Help with pc building

[E.T. EddieTorrez]

So a buddy of mine is trying to make a return to pc gaming after many years of just owning a mac and he asked for assistance in building a computer. Since I've put together my last two pc's I figured I'd give it a shot. He'd like to spend between $500-600 on the hardware and would like this pc to be able to handle games decently for a couple of years. For usable parts he's got a mouse/keyboard/case/dvd drive/speakers/monitor/hard drive.

Any help and suggestions would be appreciated!
So far the parts I've been looking at are.

Cpu
AMD FX-4100 Zambezi 3.6GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819103996

Motherboard
GIGABYTE GA-970A-UD3 AM3+ AMD 970 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813128519

Graphics Card
SAPPHIRE 100314-3L Radeon HD 6870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814102948

Memory
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820231314

Power supply
OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W Modular High Performance Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817341018

[Clay Pigeon]

What monitor will be used?

6850 is kind of low performance for directx 11 games on 1680x1050 and larger.

[Boss Llama]

Looks like a reasonable load-out to me. Things I'd check out are:

- The PSU keeps getting mentioned in the reviews as being good, but having short cables. If your friend's case is a bottom-mount PSU design, that will be a problem. If he top-mounts the PSU, it'll be fine.

- The GPU should be fine right now, but if he wants to be gaming solidly for a couple more years, it might not hurt to put a couple bucks more in to that department and snag an upgrade. A 6870 is available for about 10 dollars more than the 6850.

- Since it's been a couple years, just double check that the DVD drive your friend has already is a SATA one. That mobo doesn't have IDE.

- Does he have operating system software ready to go? It can add $100 to the price if not.

[E.T. EddieTorrez]

Thanks for the quick suggestions!
-I'll have to ask him about his monitor and the resolution he would play at.
-His case is a mid-size case with a bottom mount for the psu. He's already told me that he wouldn't be totally opposed to buying a new case if he had to.
-I agree with upgrading to a 6870 plus the proposed parts are running under $500 currently so there is some wiggle room.
-His dvd drive is SATA.
-He does not have a legit copy of Windows but will be purchasing one.

Thanks again guys, its always useful to get another perspective on things like this!

[E.T. EddieTorrez]

A couple questions.
-Would that graphics card be supported by that motherboard? Gpu is listed as pci-express 2.1 yet I cannot find a motherboard that does not have pci-express 2.0.
-Would Windows 7 64-bit work with that cpu?

[Boss Llama]

- PCIe 2.1 is compatible with PCIe 2.0 slots. It's a semi-updated step towards a future PCIe 3.0, but pretty much everybody just deals in 2.0 mobos for now.

- Win 7 x64 would work with that CPU just fine.

Re: the case thing - I wouldn't get a different case in addition to the PSU, I'd just consider getting a different PSU with longer cables to start with, if I was going to change anything. If the case he has isn't windowed, it probably doesn't matter either way, since cable management doesn't need to be done for looks, and the system in question won't be rocking so hot that the airflow from one cable will be an issue. Just a random consideration I'd seen

[Checkm8]

- PCIe 2.1 is compatible with PCIe 2.0 slots. It's a semi-updated step towards a future PCIe 3.0, but pretty much everybody just deals in 2.0 mobos for now.

This is true. I picked up a 6950 this summer and it works just fine in my PCIe 2.0 slot.

[Flash]

So a buddy of mine is trying to make a return to pc gaming after many years of just owning a mac...

What's wrong with gaming on a Mac?

[One_Medic_Army]

Well as of the last time I looked up mac specs they tended to be about a year behind on graphics hardware. Not that this matters much anymore, seeing as an old 8800 nvidia card will play most games out there on 1920x1080 with good settings.
Then there's my 2006 mac mini, which can't even handle TF2.

[E.T. EddieTorrez]

So a buddy of mine is trying to make a return to pc gaming after many years of just owning a mac...

What's wrong with gaming on a Mac?

Whatever mac laptop he's had the last couple years is incapable of running any modern games and he doesn't run any form of windows on it so he cannot participate in any of the lan parties me and my buddies hold because it also does not support the old games we play. And apparently he doesn't think it would be worthwhile to spend way more money on a new mac laptop.

[Boss Llama]

What's wrong with gaming on a Mac?

Lean over here so I can slap you.

[E.T. EddieTorrez]

Alright another question. Does anyone know the difference between a WD caviar blue and a WD caviar green HDD? I know that greens aren't supposed to be used as a main hdd(learned through that mistake) but I figured my buddy could use his green until the price of hdd's go down. He found a caviar blue for a "reasonable" price and is considering picking that up. I'm just wondering if it would be worthwhile or he'd be better off picking up a caviar black later on.

[Boss Llama]

Speed is the primary thing. A Blue is a 7200 RPM drive, while a Green is 5400. It's pretty noticeable, and is the reason why it's not recommended as a primary. While it wouldn't be terrible to run off a green (many laptops have a 5400 RPM to keep heat down), it won't be as responsive as he'll likely want from a desktop.

HDD prices are absurd right now though, so I guess I have to hedge my advice a bit. If it's a choice between buying one or the other, spend more for the blue. If it's a choice between using a green he already has and buying a blue... well... I can't recommend buying HDD's right now - just be ready to do a full format and reinstall if he gets a better one later. What size and price did he find?

[E.T. EddieTorrez]

Western Digital Caviar Blue 500 GB SATA III 7200 RPM 16 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Desktop Hard Drive for $88 and free shipping on amazon. The price is better than newegg prices but not by much. I posted about a computer problem on here maybe around a year ago that my pc often froze up. Well the issue was my caviar green that I had been using as a main hdd for around a year and a half started dieing. After checking the feedback on the drive on newegg I saw many people who did the same as I had also developed the same problem.

[Boss Llama]

While the freezing up and such may have been a defect in a particular production run, the greens are generally quite reliable, as are all the Caviars. They're just slow, because they're really meant for bulk long term storage, not continuous active system use.

$88 for a 500 GB Blue is highway robbery (should be about half that), but due to the Thailand situation, it's the norm right now. I wouldn't personally want to run a comp off a green drive, but as mentioned above, I have trouble recommending the purchase of an HDD at present, especially if he's trying to keep costs down. If he's willing to spend the extra money, it will definitely improve his experience, I can assure you of that - I use all three colors on this computer, and the difference between the green and the blue or black is huge. I suppose if he's going to buy a new HDD, having it be a smaller one like that is good, as that at least keeps the costs down so he can get a big one when the prices come back to earth.