Making a custom PC need advice, help and anything you can give me!

[Geekernatir]

I am helping a friend who has decided to make a custom PC. A mid range gaming PC with a fairly ambiguous budget. I am probably going to end up building most of it and I am choosing all the parts.

So far I have this:

GPU:Sapphire 290X tri-x 8 GB - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202144&cm_re=290X-_-14-202-144-_-Product

CPU: AMD FX-8350 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819113284

Motherboard: Asus M5A99FX PRO R2.0 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131851&ignorebbr=1

Now I have a few questions:

1. What case would you recommend? I may want to get a second GPU at some point, hence the 8GB version since Crossfire only uses 1 lot of memory (I think?) so I want at least 2 PCI-E 2.0 x16 slots. Apart from that just one with good cooling and a good look.

2. How many Watts will my PSU need to be? Also what brand is best for PSUs, I have heard good things about corsair but have had an FSP which has worked well for me but what would you suggest?

3. RAM, I think I will get G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 2 x 4GB but is this overkill? Also is 8GB enough or should I get 16?

4. Cooling, what would I need with this rig? I have no experience in this area at all so I would prefer not to have to do water cooling due to my lack of experience but if I need to I could do some research.

5. Is there anything I missed, any component I missed or stuff I would want?

6. Have I made bad choices with any of my components, will they bottleneck, are they compatible, is there better at the same price?

Thanks in advance!

 

[-HH-]

Try looking at this, for a gaming PC at around 1K (correct me if the budget is wrong) then take a look at this.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($229.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Phanteks PH-TC12DX_BK 68.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI Z97S SLI Krait Edition ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($115.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($54.89 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Sandisk Solid State Drive 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($54.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($52.49 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card ($319.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Fractal Design Define R5 w/Window (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($118.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA GS 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($65.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $1063.20
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-08 05:14 EDT-0400

 

[Ezo Legendz]

For the Case and Mid Tower would do. Get a PSU from Antec EVGA Seasonic or XFX around 700W( this wont be enough if your going to Crossfire 2 r9 290x. Dont get the 8GB variant of the 290x its a scam the GPU is not powerful enough to use more than 4/5GB. The brand of ram doesnt matter get 2x4 GB you dont need more than 8.Get a Hyper 212 Evo for the fx 8350. They are all compatible. You missed the hdd/ssd. Besides a HDD get an ssd.
Give me your budget and country ill make the best possible build for you.

 

[Geekernatir]

For the Case and Mid Tower would do. Get a PSU from Antec EVGA Seasonic or XFX around 700W( this wont be enough if your going to Crossfire 2 r9 290x. Dont get the 8GB variant of the 290x its a scam the GPU is not powerful enough to use more than 4/5GB. The brand of ram doesnt matter get 2x4 GB you dont need more than 8.Get a Hyper 212 Evo for the fx 8350. They are all compatible. You missed the hdd/ssd. Besides a HDD get an ssd.
Give me your budget and country ill make the best possible build for you.

Well, that sounds great, if you could make a parts list, the parts I've got plus the ones you said would be great, with the 4GB GPU version of the sapphire (although the 8GB is only $30 more on newegg) the budget would be 1.5k USD AT MOST, preferably less. also any towers you would personally recommend? and a 1 or 2 TB HDD and a small SSD should do

 

[JQB45]

What parts do you already have?

 

[Ezo Legendz]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ZbcFLk
There you go bro. That is a great build for 1080p. No bottlenecking even if you go SLI in the future. PSU is enough for SLI aswell.
This build will do trust me no need for an i5 4690K or a gtx 980. Almost everyone here goes overkill on these builds. More than this would be a waste of money.
I chose the parts so that it looks great with a windowed case. Mobo is red and black. Ram is red. GPU is red and black. The only thing is the cpu cooler its the stock intel cooler and its bleu. So i picked a cheap aftermarket cooler its grey but better than bleu in the build.

