First post, by Gemini000
- Rank
- l33t
Although it may seem sad that I'm selling my house and moving into my father's place, this move does open up a solid chunk of cash and one of the first things I intend to do with this money is get myself set up with a brand-new computer, built from the ground up since it's about time I built one myself.
Basically, I'd like some advice on some of the components I've picked out, whether or not they're a good match for each other or if there's other things I should consider.
CASE: ThermalTake VN700M1W2N Overseer RX-I Full Tower Gaming Case
I was originally going to go with a mid-tower, but once you see the CPU/GPU selections, it will be more apparent that having a full-tower would probably help with cooling. This particular case comes with three fans built-in, a single 120mm and TWO 200mm fans, one on the front, the other right up top near the CPU. The PSU mounting is at the bottom.
PSU: Cooler Master RS750-ACAAE3-US GX Series 750W Power Supply
Should be powerful enough for the components I've chosen. I picked this particular PSU because reviews of it routinely say that it can cruise through very brief power disruptions without losing power due to the inclusion of a much-larger-than-necessary capacitor.
MOTHERBOARD: MSI 990FXA-GD80V2 Motherboard
I'm on the fence with this one. On one hand, I like how this motherboard has military-grade components and will probably outlive every other part of the system. On the other hand, I'm not impressed with their driver support, plus there's issues with using some of the new AMD FX processors on these. If someone can suggest a more optimal (non-ASUS) board to use with the AMD FX processors, I'm all ears.
CPU: AMD FX-8150 Processor - Eight Core - 3.6 GHz
At first, I selected an FX-8350 @ 4 GHz, but then read that the specific motherboard I picked had issues with that specific CPU, so I scaled the choice back to this one, which supposedly has no problems. I'm still a bit worried though because the latest BIOS update for the motherboard came out just days after AMD reported an issue (fixed with a BIOS patch) related to their FX series processors and Steam gaming. That said though, I don't have many easy options for going with a non-FX processor unless I spend a fortune on an Intel processor or shop from somewhere that will have higher overall prices and no local store to pick up from, thus adding shipping to the mix.
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 660 02G-P4-2662-KR Video Card - 2 GB RAM
This is no-contest. It's one of the most popular high-end cards out there and also seems to be considered one of the most reliable. :)
RAM: Corsair Vengeance CMZ16GX3M2A1600C10B 16GB
For video rendering/recording purposes, it just makes more sense to have a ton of RAM. This particular kind is 1600 MHz. The MSI motherboard only supports up to 1333 normally, but can go as high as 2133 with overclocking. Given the extreme amount of airflow the case provides, I'm going to guess that going up to 1600 probably won't be too big an issue, and even if it is, I'm guessing that underclocking the RAM to 1333 is possible too. (Again though, I'm not set on my motherboard or CPU selections.)
HD: WD Blue 1TB Desktop Hard Drive
From what I understand, WD's Blue series drives are the best choice from WD for longevity, which is more important to me than performance or power efficiency. Plus, I'd prefer to stick with WD since they've been making hard drives for a LONG time. :P
On another forum, people were constantly recommending I get an SSD as well, but I'm unconvinced the benefits outweigh the costs of adding one. There's other parts too, like a wireless card and a media card reader, but those are minor things.
Any thoughts?
--- Kris Asick (Gemini)
--- Pixelmusement Website: www.pixelships.com
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