gaming and home entertainment build

[jcoviello]

i havnt built a computer in almost ten years or so. times have changed. i want to do gaming and use it as home entertainment, netflix, movies, music ect. it will be hooked to my 50 inch phillips hdtv via HDMI and will be using surround sound. heres my list so far, i may add a regular HDD as well im undecided so far. and is a pci 3.0 card compatible with a pci 2.0 mother board? i couldn't find a AMD pci 3.0 mother board

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-14900CL9D-8GBXL Memory Standard Return Policy


RAIDMAX HYBRID 2 RX-530SS 530W ATX12V V2.2/ EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Modular Power Supply, New Version with Build-in ...

Rosewill REDBONE U3 Black SECC Steel USB 3.0, eSATA, 3x 120mm Fans Mid Tower Computer Case

MSI GTX 970 GAMING 4G GeForce GTX 970 4GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support G-SYNC Support Video Card



GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD3 AM3+ AMD 990FX + SB950 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
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AMD FX-8350 Black Edition Vishera 8-Core 4.0GHz (4.2GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 125W Desktop Processor FD8350FRHKBOX

ASUS Black Blu-ray Drive SATA Model BC-12B1ST/BLK/B/AS - OEM

Kingston HyperX 3K SH103S3/120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) (Stand-Alone Drive)

 

[PP Mguire]

First problem, that PSU is terrible. Junk. Secondly, you don't need 1866 RAM. Any 8GB 1600 kit will work fine, the cheapest.

You couldn't find a PCI-E 3.0 AMD board because they don't exist. I highly suggest an i5 4460 and Asus H81 instead.

I'd also replace that Kingston SSD with a Samsung EVO.

 

[jcoviello]

Why the switch to intel? that motherboard is alot cheaper and doesnt have room for potential future upgrades, IE more ram SLI video cards(is this still a thing?)

Thanks for your advice

 

[jcoviello]

Thoughts on this ram
CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ8GX3M1A1600C10 - Newegg.com

 

[PP Mguire]

Well, if you stick with that PSU you won't be doing SLI anyways. It'll blow it up. Secondly, a single more powerful graphics card is typically always better unless you have just the budget. Third, it has enough potential, the first part being it's PCI-E 3.0, has native USB3/SATA3, and 2 slots doesn't matter if you get a single 8GB stick like you linked. The most you'll ever need in the DDR3 era is 16GB anyways. You also don't have to get a cheap H81 board, it was just a suggestion. If you were willing spend 150 on a 'decent' AMD motherboard then 150 or more on a Z97 ASRock will blow any AMD option out of the water.

Finally, the switch to Intel simply because it's smart. Less heat, less power usage, better gaming performance.