First time building a gaming pc

[Rob Hara]

Hi guys its my first time to be building a pc and im not that expert in these things I have currently 2 set ups I have come up with one is:

MSI Z97S SLI Krait
MSI GeForce GTX970 4GB DDR5
corsair vengeance 8gb x2
ADATA Premier SP550 ASP550SS3 480GB
Intel Core i7-4790K 4.0GHz

and because im in a budget I have come up with a cheaper version:

MSI Z97S SLI Krait
Sapphire Radeon R9 270X 4GB GDDR5
corsair vengeance 8gb x2
ADATA Premier SP550 ASP550SS3 480GB
AMD FX-8350E

Now I dont know how different they are in terms of gaming performance, and I dont know what cooling system or power supply will be needed. I dont even know if these are compatible to each other. Just in case you guys need to know the games I play are heavily modded Total war games, Heavily modded bethesda games like skyrim and fallout series.( I want to be able to play highest settings if possible)

Thanks!

 

[cliffordcooley]

Unless I missed something the "MSI Z97S SLI Krait" doesn't support both AMD and Intel CPU's. If you are going to get an AMD CPU, you need a motherboard that supports it.

 

[B00kWyrm]

Are you still with us??
You may simply have failed to update that mb choice, when you updated your selections?

Your MB choice is not available at Newegg (USA). They recommend other choices.
On the other hand... it is available from Microcenter and Amazon.
At Microcenter you may be able to get a further break on the cpu.

Thought...
There are some Z97, from good makers, that are at a cheaper price point.

Having built both AMD and Intel systems, I would lean toward the Intel.
(my opinions on why...)

• One... AMD is (in my experience) going to generate more system heat.
• Two... Intel systems usually will outperform AMD.
• Three ... Price point is meaningless if performance doesn't keep up.
• Four ... total cost of build ... not significantly different for similarly performing systems.

Get down to specifics and some of these points may or may not apply.

On the ssd...
I have had good experience with Samsung, and it is my preference.
I have also used Crucial with good experience.
I would tend to lean away from Adata, but... others may have a different opinion.
My choices will cost a bit more.

On the graphix card...
the GTX 970 is a significantly better performer than the R9 270.
You should probably consider (over the R9-270) the R9 290x,
which is a similar performer and similar price to the GTX 970.
(Though performance may sometimes vary by application.)
If you have seen benchmarks for your applications, go with them.
For a general "hierarchy of GPUs" see Tom's Hardware.

I hope you are still here, and that this is helpful.