Looking for advice on computer build

dang, i got most of it in my cart at Newegg and man theres alot of taxes. thats the one thing i always didnt like about newegg. there always seemed to be a lot of fees and stuff.

Anyone know any promo codes? lol
 
Currently in my cart is: (taking advantage of combo deals of course)
Corsair TX650 PSU combo'd with WD Caviar Black 1TB SATA HDD
AMD Phenom II X6 1055T combo'd with Sony Optiaric SATA CD/DVD Drive
ASUS M4A785TD-V Evo combo'd with Scythe Katana3 92mm CPU Cooler

Comes in at around $525

Thoughts?
 
dont have enough funds. im sitting at ~$380 right now but i got work comin up pretty soon so it shouldt be too long until i have enough :)

Oh, and the case is a Thermaltake V3 which puts me at $575 now.
 
Geeky1 said:
Most of CM's PSUs are absolute garbage. You get what you pay for with power supplies, and just because it says 750w on the box doesn't mean it's good for 750w.

Go read the reviews at any website that actually tests them properly; here's one of CM's new 750w: http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=188 Not only does it fail to deliver its rated wattage at a realistic operating temperature, ripple is out of spec on the 3.3v rail, efficiency isn't great, capacitor selection is pathetic (Sus'con? Seriously?), and the OEM is hardly one of the most reputable in the industry.

If the PS isn't being hooked up to an artificial load and an oscilloscope and run up to full output in ambient temperatures of at least 40*C, the review is invalid and absolutely worthless.

In fairness though, CM's cheaper PSes are even worse, and even a total POS 750w like that will handle a 1055T @ stock speeds and a 5670 without breaking a sweat-that system will struggle to hit 400w under full load.

But it's still a flaming hunk of (censored) and you'd be better off with that Corsair. The CWT PSH platform underpinning the TX series is old, but that thing will at least hit 750w @ 50*C, it has good quality japanese caps in it, and while ripple @ 12v might be higher at full load than the Seventeam-based CM unit, it'll be comfortably in spec on all rails both now and three years from now (long after the Sus'con caps in the CM are likely to have bitten it) which is more than can be said for the CoolerMaster 750.

If it were me, I'd buy this or look into one of the Antec 650s. I know they make stuff in that wattage range with 100% japanese caps that are Seasonic-based, but I won't touch Antec anymore for various reasons, so I'd have to look into what models in their current lineup can be trusted.

The video card is good though.
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good to know, thanks. i :bowing: to your geekiness on the fly. :clap::clap::clap:

WeedCali said:
Currently in my cart is: (taking advantage of combo deals of course)
Corsair TX650 PSU combo'd with WD Caviar Black 1TB SATA HDD
AMD Phenom II X6 1055T combo'd with Sony Optiaric SATA CD/DVD Drive
ASUS M4A785TD-V Evo combo'd with Scythe Katana3 92mm CPU Cooler

Comes in at around $525

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

WeedCali said:
dont have enough funds. im sitting at ~$380 right now but i got work comin up pretty soon so it shouldt be too long until i have enough :)

Oh, and the case is a Thermaltake V3 which puts me at $575 now.
Click to expand...
all looks great to me. you should be very happy with your performance and price.
 
WeedCali said:
Currently in my cart is: (taking advantage of combo deals of course)
Corsair TX650 PSU combo'd with WD Caviar Black 1TB SATA HDD
AMD Phenom II X6 1055T combo'd with Sony Optiaric SATA CD/DVD Drive
ASUS M4A785TD-V Evo combo'd with Scythe Katana3 92mm CPU Cooler

Comes in at around $525

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

A thought I just had... You might consider going for a board based on the 880G or 890GX chipset instead of the 785G. There are a few 880G boards that are about the same price as the ASUS you're looking at (some are cheaper), and they have a faster integrated GPU, which would be nice to have if you end up using the IGP while saving up for a video card. If you buy the right one, you also get a newer, better southbridge.

For instance, with this one, you're spending $5 more and giving up your option to use Crossfire down the road, but you're getting SATA3 and USB3.0, both of which will be nice features to have going forward. This one doesn't have the new southbridge or multiple PCI-E x16 slots, but it's $20 cheaper than the board you're looking at. Conversely, this one is $20 more but you preserve your Crossfire upgrade path while gaining USB3.0 and SATA3.

The 785 board is absolutely fine, it's very similar to the one in my own Phenom system. I'm just offering you an alternative to consider. :) Other than that, your cart looks good, and given that the 785 board has the combo with the Katana, that's probably enough to sway the purchase decision in its favor. I'd hold off until you can afford the RAM too, though, so you can properly burn in the system and do some stability testing before Newegg's 30 day return window lapses.

