If you're sitting there torn between a laptop and a desktop—and honestly, if portability isn't your main thing anyway—just go with a PC. There are way more perks on that side of the fence—everything from raw performance and easy upgrades to simpler troubleshooting if something breaks, plus you usually get better warranties...
Looks like a solid build, but honestly? You should probably grab the Corsair RM550x instead—the price gap is pretty tiny $5.00, plus you get more juice from the PSU and an extra two years of warranty. Given what you're using this rig for and how little extra it costs, I’d stick with the 1TB drive to keep that extra breathing room—but hey, if you're totally fine with just a 500GB HDD alongside an external drive, go for it.
You could always give it a shot—if it doesn't work, you're basically just looking at needing a new motherboard since the whole PC won't boot anyway, so there isn't much risk there. Don't hold out for big discounts, though. You got this recommendation from an online retailer that operates on razor-thin margins, so their prices are already pretty much bottomed out from the jump. Real sales usually happen at big-box retailers like Best Buy and stuff like that, and even then, if they do go on sale, you probably won't see parts this cheap again—they'll likely be right around this price or maybe even a little higher.
For instance, the Intel Core i5-3570K is actually at its lowest price point since it first launched (it used to hover around $300), and that Giga motherboard has also dropped since it first hit the shelves. Even the NVIDIA GTX 750 Ti was sitting at $467 just a few months ago, so honestly, now is a solid time to pull the trigger. Pretty soon, that Giga board might not be on sale anymore, and you'll likely end up paying about $433 more for it.
Dracul that is worth GTX 760/770. My current Inno Keplerica GTX 750 ti / GTX 970 cards are totally fine in that regard—plus they're way quieter and run much cooler, mostly just because they don't pull nearly as much power.
Yeah, you can definitely make use of the cooler then. It really just comes down to what kind of games you're eyeing and what resolution you're running at.
Right now, this setup is plenty for most newer titles on high settings at 1080p—just don't go overboard with the AA & AF. Your CPU actually has enough breathing room to handle an upgrade to a beefier GPU like an R9 280 x. later on. You could eventually aim for an FX 83 xx and pair it with a stronger card. Honestly, you should be pretty much set for another 2-3 years.
Also, if you happen to have the rev 2.0 version of the motherboard, you might actually get an FX 6300 to work—since the official site says it supports the FX 6350 (which is basically just an FX 6300 with slightly higher clock speeds).
Honestly, an Intel Core i5-4460 soc 1150 and an Intel Core i7-4770K should be plenty for what you're looking to do right now. But hey—if you aren't planning on upgrading anytime soon, you might want to look into picking up something slightly better just to be safe. H81 mbo Look, you aren't really losing much by sticking with the B85—it does the job. But if you're actually looking to step things up, just bite the bullet and go for the H97 instead. Don't get stuck settling for that B85 board if you want something better; it's worth the extra stretch.
Here you go—I swapped out the power supply so you get a better warranty and went with the H97 chipset, just so you've got a solid path if you want to upgrade to a beefier Broadwell chip down the road:
i5 4460 AS ROCK H97 PRO4 CRUCIAL 8GB 1600 MHZ PATRIOT BLAZE 240 GB SSD SATA 3 GEFORCE GTX 970 4GB DDR5 FORTRON HYPER 500W 80+ ZALMAN Z1 MIDI ATX USB 3.0
Those specs are basically just fluff—they don't actually mean much in the real world. Honestly, they mostly just make it easier for sellers to talk you into buying some overpriced, overkill power supply that you definitely don't need.
Look, when you're picking out a power supply, it’s not just about the total wattage—that’s a huge misconception people always fall for when they don't know what they're doing. It’s actually about what’s going on inside the unit itself.
The power supply is totally fine—I wouldn't bother recommending something else just for the sake of it. You’ve still got plenty of headroom left considering how much power your whole setup actually pulls. If you really want to level up, though, maybe look into something more powerful or even a modular unit just to cut down on the cable mess inside the case... go with INTEGRU-M. INTEGRU-M The only catch is that her warranty is two years shorter. But honestly, Best Buy does a pretty solid job putting configurations together—so the cables shouldn't be much of a headache for you. Plus, the Z3 actually has some really decent options when it comes to cable management.
Let me give you an example of how I do things— click.
When I was putting my rig together, I didn't see it available—but honestly, you can't really go wrong with either one. Even the XFX Black is a solid pick since both are top-tier choices for the R9 models. That said, having that extra year of warranty with Gigabyte definitely comes in handy click.
That doesn't really tell me much—grab Speccy and let me know the exact motherboard model.
Also, how much RAM are we talking about, and what's the exact spec? If you aren't sure, just give me the total capacity, whether it's running in dual channel or single channel, and the speed—like 1066, 1333, 1600, 1866, 2133, or 2400 MHz...
And honestly, are you even using an aftermarket cooler on that 6800k?