What's the highest setting I can run games on while @ 1080/60?

Solution

yep.

in fact i strongly advise you to NOT put an fx8 core in that motherboard. that motherboard won't handle it well.

get yourself a m5a97 R2.0 or m5a99 r2.0 EVO

the hitachi deskstar is a bad hard drive

furthermore, FX cpus like 2 sticks of ram better then single sticks. you might run into some system instability with just 1 stick of ram.

finally, that psu is good if you don't mind setting a fire in your computer case. please stick to better psu makers like Seasonic, antec (anything except for earthwatts or basiq), corsair (anything except for builder or cx series) or XFX

as for modern games... it should hit high-ultra in all those titles... except for FC4, because FC4 doesn't actually run on any system without massive stuttering issues regardless the settings.
 


Thanks. How do you know these pieces are bad? I figured if they average 4 stars it should be OK. I need to do some more reading, obviously.
 


Thanks for chiming in. I'll go read some more, b/c this build seems like a disaster.
 
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/XcpM23

^ better - buy the 8320,overclock to 4ghz yourself
people downrate the powercolor cards - Ive had a 280x of the turboduo since olaunch - its a damn good card & quiet & cool
the 280 uses the same cooler but is nowhere near as hot

the motherboard you picked is ok upto the 6 core chips - with a 8 core it will throttle & run incredibly hot.
the gb 970 ud3p is THE best 970 series board there is - it has no bad points apart from it cant run 2 nvidia cards in sli,dont honestly think this matters to you at all though.
 
I think this might be a little better use of you $$

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($89.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Gelid Solutions CC-TranQ-01-A 58.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($35.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus M5A99X EVO R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($98.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Mushkin Redline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($63.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($70.97 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.88 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R9 280 3GB TurboDuo Video Card ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Thermaltake Versa H21 ATX Mid Tower Case ($33.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($39.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $633.76
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-28 15:10 EST-0500
 


Most people give a default rating of 5 stars if the item works when they get it and the price was ok. so CHEAPER low quality stuff that will die in 3 months get a lot of high ratings as a result. meanwhile high quality stuff gets a lot of mediocre ratings because while it works out of the box and might work for 10 years without flaw, at the time of the review, since it didn't come with fireworks 10 games and some cool LED lighting for their case, it seems underwhelming.

basically people's ratings of products is generally stupid and uninformed. I know what works and doesn't work because i've been working as an IT tech for years... and an enthusiast for decades. long years of experience. That said you did the right thing coming here and asking the opinion of people who have the experience you lack.

that was a good move.



it's not that it was a disaster, it's just lacking "experience". The build i put together will perform extremely well if you overclock it. If you don't plan to overclock i can swap some stuff around.
 
Ive butchered mine & ingtars parts together here mate
stuck with an 8320 & the 970 board
the 990 board is slightly better but is too reliant on the rebate to be competitive pricewise imo,
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor ($132.98 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS10X OPTIMA CPU Cooler ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($75.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Mushkin Redline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($63.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.88 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R9 280 3GB TurboDuo Video Card ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Antec GX500 ATX Mid Tower Case ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($39.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $557.79
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-12-28 15:23 EST-0500
 


Wow, this isn't even $600. This is very, very attractive. Does anyone have an opinion on this? EDIT: By the way, I am not doubting your build, experience, or anything like that. It's just I'm completely lost on computers.

@Intgar: Thanks for the last post. It's really nice when enthusiasts are friendly towards the inexperienced.
 


I would stick the SSD i had in the last build into it (you'll thank me later), but otherwise it's fine. It will do a pretty good job for you. you won't break any overclocking records with that motherboard/cpu cooler combo, but otherwise it's fine.
 
Solution


The cooler I was not sure of,Ive used the performa but not the optima - thought about the evo 212 but the price has risen just lately - I was trying to keep the base price down as Im not entirely sure how all these rebates work in the US - do they normally pay out or are they best taken with a pinch of salt??
The UD3P board though is as good as an evo r2 for overclocking,Ive had my 8320 upto 4.7ghz stable but the evo 212 couldnt cope.Stick at 4.2ghz now (still on stock volts) & its solid as a rock - its a good good board ,just no sli options.
I agree with you on the ssd if at all possible,booting to useable windows in around 10 seconds still makes me smile now.

Ive just seen the OC in your sig - that is pretty insane - what kind of cooling are you running on that??
You surely dont run that OC all the time?? would love to see some benches done at those speeds,I have a feeling it would quieten some of the i5 owners around here ;-)
 


haha. no, it's not stable at 5.3ghz, just stable enough to load into windows, start up chrome and cpu-z and do a validation. The cpu cooler is a h100, pretty solid. not the best cooler you can get but no slouch either. I got it on sale for $49 at fry's electronics. It was actually x2 on sale. Once down to $60 because the cooler had been sent back to corsair to get a LGA2011 adaptor for it (the customer changed his mind and didn't get it) so it was qualified by the store as a "refurbished unit", the second reduction in price was because the box was opened and the mounting hardware was removed. (knocked it down to $45, tax brought it up to 49 and change). I bought it in a heartbeat after looking at it and realizing it was never used (the original TIM was still in place, the hardware untouched). sometimes good deals are better then getting the best hardware.
Corsair sent me AMD mounting brackets for free... had them in hand less then 3 days later. so yeah, total steal.

as for daily overclocks... in the winter i have it clocked at 5ghz. in the summer i usually drop it down to 4.7 or 4.8. It's 100% stable at those clocks.

the benches aren't impressive though. Mostly my ram's fault. that's getting fixed with my next paycheck. Mushkin Redline DDR3 1866 CAS 8, is currently on sale for $60 for 8gb. killer deal. i'll be picking up 16gb.