Rate my new home computer!

george93pr · Jan 25, 2011

Here's my final build!!!

COOLER MASTER Elite RC-310-BWN1-GP - $39.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119203

AMD Athlon II X2 245 + Biostar A880G+ AM3 AMD - $109.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.581114

WINTEC AMPX 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) - $39.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820161279&cm_re=wintec-_-20-161-279-_-Product

Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3500418AS 500GB - $49.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...m_re=seagate_barracuda-_-22-148-395-_-Product

Antec NEO ECO 400C 400W - $44.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...29&cm_re=antec_neo_eco-_-17-371-029-_-Product

What do you think?

jamesd1981 · Jan 25, 2011

i would change the memory to a better brand, crucial, kingston, gskill etc

Drenlin · Jan 25, 2011

So far so good, but I agree with him ^

Either of these would be better:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226092
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231396

Have to say, the Mushkin stuff look cooler...

I can't say I'm a fan of Biostar motherboards, but that one seems to have decent build quality...it should be ok for a family/general use computer. Not a whole lot of room to upgrade, though.

vnsmith · Jan 26, 2011

they are right.. why not go for kingston.. I am pretty sure they have the same price as to what you have now..

Drenlin · Jan 26, 2011

G.Skill and Mushkin > Kingston

powerpack · Jan 26, 2011

If Wintec saves you money and you do not plan on OC'ing get it. Only 5 companies in the world make the DRAM chips the rest is put an ICB on them. In other words it does not matter. Further if you want to OC you can't even go to the brands these guys mention. You need a model number.

You get a lifetime warranty? It will work as designed and spec'd. Save a dollar, I mean unless they include a T-Shirt? And on these boards OCZ in on the outs. Some say they are getting out of the RAM business. But funny doing well in the SSD market. I don't have time to expand but trust me wintec is fine.

Rit · Jan 26, 2011

Do you need a PSU and GPU? or do you already have them?

Drenlin · Jan 26, 2011

powerpack said:
If Wintec saves you money and you do not plan on OC'ing get it. Only 5 companies in the world make the DRAM chips the rest is put an ICB on them. In other words it does not matter. Further if you want to OC you can't even go to the brands these guys mention. You need a model number.

Not all IC's are crated equal, sir, and not all companies are running them inside the specs that they were designed for. G.Skill and Mushkin both have a reputation for NOT taking the cheap route, while little is known about Wintec. They're also the same price. What seems like the better choice here, hmm?

You get a lifetime warranty? It will work as designed and spec'd. Save a dollar, I mean unless they include a T-Shirt? And on these boards OCZ in on the outs. Some say they are getting out of the RAM business. But funny doing well in the SSD market. I don't have time to expand but trust me wintec is fine.

Not all companies are created equal, sir. I also suggested G.Skill and Mushkin because they're known to have good customer service. Mushkin even has representatives in prominent computer enthusiast communities, and I think G.Skill does as well. Wintec makes apparently no effort to communicate in a similar fashion, or at least not that I've been able to find. Again, given the same price, which would you go for?

And yes, OCZ is on the way out. Their budget/mainstream DDR3 got a reputation for having issues, and the higher priced stuff didn't sell well.
https://globenewswire.com/newsroom/news.html?d=210757

Resurrection · Jan 26, 2011

Excellent build, but you could go even cheaper on the motherboard to save a few extra bucks. Biostar A780L3G?

OverClocker · Jan 26, 2011

agree with the majority. so far so good but the ram. i will go for kingston or crucial. wont recommend mushkin. i had a not so good experience with them

Drenlin · Jan 27, 2011

Resurrection said:
Excellent build, but you could go even cheaper on the motherboard to save a few extra bucks. Biostar A780L3G?

No way man...un-cooled 4-phase power, mATX, non-solid caps all over the place, and very little in the way of features.

OverClocker said:
agree with the majority. so far so good but the ram. i will go for kingston or crucial. wont recommend mushkin. i had a not so good experience with them

The majority of computer enthusiasts would disagree with you...

Not saying you didn't have a bad experience, because they can't please everyone. But they do have an excellent track record.

FXB · Jan 27, 2011

agree with the majority. so far so good but the ram. i will go for kingston or crucial. wont recommend mushkin. i had a not so good experience with them

I bought Mushkin RAM and it died within a few weeks.

