Building my own computer for the first time. Could use some advice.

Blazingdragoon04

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May 22, 2009
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Hello all! I'll cut right to the chase: I'm a bit stuck at the moment while building my own computer. On the one hand I have a friend that I used to work with that was planning on selling me some of his old computer parts. For $300 he was offering to sell me the following:

Asus P6T v2 Motherboard
12 Gb Ram (6 2Gb sticks)
Nvidia GTX295
1000 Watt power supply designed to fit in an Antec 1200, P183, P193, or Df-85

However, my friend that I was going to help me build it is saying that I should forgo buying from him and just buy new, especially the motherboard saying that this stuff will be too old to run effectively and that I should just buy a new computer instead of investing in a bunch of stuff that is cheap now because it was top of the line 3-4 years ago.

At the heart of it I am just a bit conflicted. This stuff does seem like a great deal, and I personally do not know how much of a difference getting something new, but cheaper now, is going to make. Does having an upgraded motherboard affect performance that greatly, or is it solely based on the processor? Should I buy new, or is getting this stuff for the amount listed a good deal for a start that I can then upgrade piecemeal?

For reference, my friend sent me a list of stuff he thought I should get for the budget I gave him (between 800-1000).

Motherboard ASUS M5A99FX PRO
CPU AMD FX-6300 Vishera 6-Core 3.5GHz
CPU Heatsink Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus
RAM/Memory G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB DDR3 1600
Power Supply Corsair CX 750W
Optical Drive ASUS DVD Burner
Graphics Card ASUS Radeon R9 270X
Hard Drive Western Digital Blue 1TB
SSD Kingston SSDNow V300
OS Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-bit OEM
Case Corsair Carbide Series 300R

Additionally I've been using the specs for Evolve, at least what has been leaked as the specs so far, as kind of a max for what I would like since that is about the only game that I am really looking forward to that is coming out in the next year. Between that and Titanfall most of the games I'm looking to play are steam games or older games like League of Legends or Dota2.

Evolve specs are as follows:

Minimum specs

CPU:
? Intel Pentium D 3GHz or higher
? AMD Athlon 64 x2 Dual Core 6400 2.4 GHz or higher
RAM: 4GB
GPU:
? AMD Radeon 5770 or higher
? NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 or higher
HDD: 15GB Install
OS: Windows 7 64-bit
Whether you?re using a lower-end PC or just value frame-rates over quality: We turned down the settings a bit and turned off AA to get some extra frames on an older test rig in the office.

Recommended specs

CPU:
? Intel Core i7 920 2.67GHz or higher
? AMD A8-3870 3GHz or higher
RAM: 6GB RAM
GPU:
? AMD Radeon R9 280 or higher
? NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 or higher
HDD: 15GB Install
OS: Windows 7 64-bit

Any help, advice, or alternative suggestions you all could give me would be greatly appreciated. This whole process is a bit overwhelming between all the different options, price points, and optimization decisions, though I have no intention on going back to Dell or any other company after how frequently I've regretted that decision in the past.
 

Albino Boo

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Jun 14, 2010
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As handy hint the site is useful http://www.logicalincrements.com/

With your budget I would go for an i5-4690K or i7-4790K with a r9 290 graphics card. Unless you are planning to overclock stick to the stock cooler. The stock one will handle the heat under normal operations. On that rig you wont need more than 650w PSU.
 

Blazingdragoon04

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May 22, 2009
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albino boo said:
As handy hint the site is useful http://www.logicalincrements.com/

With your budget I would go for an i5-4690K or i7-4790K with a r9 290 graphics card. Unless you are planning to overclock stick to the stock cooler. The stock one will handle the heat under normal operations. On that rig you wont need more than 650w PSU.
Thanks! Yeah I'm not really looking to overclock. As a note I've been hearing mixed reports about how i7's are necessary yet most modest builds just use i5's. What's your take on the matter? Do you need quad core i7's to play the most recent games or are they more for advanced uses?
 

Albino Boo

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Jun 14, 2010
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Blazingdragoon04 said:
Thanks! Yeah I'm not really looking to overclock. As a note I've been hearing mixed reports about how i7's are necessary yet most modest builds just use i5's. What's your take on the matter? Do you need quad core i7's to play the most recent games or are they more for advanced uses?
Currently you won't see a real benefit in terms of performance on a i7. That said, the i7 is more future proof than an i5. It always been my take to buy the best cpu that you can afford. Its much easier and cheaper to upgrade a graphics card in 18 months time than its to upgrade a cpu. Spending more upfront the cpu pushes your rig along the curve of playing on max setting for longer.