Best PC build for gaming and live streaming?

Anthony Hayes82 said:Savings don't really matter to me since I'm paying in installments anyway, so my budget cap is around $2333. 🙂

With that kind of cash, you could easily grab a GTX 970 instead. It pulls way less power than that Radeon card. 😳

Well, from what I've seen, an EVGA 550 W handled the FX 8350 and R9 290 without any issues. This CPU seems a bit more efficient, especially if you're doing a little overclocking (since it doesn't need nearly as much voltage). He could always grab a Corsair RM750 for about $350 if he's really worried about 🤣

Should I go with a Seagate 500 GB, a Western Digital 500, or maybe a Toshiba 1 GB? They’re all priced the same right now $144. I'm leaning toward quality over raw storage space here.

EDIT: Alright, let the arguments begin. 😁

If I pull the trigger on an NVIDIA GTX, I won't have enough room left in the budget for an HDD. 🙂

EDIT2: Actually, looking at the numbers again, I think I can swing both the HDD and an MSI GTX 970. If Smartic guarantees their power supply can handle this build during heavy gaming sessions, I might save some cash by going with a cheaper PSU. I'm thinking about doing a little overclocking—maybe hitting 4.0GHz with steady voltage. Honestly, with these FX processors, even stock settings can be overkill sometimes.

EDIT3: Something just crossed my mind. I heard the NVIDIA GTX doesn't actually have 4GB of GDDR, but rather 3.5GB. Does that really matter, or is it basically negligible?

The 290 pulls less power than the click

EDIT

rocco18, I’ve linked all the most reputable benchmarks regarding this topic right here, so take your pick.

I should also mention that since the initial outcry, owners of the GTX 1080 haven't really complained about those VRAM issues in newer titles.

Plus, if you opt for the GTX 1080, you might save a bit on your PSU since it draws about 80-90W less.

Robert Rodriguez2 said:Just click the link for the card in your shopping cart; if you look at the top right, it’ll show you that it's currently out of stock. 😁

Here is my take: you save a little bit on the motherboard and the CPU—though honestly, the difference there is so small you won't even feel it. In exchange, you get a much beefier power supply. If I were you, I'd definitely go that route just to have some extra breathing room. That GTX 970 can pull anywhere from 275 to 300W all by itself 😳, not even counting your 8GB of RAM
.
Hit me up

And you can get the whole setup for $67 less than what you were planning to spend on your current
build. You might even have enough left over to grab a decent cooler if you don't already have one 😳
.

The processor is out of stock... 🥱

Are you sourcing from multiple vendors?

If you can't find everything you need there, just grab it from Futura—it's straightforward. Alternatively, you could pick up the 8320E over at Uzishop.

Timothy Kim60 said:Yeah, you can pull from multiple vendors

http://www.microcenter.com/product-details/example-link

If you can't find everything in one spot, just grab it at Best Buy or pick up the 8320E at Newegg

My bad, I accidentally added the wrong processor to my cart...

Here’s what I have from Best Buy:
2 x Kingston HyperX Fury DDR3 4GB 1866MHz Non-ECC CL10, UPC: 740617230611 Actually, I’d probably swap those out for some Crucial CL11 RAM 4GB DDR3
1 x AMD CPU Desktop FX-Series X8 8300 (3.3GHz,16MB,95W,AM3+) box
1 x Gigabyte 970A DS3P, AM3+
1 x MSI Radeon R9 290 GAMING 4GB, 512Bit DDR5
1 x Super Flower Golden Green 550W, 80+ Gold
1 x Samsung 120 GB 850 evo Basic
Total: $2054

EDIT: I've been thinking about it, and to keep costs down initially, I'll probably go with the AMD Radeon R9 280 3GB DDR5. That should be plenty for decent gaming for now. It's easier to just upgrade to a beefier card later once newer models hit the shelves anyway.

