ET3D

The chipset fan on my A8N-SLI Deluxe started making an annoying noise, and I see this as a hint that I should buy a new PC. I was planning to buy one for my birthday, which is less than 4 months away, so might as well buy now.

Here's what I'm planning to get, and then why:
CPU: Phenom II 710
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA78G-DS3H
Memory: DDR2 800MHz, not sure about configuration (2x2GB, 4x2GB, 2x4GB)
Disk: 500GB WD (Caviar Blue)
Graphics: My current Radeon 3870
SATA DVD Burner
Case and PSU: might reuse current, or might not

Here's the why: I want to pay as little as possible, but get something exciting enough.

CPU: From what I've seen on the Phenom II 710, it's very good for gaming, and not bad otherwise. (I'm not a power gamer, BTW, but I do game.)

Motherboard: I want two PCIe-16 slots, but don't intend to run Crossfire. Instead, the second might be an inexpensive PhysX card (ATI+NVIDIA should work on Win7), or a low cost newer generation ATI for programming, or whatever I fancy at the moment, while keeping the 3870 (as long as it's more powerful) for gaming. Other low cost two-slot MB's are hard to find here (though if you have any suggestion I'll look into it).

Memory: I currently have 4GB and it's working fine for me with Vista x64. Win7 should work even better. On the other hand, DDR2 is cheap enough that 4x2GB might be worth it. I don't really see need for more than this in the forseeable future, so not sure if 2x4GB would be worth the extra cost.

Disk: I think that 500GB will be enough coupled with my current 250GB.

Just a note on my usage: I play some, I program some, and I browse the web a lot. I install a lot of junk just to test it (like 3D modellers and such), but don't make heavy use of them.

Any comments?

Al_Vampyre

Unless you're doing lots of work in photoshop or something similar then the difference between 8Gb and 4Gb is negligible. I have 4Gb in my Vista 64 machine and I can't remember the last time I was actually using it all (apart from a spectacular memory leak in Hellgate:London!)

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CDsDontBurn

4GB should be good for now. 8GB would be good for the long run if you intend on keeping your machine for a long period of time.

having an ATI card and an NVIDIA card in the same machine is very likely to cause driver issues.

and, you didn't mention anything about a power supply. any ideas on what you plan on getting in that department? i'd say something in the 550w to 750w range would be just right for your new rig.

so, aside from all that, you're pretty much golden!

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OldBuzzard

You might take a look at this ASRock board:
Newegg.com - ASRock A780GXE/128M AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G ATX AMD Motherboard - AMD Motherboards
ASRock has been making some danged decent boards lately, especially for the AMD processors.

I'd go for 4x2GB on the RAM. Vista 64's Superfetch will use it to help pre-load applications. I don't have any applications that use a lot of RAM, but the extra 'snappiness' that it gives Vista is worth it for me, and like you said, DDR2 RAM is dirt cheap right now.

As for your PSU. I wouldn't trust a 'generic 500W'. The wattage may look good, but it's the AMPS on the +12v that are more important. The PSU is the very last ting you should look at if you are wantig to save $$. Skimp on other things, but don't ever skimp on the PSU.

I'd recommend that you go with a Corsair 550VX or 650TX. They are both 89.99 at Newegg right now, and either will run your system with ease, and have enough power for any other future upgrades you might do, including running Crossfire.

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ET3D

The ASRock is unfortunately not available here. My original plan was to get a MB/CPU combination in the US through someone, but that won't happen for a few months, so I won't go this way if I'm buying now.

4x2GB may be the best way to go, since I will likely keep this PC for a couple of years, and I don't think DDR2 will drop any lower. My current rig is DDR, and upgrading it to 4GB was quite costly, since DDR2 was already the norm. Might happen with DDR3, too. Since I figure 8GB should be enough over the course of life of this PC, and because DDR2 prices will likely be higher in a couple years' time, no need to go for a configuration that allows easy upgrade.

I'll look into getting a better PSU. Haven't had much trouble with the current one, and I'm not buying a high power rig, but it's a good point.

Regarding ATI and NVIDIA cards causing driver conflicts, that's part of the fun, isn't it? Years ago I had a GeForce2 and Radeon 7500 in the same dev machine. Upgrading drivers was a bit of a nightmare, but it was still fun.

OldBuzzard

Where is "here"?

Don't take this personally, as it's more of a general comment.

I wish people would user the LOCATION area under their name to tell us where in the WORLD they live. It sure would help in giving advice. Especially on choosing/ buying parts. It doesn't help anyone in Europe if they get a a link to Newegg, since he can't use it, and the part may not even (as with ET3D's case), even be available there.

If nothing else, at least specify where you live in your original post asking for help/information.

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When looking for a reason as to why things go wrong, never rule out sheer STUPIDITY

ET3D

Sorry. I'm in Israel. I think there was a flag in the past in the profile. I prefer not to advertise it because it's unlikely to help technically (not many will know what's available here) and might get political attention from some.

Mac Daddy

Decent choices and should work well for you. Between 4G and 8G you won't notice any huge difference ATM as mentioned but DDR2 is cheap right now if your planning on keeping the system for a while.

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ET3D

Finally ordered the PC today. Took the time to make a few inquiries as to what is available, which turned out not to be a lot (I really would have preferred the ASrock board to the Gigabyte). So I bought the original spec, with 8GB of RAM. Ended up buying the topower SilentEZ 500W PSU (SilentEZ), which from what I've read is okay, and should be good enough for my needs.

