Building computer for friend -- second build

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PhantomX

New Member
Hi all,

I just want to get some general feedback on this build. My friend needs a budget PC that will primarily be used for storing and playing music, general internet usage, occasional gaming, and recording music.

With this in mind, I concocted the following build:

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Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P AM3+ motherboard
AMD FX-6300 Vishera 6-Core 3.5GHz (4.1GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 95W
GeForce GT 730 1GB 64-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 1TB 7200 RPM (x2)
DIYPC Solo-T1-BK Black USB 3.0 ATX Mid Tower Gaming Computer Case
Rosewill ARC-650, ARC Series 650W Power Supply
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
ASUS Xonar DG 5.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI
ASUS 24X DVD Burner
Rosewill 10" Red Flat Serial ATA III Cable with Locking Latch (x3)
Rosewill 10" Red Flat Serial ATA III Cable with Locking Latch (x3)
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Considerations:
1) Is the power supply sufficient? What if he was to put in external audio recording equipment?

2) Does it all look compatible? Good quality? Any suggestions? I am not an expert with sound cards, but does this one look OK?

Thanks for any feedback. We both really appreciate it!
 
You don't need Sata cable. They come with mobo
Sound card not necessary unless having good speaker. If you really want one, get something with pci-e
 
Cisco001 said:
You don't need Sata cable. They come with mobo
Sound card not necessary unless having good speaker. If you really want one, get something with pci-e
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Thank you. I was not sure how many the mobo came with.

Re: sound card. Does it really not make a difference without high-end speakers? Just curious! He will be playing a lot of music and possibly even recording music via an eventual external sound card, but I honestly don't know anything about sound cards so I'm all ears.

Thanks!
 
PhantomX said:
Mainly emulations of older console games.

Do you know of a better card (e.g., mid-grade)?

Thanks for your help.
Click to expand...

If you want mid-range look at the GTX 750 Ti or a cheap GTX 760 now that the 960 is here.

Not hot on the case myself - Corsair 200R or 300R might be better or a Zalman Z9 or Z11.

No no to the Rosewill PSU too - go with the Corsair CX600M.

As mentioned by somebody else the motherboard will come some lovely blue SATA cables for you to use. :)

Which Xonar card in particular are you looking at? If it's a cheap/low-end one you'd probably be best off saving the money and using the onboard audio on the motherboard. Onboard audio is perfectly adequate and unless you have really good speakers or headphones there isn't much point in getting a dedicated sound card - especially a low-end one.

What speakers does your friend have?

Maybe the money you save by not getting a low-end sound card you could towards upgrading the GPU or the CPU (look at the FX-8320) which would do more for your gaming.

Other than that it looks pretty good!
 
spirit said:
If you want mid-range look at the GTX 750 Ti or a cheap GTX 760 now that the 960 is here.

Not hot on the case myself - Corsair 200R or 300R might be better or a Zalman Z9 or Z11.

No no to the Rosewill PSU too - go with the Corsair CX600M.

As mentioned by somebody else the motherboard will come some lovely blue SATA cables for you to use. :)

Which Xonar card in particular are you looking at? If it's a cheap/low-end one you'd probably be best off saving the money and using the onboard audio on the motherboard. Onboard audio is perfectly adequate and unless you have really good speakers or headphones there isn't much point in getting a dedicated sound card - especially a low-end one.

What speakers does your friend have?

Maybe the money you save by not getting a low-end sound card you could towards upgrading the GPU or the CPU (look at the FX-8320) which would do more for your gaming.

Other than that it looks pretty good!
Click to expand...

OK i'm gonna check those things out. I'm not sure which kind of speakers he has but I'll check. You guys have been really helpful so far.

I do realize now that, looking at the benchmarks, getting the GT 730 makes no sense. No real value in it.

OK I'm gonna check out your suggestions!
 
spirit said:
If you want mid-range look at the GTX 750 Ti or a cheap GTX 760 now that the 960 is here.

