Description

My 14 yr old nephew told me that he and his friends were all stating to get into PC gaming since it offers way more options. I was thrilled to here this as they were all Xbox boys. However, the system he was using is a piece of junk I asked if would be interested in learning to build a PC. This is his answer. The parts we picked were based on ones I had left over from recent upgrades I did to my system (those are marked as zero cost). The other parts were bought to fit into the color scheme.

I guided him along but he built it himself and it was a blast talking tech with him and now having another PC gamer in the family.

I overclocked the CPU to a modest 4.2 and he tells me everything he plays is incredible (the 270x is a solid card)and blows away the Xbox. He is hooked!!

Finally, there was not an area to mention the NZXT HUE. After seeing it in action I am adding one to my build.

Part Reviews

CPU

AMD FX-8320 3.5 GHz 8-Core Processor

solid chip overclocked to 4.2. Can go higher but would take more tinkering than needed. At current state he can just plug and play.

CPU Cooler

Enermax ETS-T40-BK 75.98 CFM CPU Cooler

Originally bought because it is black. Found out it is a great cooler. Easier to install than a 212 and looks fantastic!!!!

Motherboard

Asus M5A97 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard

Decent board, easy bios to learn on for a first time PC gamer

Memory

Corsair Vengeance 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR3-1600 Memory

Love Corsair good looking and stable RAM

Storage

Seagate 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Hybrid Internal Hard Drive

If you can't swing a SSD right of the bat use this hybrid till you can then convert it to a backup.

Video Card

Sapphire Radeon R9 270X 2 GB Dual-X Video Card

Great card for the money (got it for $160.00). He is coming from a Xbox so this is just amazing for him.

Case

NZXT Phantom 410 ATX Mid Tower Case

Looks cool as hell, could use a bit more space in back for cable management but it can be done just have to get creative.

Power Supply

Corsair CX 600 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply

solid and semi-modular

Optical Drive

Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer

loads windows and plays cd,s.

Case Fan

NZXT FN-120RB 47.27 CFM 120 mm Fan

Good fans and only $5.99 - painted them blue to match (easy to take blades off).

Case Fan

NZXT FN-140RB 62.5 CFM 140 mm Fan

Good fans and only $5.99 - painted them blue to match (easy to take blades off).

Fan Controller

NZXT Sentry 2 Fan Controller

Case has a 3 speed fan controller on it but we disabled it since the digital one looked much cooler per my nephew.

Comments

  • 54 months ago
  • 2 points

Nice build, I recently built my buddy a system with a 8320 and a r9 270 sapphire dual x. Great parts for a good budget build.

  • 53 months ago
  • 1 point

I am a big fan of Sapphire cards and the 270x just blows a Xbox out of the water.

  • 53 months ago
  • 1 point

Yea the 270x makes the "next gen" look like last gen.

  • 53 months ago
  • 2 points

now he join a dangerous side for we all no his wallet is going to be incinerate once he sees the discounts on steam.....O_O

  • 53 months ago
  • 1 point

Yep already told him to get ready!!

  • 53 months ago
  • 2 points

Nice job! to both you and your nephew. Good build and back story. Also, nice tip about the HUE LED controller & strips, I'll be keeping it in mind in future builds where I want the extra LED.

I have the same NZXT case, same color (gunmetal's pretty awesome ). The 410 case is really sleek looking, but you're right, you gotta really work the cables and routing to get it to look clean. I ended up re-routing my GPU cable to a higher pass-thru hole than what I had originally used during my initial build, so that the cable tension (only very slight amount of tension) could help reduce the GPU sag, or at least not make it worse. It helped in my build, although yours looks good, doesn't seem to have the same problem.

Also good reuse approach and budget consciousness, especially to introduce someone to building +1

  • 53 months ago
  • 1 point

Thank you

  • 54 months ago
  • 1 point

Great job on the cable management with a semi modular PSU!

  • 53 months ago
  • 1 point

That is one thing I tried to stress to him was how much good cable management can really help air flow (and looks so much better)

  • 53 months ago
  • 1 point

Nice tidy building. Build for nice reasons good on you!

  • 53 months ago
  • 1 point

Thanks it was a good bonding experience

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  • 53 months ago
  • 1 point

They really do OC nicely. Thanks

  • 53 months ago
  • 0 points

I you're lucky you can even oc on stock cooling ;)

[comment deleted]
  • 53 months ago
  • 1 point

Oops, the first word should be if. I was saying that if your particular chip handles oc well enough and your case gives some good ventalation that you can put a decent oc on a vishera chip under stock cooling and still keep good temps.

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  • 53 months ago
  • 1 point

Ha I don't to be a great uncle just yet :) Thanks appreciate it.