[heartgrave]

Brother's birthday is coming up in about 3 weeks. Looking to build him a nice gaming rig. I only need the motherboard, CPU, PSU, and a nice case! Budget is $400 USD preferably considerably less as this amount does not factor the Windows 7 I need to buy. It would be totally awesome if the case had a side viewing panel, and the rest of the case was black with red LEDs and not built with plastic or that other synthetic material that's like plastic (can't think of the name right now). I can buy the red LED fans if needed. If you can find a nice motherboard that's red and black too, that'd be awesome, as red and black is his favorite color combo (he got his competition show car painted red and black marble with metal flake).

What it will be used for? Gaming, with good performance and graphic quality, on preferably ultra graphic settings on World of Warcraft, Diablo 3, and Skyrim.

What I have for it already:
I have a graphics card that is a PCIe X16. http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814127490 I know, old and outdated, but it still works and does it's job well! Will probably upgrade this on Christmas of 2014.
RAM is G.Skill Ripjaws series 8GB over 2 sticks. http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820231314
Factory installed 500GB hard drive.
Factory installed DVD ROM drive.
Factory HP case, quite ugly I might add, which is why I requested one.
These parts will be swapped into the new build, minus the case.

I am sorry if I seem to be asking for a lot with me getting down to the specifics and such but he deserves to finally have a nice gaming rig. Last birthday, I took him to an Aaron Lewis concert at a local casino. That just gave him memories, which is good, but nothing materialistic that can be used for years to come like a nicely built PC would provide.

Thank you very much, in advanced! Your time and help is beyond appreciated!

Edited by heartgrave, 19 January 2014 - 04:14 AM.

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The case was the hardest component to find in red/black, the best that I could come up with and stay under budget is steel with some plastic, it does however have USB 3.0 and a good cooling arrangement, see what you think, heartgrave list

[phillpower2]

The case was the hardest component to find in red/black, the best that I could come up with and stay under budget is steel with some plastic, it does however have USB 3.0 and a good cooling arrangement, see what you think, heartgrave list

[heartgrave]

That's cool, thank you! I was going off a past conversation with you where I believe you stated to try to avoid plastic when it comes to a case.

Edited by heartgrave, 19 January 2014 - 10:34 AM.

[phillpower2]

You are correct as in full plastic cases should be avoided however most cases if not all will have plastic on them somewhere, I mentioned the "steel with some plastic" element to ensure that you were aware that the case was not 100% steel.

You are welcome btw

[heartgrave]

Is there much of a difference between quad core and lets say, 8 core? Also, the GHz, the higher the number the better, right?

[phillpower2]

For gaming you will not even utilize all four cores of a quad, AMD 8 core and Intels i7 HyperThreading CPUs are required for uses such as CAD, 3D modelling, professional video rendering and game programming.

The higher the GHz the faster the processor.

[heartgrave]

Thank you for all your help again!

[phillpower2]

You are most welcome heartgrave

[heartgrave]

Would it be cool to swap that processor out for this one?
http://www.newegg.co...-_-19113286-L0A

Would it be the same performance?

I ask because its a bit cheaper and I can get it from newegg with the rest of the items instead of from tigerdirect and it will all be shipped at once and not different packages arriving on different days.

[phillpower2]

It will be fine as it has been tested with the suggested MB, it is not as fast as the quad core but still has plenty of GHz, the two additional cores you may never use but you never know.

[heartgrave]

Can I use this MB http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813128514 instead of http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813157479 ? Same price, I just like the look of the one I linked. Also, is it the same performance?

Thank you!

[phillpower2]

The MB and CPU are compatible but compare the Newegg Reviews tabs for both MBs as this will give you a better idea of which is the better of the two boards.

[heartgrave]

So, it seems pretty much safe to buy which ever one for whichever reason then since I won't have to worry about overclocking, fan controls and all that fancy smancy stuff. I am just a plug and play kinda PC builder and my brother is too.

Which would you use? ASRock mb or the Gigabyte MB?

Edited by heartgrave, 06 February 2014 - 03:42 AM.

[phillpower2]

As per my reply #12

Read the reviews of both MBs to get a genuine idea of how each board performs and then decide for yourself if either one is appropriate to your needs, it would be unwise for me to go out on a limb and specifically advise you to pick one or the other, that decision is yours alone to make I`m afraid

[heartgrave]

Alright, went with:

PSU: Corsair CXM Series 600W
Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Killer (the one you suggested)
Case: Enermax Ostrog GT (the one you suggested)
HDD: Western Digital 1TB
CPU: AMD FX-4350 (the one you suggested)

Already had:

RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws 8GB
Graphics card: MSI Hawk 5770HD
CD-ROM: Whatever it was

I confirmed compatibility with all parts on PCpartpicker.com

Items will be here Tuesday!

Edited by heartgrave, 08 February 2014 - 09:35 PM.