What do you think?
The 550 watt PSU will need to be at least a 600 to keep the 970 at optimal apparently. Also, why get 1333 ram when faster is only slightly more cash.
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Definitely bump up the wattage. I personally would not go below an 800, But I also have a lot of drives.
Also, Do you really need an optical drive? I haven't had physical media in years and got along just fine.
If you can find a good deal on a Toshiba drive, that have a far better lifespan than WD.
You'll probably want to add an aftermarket cooler to your CPU as well. The 212 EVO is the one I use and it works great for the price.
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It's funny this came up, as just this week one of my best friends moved to Japan. He was in the process of getting a secure fiber connection setup, but it required proprietary software from the provider that was only available on CD unless he wanted to wait for a tech to bring out a flash drive in a couple days. He ran to the nearest tech shop and picked up an external optical drive.
I have an external bluray r/w, and a couple machines have internal DVDR drives because at about $10 I just like the nostalgia :)
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550 is only plenty if you don't ever plan on adding anything. If he were to add another 970, that would put him at 475, minimum.
You maximize the life of your PSU by staying in the 40 - 60% range of max output. As it is, he is looking at a minimum of 375 watts.
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If we say I don't plan on any upgrades for a while, nor do I plan on overclocking anytime soon, would a 550W work fine?
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Just to chime in, XFX does quality PSUs. One thing I didn't see anyone mention is that by getting a higher wattage PSU and running with lower load, you're not taxing the PSU as much which can mean the fan isn't going as hard. A 550W PSU running at 400W load is likely to be hotter and noisier than a 850W PSU running at 400W. If cost is an issue then I'd recommend going to newegg and looking at rosewill. Some of their models are superflower units and regularly go on sale for half the price of the same thing with a name brand on it.
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The last two builds I did I planned on, "eventually" upgrading to SLI and didnt. 30-50 extra dollars dropped on a beefier PSU I never took advantage of. If OP is asking about GPU bottlenecks, I would shy away from having OP go SLI/Xfire. To add, even if OP did get a 600+ PSU, his choice of the CPU would bottleneck the SLI config anyway. Bottom line would be for OP to NOT SLI for his current build, and should just save some money on the PSU.
Heck, that 6300 will limit the single 970 in more than a few games from what I just read. So my personal vote is that OP stick with their current 550 gold PSU unless they move to an i5 setup.
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On the bright side, you'll never need a space heater! Put some of those drives in a NAS?
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Hell no! I also have a 120" screen being burned into my wall by a projector that I am pretty sure is powered by a white dwarf. I am usually naked at the PC to tolerate the heat.
I am actually looking at a NAS solution now. I just order parts to build a BackBlaze at work (Filling it with 6TB drives. Drool) so I've gotten pretty excited about doin my own. TBH, though, the way I have my network set up, and my media server (also in the same room. jeebus). I don't really NEED one. but I do want one. I'm looking into running Plex on FreeNAS.
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This ram is about $8 cheaper and is faster than the ram you have now
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gskill-memory-f312800cl9d8gbsr
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Would that RAM work with my motherboard? I had a rather hard time understanding the RAM compatibility on the manufacturer site. Just didn't seem very straight forward to me.
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This ram would defiantly work with that motherboard. Your motherboard supports DDR3 at a bunch of speeds. This ram is also DDR3, and at a supported speed.
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I would get a better CPU, its not like FX6300 is bad, but with that expensive GPU, get at least i5 or FX8320/FX8350, FX6300 good for budget builds, but if you can't go to which I said without buying a weaker GPU, then stick with that you choose.
And the FX6300 should not bottleneck it anyways.
Also that "Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer" is completely useless...who uses disks nowadays....just a waste of $20, better invest these money to buy a better CPU. Or even better invest these $20 into a CPU cooler, you need a CPU cooler, stock coolers, specially AMD ones are crap. And case fan is not necessary, another 13$ that can be put into another more useful thing.
For installing your OS, you can use a USB stick, much better(also faster) than wasting money on useless DVD writers, which you could use once...for installing OS.
EDIT: I didn't read your edit for DVD Writer Xd, but still that 13$ from case fan better pun them into a CPU cooler, is much more important, the "Cooler Master Hyper TX3 EVO" is perfect CPU cooler for budget price. If you cannot spend more, that you are spending now, then the only thing I would change is getting a CPU cooler.