The majority of computer enthusiasts would disagree with you...

Not saying you didn't have a bad experience, because they can't please everyone. But they do have an excellent track record.

I was told be a tech that Mushkin RAM is pretty cheap and that I was better off with Kingston.

Red Love X · Jan 27, 2011

Drenlin said:
No way man...un-cooled 4-phase power, mATX, non-solid caps all over the place, and very little in the way of features.

The majority of computer enthusiasts would disagree with you...

Not saying you didn't have a bad experience, because they can't please everyone. But they do have an excellent track record.

/slightly-offtopic

What do you mean by "uncooled 4-phase power"?

Drenlin · Jan 27, 2011

The part of the motherboard that regulates the voltage for the CPU. Most motherboards have either 4-phase or 8-phase, the latter basically meaning that there are twice as many components to handle the load. This results in lower heat and higher stability. Cooling on them refers to a heat sink on those MOSFETs, and has similar effects, though heat is affacted more than stability. Newer Intel P67 boards have gotten ridiculous with it, in some cases adding 12 or more phases in...I'm not sure how big of a role that plays in their epic overclocking, though.

Except for some remarkably awful ones, 4-phase with no cooling is about as cheap as it gets. Granted, that's easily enough to handle the 45W Athlon II, but not too much more, and it's often a sign of lower build quality as well.

Red Love X · Jan 27, 2011

Drenlin said:
The part of the motherboard that regulates the voltage for the CPU. Most motherboards have either 4-phase or 8-phase, the latter basically meaning that there are twice as many components to handle the load. This results in lower heat and higher stability. Cooling on them refers to a heat sink on those MOSFETs, and has similar effects, though heat is affacted more than stability. Newer Intel P67 boards have gotten ridiculous with it, in some cases adding 12 or more phases in...I'm not sure how big of a role that plays in their epic overclocking, though.

Except for some remarkably awful ones, 4-phase with no cooling is about as cheap as it gets. Granted, that's easily enough to handle the 45W Athlon II, but not too much more, and it's often a sign of lower build quality as well.

Thanks for the answer! I had no idea that was a feature on motherboards at all.

george93pr · Jan 27, 2011

Rit said:
Do you need a PSU and GPU? or do you already have them?

I do need a PSU. As for the GPU, the Radeon 4250 that comes with this motherboard is more than enough for me, since I won't be using this desktop for gaming anyway. Having a hard time picking the PSU tho, any suggestions?

george93pr · Jan 27, 2011

By the way, I can get the Wintec memory cheaper than the others from a local store. I read the reviews on NewEGG and was surprised at all the great feedback. Seems like Wintec stepped it up?

Benny Boy · Jan 27, 2011

george93pr said:
I do need a PSU. As for the GPU, the Radeon 4250 that comes with this motherboard is more than enough for me, since I won't be using this desktop for gaming anyway. Having a hard time picking the PSU tho, any suggestions?

This is a bit overkill, but it's a good ps, the price is reasonable, and it would handle certain gpu's if you chose to add one later on. The cables are sleeved, don't know if you want modular.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371030

Drenlin · Jan 27, 2011

george93pr said:
By the way, I can get the Wintec memory cheaper than the others from a local store. I read the reviews on NewEGG and was surprised at all the great feedback. Seems like Wintec stepped it up?

That's actually really good for DDR3.

You can't go by Newegg reviews at all. People will usually give a good review as long as their product is still functioning after a month or so, or at least don't know wnough to notice that it's not working properly. Goes both ways, too...a lot of the bad reviews are from user error. That said, I never said that Wintec was bad...just that they aren't a known quantity. Nobody really knows much about them. If you want to give it a shot, then by all means go right ahead.

george93pr · Jan 28, 2011

Benny Boy said:
This is a bit overkill, but it's a good ps, the price is reasonable, and it would handle certain gpu's if you chose to add one later on. The cables are sleeved, don't know if you want modular.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371030

Hey thanks! I found this one for $15 less. It's the same one, but 400w. Do you think this would be a under power for my desktop? I know I might have trouble if I decide to add a GPU, but I would consider building another desktop for gaming instead of adding a GPU to this desktop. Tell me what you think?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371029

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