Any tweaks to this spec?

C

claste

Member
Trying to get the best performance for RPG gaming, keeping the build under £650. I have all peripherals. Could anything be changed to get me better performance and keep the build at the same price? Thanks in advance!

Case
ZALMAN Z11 PLUS BLACK MID TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD FX-6350 Six Core CPU (4.2/3.9GHZ - 8MB CACHE/AM3+)
Motherboard
ASUS® M5A97 LE R2.0 (DDR3, USB3.0, 6Gb/s)
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 650 Ti - DVI, mHDMI, VGA - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 450W VS SERIES™ VS-450 POWER SUPPLY
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Power Cable
1 x 2 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence
DVD Recovery Media
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) DVD with paper sleeve
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 11 working days
Miscellaneous
FREE £50 IN-GAME VOUCHER with GTX 650 & GTX 650Ti GPUs!
Quantity
1
 
C

claste

Member
Alternatively I think this might be better?

Case
ZALMAN Z11 PLUS BLACK MID TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD FX-6350 Six Core CPU (4.2/3.9GHZ - 8MB CACHE/AM3+)
Motherboard
ASUS® M5A97 LE R2.0 (DDR3, USB3.0, 6Gb/s)
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
2GB AMD RADEON™ R7 260X - DVI, HDMI, DP- DX® 11, , Eyefinity 3 Capable
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD5003AZEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 450W VS SERIES™ VS-450 POWER SUPPLY
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Power Cable
1 x 2 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence
DVD Recovery Media
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) DVD with paper sleeve
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 11 working days
Miscellaneous
FREE £50 IN-GAME VOUCHER with GTX 650 & GTX 650Ti GPUs!
Quantity
1
 
kruppsy

kruppsy

Master
I would change down to the FX-6300 and upgrade the graphics card if possible (270X or HD 7950). The 6300 will automatically Boost to 4.1GHz when needed, the 6350 to 4.2GHz. The difference won't be apparent in games, there's not much point paying the extra imo. Are you sure you need 8GB RAM? Im doing just fine with 4GB in my desktop and that includes next gen games like BF4. Dropping to 4GB would allow that gpu upgrade and its easy to add RAM later if required.
 
keynes

keynes

Multiverse Poster
You need something better than the triple copper to overclock your CPU. If you are willing to push your budget further I would go for a better gpu instead.
 
C

claste

Member
Alas it's my mother's budget - it's a Christmas present - and there's no wiggle room. So it looks like kruppsy's changes will be good for now, unless anyone else has any tweaks to make. I can always throw more RAM in at a later date, and my current 1.5Tb HDD will do fine for storage once I've wiped it.
 
kruppsy

kruppsy

Master
claste said:
That sounds good - would you bother overclocking the 6300 and adding a copper pipe heatsink?
Click to expand...

Not intially no. I've OC'd mine and reached 4.7GHz with my air cooler (see sig) but temps were a bit high for me so dialled it back to 4.6~, but in all honesty haven't noticed much difference from the stock settings when gaming's concerned. I don't run any other programs on my desktop really to test if its helped elsewhere, perhaps it has, but Windows features respond the same.

Maybe when you've had it while or if you get a game thats very CPU heavy, buy a cooler and do some OCing, but its actually a great cpu as it is.

I never even tried the stock cooler for it though so i can't comment on if its too loud or its performance, this may give you a reason to get the triple copper? But I wouldn't worry too much about it, the stock cooler is designed for the cpu after all. Definitely don't try to overclock on the stock though! :) Even the triple copper might be a bit weak for an OC tbh.
 
kruppsy

kruppsy

Master
I should also say my experience with 4GB RAM is on the Windows 8 platform, not sure if there'll be a difference for 7, but just wanted to mention it.
 
C

claste

Member
I'm a bit paranoid about overheating so no overclocking for me! That's why the zalman case, with the fans and the dust filter (we have various fuzzies). I might add the copper anyway to keep heat and noise to a minimum.
 
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