Building around a r9 270

T

TheCAD

Gawd
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1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming, mostly looking for high FPS in CSGO at 1440x900 low settings.
2) What's your budget? As little as possible ~$650-700 max($550-600 after the GPU purchase).
3) Which country do you live in? NC.
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? Have a case, dvd drive, sound blaster z, and just purchased a GPU. Need a PSU, RAM, Motherboard, HDD and/or SSD, and processor.
6) Will you be overclocking? No
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it? 3008wfp 2560x1600
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC? Next couple months.
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? Crossfire support would be nice, no idea about the rest.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit? No

I picked up the r9 270 after seeing the deal on slickdeals. I plan on picking up the rest of the parts the same way over the next month or so. Just wondering what type motherboards, Ram, power supplies, and processors I should be looking for.
 
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TheCAD said:
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? Have a case, dvd drive, sound blaster z, and just purchased a GPU. Need a PSU, RAM, Motherboard, HDD and/or SSD, and processor.
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What case will you be using?
Is your DVD drive SATA?

TheCAD said:
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit? No
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So the cost of OS is part of that remaining $600 budget right?

TheCAD said:
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC? Next couple months.
.......
I picked up the r9 270 after seeing the deal on slickdeals. I plan on picking up the rest of the parts the same way over the next month or so. Just wondering what type motherboards, Ram, power supplies, and processors I should be looking for.
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I generally don't recommend buying parts over time unless you're completely or mostly up-to-date and knowledgeable about the computer hardware market. In other words, you don't need help with parts selection. I've seen plenty of people over the years buy parts over time because said parts were on sale. Unfortunately, just because a part is on sale does not mean it's a good buy. Slickdeals has a ton of idiotic users who put up hardware "deals" that any good enthusiast would know are bad. Like OCZ, some Corsair PSUs, certain Sandisk and Kingston SSDs, etc.

So I highly recommend just buying everything in one go. Or at the very least, only over a period of one month.

If you still want to go this route of slowly buying parts of time (even though it's a bad idea considering that you had to ask for help selecting what parts to get), some ideas you should keep in mind:
1) Intel LGA 1150 CPUs over any AMD CPU any day of the week.
2) 8GB of RAM for under $70
3) Get Seasonic PSUs
4) Get Samsung or Crucial SSD
 
Dangman said:
What case will you be using?
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I have an ATX mid tower I plan on using. Its one of these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...1125268&cm_re=chieftec-_-11-125-268-_-Product

Would have posted that, but it took me a while to find that.

Also, I've done 4 builds before. I'm mostly concerned with making sure I get a decent power supply.

I was planning on an i5 build.

Yes, the budget includes OS.
Yes, I have a sata DVD drive.

I was planning on putting a whole build together soon, but the R9 270 for $100 after rebates/cashback was too good to pass up.
 
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TheCAD said:
I have an ATX mid tower I plan on using. Not sure of the model name.
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Find out as it might not provide sufficient cooling for a modern system

TheCAD said:
Also, I've done 4 builds before. I'm mostly concerned with making sure I get a decent power supply.
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Yes but how long ago was that last build? And have you kept up with the computer hardware market since then?

The only PSU brand I can recommend with little hesitation is Seasonic, With that said, there are some Seasonic PSUs that I would not recommend outside of a really good deal.

TheCAD said:
I was planning on an i5, z97 motherboard,and 8gb of ddr3.
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Not quite a solid plan either since:
1) Not all i5 CPUs are worth getting. Some are really stupid purchases.
2) Not all Z97 motherboards are good. Some B85 and H97 mobos are better than their Z97 counterparts.
3) Since you answered "no" to the overclock question, really no reason why you should be focused on the Z97 platform since its chief advantage over the H97 and B85 is official overclocking support. In addition, that also means that you should not get a 4690K CPU unless it's cheaper than the Core i5 4590 since the K series are mainly for overclocking.
 
Seems like the 4460 is the best bang for the buck. Would you agree with that?
Can get one for $171 on newegg after 10% off.

The 4590 is ~$10 more right now.
 
TheCAD said:
I have an ATX mid tower I plan on using. Its one of these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...1125268&cm_re=chieftec-_-11-125-268-_-Product

Would have posted that, but it took me a while to find that.
Click to expand...

I do not recommend reusing that case for any modern build for the following reasons:

1) It is particularly cramped on the inside from rear to front. Long graphics cards will not fit inside that case, especially with a hard drive installed in such a way that the primary graphics card slot becomes obstructed or otherwise restricted.

2) 80mm fans are now no longer adequate for sufficient cooling of today's hotter running components (unless the noise level is louder than a jet engine just to achieve even moderate case airflow). Modern cases now feature 140mm front fans and 120mm and/or 140mm rear and/or top fans. In the best case scenario, two 80mm fans only equal a single 112mm fan in airflow, if not quietness. (It will actually take four 80mm fans, not two, to equal a single 160mm fan in airflow capability.)
 
Not sure of the fan setup in that case, regardless I have a thermaltake with front and rear 120MM fans and a side 90MM.
 
What model do you have?

Some cases may still be bad choices in spite of their cooling capabilities. You also need to factor in the ability to use (not just install) some (longer) video cards.
 
Get the Define R4 case NOW! That case normally "retails" for over $100.

Your PSU link isn't working. No matter; pair your new case with:

$80 - Seasonic G Series SSR-550RM 550 watt modular power supply

What future upgrades are you considering? Since you aren't overclocking, you would be fine with an H97 motherboard:

$90 - MSI H97 PC MATE ATX motherboard

It has one PCI-E 3.0 x16 slot, one PCI-E 2.0 x4 slot (the second long PCI-E slot), six SATA 6Gb/s ports, and USB 3.0 support. What more do you need?
 
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If you're trying to find a good PSU for a low price, you could do much worse than the XFX TS Series model.

(Two nitpicks: The model number indicates a TS Series PSU, not Core Edition; and you don't really "save" $50 when you have to fill out a $25 mail-in rebate.)

(Did you get the case yet? No? What are you waiting for?)
 
tiraides said:
If you're trying to find a good PSU for a low price, you could do much worse than the XFX TS Series model.

(Two nitpicks: The model number indicates a TS Series PSU, not Core Edition; and you don't really "save" $50 when you have to fill out a $25 mail-in rebate.)

(Did you get the case yet? No? What are you waiting for?)
Click to expand...

Case is already ordered.
 
TheCAD said:
Hoping to finish this off today with:

SSD: Crucial MX100 128GB
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Get either the 256GB model or the 512GB model. Both are faster than the 128GB model and give you more room for your key programs. (SSDs, like HDDs, slow down performance-wise the closer they get to full capacity.) In this instances, it's worth spending the extra money.

TheCAD said:
HDD: WD blue 1TB (Is blue worth $5 more than green?)
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Yes, the Blue is worth the money. The WD Blue HDDs are designed for everyday use whereas the WD Greens are designed to be used as remote storage that won't be accessed very often.

TheCAD said:
Ram: Hyperx 8gb DDR3 1600
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Grab the cheaper Crucial Ballistix Sport RAM instead.

TheCAD said:
CD/DVD drive:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106393
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Save some money and grab one of the following instead:

$15 - Samsung SH-224DB/RSBS (includes discount promo code 1011WKCM29, expires Oct. 13)
$15 - Asus DRW-24F1ST (includes discount promo code EMCWPPA38, expires Oct. 15)

There's no noticeable performance difference with any of the DVD burners.
 
Can't you buy both? A good SSD has faster read and random access speeds than even the fastest HDD.
 
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