$500 Budget build.

This comes in at about $537 including shipping, and $35 in MIR's.

Asus DVD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135209

Rosewill R-220 Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147074

SAPPHIRE 100296HDMI Radeon HD 4670 1GB 128-bit DDR3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102855

OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ500MXSP 500W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341016

A-DATA Gaming Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211409

Asus M4A785TD-M EVO AM3/Phenom II x4 955 Black
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.390941

A few things I'm not sure about:
Will I actually need the video card?
Will the onboard HD4200 w/ 128 sideport be an improvment on my old nVidia 6600 128-bit/256mb card?
Can I use my old card with the ATI Hybrid crossfire? I can't find that on the AMD website.

Also, between the memory, A-DATA one, users comment on Newegg that they can go 8-8-8-24-1t, which is what Gskill (7-8-7) could do on an AMD system. Should I pick the Gskill? I guess I'd rather have A-Data with it's customer choice award.

Lastly, the power supply. Is that one good?

Thanks in advance for suggestions and comments!

NeedaComputer said:

Will I actually need the video card?

Click to expand...

What's the purpose of this build specifically? If your considering gaming, it's definitely a commodity. If your doing schoolwork, surfing internet there's really no need, but it's up to you.

NeedaComputer said:

Will the onboard HD4200 w/ 128 sideport be an improvment on my old nVidia 6600 128-bit/256mb card?

Click to expand...

The Nvidia card has higher mem/core clocks, but supports DDR2 Memory.
While the radeon you picked supports DDR3 and has 1GB w/ less clocks.
My recommendation is to consider a more recent card because getting the radeon won't be much of a upgrade.

Either one of these can work are top notch budget cards for mid gaming:
Radeon
Nvidia
MSI

NeedaComputer said:

Can I use my old card with the ATI Hybrid crossfire? I can't find that on the AMD website.

Click to expand...

Not sure about this one. If the card supports it and you have a mobo & bridge that also supports crossfire, I don't see a problem.

NeedaComputer said:

Also, between the memory, A-DATA one, users comment on Newegg that they can go 8-8-8-24-1t, which is what Gskill (7-8-7) could do on an AMD system. Should I pick the Gskill? I guess I'd rather have A-Data with it's customer choice award.

Click to expand...

I would go with the G Skill because of their flexible timings, you can always change them in BIOs and ripjaws have a better ability to do just that.
Also, you shouldn't base your decisions just because of a customer choice award. Get what suits your needs, not the needs of others.

NeedaComputer said:

Lastly, the power supply. Is that one good?

Click to expand...

I'm not too fond of OCZ for their products.
You won't really need 500W anyway (assuming no crossfire).
It's also about the rails and in most cases you tend to use less than really required.
Maybe consider this PSU



Good Luck

I apologize, I forgot to reference a different thread:
http://www.computerforum.com/175603-need-advice-new-build.html

The upper limit of gaming consists of The Orange Box, and in the future, hopefully SC2 and CIV 5.

That Radeon HD4200 is on board graphics with 128mb of side port memory. I was hoping to not have to buy a stand alone GPU. If the HD4200 on-board is better than my old 6600, then I won't purchase a new GPU.
The ASUS website for the motherboard referenced the "Hybrid Crossfire." The way I understand it, it will do a functional crossfire between integrated graphics chipset (the HD4200) and whatever you have in your PCI-E slot, assuming it's compatible. I could not find a compatible cards list.
So, if the Integrated Graphics (HD4200) was as good or worst than my 6600, and my nvidia 6600 was not compatible with Hybrid crossfire, maybe I could get by with a cheap stand alone graphics card to compliment the integrated graphics.
(onboard HD4200 + cheap GPU) > nVidia 6600.

Thank you for your advice on the memory, I will take that into consideration.
Thank you as well for the advice on the PSU. I didn't think I would need a 500W+ psu, but it would be nice to hear that from someone else.

PSU - although consais do good PSU, I see no harm of getting OCZ 500W.

