New build recommendations

[MagusMagnus]

I searched a bit on other forums for best PC parts shops in EU with available shipping to my country, so the best shop is alternate.de from Germany.
How about this motherboard Gigabyte GA 970A UD3P?

8+2 VRM. Perfect, if you never plan to SLI. On that note, its pretty difficult to find a budget board for AMD that supports SLI and with two x16 PCIe slots also. Mine does but its $140... kind of but not truly a "budget" board (well, compared to $200-300 options it is, but anyway).

Specifications on that board state only Crossfire (AMD) and the second PCIe would run only at x4 too, so you'd never be able to SLI on it, and if you went AMD GPU it wouldn't really be worth Crossfire anyway (performance boost would be severely undermined on the x4 side). Just a head's up.

Also, for the FX CPU, you may need to update the BIOS before it will work. Plan accordingly.


As for a case, I would recommend you chose it based on cooling foremost in mind. Its more cost effective to get one that already has all necessary fans included. Bonus if you find a case that has ALL fans installed, not just an intake and an exhaust, and doesn't run over $150. Fans cost a hell of a lot IMO, enough to defeat the attempt of going for a rock-bottom budget case... you'll spend $50-100 on decent fans, so you might as well have just dropped $100-150 on a case including them in the first place. And again, also ensure the case you choose can accommodate a decent aftermarket HSF (a Hyper 212 Plus at the very least would be my recommendation there. But really, you'd want something just a bit better for either an 8320 or 8350). You will definitely need a good, beefy one for that chip. Just trust me on that. They really do run hot. If you chose a case around 9-10" wide, you should be golden for just about any aftermarket cooling.

 

[Jaakow22]

So this would be the final build:
CPU: AMD FX 8320
MOBO: Gigabyte GA 970A UD3P
GPU: R9 280X or GTX 760?
RAM: G.Skill Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory F3-14900CL9D-8GBSR
PSU: Corsair VS650
Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 Advanced
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM ST1000DM003
Stock cooler, no SSD.

 

[Jaakow22]

And I verified that the motherboard does not need BIOS update for the FX 8320 and PCPartPicker "told me" that all the parts are compatible.

 

[MagusMagnus]

Sounds like you're good to go then.

Though, I really must say again, sticking to the stock HSF on that chip is a mistake. You should never stick to stock HSF on an FX 8xxx chip unless you're planning for only general use (word processing and web browsing) or you live in a year-round low temperature climate, and even then its still not a good idea. But that's your decision and you'll find out quick enough without further input from me. Just be aware, you have only a maximum TDP of 62C core ("Package") on that chip. Exceed it and you'll be damaging it (the "mini-freeze" phenomenon). My 8350 gets to 45C under load and that's with the Noctua NH-D14 (one of the very best air HSF's you can buy). If I were on stock HSF, I would have been cresting right over 62C.

Anyway. Both the R9 280 and GTX 760 require a minimum of 30A on the 12V rail. That PSU is capable. Get whichever GPU you prefer. It doesn't really matter. If you want to eventually try Crossfire despite the second PCIe at x4 speed, then you'll want the R9. Otherwise, it really doesn't matter. Whichever yields the highest price/performance is the one you want.


Actually, if you have the availability, I'd reconsider the Seagate for a WD. Seagate has a two-fold higher failure rate than WD on average. But if you don't care, that's fine. Just FYI. I'd personally go for a WD10EZEX (very highly rated; on par with a Black series by sheer performance data).

 

[Jaakow22]

I will get an HSF when I will plan to overclock, I still can't decide for the GPU if it will be a GTX 760 or R9 280X, and I will take the WD10EZEX but can you tell me what is the difference between the Green Blue and Black.

 

[TVeblen]

Be sure to check the specs on the graphics cards and be sure that they will fit in your case. The R9s that I've looked at are huge - 11+ inches long. Most of the 760s were still around 9-1/2".

