Gaming build on a 850$ Budget

[Qyc]

Hey all,

I'm going to be building a gaming computer that will be mostly used for gaming.

Here is the pcpartpicker link:
AMD FX-6300, MSI GeForce GTX 670, Corsair 200R - System Build - PCPartPicker Canada

I am set for all peripherals, and I will be buying around Christmas time.

Justification:

CPU: I decided to go with an AMD because of the price/performance ratio. I really like the price on the FX 6300 and I will probably decided to overclock in the near future.

GPU: Since I saved money on the CPU I decided to go with a 670. I will mainly be playing GPU dependant games (BF3, BL2 etc.) and I also like the fact that it has two games I will be buying no matter what (AC3 and BL2).

Case: Open to suggestions, don't really want a Zalman Z11, don't really like the look. But the 200r is a bit plain.

HDD: I don't use much space on my computers, on my 2 year old laptop I have only used 230GBs of space on a 750GB HDD. That's with all my games as well.

Memory: It was on sale for 14$ on Black Friday, haven't bothered to change it. And I think that it's going to be too tall for that HSF. Any suggestions on a lower profile memory?

Thanks for reading this wall of text!

[JJThomp]

Maybe check out the bitfenix shinobi window for a case? Both black and white look and feel really nice.

Also that cooler only has 1 fan so you could just flip the fan to pull instead of push (slightly less efficient for cooling but not too big of a difference) and then the ram will fit just fine. Otherwise the system looks good. The 6300 is definitely great value just be weary of games like guild wars 2 and star craft 2.

[supaflyx3]

Scrap the FX6300 and go with an i3 or i5, otherwise looks good to me.

[Qyc]

Will I be able to play Starcraft 2 at medium? I don't really care about graphics on that one just because of the fast pace and me being focused on other things. And if I did switch to an i3, what mobo would you suggest? The AsRock Z77 Extreme4?

[Dragonstongue]

i5 def faster, I think we should support AMD as best we can while we can :P FX6300 is still a damn good chip.

Parts
FX6300
Asus M5A99X EVO motherboard or similar
Ram 8gb ddr3 1600 Gskill CL8 or CL7 timings
GTX670 if that is what you want, I would go Radeon 7970 or GTX660Ti MSI power edition it can easily keep up to a 670
Hyper 212+ cooler with dual stock fans, it easily clears my Gskill GBXL ram spreaders
antec neo eco 520c power supply
Rosewill Challenger case
60-120gb SSD as primary OS drive, if you get it "now" you can get a 256GB SSD for the same price you normally get a 120gb such as Agility 4 SSD as an example, well worth the cost to have this kind of speed.

All told, this would be around the price you are looking, and be plenty fast. The Asus board I mention is also a hell of a motherboard, great overclockers board as well.

[JJThomp]

Originally Posted by Qyc

Will I be able to play Starcraft 2 at medium? I don't really care about graphics on that one just because of the fast pace and me being focused on other things. And if I did switch to an i3, what mobo would you suggest? The AsRock Z77 Extreme4?

Definitely can run on medium

[Bond007]

Your build looks good. Personally I would also go to an i5 and the z77 based motherboard of your choice (even if it meant going down to a gtx 660Ti for the added cost). That said if you prefer the extra cash spent on the GPU, then there is really nothing wrong with your parts choices as is.

[Qyc]

Awesome. Thanks for all your help guys. I think I will stick with the 6300 and then overclock it. Does anyone know of any quality OCing guides I could look at?

[magiwizard]

you can also consider buying a used video card, gtx 570 and 580 both perform well and will be a much better price / performance ratio, there are some used 580s for about 200 bucks and considering a 670 is 379.99 pre tax and shipping is it really worth it?

Side note the AMD video cards are amazing and a 7950 is close to a 680 in terms of performance when overclocked and also scale amazingly with overclocking (and this is coming from someone who owns a gtx 680 lightning) if you're looking for the best bang for your buck go with radeon 7950 or 7970, if you can find a used one its even cheaper and performs like a beast.

p.s. you can flash reference non ghz editions to ghz bios and have the same performance so don't bother too much with ghz edition it's really just for winning reviews.

IMO pick up 1 7950 if you want performance per dollar, if you're overclocking pick up the vapor-x / windforce if not any reference card will do the trick cheaper the better

For that budget price you can pick up a 7970 as well as stated if you're overclocking it'll cost a bit more but pick one up that can handle it I.E. MSI lightning / 7970 matrix / vapor-x / vortex II


ALWAYS KEEP IN MIND IF YOU'RE OVERCLOCKING

- you're playing the silicon lottery each time (CPU and GPU)

- you're only guaranteed whatever is written on the box so even if you pay the premium you're only guaranteed the factory overclock

[le2key]

Hey, I'm not sure if you're still taking suggestions but.. here's my revised picks from your original build:

AMD FX-8120, XFX Radeon HD 7870, Fractal Design Core 3000 - System Build - PCPartPicker Canada

I managed to squeeze in an SSD, FX-8120, 990FX board (990X originally), Liquid CPU Cooler (won't have a problem with your ram), and a better case for a total of about $830. I downgraded the 670 to an 7870. Well, "downgrade" would depend on whom you speak to, but the 7870 would be more than enough to play SC2 @max; not to mention the increase in performance from the new AMD drivers.

7870 reviews for SC2:

AMD Radeon HD 7850 & HD 7870 2 GB Review | techPowerUp

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...k,3148-14.html


And this isn't really a guide, but more of a trouble shoot forum for ocing the FX-8120 (might need it just in case, fairly easy to look up a OCing guide).

OC FX-8120 BIOS settings for a stable 4500 MHz