mcdragon2

I want to make a good everyday use and midlevel gaming pc mostly I want to be able to run Fallout:newvegas on high or whatever is above that graphics settings.

thinking about
Newegg.com - ASUS Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - CD / DVD Burners
Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER RC-692-KKN3 CM690 II Basic Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Newegg.com - ASUS M4A87TD EVO AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
Newegg.com - Antec EarthWatts EA650 650W Continuous Power ATX12V Ver.2.2 / EPS12V version 2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC "compatible with Core i7/Core i5" Power Supply
Newegg.com - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL
Newegg.com - AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ955FBGMBOX
Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100315L Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

any input would be great this is already at the budget I was thinking so any savings would be great I just found stuff i thought worked together and would perform well.

Takaharu

Seems fine to me. You might want to consider SATA-3 though as you've chosen a compatible motherboard.

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blibbax

This seems a pretty sensible plan. Make sure you keep us updated

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OldBuzzard

If you have an extra $20.00 to work with, and are even thinking of going with Crossfired vid cards in the future, I'd recommend this MB.

Newegg.com - ASRock 890GX Extreme3 AM3 AMD 890GX HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

With only 1 16x and 1 4x PCIe slots, that ASUS isn't going to be all that great for Crossfire. The ASRock board will let you use 2 of the PCIe's at 8x.

If you have an extra $40.00 to work with, then this one will let you use 2x PCIe at a full 16x.

Newegg.com - ASRock 890FX DELUXE3 AM3 AMD 890FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

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mcdragon2

thanks for the input guys
What was i supposed to consider for SATA 3 though?
are those motherboards reliable I had never heard of the company until I started looking through newegg for parts.
Also any opinions on the RAM i chose I was just guessing as to what might be good.
any money saved would be great especially if I can help make the system more future proof with a different part.

oh and I will be running windows 7 ultimate 32-bit

blibbax

-I think he meant a SATA 3 disk. This isn't hugely important though.
-Asus motherboards are top notch.
-I am no expert on G skill RAM, so will leave others to comment. Personally I tend to go for Corsair or Kingston, but you will here different reccomendations from different people based on different experience.
-DO NOT USE A 32 BIT OPERATING SYSTEM, IT'S NOT 2001 ANYMORE. Seriously though, you'll cripple a system like that on 32 bit. If you're worried about compatiblity, don't be, it's not really an issue anymore unless you're using some incredibly ancient programs, and even then...

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mcdragon2

well thanks for the input but all I have is 32bit windows. and I don't have the money to buy windows 7 64-bit.
I know asus is top notch I was referring to the ASRock motherboard that oldbuzzard suggested

synthesis204

ASRock isn't as well known, but I've never had an issue with them. And I use GSkill in all my rigs - hadn't had any issues with GSkill (Corsair, Kingston, and Patriot are good brands as well, though). I would just get the cheapest 1600 ram possible; and ew, 32 bit. Honestly, I would sooner use XP 32 before getting 7 32; I wouldn't feel nearly as guilty.

OldBuzzard

In regard to ASRock mainboards:

Those are from a HH review of one of ASRock's boards here:
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/review...roduction.html

ASRock boards are as good as anyone's on the market, and usually give the best bang for the buck feature wise.

IF you have a legal version of WIN 7 32-bit, you can use that same product key to install the 64-bit version. All you would need to do is borrow a 64-bit install DVD

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mcdragon2

I don't have CD key or anyone that I know of that has a 64-bit disc.
is 64-bit 7 faster than 32-bit 7 on 4GB of RAM?

mcdragon2

oh and thank you for calming me about the ASRock board I will look into those

mcdragon2

what do you guys think of this board
Newegg.com - ASRock 870 EXTREME3 AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
its cheaper and seems better to me than the asus I posted

OldBuzzard

That would be a very good board for you.

The only 'drawback' would be if you went with Crossfire. In that case you would have 2x 8x PCIe slots.

For just a single card the first slot would operate at 16x, so you wouldn't be 'losing' anything with a single card.

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kris23

i dont think we even have any cards that can saturate an 8x PCI-E 2.0 slot yet... it should be fine...

however, im concerned about ASRock's warranty policy, if i remember right, they only serve a 1 year warranty to distributors. has anyone had any success with RMAing an ASRock board to them?