Not hot on the case myself - Corsair 200R or 300R might be better or a Zalman Z9 or Z11.

No no to the Rosewill PSU too - go with the Corsair CX600M.

As mentioned by somebody else the motherboard will come some lovely blue SATA cables for you to use. :)

Which Xonar card in particular are you looking at? If it's a cheap/low-end one you'd probably be best off saving the money and using the onboard audio on the motherboard. Onboard audio is perfectly adequate and unless you have really good speakers or headphones there isn't much point in getting a dedicated sound card - especially a low-end one.

What speakers does your friend have?

Maybe the money you save by not getting a low-end sound card you could towards upgrading the GPU or the CPU (look at the FX-8320) which would do more for your gaming.

Other than that it looks pretty good!
Click to expand...

I looked into your suggestions, thanks.

A lot of them I found to increase the price quite a bit. For instance, the case alone raised the price +$50! Is the case worth that much extra?

The video card you suggested is about +$50, but could be worth it.

Is there a reason you don't like the Rosewill power supply? Just curious. The CX600M is, well, 600 watts vs. 650 in the Rosewill. Do you think 600 watts is enough for the 6300 CPU? How about the 8350 or 8320? Thanks!

The Xonar we were looking at is the ASUS Xonar DG 5.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Interface Sound Card. Thoughts?

Thanks!
 
PhantomX said:
A lot of them I found to increase the price quite a bit. For instance, the case alone raised the price +$50! Is the case worth that much extra?
Click to expand...

Which case did you choose? It's worth it in the long run - the 200R/300R and Z9/Z11 represent very good value for money and are well-built cases with nice features such as proper cable management.

The video card you suggested is about +$50, but could be worth it.
Click to expand...
The GT 730 you were looking at is worthless - you want to go for a GTX 750 Ti minimum if you're gaming.

If you buy a GT 730 you'll spend $70 or so on it and then you'll find that it's not a good card for gaming so you'll end up spending $150 or so on a GTX 750 Ti - so by buying a low-end card you are actually spending more in the long run. You might as well save $70 and just buy a GTX 750 Ti from the start or if you have $220 to spend just go and buy a GTX 960.

The graphics card is where the performance is for gaming.

Is there a reason you don't like the Rosewill power supply? Just curious.
Click to expand...
Yeah it's because when choosing a power supply you need to choose a good brand. The risks of using a poor/low quality PSU are well-documented (usually involves the PSU exploding and taking out most of the system with it!) so spend a little more and protect your investment by using a good quality power supply that will happily power your system for years.

The CX600M is, well, 600 watts vs. 650 in the Rosewill. Do you think 600 watts is enough for the 6300 CPU? How about the 8350 or 8320? Thanks!
Click to expand...
50W is nothing really. The Corsair CX600M is a good quality power supply that is highly recommend and it's also modular meaning that you only need to plug the cables you need into the power supply itself, which reduces cable clutter inside your case. 600W is more than enough for an FX-6300 and a GTX 750 Ti and leaves headroom for future upgrades. You could run this system on a good 450W PSU if you wanted.

The Xonar we were looking at is the ASUS Xonar DG 5.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Interface Sound Card. Thoughts?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
For $36 I'd probably say it's not worth it as it likely won't be massively superior to the onboard audio (if noticeable at all) so save your $36 and put it towards the other bits to help level the prices out.

What is your budget for the whole system?
 
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spirit said:
What is your budget for the whole system?
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Thanks for the answers.

I'd say the budget is around $600-$800 total. He already has a keyboard, mouse, and those kinds of things (including monitor and speakers, too).

So it is really all for the PC itself.
 
With that kind of budget definitely go for something like an FX-6300 or an i3 with a GTX 750 Ti or a GTX 960 (or equivalent Radeon - I prefer NVIDIA personally but the Radeons are also good).
 
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