Posts by crimsonstag84

graniteharbor85 said:crimsonstag84

Information only—that Logitech unit is basically in the same tier as a 560W Power Supply, so the Hexa isn't actually any better than what you've got.

So it's not the same platform used in the 350W and 400W models? I'd imagine they might be slightly lower end than the Hexa Plus. Well, I suppose if that's the case, you have to give them credit for the price. 🙂

Both PC Builds pull less than 300W under load, so I figured I'd just go with the cheaper option here. 😉

AMD FX 6300
Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3P
Spire Kepler Rev.2 cooler
Seagate 1 TB 3.5
MSI Radeon R7 265
Patriot Signature, 1333Mhz, 8GB (1x8GB)
LG GH24NS
Spire Maverick 6009
Fortron Hexa Plus 400W

Total: $1346 Best Buy (free assembly and shipping $27)

Compared to the build listed above, you're getting a significantly stronger processor, though the power supply is a bit weaker. Everything else stays more or less the same, I guess.

Maybe a better alternative would be to just grab 1x4GB of RAM for now, then use the price difference to pick up a beefier graphics card:

http://www.bestbuy.com/details/example-link

EDIT: Yeah, I was referring to the build from graniteharbor85

Man, I don't know... nobody can really predict that. You probably should have checked in about a week before you actually pulled the trigger on the purchase. Between shifting prices, stock availability, or just new components hitting the market, things change constantly.

The main difference is that the HP motherboard doesn't support FM2+ processors, whereas the ASUS one does. Since another series of FM2+ chips is expected early in 2015, you might have some room for an upgrade later—though I guess it really depends on how much better those new CPUs actually turn out to be compared to that 750K. 😉

Everything feels pretty well balanced here; I guess you could probably skip $43 if you decide against getting the air fryer.

The CPU and motherboard aren't compatible, so you should probably grab either an ASUS H97-Pro4 or a Gigabyte H97-HD3. I'd also suggest going with an EVGA G550 for the power supply; the one you have seems a bit second-rate with pretty low efficiency.

Just one MS Phoenix case, no power supply included.
Just one stick of Crucial 4GB DDR3 RAM—1600 MT/s, CL11, unbuffered UDIMM, 240-pin single rank.
Just one Lite-On IHAS122 DVD-RW, 22x Super Multi, SATA, Black, Bulk.
Maybe just one AMD X6 FX-6300 1.
I guess there's one Asrock motherboard here—it's an AMD AM3 Socket 980DE3 U3S3 Chipset ATX model.
Just one Spire Kepler Rev.2.
I've got one XFX AMD Radeon R9 280A 3GB DDR5 graphic card Black edition 1 x Chicony high Power on hand.
I guess there's one card Black edition 1 x Chicony high Power 500W PSU available.
Just one Seagate Barracuda 7200 hard drive (3.5", 500GB, 16MB, SATA III-600).

Total: $1422 Future-IT (cash price, plus an extra 10%)

I think fadedorca66 was trying to say it’s all pretty much the same thing. You won't really notice a 5% difference since gaming cards are overkill for this, so you might as well just grab something cheaper.

Is a 20%-25% difference really not that big of a deal? 😬

I’d definitely go with the AMD FX-6300... $43 It beats the AMD FX-4130 by quite a bit, which is much weaker, draws more power, and just has a worse architecture. Plus, since you're working with a motherboard that has pretty weak voltage regulation, I probably wouldn't risk dropping a 125W processor in there (the AMD Phenom is also 125W).

I guess it's from Best Buy, though I'm not entirely sure 😬

You should probably grab this case instead, since it's the same price:

That Green disk is pretty slow, so you might want to pick this one up—it's actually cheaper:$17 is better:

Then, you could use that extra cash to get a much better graphics card:

Maybe just throw in an AMD Radeon R9 270 and an ASUS M5A97 R2 to cover the price gap.

UPDATE: I'm looking at more RAM... probably adding another 4GB next month, plus a better 400W unit from the Silverstone line.

1 x Intel Core i3-4150 (3.50GHz,512KB,3MB,54 W,1150) Box, Intel HD Graphics 4000
1 x Memory Device Kingston RAM-i 2 DDR3 SDRAM Non-ECC (4GB,1600MHz(PC3-12800),Single Rank,Unbuffered) CL11
1 x LITE ON IHAS122 DVD-RW 22x Super Multi, SATA, Black, Bulk
1 x MS PHOENIX case without PSU
1 x Silverstone Strider Essential ST40F-ES 400W, 1x120, 80+
1 x XFX R9 270A 2GB DDR5
1 x Acer V226HQLAbd 21.5" LED Monitor
1 x GIGABYTE Main Board Desktop iH81(H81M-DS2V) (S1150,DDR3,VGA/DVI,USB3.0/USB2.0,LAN,SATAIII/SATAII) mATX Retail
1 x Toshiba 1TB,7200rpm, 32MB HDD
Total: $1515

1 x DDR3 4GB (1x4GB) Crucial, 1600MHz CL11
1 x SILVERSTONE Strider 500W, Essential ST50F-ES AC 90-264V, 47/63Hz
1 x TOSHIBA 500GB, 7200rpm, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB, DT01ACA050
1 x DVD writer Samsung SH-224DB sat Bulk Black, SATA
1 x Sapphire R9 280 3GB OC Dual-X, 3GB GDDR5 384bit, 28nm
1 x MS LOGIC A33 without PSU, Midi tower, ATX, 5.25" external bay
1 x AMD Trinity Athlon ii x4 750 3.40GHz 4cores
1 x Asrock FM2+ FM2A75 PRO4+ - AMD A75 Hudson D3, ATX, dual Channel
1 x Thermaltake Contac 16, 775,AM2,AM2+,AM3,AM3+,FM1,1155,1156

$1292 CNN - free shipping and assembly

Something a bit more extreme...

Compared to the build above, the processors are basically the same, motherboard quality is similar, and it’s almost the exact same case—just without the fan. The coolers are roughly in the same ballpark, you've got 4GB of RAM, but the graphics card is maybe 40-50% more powerful. I guess you'd need to overclock the CPU close to 4GHz, or maybe right at 4GHz, to actually make use of it.

I hate to be the one to break it to you, but this is probably the absolute worst site for reviews and comparisons I've ever seen. 😉

http://www.hwcompare.com/11956/gefor...adeon-hd-7770/

The HD 7770 is a bit faster, I guess...

@Robert Rodriguez2 Those GPU prices he’s listing are pretty wild 😉 So I guess yours is roughly ~$2867

But looking at that build above, the CPU isn't even compatible with the motherboard, so that's a problem regardless 😛

Well, honestly 😂 I didn't catch the original post 😬

In that case, maybe a low-end card like an HD 6450 would work, though I guess it’s basically throwing money away if you ask me.

driftingpilot8 said:I feel like I’ve already said this a few times, and honestly, I'm starting to bore myself.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/graphics-card-listing-11886423

http://www.craigslist.org/listing/graphics-card-11777176

These prices are actually pretty solid.
For $100, you probably won't find anything better than integrated graphics—unless you count some other cheap junk that isn't much of an upgrade.

That’s probably the best ASUS AM1 motherboard out there, so it should be fine. I think I saw someone push it to 3.6GHz once, maybe.

I guess those Phenom chips make sense if you're looking at an AM3+ build; you could always grab a beefier GPU instead of settling for an FX 6300, then maybe upgrade to an FX 8320 down the road.😁

👍

Maybe we could squeeze in some summer drives somewhere 😛