Description

Main use is work. Occasional gaming and playing guitar.

I'm getting hate for using the FX-8320 with the R9295X2. This build started as a mid priced build for my home office, so that's why the 8320 vs. an Intel. The original card was am MSI Radeon R9 270X Hawk.

At some point I could replace the mobo+cpu, but right now it is working fine. I have not experienced any bottlenecks, monitored via rivatuner server.

The SSD is in RAID1 for operating system only. The 3 HDD are in RAID5, so 2TB total storage. Already 50% used (Virtual Machines for work)

This was the original build completed early January 2014:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Type Item Price
CPU AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor Purchased For $122.49
CPU Cooler Antec KUHLER H2O 650 Liquid CPU Cooler Purchased For $57.74
Motherboard Asus M5A99FX PRO R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard Purchased For $167.99
Memory G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory Purchased For $150.13
Storage Kingston HyperX 3K 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk Purchased For $94.98
Storage Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive Purchased For $68.23
Video Card MSI Radeon R9 270X 2GB HAWK Video Card Purchased For $262.48
Case Antec Eleven Hundred ATX Full Tower Case Purchased For $94.98
Power Supply Antec High Current Pro 850W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply Purchased For $115.49
Operating System Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro (OEM) (64-bit) Purchased For $147.80
Monitor Asus PB278Q 27.0" Monitor Purchased For $578.54
Total
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available. $1860.85

When I built this, I wanted a 280x, but prices were insane so I settled for the 270X. It's a good card, but was overtaxed on many games with the 2560x1440.

Once I had three 1440p monitors, the 295x2 was the best option since it uses 500W vs 600W for a 290x crossfire setup. Getting 2 x 290x would have required a new power supply so price would have been a wash. Most testing benchmarks showed that it compared on par with a pair of 780ti in SLI in both performance, heat and power consumption.

The only thing left to do is to max the memory to 32GB, needed for certain VMs I run.

Comments

  • 72 months ago
  • 4 points

Solid build! Love the 8320.

  • 68 months ago
  • 2 points

I am so jealous of your build.

  • 72 months ago
  • 1 point

Why such an expensive monitor? Unless you already had it, you could have gotten a cheaper one and gotten better components. Good build, though. +1

  • 72 months ago
  • 8 points

The monitor will probably last much longer than the computer itself.

  • 72 months ago
  • 5 points

There's no 2560x1440 27" cheaper the that except those Korean monitors. Trust me I came to the same decision last week and I've looked everywhere, so be my guest and help us out. If you know of better quality cheaper 2560x1440 27" monitors then that would be great if you'd let us know about them. :)

  • 72 months ago
  • 3 points

That's not what I am saying. It just seems like his current build won't handle 1440p very well. I'm not really sure.

  • 72 months ago
  • 1 point

Oh, I re-read it and now it makes sense but yeah you're right this setp isn't quite built for full settings at this resolution. The only reason I'm going 1440p is because I'm buying a gtx 780 ti superclocked.

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  • 71 months ago
  • 1 point

I wanted to get a 280x pair, but prices on those are insane.

Probably still will when the litecoin craze ends, and put the 270x in my son's build.

PS. I love the extra space on my desktop for working. It's going to be hard to go back to 1080P lol.

  • 72 months ago
  • 1 point

Excellent build. Love the cpu/mobo choice.

  • 72 months ago
  • 1 point

Nice build! What average framerate do you get on BF4?

  • 71 months ago
  • 1 point

Surprisingly, I'm getting around 35-40, with decent graphics settings. A few things turned down (Ambient Occlusion? Fugget about it!). The only problem with BF4, it crashes every 20 minutes or so, so I stopped playing it.

  • 71 months ago
  • 2 points

You should be getting more fps than that with your setup. I have seen R9290X Give around 41-44 fps on ultra at 1920x1080p. I presume you are running on an even higher resolution.

  • 68 months ago
  • 1 point

I think you should've bought a better CPU. That bottlenecks the whole system! For 4000$ build, you should've gotten an i7 4960X Extreme edition or standard i7, which is a 30x better than the weak AMD CPU.

  • 54 months ago
  • 1 point

The 8320 will not bottleneck either the 270 he was running or the current 295.

  • 72 months ago
  • 1 point

How does the R9 270X handle games 1440P?

  • 71 months ago
  • 1 point

Okay, but not ideal. It really depends on the game, and how much detail you want. Some of the shadowing and shaders need to be turned down.

Ideally, for 1440p, you want a 280X +, but the prices on those are insane.

  • 68 months ago
  • 1 point

The card in the pic is MSI and the card in the list is sapphire!?!?!?!?!

  • 68 months ago
  • 1 point

Yep, Pictures are old.

The MSI is coming out, the Sapphire 295x2 is awaiting install, it's sitting on my desk, by I need a bracket to mount it in the case which I'm waiting for delivery on.

  • 68 months ago
  • 1 point

hey man msg me when it gets put in and if you could run bf4 and tell me how it does.

  • 68 months ago
  • 1 point

Update this when you get your 295x2 curious to see what it looks like in the case. Thanks

  • 68 months ago
  • 1 point

post mare pics of the 295x

  • 67 months ago
  • 1 point

What sort of work do you do? unless its video editing/other heavy data usage or mainly gaming then I don't think you need 3tb of storage!

  • 67 months ago
  • 1 point

This is RAID 5 so only 2 TB out of 3x1TB drives. I'm an SE. I have several Virtual Machines running so need the space.

  • 67 months ago
  • 1 point

Potato pic of card in the case.

http://i.imgur.com/AO3ZcJv.jpg

Mounted the radiator in the 5.25" bays.

  • 63 months ago
  • 1 point

What two 8 pin connectors did you use to power the 295.

  • 63 months ago
  • 1 point

Rail 2 and 4 I believe, I'd have to double check.

  • 54 months ago
  • 1 point

Solid build man hope you're enjoying those 1440 monitors and the rig itself. And all the dumbasses saying that the 8320 will bottleneck the 295 need to just stop, they clearly have no idea what they're talking about and are just throwing the term around. +1 from me

  • 68 months ago
  • 0 points

the longer I look at this partlist the less I think it's real

  • 66 months ago
  • 0 points

How is your gaming experience gaming on 60hz monitors and geting 100+ fps do you see screen tearing.

  • 66 months ago
  • 1 point

295x2 can't do more than ~60-70 in high/ultra in most games at 7680x1440. Monitors are overclocked to 85.

  • 60 months ago
  • 1 point

sorry that i am just know seeing the reply but what about just playing on the middle one?

  • 64 months ago
  • 0 points

How the R9 295x2 holding up for you? Especially with the 8320?

  • 63 months ago
  • 1 point

It's perfectly fine.

  • 68 months ago
  • -1 points

The worst part is the CPU of this build.

  • 67 months ago
  • -2 points

An 8320 in a $5000 build? Are you insane? Even clocked up to 4.2GHz will definitely bottleneck your beast of a gpu.

  • 67 months ago
  • 2 points

Actually it doesn't, because the 295X cores are both pegged running 7680x1440.

If I was running a single monitor, then it would.

  • 67 months ago
  • -2 points

Then why are you "getting around 35-40, with decent graphics settings" on BF4?

  • 67 months ago
  • 3 points

Read the original post, that was with the old 270X.

  • 51 months ago
  • 1 point

I must abmit, this is a HUGE bottleneck, hkwever, some people here may not know. The higher the resolution, the less a bottleneck is going happen. Play at 2560x1440 or 1920x1080, the bottleneck will be insane. I do, however rccodmd still hopping over to an intel build.

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