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I never heard of the case you chose, can't really help you here, but you may try to get one of the popular Cooler Master cases instead then which cost around same price, it will fit that CPU cooler for sure, for example http://pcpartpicker.com/p/h3q3Mp
Here I found some info https://pcpartpicker.com/b/2TRG3C someone used the case you chose + Cooler Master Hyper T4, a different cooler, but still good, and seems it fits. And another example https://pcpartpicker.com/b/L6M8TW with Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus, and this coolers cost you $10 less, and still very good.
Search more by yourself: https://pcpartpicker.com/builds/by_part/cougar-case-solution
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AMD CPU that's not top of the line? Well then it's junk. With Intel you can play that game but with AMD you're in serious trouble since even their top of the line ones sometimes don't measure up.
And no CPU cooler?
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I'll add on a CPU cooler, but I'd rather not step into Intel territory for now. I'm quite a cheapskate, and the prices for Intel run me off. Otherwise, I might've gone with one of their i5 processors.
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Generally you get what you pay for.... still the best Intel CPU for around $100 should generally have close to the same performance as the best AMD CPU for around $100...I mean I guess I didn't do too much research but that's generally what I saw when i was building my computer.
Edit= the whole AMD vs Intel is ehh like most arguments.... for the $100 range that is not a bad CPU at all...But if you are going in the $800 range and getting a 970 you might want something a bit better but it will definitely still work nonetheless..
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You only need a cooler if you're OC'ing. Stock coolers that come with the chip work just fine for stock clock speeds. Unless you're super sensitive to sound (they're quiet, but not silent)
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Interesting, I'm an Intel fanboy so I'm not surprised by AMD's subpar parts ;)
AMD offered me a job in Austin at one point, at their big campus they had to sell to raise cash and start renting. I said A. No, it's Texas. I'd melt among other things B. No, I want to work somewhere I value the product/service :P
Edit: Also, another +REP for the 212 EVO
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Agreed, though I must add that I have installed many EVO coolers and the fans that they are including with them lately are garbage. I have had more fans in newer installs seize on me in this last year than I care to count though many that I installed a couple of years ago are still working just fine. One made it four months. The others averaged less than a year. Replacements are only $7.99, and that's directly from CoolerMaster, so that should tell you something about the quality. Now I just toss the stock fan and replace it with a Noctua NF-F12 PWM if it's for one of my own PCs. The temperatures are a couple of degrees lower than with the stock CM fan as well. Warranty claims take too long from CM (almost two months) to only receive the same junk fan. If it's for a customer I give them my warning. In my opinion, for the price, the EVO is still worth it even if you choose to buy a new fan when installing it or are forced to buy one later. I highly recommend it for the 6300 and pretty much any other AMD CPU. Keep your AMD cool and happy and it will work just fine!
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Noctua fans are great if you don't mind the price or their appearance. For our cost sensitive OP, a cheaper alternative would be Rosewill Hyperborea. They are Akasa Apache hydrodynamic bearing fans that are rebranded by newegg and sold on sale fairly regularly for $7-8. Amazon currently has them for $12.
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Some schools use something called DreamSpark which supposedly you can get Windows for free. You would need to talk to the IT/tech department at your school about it probs (if you do happen to be a student). And if not if you are willing to use 8.1 (which I know you may not) M$ does offer a student discount on their store for windows 8.1 Pro for last time I checked $70..
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MSDN? Yah, most schools aren't going to pay for extra license options like win7. I was fortunate that we got basically everything in my program. I miss a lot of things about being a student, except the paycheck :P
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I have a large box of OEM DVDs.
Yea, I'm still a student as far as dreamspark (and amazon) are concerned, so I still grab free software on occasion. :)
I also discovered that as long as I change my password every few months on my student email, I can keep it. :) Yaya student discounts!
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Haha, nice! I may have to ask you how that works sometime :)
I still have my e-mail, but my uni is good about linking student registration status to their student perk accounts (such as dreamspark). So to get dreamspark I'd have to pay thousands to register for a course :P
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Honestly haven't checked the specs you gave yet (maybe later if i have time), but PST lower than 650 is not smart.
is it one conection or three? if its three you have to get the stroger...
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Unless you like stuttering don't get the FX-6300.
About $40 dollars, but this is what I recommend
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Z77T3C
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...but I really want a second opinion, since I've never built a PC before, nor a gaming PC. I pretty much want to know:
1.) Might the CPU be bottle-necking the GPU, or vise versa?
2.) Will everything work with each other?
3.) With the given price, could I do better?
Here's the build: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/HqXHLk
EDIT: I need that optical drive c: I still own a lot of optical media, and also burn stuff often. Apparently I'm a minority.
EDIT2: An after-market CPU cooler has been added, as well as a slightly higher watt PSU.
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