Posts by Douglas Cruz2

Just wanted to give everyone a quick update to let you know that I finally pulled the trigger and ordered the following components:

Products
1 x DDR3 8GB (1x8GB) Kingston, HyperX Fury, 1866MHz, CL10 $216
1 x Intel Core i5-4460 (3.20GHz,1MB,6MB,84 W,1150) Box $491
1 x Zalman Z3 PLUS mid tower case. 192(W)x465(H)x430(D)mm. ATX standard $141
1 x Asrock Z97 Anniversary, s1150 $229
1 x XFX TS Series 550W PSU -P1550S-XXB9 $163

Everything arrived in perfect condition—smooth shipping all around—and I've already got it all assembled alongside my R7 260 x and an Intel SSD 120GB...

It’s running beautifully so far... Honestly, I couldn't be happier with the results! 🙂

To be perfectly honest, I’m not exactly a hardcore gamer—I don't spend my life glued to a headset—but my current rig is getting up there, maybe five or six years old now, and it feels like the right time to finally pull the trigger on an upgrade... From the jump, I was thinking about dropping $667 on a new build, but looking at the market, it seems like I'd actually need to shell out closer to $3,000 if I want something truly solid... Then, a buddy of mine suggested that I might be better off pivoting toward an Intel Core i5 setup, since that would allow me to stay within a budget of roughly $1000... He also mentioned—though I should take this with a grain of salt—that Intel chips tend to run a bit cooler than AMD's offerings, which might save me from having to spring for an extra aftermarket CPU cooler...

And then there's the claim that an i5 provides more stability... Honestly? I'm feeling pretty lost in all this technical noise...

Word on the street is that this motherboard won't actually let you squeeze every last drop of performance out of the CPU... You’d likely need something from the high-end 990 series—something like —to really tap into that full potential...

Does anyone have any solid suggestions for an Intel-based build? Since we’ve already touched upon certain $400 requirements for the processor... maybe it would be a smarter move to just grab an i5? :-S

Is it actually worth my while to throw some extra $67 at this build just to snag this specific motherboard:

I would truly appreciate any insight you all could offer—thanks for the help, everyone!

RAM: DDR3 4GB (1x4GB) Crucial Ballistix, 1600MHz CL9 1.5V, BLS4G3D160 - $107
CASE: Zalman Z3 PLUS mid tower case. 192(W)x465(H)x430(D)mm. MB standard - $133
MOTHERBOARD: Gigabyte 970A-DS3P, AM3+, AMD 970 SB950, 4x DDR3 2000(O.C.)/1866 - $176
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 8320 3.5GHz, 16MB, 125W, AM3+, FD8320FRHK - $372
COOLER: Thermaltake Contac 21, 775, AM2, AM2+, AM3, AM3+, FM1, 1155, 1156 - $57
PSU: Fortron 550W Raider, RA550, 12cm fan - $150

Total: $995

I've decided to pivot my strategy based on some solid advice from Adam Moore3

1 x Gigabyte 970A-DS3P, AM3+, AMD 970 SB950, 4x DDR3 2000(O.C.)/1866 $176
1 x DDR3 4GB (1x4GB) Crucial Ballistix, 1600MHz CL9 1.5V, BLS4G3D160 $107
1 x Fortron 600W Hyper Power PSU, 12cm fan, $55.00
1 x Zalman Z3 PLUS mid tower case. 192(W)x465(H)x430(D)mm. $45.00
1 x AMD Ryzen 7 8350 4.0GHz, 16MB, 125W, AM3+, FD8350FRHK, $170.00

Total: $380.00

In addition to this build, I already have an R7 260X 2GB graphics card and an Intel Core i7 SSD

Huge thanks to everyone here on the forum for the advice! 😉

I’ve been looking at these two offers from the links provided...

What’s everyone's take on this?

So, would it be a smarter move to go with that second option—the one featuring a slightly better processor—and then just pick up another 4GB of RAM down the road? And if I do that, will they actually be able to run in dual channel mode?

I’m looking over both sets of recommendations and noticing the power supply is hovering right around 400W... Isn't that cutting it a little bit close? 🙂

Does anyone happen to have any solid recommendations on this?

Greetings!

I am reaching out to request some hardware recommendations for a new PC build with a budget of roughly $667... Just looking for the tower itself.

To give you some context on what I'm already holding onto—I have an NVIDIA GTX 1060 x 2 2GB card and an Intel Core i5 128 SSD... So, essentially, I need everything else except for the GPU and the drive, provided we can keep the total cost between $200 and $833!

I would truly appreciate any suggestions you might have!