Yes I would be willing to consider using an Intel processor, is the gap between Intel and AMD processors a noticeable difference?

I originally thought that an AMD CPU would work best with an AMD processor, however I am not too knowledgeable on the topic.

This is my first time building a PC and I'm trying to be as careful as possible to get compatible components as I would not like to risk damaging anything with any underwhelming parts.

Note that $1200 is my ceiling and I would be very happy if I could get a well-priced good value for money PC for less, allowing me to put more funds towards a new monitor and peripherals.

Thank you for your kind help.


EDIT:

Would love some input on this setup: http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/pcs/1404883/chillblast-fusion-everest-review-meet-the-gpu-from-the-playstation-neo

Processor: Quad-core 4.4GHz Intel Core i5-6600K
RAM: 8GB
Memory Type: 2,133GHz DDR4
Motherboard: Asus Z170-K
Motherboard Chipset: Intel Z170
Total storage: 250GB SSD, 1TB SSHD
Graphics card: 8GB AMD Radeon RX 480
Graphics/video ports: 2x HDMI, 3x DisplayPort, 1x dual-link DVI-D, 1x HDMI
Operating system: Windows 10
Price: £900 (~$1200)

That would make for a very decent build.