New PC build, advice & recommendations welcome!

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ponder said:
With the fx-6300 ([email protected]), gtx960 & 3xhdd will a 450w psu be sufficient?

Case ~R600 with space for a Zalman CNPS10X Optima, no windows, leds or any bling, like simple looks.
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A decent 450W unit is more than enough for the system you're putting up. As for the case, I still stand by my recommendation for the CM N500, a lot of other chassis in the same/similar price range have too many compromises on either features, quality or connectivity to make them worth looking at. There is the N400 which has more USB ports, but cable management basically doesn't exist in that case. The Bitfenix Neos is decent, but there's not a lot of space behind the back panel to hide any cables and only one USB 3.0 port on the front panel.

Chevron said:
Or spend R28 more on:
http://www.rebeltech.co.za/8319-the...x-12v-23-eps-12v-292-active-pfc-semi-mod.html

Also 5 years warranty.
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Why are you recommending spending more on a larger PSU that is less efficient and doesn't need to be modular?
 
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ponder said:
Thx, 5yrs is 5yrs so I'm happy to go with the Thermaltake.

EDIT: Looking at the specs there's not much between it and the super flower, the sf actually delivers higher currents on all voltages except for +12 which is 4A less, 37 vs 41A. Semi-moduler is nice though. Bit of a tossup.
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And 12v is the most important btw. That's where your GFX card draws from.
 
ponder said:
MB - R1401 - MSI AMD 970 Gaming AM3plus ATX Motherboard
CPU - R1698 - AMD FX-6300 Vishera Black Edition 6-Core 3.5GHz
Cooler - R333 - Zalman CNPS10X Optima
RAM - R1170 - 2x Crucial Ballistix S XT 4GB 1866Mhz DDR3
GPU - R2999 - Galax 96NPH8DVD9XX GeForce GTX 960 EXOC 2048MB GDDR5 128-bit
HDD - R758 - WD Blue 1TB 3.5 inch SATAIII
PSU - R599 - Super Flower SF-450P14XE(HX)

Chassis (Maybe?) - R643 - Corsair Carbide R200
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http://www.wootware.co.za/super-flo...plus-gold-certified-desktop-power-supply.html
Can you stretch for this?
http://www.wootware.co.za/powercolo...it-pci-express-3-0-desktop-graphics-card.html This is significantly faster than the 960 but you're Nvidia only right?

And please, please avoid AMD CPUs. I know there are some fans on here but the single threaded performance is so pathetic they won't hold up to demanding tasks.
 
cerebus said:
And please, please avoid AMD CPUs. I know there are some fans on here but the single threaded performance is so pathetic they won't hold up to demanding tasks.
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Its seriously not that bad given the price you're paying for it. Heck, even I'm moving to a FX-6300 and I'm perfectly happy with the performance it has on tap, which is 2-3x faster than my Athlon X3.
 
CataclysmZA said:
Its seriously not that bad given the price you're paying for it. Heck, even I'm moving to a FX-6300 and I'm perfectly happy with the performance it has on tap, which is 2-3x faster than my Athlon X3.
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The price? R1680 + 1400? Well let's see what you can get otherwise:

The i3-4360 is R2000. It's much better in single core and nearly equal in multi-core:
http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/356/AMD_FX-Series_FX-6300_vs_Intel_Core_i3_i3-4360.html
Add this board: http://www.wootware.co.za/asrock-h97-pro4-intel-h97-chipset-lga1150-atx-desktop-motherboard.html
And you have some upgradeability if you decide you can get a faster CPU down the road.
 
CataclysmZA said:
Its seriously not that bad given the price you're paying for it. Heck, even I'm moving to a FX-6300 and I'm perfectly happy with the performance it has on tap, which is 2-3x faster than my Athlon X3.
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Agreed, from a performance per dollar point of view, it's a clear winner over a 4690k or a 4460 even. In the ideal world, we'd all have enough disposable cash to plump for an i5 with a z97 board.
 
Neoprod said:
Agreed, from a performance per dollar point of view, it's a clear winner over a 4690k or a 4460 even. In the ideal world, we'd all have enough disposable cash to plump for an i5 with a z97 board.
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It's not a clear winner on performance per dollar against Intel's i3 CPUs though. And it's pointless talking about performance ratios if you're only looking at the bottom end of pricing. Ideally you'd look for something midrange and there is no midrange AMD part worth looking at, and no way to upgrade to one.
 
cerebus said:
It's not a clear winner on performance per dollar against Intel's i3 CPUs though. And it's pointless talking about performance ratios if you're only looking at the bottom end of pricing. Ideally you'd look for something midrange and there is no midrange AMD part worth looking at, and no way to upgrade to one.
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Not going to belabor the point but factor these into your thinking -
1) It's 2015 and you're advocating buying a dual core CPU with no hyper-threading for a workstation
2) Ponder kept his last PC for 7 years before thinking about upgrading (and it was a quad core)

Ultimately it's up to Ponder but I wouldn't buy an i3 today.
 
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cerebus said:
It's not a clear winner on performance per dollar against Intel's i3 CPUs though.
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Still, performance isn't at the "pathetic" level and CPU-World doesn't say what benches they run, so it could be possible that many of their tests are biased more towards Intel's chips anyway. Passmark scores the FX-6300 above the Core i3-4360 and Anandtech's CPU bench scores them more or less equally. So why pay more money for similar performance in this case?
 
Neoprod said:
Not going to belabor the point but factor these into your thinking -
1) It's 2015 and you're advocating buying a dual core CPU with no hyper-threading for a workstation
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Actually I'm advocating steering clear of AMD and going Intel even if it means upping his budget. A workstation that is meant to last for years needs a strong CPU. Otherwise he's going to need to upgrade that CPU again in a year or two. Either an i3 or an FX is not going to give adequate performance.

2) Ponder kept his last PC for 7 years before thinking about upgrading (and it was a quad core)

Ultimately it's up to Ponder but I wouldn't buy an i3 today.
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Agreed, but neither is the FX CPU any more future-proof.
 
cerebus said:
A workstation that is meant to last for years...
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Its not a workstation. Ponder's coming off a C2Q Q6600. That's a seven year-old system. Look at his requirements:

Use is day to day stuff, office, browsing, music, movies etc. Don't do much video or photo editing. Play some games but not a competitive gamer, just fun & single player stuff. OS is 99% Linux except for when it comes to gaming. Already have a Win7 64-bit license for gaming so no OS required.
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What does he need a more expensive processor for? He hasn't upgraded his system in seven years and its still perfectly fine for most of his needs.
 
Gents I'm not trying to future proof here, I'm trying to work within a tight butget. I have never before upgraded single components on a system, I always tend to start from scratch. Prior to the q6600 I had a AMD Athlon 64 3200+ system for many years (it's still running to this day), prior to that it was a K6-2 system. As you can see I'm not a frequent upgrader & not the biggest of spenders when it comes to PCs.

I do however appreciate all the input.
 
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