If you decide to go with the NVIDIA GTX 970—honestly, maybe look for that slightly pricier EVGA GeForce RTX model instead—you could probably get away with a more budget-friendly power supply, something like a Corsair RM550. Since newer cards don't pull nearly as much juice as they used to, you won't have to sweat the upgrade path later on. If you do that, I’d say take those savings and bump up your storage capacity—maybe grab a 240GB Samsung SSD instead—since cutting back on the PSU and GPU should balance out the total cost perfectly.

I just ordered this build, and it should be arriving tomorrow.

Future specs:
Intel Core i7-4770K (3.3GHz,16MB,95W)
Corsair Vengeance DDR3,1866MHz, 8GB(2x4GB) Red
GIGABYTE GA-970A-DS3P, AM3+ GA-970A-DS3P
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 3GB DDR5
Toshiba HDD 500GB,7200rpm, 32MB TOS-DT01ACA050
SSD Patriot Blaze R545/W430, 120GB, 7mm, 2.5"
Corsair RM550, 650W, 80+ SILVER

Total price: $1800

Since Best Buy didn't have the LC-CC-120 in stock, I grabbed it from census.gov instead. That should show up tomorrow too.

Anthony Hayes82 said:Ordered the build; should be here tomorrow.

Future:
Intel Core i7-4770K (3.3GHz,16MB,95W,LGA1150)
Corsair Vengeance DDR3,1866MHz, 8GB(2x4GB) Red
GIGABYTE GA-970A-DS3P, AM3+ GA-970A-DS3P
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 3GB DDR5
Toshiba HDD 500GB,7200rpm, 32MB TOS-DT01ACA050
Patriot Blaze R545/W430 SSD, 120GB, 7mm, 2.5"
Corsair RM550 PSU 650W, 80+ SILVER

Total amount: $1800

Since Future didn't have the LC-CC-120, I grabbed it from census.gov instead. Should arrive tomorrow too.

Nice setup 😁

Robert Rodriguez2 said:looks pretty clean 😁

Sure, it took me three months to get here... 😁

Thanks for the help, guys. 🙂

It’s a solid build. If I were in your shoes, I might have opted for the 550W version instead; you could have diverted those savings toward the EVGA GeForce RTX model—which comes with an extra year of warranty—and a 1TB drive. But honestly, for what you paid, this is an excellent deal.

Is there seriously nobody else out there who’s skeptical about an Intel SSD with a 5-year warranty?

Chris Robinson25 said:Is nobody actually interested in an Intel SSD with a 5-year warranty?

Look, Samsung offers a 5-year warranty too, and they're faster.

Samsung SSDs are the real deal. Their software support is top-notch, so they don't wear out nearly as fast as you'd think. And honestly, speed-wise? Whether Windows boots up in a minute and 50 seconds or just a flat two minutes, you won't even notice the difference during everyday use.

Samsung really does have the superior software suite.

EDIT

A 120GB Patriot Blaze or even some HyperX sticks...$150

An OCZ Arc 100 at 240GB barely scrapes past$233

👍

Intel and Apple definitely deliver top-tier quality, but you’re definitely paying a premium for it.

Look, it’s obvious you just picked the option that makes the most sense for your budget. Most average users wouldn't even notice a difference in real-world use (unless they're obsessing over benchmarks anyway). In my opinion, when you pay a premium for those high-end SSDs, you're mostly just paying for the longer warranty protection rather than actual performance gains.

I’m planning to use this SSD strictly for my macOS installation just to keep the OS isolated from everything else. My original thought was to just grab a basic 120GB hard drive, but I figured, why not? If it gives me even a tiny boost in boot times or makes the system feel slightly more responsive, it's worth it. I'll move my Program Files and User folders over to the HDD and just create symbolic links so the OS does as little reading and writing as possible. I'll do the same for the paging file and temp files—just dump them all onto the HDD.

An SSD in a $1667 build? I mean, sure...
That 500 GB HDD is going to fill up before you know it (especially if you're using it for gaming and movies). If I were in your shoes, I’d probably skip the SSD and just put that extra cash toward a bigger HDD instead. Games are getting massive these days; having one game take up 35+ GB is basically the baseline now.
I feel like I'm constantly clearing out 200 GB of space on my drive, and even then, it fills right back up.