Also, don't forget to pick up 3 more 120mm fans (and screws for them if they don't come with them). :p:


rockhoe14er said:
If you chose a cheaper cpu I like pentium more and you could pick out a 2.8 gh core2 processor that would be a lot cheeper and I think you can get away with a cheaper motherboard. That alone could save you a hundred. the other thing is you could get away with 2gb of ddr2 ram especailly if you are going to use windows 7 because from my experience this system works a ton better than vista and isn't a ram hog. I have 2 gb and i can play a lot of dx10 games and i always have a ton of programs running and most of the time i never really run into a problem. That would also save you some money.
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Weed is pretty set on the X6 (for good reason), but I'm going to respond to this on the off chance that someone else is lurking and reading this for their own system build and actually considers taking your advice.

  1. The Core 2 architecture is, clock-for-clock, slower in most applications than the Phenom II architecture. Especially when it's hampered by a gimped FSB and a tiny cache. Which leads me to...
  2. The only ~2.8GHz Core 2 chips at Newegg right now that are cost-competitive with the 1055T are dual core chips. I sincerely hope that you're not seriously suggesting that a dual core chip based on an outdated, 4 year old architecture is even remotely comparable to a six-core Phenom the way it sounds like you are. Even the 3.33GHz E8600 (which is $290 on Newegg and which only a complete fool would buy now that i7s are around $200) can't keep up with the 1055T in most applications. And that performance gap is only going to get wider over the next several years as more and more mainstream applications are optimized for multithreading across more than two cores.
  3. Even if the Core 2 Duo was a valid alternative to the x6, you also have to consider future upgrades. LGA775 is dead. It's gone. It's EOL. DOA. Finished. The platform is no longer being developed and no new chips are scheduled to come out for it. So if you want to upgrade to a faster chip two years from now, you're limited to chips that are already out and which are, even now, 2+ years old. AM3, on the other hand, is still current, and new chips are still coming out for it. Forget performance, the simple fact that the socket is EOL dictates that the idea of buying anything based on LGA775 at this point is asinine.
  4. Assuming someone was crazy enough to buy a Core 2 anything right now, they'd probably want to stick with an Intel P/G/Q45-based board. Every other C2 chipset is either horrifically outdated, terrifyingly unreliable (I'm looking at you, nVidia) or leaves some (sometimes a lot of) performance on the table compared to the x45s. We can safely ignore everything that's not made by Gigabyte, MSI, EVGA or ASUS because everything else on the market is likely to be either: a. unreliable, b. poorly made, with low quality components and/or c. next to worthless for overclocking. Narrow your search down with those criteria on Newegg and you're left with one board that comes in under $99. And it's $89. So yeah. No savings there without going for a motherboard that's of considerably lower quality than the AMD board he's looking at.
  5. There's no money to be saved on RAM by going with an outdated Intel platform either, since the DDR2 that the one $89 x45 board requires is now the same price-often more expensive-than DDR3.
  6. If you're doing anything serious with your computer, you're going to find rather quickly that 2GB of RAM is wholly inadequate on Windows 7. 4GB is the bare minimum I would use with Vista or 7, and 8GB is preferable. Anything over 8GB is nice to have (I've got 18 and I'm planning to step up to 24 or even 48 within the next 18 months) and Win7 in particular will make good use of it, but it's not required.

Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with Intel; most of my personal systems are Intel-based, and I use i5s and i7s for all of the computers I deploy at work except for the very cheapest boxes (which are Phenom II x3/4/6 based). That doesn't change the fact that right now, in August of 2010, there is absolutely no way to justify the purchase of a Core 2 (be it a Duo or a Quad), either in a desktop or a laptop, no matter what the intended use of the system is. It just flat out does not make sense.

dundadundun said:
good to know, thanks. i :bowing: to your geekiness on the fly. :clap::clap::clap:
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:lol2: Thanks. Power supplies are a hobby of mine (yeah, I have no life. I know. Why do you think I have this screen name? :rolleyes::grinno: ). Once you've seen a whole host of systems come across your desk with problems like this one, you tend to get rather cynical, somewhat cranky, and slightly obsessive about knowing which manufacturers and models of power supply can be trusted and which can't.
 
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Ya know, i thought about that. its funny how technology can outdate itself so quick. i remember not too long ago when the 785g boards were still 'new'

ill look into that. and i also want a full ATX board with crossfire support.

Thanks for all the great info geeky! your always a good help :)

edit: ok so im looking through newegg and finding a lot of boards with the newer chipset, however they dont support DDR3 1600, just 1333. i want the 1600 but will there be any real difference between the two?
 
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Interesting thread, I recently picked up SC2 and installed it on my Dell dimension 3000. Incidentally, I never realized before this how much straight PCI sux. :nutkick:
Now I'm debating whether to buy or build a new system. Considering that I know just enough about building a comp to know better than to try it myself, I need serious help either way. I've been checking out some new and used gaming systems on e-bay and craiglist, but I'm suspecting that anything around the $400-500 mark is going to be about as inadequate as my current system in another year or two.
If I build one I'm thinking I want a good mobo that will at least be upgradeable for a few years.
I've seen a couple systems with a separate hdd for the os; is that a good idea? What would be the advantage/s?
 
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