Two builds, which would you choose and why?

[ba1023]

I posted earlier and got some good feedback, here's where I am now. I am in between two builds. Goal is to run most games on at least high and be quick in everyday use (build is for my girlfriend) The cooler has been chosen because its going to go with a color scheme im planning on doing (or else i would use the cooler master 212 Evo). Going with the r9 280 becasue its the same price as a 760 right now but comes with 3 free games, so why not. Which would you choose and why? Thanks guys

1) http://pcpartpicker.com/p/rnFWmG

2) http://pcpartpicker.com/p/CdcZWZ

 

[filippi]

Great i5 build. But you dont need a 3rd party cpu cooler. Go stock cooler and buy a better psu:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($197.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H97-GAMING 3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($77.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Avexir Core Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V300 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($58.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($53.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 280 3GB Dual-X Video Card ($205.66 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Phantom 240 ATX Mid Tower Case ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Rosewill Tachyon 650W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($82.00 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer ($13.99 @ Newegg)
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WN781ND 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($14.99 @ Mwave)
Total: $855.57
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-03 01:25 EDT-0400

 

[huntersw2]

Me personally i would go with build number two personally. Reason being that a high end I5 like that usually does better in most games. Than the FX 8350. I would ditch the SSD. Your psu you picked out. Catches a lot of heat around here. For using poor capacitors. From my personal experience. I had a little trouble with that series. As for your R9 280 i would use the money saved from the SSD. And add a little bit more. For a GTX 970. Now here is a slightly tweaked version of your build. http://pcpartpicker.com/p/s8kG23

 

[ba1023]

That got me thinking. Would it be worth upgrading the power supply and paying the extra for the 970 or will it be overkill? Monitor will be 1080p 60hz

 

[ba1023]

Anyone?

 

[capt_taco]

I'd definitely go with the Intel build; if the price is close, the i5 wins most of those battles.

The 970 is definitely a better graphics card ... is it $250 better? Probably not, unless you're planning on super-ultra intense everything gaming. The price increase at the very top end of video cards is hard to justify; going from a $100 to a $200 card you'll see a huge difference, but from $200 to $400 you're just going from excellent to above-excellent, which if you're just playing games to have fun, is honestly not that noticeable.

Your girlfriend is probably not going to be upset about the performance of a $200 video card. What I'd do is just go with the 280, and in two years, see what video cards are selling for $200 (it'll probably be better than the 970) and sell the old one for $100. Or you can upgrade to a new girlfriend.

As far as the SSD goes, I'd say either take the money for both hard drives and go for a 256GB SSD, which should be in the $100-$130 range, or just go with a 1TB HDD. Leaning toward the 256GB SSD because if it turns out you REALLY need more data storage, you can always add an extra hard drive or just plug in an external drive. Most people I know get a 1TB hard drive and then hardly use any of it - the only ones who would even approach that are the ones who keep a TON of movies on their machines. Or I suppose if you did large-scale graphics or videos for a job or a hobby, you could use a lot of space too. If it's just gaming and everyday stuff, most of that space goes to waste.

 

[ba1023]

Great response. Thank you! I'll look into the 256gb ssd instead. Appreciate it.