JohnnyChance

I've been casually looking to build a new computer for the last couple months. I haven't built a computer in prob 5 or 6 years, so I figured I would take some time to learn about all the new tech and figure out what I need. Problem is, the more I read, it seems the more it seems like I don't know. Mostly with compatability. I don't want to get a bunch of parts and find out that this mobo doesnt like this ram and so forth. I like AMD cpu's, Nvidia cards, have no real preference for mobo's and have no idea when it comes to what RAM is good these days. My current computer is so old it's not worth upgrading. I am not looking to run Crysis at 60fps, this will be a fairly budget build, but a good base (i.e., reliable!) that will let me upgrade as time goes, rather than having to build completely new like I am doing now. Also, I am planning on running Vista and have no plans of doing any overclocking.

Here is what I have pieced together so far.

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+
(will it be worth it to step up to a 6000+ or 6400+ if I plan on going to a quad core cpu in a year?)

I would like a board that can handle the Phenom's when they become reliable/affordable. Choices are:
ASUS M3A
MSI K9A2 CF-F

RAM I would like 2x2GB. What brand? What speed? I have no idea. Stuff I was looking at was in the $150-200 range.

Video card, XFX 8800GTS 320mb vs. XFX 8800 GT 512mb. I was planning on the 320mb GTS, but then I have found some deals to get the 512mb GT for actually less than the 320. The GT has a faster core clock (670 vs 580 mhz), more stream processors (112 vs 96), faster memory clock (1950 vs 1800mhz), and obviously more memory, but with a 256-bit interface, as opposed to the GTS's 320mb with a 320-bit interface. I really have no idea which of these factors matter more, but I can only assume that the cheaper and larger memory 8800 GT 512mb is the way to go.

Power Supply:
Silverstone Zeus 650w
or
Corsair CMPSU 650w

Obviously there are more choices out there than listed here. But this is stuff in my price range, so if you want to offer an alternative, try to keep it similarly priced.

The rest of the parts I will be either reusing or I can figure out for myself.

Thanks in advance.

kris23

AMD at the high end that you shown off is absolute garbage

Intel is far superior to AMD's X2s and Phenom CPUs

the 8800GT is equivalent to the 8800GTX due to the brand new G92 core in the GT vs G80 in the GTS and GTX

the only card thats better is the G92 8800GTS

the Phenom chip is a failure of unbelievable proportions, AMD only dropped the price due to the TLB errata (and the fact that the Q6600 destroyed them even when the Phenom was OCed to its max) while it is now $199 it is still a pathetic waste of silicon because the Athlon X2 cores are even faster than Phenoms

dont waste your time with 2x2GB sticks unless theyre DDR3, they are horrible performers

how much are you willing to spend? and which components other than the internal parts will you need? (case, monitor, speakers etc)

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JohnnyChance

I did not think that the AMD I listed was that high end.

I know the phenom's that were released did not live up to expectations. I have no reason to believe that they wont fix the problems with them, and they should be stable performers in a year when I would upgrade.

All of the 2x2GB DDR3 memory I see is $600+. Way out of my budget.

I was going to get a Coolermaster 690 case, because it looks decent, the DH review was good, and Newegg has em for $35 right now with rebate. I am not planning on getting new disc drives, monitor, speakers, keyboard, mouse, etc at the moment. I will be getting a new monitor and maybe speakers at some point, but don't need them right now, so I will just wait on those.

I don't really have a specific budget, but approx value of the stuff listed above (cpu, mobo, ram, ps, vid card) is about $850.

kris23

dude, the phenom chip is not going to be very good. its intended target isnt even the Kentsfield Quads

it was meant to be put against the 45nm Yorkfield chips, now we are talking monster chips that are 20-40% faster than the current Conroe and Kentsfield per clock cycle AND can be put up to 5GHz

add all that together and the fact that the 45nm CPUs are to be in the 200-300 dollar range means that AMD is a waste of money.

there already were tests of AMD's engineering sample 9900 and while they DID beat the Q6600 at stock levels, OC them both and you get the Q6600 as the far winner, with Yorkfield coming in February, the 9900 is going to die.

besides, going with AMD and Nvidia is like putting a chip in the same system as its competition, you lose all the ATi expandability and all the spider platform hype.

as of right now, going with AMD is not a wise investment especially if you do not buy a board based off the 790FX/X chipset

the entire AM2 system is EOL and just buying a cheap AM2 board and a Phenom later will bring that crippled chip down even further.

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Dyre Straits

JohnnyChance:

I hope you'll avoid the path my brother-in-law just took last week. I tried to direct him toward Intel and he still went with an AM2 setup. For now, he's happy because what he has is a much faster system than the one he's giving to his son that's been in use for 3 or more years.

If what you want is something that can be upgraded in another year, and you want a good base to build it on, then a current Intel board with support for the current and future 775 processors is what you want to get. Otherwise, you'll 'likely' be looking to have to replace the motherboard and CPU when you're ready to do your upgrade.

If you've been out of the loop for 5-6 years, you'd be quite surprised at how Intel has taken things to such higher levels of performance than what you're familiar with.

Good luck!

