i would recommend getting 8gb GSkill RAM. they are good ram sticks and can be picked up for about 75 or less for an 8gb stick.
Also, AMD vs Intel is a long debated topic. but from in summary, AMD is gives better performance on the cheaper side of life, that is, if you are trying to save some money and get some decent performance, AMD is the way to go. And since AMD's on board GPU (or APU) is far better than Intels, I would recommend AMD for someone who does not want to get external graphics and wants a cheapish system.
But Intel CPUs are quite awesome - in terms of raw power. They will usually dominate most of the AMD cpus quite easily. So if you looking for a cpu around the 280+ mark, look at intel i5. if anything less than 200, AMD.
In terms of harddrive, its all up to personal experiences. I have had no issues with Seagate so far. But I have also used Western Digital as well and again no issues. Its pretty much which is a better deal on the day for me. you can get 3tb seagate for 170ish. If you want a good performance hard drive, i recommend western digital BLACK. They are high performance drives with more grunt (at a higher price). Western digital blue are your average hard drives. And Red are NAS drives. Stay away from Green - eco hard drives with quite low performance.
Regarding power supply, I have a very similar build to what you are looking at (i use a 7770 in one of my PCs). You dont require anymore than 450watts. But to be safe, I would get a 550w power supply in case you want to add more hard drives in the future. With psu, highly recommend getting an 80plus certified one (Get a Gold rated if possible). This is just an efficiency rating so you know that all the electricity being drawn by the computer is actually getting used by the PSU and not being wasted as heat or something. I personally use FSP Gold Aurum 550w.
Have a google at power supply calculators and you should come across a few. I did one a few months ago and came to this conclusion: - you have the power consumption for most CPUs in the specification of the CPU. - GPU you can get the power consumption from many blogs and review sites - 30w for every harddrive (or DVD drive) - about 50w for the motherboard - add about 20w for every PCI card you using (tv tuners, wifi cards etc)
Add all that up. That is roughly how many watts you need. Multiply by 100/80 to get the minimum PSU rating you need (at 80plus Bronze rating)
You will notice that most builds are fine with any PSU less than 500w unless you are planning on 2 GPUs!
Also, for SSDs, I have heard that Samsung 840 are some of the best performing SSDs (for the price at least). And the Intel ones are quite good as well. Suggest stick to one of these ones.
I always use Pricespy to check prices, but not necessarily to purchase all components. I typically make a spreadsheet list of parts I want, and compare with Ascent, Pricespy and Newegg (and then convert currency). Doing some basic maths to compare the savings can be eye-opening. CPUs and graphics cards on Ascent often cost at least $50 more than the cheapest listing on Pricespy. Ascent offer good value-added services, but I'd expect that if your source your components from different suppliers, you should save a decent amount of money.
sp3ctral: A great help as well, once you know which parts you want is to use pricespy (www.pricespy.co.nz) - it can help save you quite a bit without even realising.
Yes and no.... could buy the parts at good pricing using Pricespy, but the shipping for multiple stores could offset the savings.
Personally I try to buy all my parts from a single store, even if its at a slight premium compared to others, one, to save on postage, and two, less hassle with warranty etc should anything go wrong - everything on one invoice and location to sort out.
Yeah, but it can help to ensure that you aren't paying too much for the components. I would definitely recommend using pricespy as a guideline
PSU calculator says your system will use 277W at peak, and recommends a 327W power supply. So a 350W supply is heaps, 450W is more than enough, 550W is overkill.
Dont be afraid to mention online prices to PB as well - the local stores here in Auckland are more than happy to price match other competitors.
Do your research via pricespy. I would suggest comparing prices with at least Computer lounge, playtech. Some of the other 'cheap' retailers drop ship and offer what are often ridiculous and risky pricing. Often not worth the hassle when a bricks and mortar store have them in stock.
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