New computer time

[indy500fan]

First of all, I am attempting to build a gaming PC for $500. I need to buy a motherboard, CPU, RAM and power supply (unless my 350W will work :smile: ). I have a few choices to make, but the first I was thinking about was the Phenom II X3 720 vs the Phenom II X4 965. It is $105 vs $193, and I am wondering if it is really worth it. Looking at this page there is not a huge difference between the two. I'm willing to spend up to around $200 on the processor, but I would like to keep the price around $200 or $100. If I keep it at $100 then I could buy a new hard drive (my data one is starting to click and my OS one is still IDE, which I don't even know if new mo-boards support, and it is around 6 years old). If I am spending more than $100 I might as well go all out to my max which is $200.

 

Now if I go up to $200 then I don't have to go for the Phenom II X4 965, another choice would be the Core i5 750 or Core 2 Duo E8500. Then there are the newer Intel 32nm Clarkdale processors to consider.

 

I will be ordering the parts in about 2 or 3 weeks (unless there are problems with ME2 on Win7 64bit editions, in which case it will be summer when I build the computer and I will probably have to do this all over again) so there is plenty of time to decide. Any suggestions would be helpful.

[OldJoe]

Link to your current psu or tell specs: Brand, model, amps@12v rail.

 

Do you want a build or do you just want suggestions?

Depends on what your are gonna do, the Phenom is top of the line.. So if it's only a bit word, internet and WoW then X3 is plenty.

350w even if it's Seasonic, i wouldn't use it with the 965.

[indy500fan]

http://www.fspgroupusa.com/PC_RETAIL/AX400PN/AX400PN.html That's one of them, apparently it is a 400W. I just glanced at it and saw the continuous rating.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817161004 Sorry for the newegg link, couldn't find the product on the companies website. You can get specifications on that page though.

 

Right now I am just trying to decide what processor I should get. As I implied above, this upgrade is to play Mass Effect 2 at better graphics than I currently can.

[OldJoe]

I checked the recommended specs for the game.

 

Personally i'd buy this cpu: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103471

Very price-worthy in my mind.

Real easy to overclock aswell.

 

HD: Get a new SATA.

 

PSU: You'll need a new one. Depending on what build you put together i'd say about 45-60$.

 

I also see that this game want a bit beefier gpu aswell. What's your current one?

[indy500fan]

That looks good to me, but should I try and get a AM3 socket processor rather than AM2+? I probably won't be upgrading again before AM3 goes out of style (for example my computer now is a 939 socket) but it might be nice to have a AM3 motherboard in case I want to upgrade later.

 

Also I probably won't be overclocking any, I've never done that before so I probably won't do it on the computer I am building (I'll have the computer I am currently using to play around with, I might get into OC'ing eventually). Would this change your CPU suggestion?

 

I'm definitely going to get a new HDD, I haven't looked at prices of those in forever and was expecting around $100, but for my OS hard drive I hardly need any space so I'll probably pick up a $40-50 250gig hard drive. I wanted to go SSD but it'll be my next computer before they will be cheap enough.

 

Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 is my current video card, it is actually crossfire ready so rather than buy a newer better card I could try and find another one of these somewhere (crossfire does require the same exact video card right?) but I'll probably just get what I can out of this and deal with it. My mother board would have to have 2 PCIx16 slots on it too and that might be more expensive.

[OldJoe]

Yes AM3. When (if) you want help with what mobo to pick, just shout.

And 939 socket: If you aren't gonna keep your current parts, sell the mobo. The forums i hang around i see people searching for 939 mobos all the time, won't be a huge amount of money but about 20-30$... There's a big demand for them still.

Edit: O, read the next line =P Well anyways, i'll leave it in so you know just in case.

 

Oh right, i hurried a bit when i wrote that. I realize now that it's socket AM2+. You could still buy a mobo that's AM3, but it needs to have both DDR2 and DDR3.

Sorry for the error.

Here's an AM3: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103675

I'd get the Phenom x4, that's me personally. Both the X3 and X4 will work with your game, i feel that it would be worth the extra money. But it's up to you.

 

You can get a Samsung Spinpoint F1 320gb for 50$.

 

Any 4850 with your 4850 works. You can also run it with a 4870 for example.

[indy500fan]

Alright, I have been looking at stuff for the past day or two because of a big surprise, RAM costs about twice as much as I expected. So I think I'll have to go with a cheaper motherboard, which means only one PCIx16 slot most likely. I'll just have to deal with whatever I can get out of my 4850 video card for now.

 

So when I look at motherboards, is any motherboard that has a AM3 socket OK? Because on newegg when I choose Phenom II X4 "CPU type" only 9 are listed, but there are over 100 AM3 motherboards.

 

Also that last CPU you listed looks good, it is exactly the same as this one except it is 125W and the one I just listed is 95W. That is power consumption right? Because with how often my computer is on $6 extra for less power usage will probably be cheaper in the long run. If it doesn't correspond to power usage let me know, because then I'll just go ahead and get the one you listed and save $6.

 

So what about this motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128392 ? I have no idea what kind of power supply I need, but a combo deal with this motherboard exists that would make a 700W power supply only $40: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.319753

 

This hard drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152096 ?

 

And then I don't know about memory yet, I wanted 8gigs but I'm probably only going to get 4.

 

EDIT: This RAM?: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145251

[OldJoe]

I just chose mine since it's was a little bit cheaper. But you're right, you'll get the money back over the year easily. So yeah, choose it.

 

I'd get this combo instead: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.319757

Tho the psu is way over the top.

 

Correct harddrive (remember it's just the hd).

 

8gb memory is not needed. 4gb is plenty. The memory you picked is good.

[indy500fan]

Alright, I went ahead and ordered it. Final computer: $416.94

ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO AM3

OCZ StealthXStream 700W power supply

AMD Phenom II X4 945 Deneb 3.0GHz quad-core

4GB CORSAIR XMS3 DDR3 1333 SDRAM

Samsung Spinpoint F1 320GB HDD

 

Turned out $83 less than planned, so I am happy with that.

 

Thanks OldJoe for the help :smile: .

[indy500fan]

Build went well. Took a while, had some problems with my case not being set up too well. Basically I am stuck with just having one hard drive in it, which I can deal with. The other four are going to get crammed into my media center/comic server.

 

Windows 7 is the easiest to install OS that I have ever done. Hell, I never even needed to update any drivers (though I did update my graphics card drivers).

 

EDIT: My score according to Windows 7 (on a scale of 1.0 to 7.9 for some reason):

Processor: 7.3

Memory: 7.5

Graphics: 7.3

Gaming Graphics 7.3

Hard disk: 5.9

 

EDIT2: Oh and I also threw in one of my hard drives that is most frequently used. There was no way to fit it into an existing slot (2 rails go up and down, can fit 6 hard drives and 2 memory card/floppy disk), but it was in an expansion slot in my old PC so I just took the entire expansion out and set it next to one of the rails. It actually fit snugly there even though I couldn't screw it in any way. Put a piece of cardboard in there to prevent rattling, working out pretty well so far.