Need Advice, First Build

[Zing87]

Hello all and thank you for taking the time to read my post and i hope to gain wisdom from your answers.

Here is my build, recently completed 5/15:

MB: Asrock H97M Anniversary

CPU: Intel G3258

PSU: EVGA 500w

Case: Rosewill Ranger-M

RAM: Corsair Vengeance 8gb(2x 4gb)...will be adding another kit for 16gb here in the soon future.

HDD: WD 2TB BLUE


OS: Windows 7 PRO


I need a quality GPU that wont break the bank...I'd like under $200 but if there is a undoubltly better card out there for 20-50 bucks more then so be it...i'm not strict on the $200 however i would like to hover around that....Granted i have very limited selections due to my case, and i will not be playing all these crazy graphics heavy games( i only play counterstrike source and occassionally GO) I dont need anything really cutting edge. Help me out guys!!!

 

[shadows1234]

yeah let me tell you you made a big mistake choosing that case i have that case as well and the cable management is complete crap and you can barely fit a gpu without it touching the sata cables for the HDD also you choose a overclockable cpu on a non overclockable board
the best gpu you can get that is powerful and small is a gtx 960 the one i have in my pc is the same i will recommend for you since it is small and is the coolest of the bunch and in that tight case youre gonna need it

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card ($199.49 @ Amazon)
Total: $199.49
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-05 23:54 EDT-0400

 

[Zing87]

Yea. I kinda rushed into the build thinking i knew what i was doing. I realize some of my noob mistakes. I actually thought i was following this video pretty closely until i realized he went with the pro4 instead of the anniversary like i mistakenly did.
http://youtu.be/yf9ppMj-DII

Thats the video that gave me inspiration to build.

So the GTX 960 is my only hope?

 

[SherbetAddict]

Yea. I kinda rushed into the build thinking i knew what i was doing. I realize some of my noob mistakes. I actually thought i was following this video pretty closely until i realized he went with the pro4 instead of the anniversary like i mistakenly did.
http://youtu.be/yf9ppMj-DII

Thats the video that gave me inspiration to build.

So the GTX 960 is my only hope?

R9 280 is pretty much the samr, but with a muchbetter memory bandwidth.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202099&cm_re=r9_280-_-14-202-099-_-Product

$160 after gift card

 

[shadows1234]

Yea. I kinda rushed into the build thinking i knew what i was doing. I realize some of my noob mistakes. I actually thought i was following this video pretty closely until i realized he went with the pro4 instead of the anniversary like i mistakenly did.
http://youtu.be/yf9ppMj-DII

Thats the video that gave me inspiration to build.

So the GTX 960 is my only hope?

R9 280 is pretty much the samr, but with a muchbetter memory bandwidth.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202099&cm_re=r9_280-_-14-202-099-_-Product

$160 after gift card

yes it is better but this case is tight and i mean it i spent 2 hours fixing cables so they wouldn't be a miss and the r9 280 will overheat badly in this case

 

[Zing87]

Yea ive been thinking about getting another case, solely bc of lack of room plus lack of usb 3.0. Motherboard supports a lot more than the case provides, again my fault due to lack of research

 

[Zing87]

So the gtx 960 is my best bet? Should i even consider the r9 280x or even the 290x? Will either of those even fit??

 

[shadows1234]

So the gtx 960 is my best bet? Should i even consider the r9 280x or even the 290x? Will either of those even fit??

they will fit but the case has really bad air flow and i would get this as a upgrade and this will come around the same price as the gtx 960 i fully recommend you do this for the sake of your pc

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 280 3GB Double Dissipation Video Card ($169.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Source 210 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $209.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-06-06 09:23 EDT-0400

 

[Zing87]

Shadows have you upgraded the rear fan? I was thinking about matching it with the same size/blue led as the front. And mounting it as an exhaust....i have a mini desktop fan that i keep on low blowing into the front fan i help with intake.

 

[shadows1234]

Shadows have you upgraded the rear fan? I was thinking about matching it with the same size/blue led as the front. And mounting it as an exhaust....i have a mini desktop fan that i keep on low blowing into the front fan i help with intake.

nope i haven't, i made mine with ultra efficiency in mind so i haven't touched the fans other than clean them

 

[Tchota]

go with GTX 960, it will perform better. The R9 are know to have problems with i3 (lower minimum fps than with nvidia cards), and it will most likely have the same or worst problems with G3258.