 

[Jaakow22]

PCPartPicker just says that some Drive slots will be unusable but the case has a few of it so nothing to worry about.

 

[TVeblen]

No, not the slots.

This is the space between the back of the case and the hard drive cage. You need a deep case (at least 21") to get the space to fit a big card without altering the hard drive cage.

 

[Jaakow22]

I googled a bit about that and it fits if some HDD cages are removed, I will have only one HDD so I don't have to worry about that.

 

[TVeblen]

Just so you know....

 

[Jaakow22]

How can I know that the RAM I listed is compatible with the motherboard, PCPartPicker says it is but I'm not sure.

 

[linnemeyerhere]

How can I know that the RAM I listed is compatible with the motherboard, PCPartPicker says it is but I'm not sure.

I don't think you'll have any issues with that ram it's the bomb. If you want to check then you go to the mobo site and under approved CPU's there will be a field for approved/tested ram modules but even if it's not listed I feel very confident you won't have any problems.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

can you tell me what is the difference between the Green Blue and Black.

For an operating system drive, you'd typically choose between blue and black.

Both are 7200 rpm and I think the recent versions have the same cache.

When benchmarked, the black comes out ahead, but you may not notice any difference at all in day to day use.

The black drives have a longer warranty. The last time I checked it was 5 years, compared to 3 for the blue.

It's entirely personal choice. You have to decide if you want to pay more money for a longer warranty and slightly better performance, possibly not noticeable.

The greens rotate more in the 5200 to 5400 rpm area. Lots of people call them "slow", but the fact is that my 3 TB green is about 10% faster than my primary data drive---a Samsung 103SJ 1 TB drive. The Samsung was among the very fastest 7200 rpm drives you could buy when I bought it 3 years ago. The WD greens have made significant improvements in platter density, which tends to compensate for the slower rpm.

I wouldn't agonize over the hard drive model or brand. They have degenerated to commodity level products. They can all fail at any time without warning. I'd shop on the basis of price, return privileges with your dealer, customer service reputation of the manufacturer, and warranty length. Occasionally, certain models have design defects and you should avoid them, but I can't recall any significant issues with the current WD drives.

All other things being equal, I don't think I'd pay more than $10 more for a black drive, which would mean I'd be buying blue. The added warranty length doesn't attract me at all.

 

[TVeblen]

Internal Desktop Hard Drives Overview

 

[Jaakow22]

Alright then, thanks everyone for helping me in my new build, after looking some benchmarks I decided for the R9 280X and the reason why I wanted an NVIDIA card is the ShadowPlay feature that can record games without dropping the FPS but whatever.

 

[linnemeyerhere]

That R9 280X is a killer card for the coin, enjoy and don't look back ! Post pictures of your build in "Show Us Your Rig"

 

[Jaakow22]

Actually after reading some of the user reviews of the Gigabyte GA 970A UD3P i saw that about 25% of people got a broken board or it broke after a few weeks, I don't want to send my board back and that stuff so I think it would be better to get another board. And I think it would be better to get an AMD FX 8350 instead of the FX 8320 because there isn't a huge price difference but it's half GHz more. And is XFX a good GPU manufacturer?

 

[GeneO]

I will get an HSF when I will plan to overclock, I still can't decide for the GPU if it will be a GTX 760 or R9 280X, and I will take the WD10EZEX but can you tell me what is the difference between the Green Blue and Black.

I have green, blue and black drives. I like the WD10EZEX 1TB blue the best. They are quieter than the blacks - the blacks have lots of head noise, but these blue perform just as well but much quieter. The WD10EZEX are very fast because they have a single 1TB platter. I have two in RAID0.

 

[Jaakow22]

As the GTX 960 came out I was thinking of putting that card in my rig because it is cheaper and has better benchmark scores than the R9 280X.

Is 2Gb of VRAM going to be enough for 1080p gaming because the GTX 960 has 2Gb of VRAM and the R9 280X has 3Gb?