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OldBuzzard

I've built at least 6 systems with ASRock boards, starting with the one I'm using now, and none of them have failed.

Actually, a 1yr warranty on a board is more than enough. They will either fail almost immediately, or last so long that you will eventually replace them because you will be upgrading..

By tech standards my board is ancient (4 years old). I have the fastest processor in it that it can use, so I'll have to replace it if I want more processor power.

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mcdragon2

awesome good to hear that I am starting to figure out what is good.
Money is tight right now so no 2nd card in the future for a long time. Already hoping for alot of money of those parts for christmas.
Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100283L Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
and as such saving where I can would be good so opinions on downgrading to this card instead? obviosly it isn't as nice but would it be enough for a few years?

procupine14

I'm not sure about the RMA process with ASRock boards considering that I've never had to RMA one. I like to think of ASRock as the Kia or Hyundai of the motherboard world. They made some pretty junk stuff in their early days and some people still are a little scared of them. But the people that purchase their products are very happy at the nice price of a newer company.

I bought a few ASRock boards in the past for customers and they were all very pleased with their systems. Generally, I hadn't bought any for myself as I have always had a bit of product loyalty to ASUS. But recently the ECS motherboard in my HTPC finally gave up and I needed a motherboard. ASRock was the only company that was in my price range at that very moment and I wanted to get my HTPC/server back up and running quickly. So I bought a nice little hybrid setup that is AM2+/AM3 capable with two channels for DDR3 and two for DDR2. I didn't want to upgrade everything to AM3 but I thought it wasteful to get another AM2 DDR2 only board since that is last gen stuff (and I have a big thing about that).

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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

procupine14

I really like my 5770 right now I have it overclocked quite a bit and it runs all of the games that I play for now. Not on the highest settings for some of the new stuff but it still maxes out resolution on my monitor without looking crappy .

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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

synthesis204

I would recommend against a 5770. A GTX 460 ($160):

Newegg.com - SPARKLE SXX460768D5UNM GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 768MB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Outperforms the 5770 by a good margin. In fact, the GTX 460 and 6850 are about equivalent in terms of performance (see HH's 6850/6870 review). I'd recommend the 460 or 6850.

mcdragon2

I'll just stick with the one I had chosen in the first place then.

blibbax

It lets you use all your memory for starters, so most definitley yes.

If you download a 64 bit installation disk (oo naughty) and then use your existing license, I believe that's legal.

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mcdragon2

ok well I will have to wait until I go home to even attempt that as school is a bitch about torrents and idk where else to download a disc from

OldBuzzard

I'd stay from any nVidia card with that system.

There's a certain synergy that happens when you have an all AMD setup (Chipset, CPU, GPU) that happens that just seems to make it perform better than the sum of it's parts.

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mcdragon2

Almost everything I have dealt with is AMD so I was planning on sticking with them.
Any preference on where to buy parts. I was using newegg because its all there and a decent price

blibbax

Has anyone tested this? It seems highly unlikely, as it's not as if AMD can force you to pick specific combinations of components or disable some of a GPU's performance on Intel boards.

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synthesis204

I think it's more of a mindset than actual fact. I, for one, don't tend to like to mix Intel with anything but nVidia, and AMD with ATI. Of course - there's not really any major difference, other than some AMD boards not allowing SLI, and some Intel boards not allowing Crossfire/SLI.

And I have used ATI cards in Intel-based rigs - and there's no difference in terms of performance.

nicnik

i'd buy 64 bit. the key should work with both anyway. you'd lose some ram to gpu with 32bit.

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mcdragon2

ok so how much of a PSU do I actually need for this system

blibbax

A good 450W should be ok.

This is based on the peak load of a Phenom quad + a 6850 being less than 450W, and as such the normal load being lots less.

Of course, this is presuming you don't want to add a second graphics card or go for a crazy overclock on the CPU, in which case you will need to be looking for a little more.

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mcdragon2

So this PSU would be more than enough
Newegg.com - OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ500MXSP 500W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply compatible with core i7
still looking to save money here