I also decided that a decent case is important, especially since I do upgrade disks and cards and want something easier to upgrade than my current basic case. I ended up choosing the one here: http://www.tzag-elita.co.il/product.php?pid=70. It's inexpensive, and doesn't have all the bells and whistles of a really good case, but it does have a detachable disk case, is partially screw-less, and has much better air flow than my current case.

With any luck, I'll have my new PC by Monday.

Judas

for a meer few bucks more (at least here it is).... it's ALWAYS best to go with the largest density memory modules as possible rather then having multiple sticks of lower density.


2x4gb > 4x2gb

Just make sure your board supports it... some don't like the 4gb modules.

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ET3D

Why?

Judas

Less likely to run into stability issues... plus you don't have to replace EVERYTHING if you want more ram down the road. Stick in 2x4gb sticks now, and 2 years... slip in another 2x4gb sticks and your done...

the value is well worth it.

Additionally you can sometimes get far better timings even though initially looking at it, it doesn't look like you should.

This is because with 2 modules, you can typically squeeze far more out of them vs 4 sticks that tend to cause hiccups.

And additionally, the more you get, the higher the chances of something going wrong.

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CDsDontBurn

it's more information flowing through less amount of chips.

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Judas

exactly

i'm not very good at explaining things

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ET3D

Thanks, Judas. Good points. And I think you explained them well. I'll think about this. As I think I said before (too lazy to scroll back), I don't really believe in expansion. My current PC proved that upgrading memory that's being phased out is very costly, and I imagine that in 2 years the market will have migrated to DDR3. I assume that 8GB will be enough for the lifetime of this PC (let's say 3 years). Stability does matter, which is why I said I'll think about it.

Judas

reason i got with larger modules as well is resale value...

see i buy older machines and rebuild them and usually max them out as the cost of doing so while high... usually result in a machine that can even outperform the cheap new models pumped out by the competitors...

2x4gb holds it's value far more then 2x2gb kits.

back when there was very few 2x2gb kits... alot of people bought 4x1gb kits. Many of those people are a little upset now considering that those kits are both very much worthless and also hard to get rid of.

DDR1 is expensive because it was actually quite expensive before.... DDR2 was expensive but dropped very VERY fast in value...... i think it'll remain at this value for a good while though. DDR3 launched at insane values.... however are now dropping like a rock, unfortunately no many manufacturers are shipping DDR3 modules that are 4gb..... which is what is keeping me from really doing the investment into a new machine.

I've got the upper hand simple due to own my own computer store and being able to try things out...

so from what i've tried and what i've witnessed from the customers.... the initial small dollar more for larger sticks and less sticks.... is better then making a quick jumpe to more sticks... smaller sticks...

and this can be used reguarding just about every computer part or electronic..

except when it comes to hardrives usually.

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ChaosMinionX

If you plan on doing any sort of overclocking, high density IC's can be a clock killer. But if you are not, and just want a ton of memory they are fine.

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ET3D

I usually plan on doing some overclocking in the log run, but never do. Basically, when I get my PC, it's usually plenty fast for me, and I don't feel like tweaking it. When it's getting long in the tooth, I just feel that a little bit of overclock will not end up making much of a difference. So I don't end up doing much. Still, another good point.

Judas

generally i find that with 4 modules, i can't get the stability required for high overclocks...... unless your willing to spend large dollars on the high end memory modules and then hand pick through them for the ones that all post the best results.

otherwise the 2 higher capacity memory will produce pretty damn good overclocks as well. It's just more costly hand picking the best ones if you can't afford them.

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ET3D

Turned out the PC store couldn't get 4GB modules anyway, so I went with 4x2GB.

I also went for the GA-MA790X-UD4 instead of the GA-MA78G-DS3H. Ended up about the same price, and though I was waiting forward to testing the integrated graphics, I really don't need them, and having 8 USB ports will be useful, and 8x+8x Crossfire, if I ever use it, will be better than 16x+4x (from what I've read). Could have also gone with the GA-MA790FX-DS5, which would have turned out even cheaper, and has true 16x+16x crossfire, but I've read too many bad things about the SB600 south bridge.

ET3D

Got my PC today, but didn't have time to do anything with it. I did open it, and saw that they didn't put the PSU in. Instead there's the 400W ZUMAX PSU that comes with the case. I'll contact the store tomorrow. If I can get it sorted out tomorrow, then great, otherwise I'll have to wait after the week of Passover, though I hope I won't have a problem installing everything with the 400W PSU.

procupine14

You shouldn't have a huge problem with that at all. However, im glad you plan on swapping out that PSU for something better because I would cringe if you were keeping that thing in there. Great setup choice!

like Cds said earlier in regards to physx its a good idea and there are some known configurations that work with one ATi card and one Nvidia card but be forewarned that that type of setup isn't without headaches and perhaps some frustration

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HTPC/file server: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit - AMD Phenom x4 9850 - 4GB OCZ DDR2 800 (2x2GB) - 1TB WD Black - 4 x 1TB Hitachi DeskStar in RAID 5 - ATi TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner - HIS Raedon 4850 512MB - ASRock N68C-S UCC mobo - OCZ ModExtreme Pro 500W PSU

GF's Gaming PC: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit - AMD Phenom 9850 - 4GB OCZ DDR2 1066 - 500GB Western Digital GP - HIS Raedon 5770 1GB - ASUS M3A78-EM - Zalman 650W PSU

Media Streamer: Win 7 Pro 64-bit - AMD Athlon x2 3200+ - 4GB SuperTalent DDR2 800 - 250GB SeaGate Barracuda - MSI K9N6PGM2-V2 - ASUS Raedon 5450 SILENT - FSP group 250W PSU