 

[Geekernatir]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ZbcFLk
There you go bro. That is a great build for 1080p. No bottlenecking even if you go SLI in the future. PSU is enough for SLI aswell.
This build will do trust me no need for an i5 4690K or a gtx 980. Almost everyone here goes overkill on these builds. More than this would be a waste of money.
I chose the parts so that it looks great with a windowed case. Mobo is red and black. Ram is red. GPU is red and black. The only thing is the cpu cooler its the stock intel cooler and its bleu. So i picked a cheap aftermarket cooler its grey but better than bleu in the build.

Looks good but I kinda wanted an AMD build, could you swap the GPU and CPU out for others?

 

[-HH-]

#TeamRed?

This is the dead red Black/red build.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor ($134.99 @ NCIX US)
CPU Cooler: NZXT Kraken X61 106.1 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($125.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI 970 GAMING ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($99.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($48.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($97.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($52.49 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 390 8GB Video Card ($329.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: NZXT H440 (Black/Red) ATX Mid Tower Case ($99.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA GS 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($74.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $1065.29
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-08 06:11 EDT-0400

 

[synphul]

Some solid builds suggested here. At that budget range, there's no reason not to go intel which gives better overall performance not least of which includes gaming. Going amd is always an option but at a performance hit compared to an i5/i7. If insisting on amd you may be better off going nvidia for the gpu. Amd/ati gpu's don't always play nice with amd cpu/chipsets, go figure. With the current prices, an fx 8350 is priced the same as a locked core i5 which will still outperform the amd in games so budget concerns or 'bang for buck' doesn't really favor amd either.

 

[Geekernatir]

#TeamRed?

This is the dead red Black/red build.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor ($134.99 @ NCIX US)
CPU Cooler: NZXT Kraken X61 106.1 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($125.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI 970 GAMING ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($99.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($48.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($97.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($52.49 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 390 8GB Video Card ($329.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: NZXT H440 (Black/Red) ATX Mid Tower Case ($99.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA GS 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($74.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $1065.29
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-08 06:11 EDT-0400

Yes #teamred and what do you mean by dead build?

 

[Geekernatir]

Some solid builds suggested here. At that budget range, there's no reason not to go intel which gives better overall performance not least of which includes gaming. Going amd is always an option but at a performance hit compared to an i5/i7. If insisting on amd you may be better off going nvidia for the gpu. Amd/ati gpu's don't always play nice with amd cpu/chipsets, go figure. With the current prices, an fx 8350 is priced the same as a locked core i5 which will still outperform the amd in games so budget concerns or 'bang for buck' doesn't really favor amd either.

OK, I'm still confused how the AMD CPUs can have a higher core count and a higher clock speed at the same price as Intel but perform worse, are there specs I'm missing?

 

[-HH-]

idek sounded cool I guess :3

It's a slick build and should wreck most other builds suggested for the money. Sorry I feel like im drunk today.

 

[Geekernatir]

idek sounded cool I guess :3

It's a slick build and should wreck most other builds suggested for the money. Sorry I feel like im drunk today.

Does the 8350 or the 8320 require liquid cooling and if they NEED it is there any specific cooler you would recommend apart from the one you listed there, maybe cheaper or is this a thing that is better safe to spend more than sorry you got a leaky one?

 

[-HH-]

Some solid builds suggested here. At that budget range, there's no reason not to go intel which gives better overall performance not least of which includes gaming. Going amd is always an option but at a performance hit compared to an i5/i7. If insisting on amd you may be better off going nvidia for the gpu. Amd/ati gpu's don't always play nice with amd cpu/chipsets, go figure. With the current prices, an fx 8350 is priced the same as a locked core i5 which will still outperform the amd in games so budget concerns or 'bang for buck' doesn't really favor amd either.

OK, I'm still confused how the AMD CPUs can have a higher core count and a higher clock speed at the same price as Intel but perform worse, are there specs I'm missing?

AMD CPU's don't have the Hyperthreading that intel CPU's do which enable virtual CPU cores with in the CPU for example; A normal CPU if it has 4 cores it will have 4 threads. 1 for each core right? But intel on the i3's and i7's enable 2 threads per cores. I5's keep the threading of a normal cpu but it gets seriously complicated, anyway, long story short AMD CPU's are great for lower budget builds intel cpu's are better for enthusiast grade builds IMO.