Hybrid crossfire is for low-end ATI graphic card. 4670 is faster than those low-end card with hybrid crossfire. I honestly don't know how your 6600 compare with onboard. However, I don't see a urgency for you to purchase a graphic card. You can get a video card anytime when feel the performance is insufficient.

Thanks for the insight on hybrid crossfire. I think I may just skip the video card until a later date.
As far as the PSU goes, I'll search around some more for a combo deal, but I may just stick with the OCZ.

I have a 500W OCZ which I've been very happy with, had for about 6 months. It's very quiet.

After checking some benchmarks, the HD4200 will perform asnear as makes no difference the same as the 6600. It does support newer features, though, and can be overclocked be as much as 90%, so I'd call it an upgrade.

danthrax, thanks for the recommendation. If it craps out on me, I'll drop it off at your doorstep and demand a refund, (I live in Farmington, half-hour away from Hastings). I also found a combo deal with the OCZ and a slightly different ASUS DVD drive for a $16 combo discount!
(http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.390788)

Drenlin, thanks for looking into the benchmarks! I couldn't seem to find any data out there that was helping me out.

I am still undecided between these two memory options:

G.Skill (2 x 2GB)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231303

A-DATA (2 x 2GB)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211409

Drenlin weighed in on a different thread, but I wouldn't mind more input. For what I'm using it for, I don't think it really matters, but the G.Skill has tighter timing capabilities, and the A-DATA has the customer choice award. They are the same price, (G.Skill originally higher with a $10 instant discount).
I'm leaning toward the G.Skill.

Since I've come in under budget, I am thinking about splurging to get the ATX version of the Mobo for $20 more:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131398

Now I find out that I could get an X2 or X3 Deneb and unlock them from this review:
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...4a785td-m-evo-am3-motherboards-review-14.html

Why do I keep on reading things like this. I would definitely like some advice regarding this.

^ if you get the right motherboard, you can unlock the disabled core. it may be faulty, have a dead sensor, very unstable, needing high voltage, or it could work normally.

Sounds risky.

Thanks again for all the help! I'll post more pictures when I put it all together!

Oooh, shiny new stuff!

Congrats on the new system! Good call on the Ripjaws. Sorry I wasn't here to advise...

Unlocking the core really isn't risky...it just stands a chance of not working right. The computer should POST with a damaged core, so you can put it back to normal if need be. If not, you can just reset the BIOS entirely. The 785G chipset is capable of doing it, so there's nothing stopping you from giving it a try. :good:

Hi. I have that mobo and use the integrated video. It gets 5.2 for gaming graphics and 4.2 for aero graphics. In reality, it is great for most stuff non-gaming. I do have two games on my computer, Sims 3 and Battlefield 2 and can play them both on high settings with no problem.

Doug.

Looks like you are going to have to change your sig now

Drenlin, I ended up going with the X4 anyway. After reading up on some other forums/articles, it seems that the X2, X3, and X4 are all quad core. The ones that don't pass quality assurance for X4, but do pass three of the cores get sold as X3, and the same for X2. And then they just shut off perfectly good X4's to satisfy market demand. So you might get a good X4 and maybe not. As far as the Ripjaws, I'm happy so far. I was a bit shaken at first when instead of seeing "Dual Channel Mode" on the POST screen, I saw Un-ganged mode. Wasn't sure what that meant, so I moved the ram around to different positions and it never changed. More research showed me that un-ganged is Dual Channel (64-bit) and Ganged would be Single channel (128-bit). I guess I am not concerned with it anymore.

dug987654, I just loaded up my Orange Box the other night and fired up Portal on all lowest settings and it seemed to keep up just fine, (running on a 1440x900 screen). I am going to try to play around with the GPU NOS feature on the board that supposedly automatically over clocks the onboard video.

Breadman177, I think I'll change my signature when all life is transferred over to the new computer and I can post up a picture of everything installed.

I am definitely going to have to work on some cable management when I get some more time but I have it up and running and it survived the one hour OCCT stress test just fine. The CPU fan kept the cores between 47°C - 50°C and all case fans set to low.

Took a while to get my pictures up, but here they are. Thanks again for all the help!