Build Advice New Mid-High Gaming Build (finished)

Hello,

Recently put together a build and I thought I’d share it with you all. I was aiming for a mid-high gaming rig that would play new titles comfortably at 1920x1080, averaging a minimum of 60fps+. I allocated a budget of £950 for the core components (also includes OS) and a further £200 for peripherals. I purchased all of the components from Scan and the total build cost for the components came to £940.21 whilst the extras came to around £178.68 for a total build cost of £1118.89. The build is as listed:

CPU: AMD FX-6350 6-Core @ 3.9GHz
Motherboard - Asus Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 AM3+
RAM - Corsair Vengeance Low Profile 8GB DDR3 1600MHz
CPU Cooler - Be Quite! Shadow Rock Top Flow SR1
PSU - Corsair RM650 (650w) Gold
HDD - 1TB WD Caviar Black 7200rpm
SSD - 128GB SanDisk Pulse
Case - Corsair Carbide Air 540 (black)
GPU - 2GB MSI R9 270X Gaming OC Edition

Extra:
23" Asus VS239HR LED IPS Monitor
Corsair K30 Backlit Gaming Keyboard
Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit (OEM)

I have some images (although not the best quality) and some idle temperature readings alongside some gaming benchmarks. Couple things however; the cooler which I'd purchased was before deciding to switch to the Carbide Air 540, the room inside the case is enormous and I could have selected a much better cooler if I'd known. I do plan on replacing the Shadow Rock sometime(before summer) to water cooled solution, likely the Corsair H100i.

Before the images, is there anything you would have changed? Would be great to know your thoughts on the build and opinions the components. Now, to the images:

General Images:
























Temperatures:


I'll update more soon. Overall, I'm really happy with the build. I've benchmarked some games and everyone has reached a minimum of 60fps maxed at 1920x1080. I'll screenshot some numbers with MSI Afterburner and update the images section.

 

Looks like a nice build, looking forward to seeing more screenies etc

The most important thing when it comes to a build is whether it does what you want it to, and so far it sounds like this one does so I'd call it a success!

 

Nice build. Been tempted by the case myself.

As much as I love the Sabretooth stuff I may have given the GPU a little more budget but overall I guess its pretty well balanced.

 

I'm sure it plays real nice but it's not what I would have gone for.

I would have gone with lower spec items like the case & keyboard (Maybe mono?) so I could get a better GPU and probably a better performing intel CPU as well. You've got a nice build (so well done!) but I think a different set of choices would have given you better performance.

Maybe not quite the same bang for the buck though. Can't beat AMD for that, and you've certainly got a system with room to grow.

 

It I was you I go for (Piledriver) FX-8320 8-core!

 

@GeorgeStorm
Indeed. At the moment it's doing fantastic! The only game I've benchmarked so far where I fail to hit 60fps consistently is Crysis 2 on maximum settings with DX11 features enabled. I roughly sit around 42-57fps. Once I get home I'll upload the screenshots for the game benchmarks.

@mrbungle
Interesting. It was a hard decision when choosing the motherboard. I wanted something that was reliable and would enable me to overclock components well when the time comes. I read several reviews and decided the additional cost would be viable for the future. Any motherboard you would rate highly with the features at a fair price point?

@Guinevere
Quite possibly. Yeah, I was contemplating an Intel based build but as mentioned, the added cost simply threw it out of budget, especially paired with a Nvidia GPU. The 760 was around £40 more expensive. And certainly! Room to grow indeed. I'm currently saving for the new cooler and some new case fans. Really hard to decide on the fans though, I'm not all that tied to the components making an aesthetically pleasing build so I'm tempted to go for the140mm Noctua NF-A14 FLX fan, placing four of them, 3 intake and 1 exhaust. However, I saw Phanteks PH-F140TS fan and with reviews seem just as good, possibly better. The only thing that worries me is the 120mm mounting, I can have three 120mm fans at the front but I'm not entirely sure if they'll sit next to each other at 140mm, I'll have to check.

@blueviper11
I had thought about it. The extra threads would help in large multiplayer games, not sure about the justification in price difference. Is it that much better? I haven't read too many comparisons, In-fact I don't think I have at all.