 

[synphul]

Amd 6/8 core cpus have more cores yes. However they're weaker cores. Even at faster clocks/frequency. Most games even if they're multi threaded load up a couple of cores with the majority of the work and the rest of the cores/threads just aren't doing much. It's a matter of architecture and design. Intel cpu cores get more work done more quickly at lower 'speeds' (compared to amd) and using about half the power/electricity.

Look at any number of gaming benchmarks, at best the fx 8350 comes close to an i5, in others an i3 dual core with hyper threading comes within 1-3fps of the fx 8350 and it lags well behind the i5 and i7. Another thing to consider isn't just 'average' frames per second but 'min' fps as well. It's not uncommon to see amd fx with only 5-10fps less 'avg' fps but a much lower 'min' fps meaning frame drops - translating to less fluid gameplay. The wider the variation between max and min fps, with low fps drops the game can get 'choppy'.

It's getting into a whole different can of worms, but yes. I3's have 2 physical cores and hyperthreading which allows an extra thread per cpu to run. It's still being executed by a single cpu core which is why ht doubling the threads doesn't give near the same performance as 4 true cores. I5's have 4 true cores, no ht. Xeons like the 1231v3 and i7's are quad cores with ht.

Amd is a gray area. They use 'modules' which is a pair of cpu cores. An fx 8350 is advertised as an 8 core cpu but it consists of 4 modules. With intel, each processing core has its own l1 cache, l2 cache, fpu etc and the cores share an l3 cache. With amd modules, the l1 cache, l2 cache, fpu front end, fetch/decode are shared resources between the two cpu cores in the module. They do have separate integer units. Meaning there's a lot of resource sharing going on within a 'module' further hampering the performance if the pair of cpu cores which in addition, have lower ipc capabilities. Like intel they share the l3 cache among the modules. This is the reason why many people debate whether they're true 8 core cpu's or not. In a sense yes they have 8 cores but in their module design it's closer to intel's quad core with ht in design. Neither core can operate outside of the module design because of all the resource sharing. An i7 5960x however is a true 8 core cpu with each having its own fpu, integer unit, l1, l2 cache etc. Fully independent cores.

 

[JQB45]

To answer your question Geekernatir the AMD 8 Core CPU's do not require water cooling. A good air cooler (not the stock cooler) is recommended however.

 

[Geekernatir]

To answer your question Geekernatir the AMD 8 Core CPU's do not require water cooling. A good air cooler (not the stock cooler) is recommended however.

Thank you, I have pretty much used -HH-'s build except I decided I would want an FX 8350 instead of the 20 because it was only very slightly more expensive than the 20. I also settled on the Rosewill VIPER Z ATX Mid Gaming Case, A. Because it looks SICK, B. because it's elevated and I wouldn't want a bottom mounted power supply on carpet and because of all the pre-installed fans. I got a corsair CX750M because I know corsair, they're reliable and well built. I also got a much higher wattage than I need in case I want to crossfire later. There was also a great deal on newegg for the ASUS M5A99FX PRO R2.0 and it looked like it had all the right features so I chose that one. But apart from that it's the build he recommended.

Thanks a bunch everyone who helped!

 

[JQB45]

Corsair is one of the least desirable Power Supplies. Try to cancel if you can and get one of the power supplies recommended here.

 

[Geekernatir]

Corsair is one of the least desirable Power Supplies. Try to cancel if you can and get one of the power supplies recommended here.

Oh! Thanks for that I could have sworn I have heard good things about corsair, thanks for letting me know!

 

[JQB45]

My personal favourite is the Seasonic brand, XFX is ok, the EVGA SuperNOVA GS is good. I'm sure there are others but these are the ones I would trust the most.

 

[JQB45]

I suggest reading through this list of power supplier tiers here on tomshardware: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html

 

[Geekernatir]

My personal favourite is the Seasonic brand, XFX is ok, the EVGA SuperNOVA GS is good. I'm sure there are others but these are the ones I would trust the most.

SeaSonic M12II 750 SS-750AM2 750W sound good?

 

[JQB45]

Yes thats a better choice.

 

[-HH-]

the EVGA GS is seasonic in teir one, above the Seasonic M12II...

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html