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kris23

Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GV-NX88T512HP GeForce 8800GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
Newegg.com - CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX ATX12V / EPS12V 650W Power Supply 100 - 240 V UL, CE, CB, TUV, FCC, CCC - Retail
Newegg.com - Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail
Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3R LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 Conroe 2.33GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail
Newegg.com - Tuniq TX-2 Thermal Compound - Retail

that is my system proposal, it is powerful, stable, quality... unlike AMD's current Phenom chips. even though you have no plans on overclocking, that system is very well capable of putting out over 3.0GHz of added speed.

and please, do yourself a favor and go with Intel, AMD was good before but that was then and this is now. the industry changed greatly in the last years

AMD and Nvidia are no longer together, ATi is now AMD and BOTH companies are failing.

Nvidia and Intel hold the crowns in the market by far,

Nvidia destroyed ATi with their 8800GT 256/512 and 8800GTS 512/1024(soon) cards

Intel was on top for over a year and is going to be on top for another year, they crushed AMD with their Conroe and Kentsfield and now they are going to crush AMD's Phenom again with Wolfdale and Yorkfield.

if you still want to go with AMD, fine, but you will probably get HALF the performance for the dollar with them.

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JohnnyChance

EDIT: questions i had here have been answered in posts made while I was typing this response.

kris23

alright look.... obviously you like AMD alot and want a new AMD system.

i dont dislike AMD and i do not favor Intel over AMD

what i am trying to do is GET YOU THE BEST FOR YOUR MONEY

i have already posted the specs for a good intel system up in the previous post but i can change everything to the best AMD configuration in your price range if you only ask....

or just do what you want..... its your money.....

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JohnnyChance

yeah, i see you posted the specs, that why i deleted my post, the questions i had asked were already answered.

kris23

ok, well anyways...

intel is a very solid platform, that system i posted will get you through gaming and general PC usage just fine

if you ever want to, quad core CPUS are going to come out next year in the $175-300 dollar range, you can painlessly upgrade to those models if you feel you ever need the power, they'll come in from budget models to high powered ones, all of which you can use.

while you said you would never overclock, i find some members actually do change their minds when they find out how simple and cost effective it is. intel systems are known to be the best OCers. it all just starts with quality components, which you have.

if you do get it, its a good investment and your money is well spent.

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kris23

one last thing, wont you need an OS?

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JohnnyChance

thanks for your help. sorry for my tone in the post i deleted. you just seemed to be attacking me for choosing amd, and suggesting substitutions that were hundreds more than by budget.

JohnnyChance

yeah, i think i said it would be vista in the original post, but i didnt include that in the budget/price above because its going to be purchased no matter what system i build. in other words, the budget above was for hardware only, and in the complete build, i have enough for the os included.

edit: also ill prob be getting a new hd, and maybe some other stuff, but that was irrelevant as it would be included no matter what system i built. the only things that i was unsure of were the cpu, mobo, ram, vid card and psu, so thats why i only talked about them and what i wanted to spend on them.

kris23

those were merely examples, no one can really afford 2x2GB kits of DDR3, but they are the only 2Gb sticks that don't sacrifice performance for capacity

and at this current point in time, AMD's setups are anything but stable or reliable. with the TLB errata in the current 9500 and 9600 Quads, you can probably get BSOD while doing something really important, you dont want that do you?

and the only work around is a patch that sucks away 20% of the CPUs power to gain stability, that really just lowers the value of the whole system.


Intel is the way to go for this year, next year will bring new things, by this time next year AMD will have AM3 and intel will have LGA 1366, were all hoping AMD wins that time so Intel doesnt become a monopoly and all progress dies....

so you don't need a new OS? because if you are getting 4GBs of RAM, i recommend Vista Ultimate x64 very good OS no matter what any vista basher says

most of them are just annoyed by the notifications that are easily disabled.

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kris23

ok, like i said, i recommend Windows Vista Ultimate X64-Bit Edition

you'll notice everyone running around here with 4 gigs of RAM is using Vista Ultimate X64, its a good OS, very responsive

good luck with your machine, but once its complete, you will be amazed.

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kris23

lol, HDDS

I would recommend the Seagate 7200.11 500GB model or the Samsung Spinpoint F 750GB model

the Samsung disk is the faster of the two but more expensive and bigger.

Newegg.com - Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Newegg.com - SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 HD753LJ 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

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Dyre Straits

This was noted and a PM sent to the offender. We want you to feel welcome and to be able to ask and voice your opinions without being made to feel uncomfortable.

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cozumel

Hi.

Just wanted to say that the Intel Pentium E2180 Allendale 2.0GHz 1MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor costs only $84.99 and is probably the best CPU you can buy if you are on a tight budget and is well known to be an excellent performer. It is half the price of the CPU chosen by Kris23. It will work nicely with the GA-P35-DS3R if you were going to go the Intel (which I also recommend for all the same reasons previously stated).

All the other components picked by Kris are excellent choices and will offer you a great rig that will last a while and upgrade to future CPUs etc.

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kris23

well.... he doesnt plan on overclocking and the system is still within budget so i didnt recommend the Dual-Core

he'll probably be better off with the e6550 anyway.

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