1200 Dollar Build Check

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dmullen1994

Member
This is a gaming build for my cousin just wanted to see if i am getting the most out of his money. I'm like 100 under but i wanted to leave some room in case i forgot something. I think im just going to use the stock cooler since he wont overclock or anything.

OPTICAL - ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM

CASE - (not changing this) Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

HDD - Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s

DISPLAY - ASUS VH242H Black 23.6" 5ms HDMI Full 1080P Widescreen LCD Monitor W/Speakers

MOTHERBOARD - ASUS Sabertooth 990FX AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD

RAM - (free with the mobo) Patriot Gamer 2 Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 1


VGA CARD - MSI N570GTX Twin Frozr II GeForce GTX 570 (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card


PSU - CORSAIR Enthusiast Series CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core ...


CPU - AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ965FBGMBOX
 
1. That case is horrible. Use it if you want to, but your temps will suffer. Try the 302 from antec and you will have a much better case.

2. Graphics is not worth it currently. Get a 7870 or 7950 over a 570, and you will have much better performance.

3. FX4100 or fx6100 would be better than a 965, but either will be fine in the end.
 
I totally disagree with you on the case. Also i have only heard bad things about AMD drivers. Can anyone else agree with the two suggesting AMD cards?
 
wolfeking said:
go ahead with the case if you want, but with no cable management you are only hurting yourself.
Click to expand...

I have the same one, its really not that bad. I idle at at like 70 cpu and 35 on my gpu. All you have to do is cover the side panel with a sheet of paper and shove the wires in the space on the side. That's the only bad thing imo.
 
if you use the 302 you get the same design with cable management holes to put them behind the motherboard.

And 70 is not a good idle temp at all. Even at load that is kind of high.
 
AMD drivers are fine. My roommate has a 7950 and it kicks arse. 1.25gb of Vram on the 570 is extremely limiting at 1080 and higher.
 
Yeah I agree not had any issues with drivers for my 5870 so far. Interesting though, I have 1GB of RAM on my 5870 and it plays games at 1080p just fine, doubt it could go much higher though.
 
The only issue I have had with my 4870 and drivers (in windows anyway) is that when it encounters an error (generally unstable OC) it just freezes up causing you to have to reboot. Linux is just a general nightmare with AMD anyway, but the 12.4 drivers install fine (update hotfix will not install though, for whatever reason).

Nvidia is better with the driver crash, it will not freeze, but just flat crash and recover. Which can be a pain, but at least gives you time to salvage what your working on before the restart.


Either card is fine, but I would always go for Nvidia over AMD.
 
spirit said:
Yeah I agree not had any issues with drivers for my 5870 so far. Interesting though, I have 1GB of RAM on my 5870 and it plays games at 1080p just fine, doubt it could go much higher though.
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Yes, but why not get that extra Vram if it uses it? BF3 uses about 1.5gb at ultra. And you'll be able to play fine, I was on a 570, but that extra Vram helps when things get intense. (Big explosions, fast motions, etc)
 
I looked at the 302 and it seems like an ok deal for 20 more. Also, i haven't checked my temps in a while but i am probably mistaken if 70 is really high. I have a noctua nhd140 so my temps are probably average at worst. And the piece of paper thing was concerning dust/airflow. If you cover the side panel you can get pretty good flow in the front and out the top/back.

Also i changed the CPU the the fx4 and the video card to the 7950. Thanks for the help sirs.
 
claptonman said:
Yes, but why not get that extra Vram if it uses it? BF3 uses about 1.5gb at ultra. And you'll be able to play fine, I was on a 570, but that extra Vram helps when things get intense. (Big explosions, fast motions, etc)
Click to expand...
Wasn't saying he shouldn't go for a card with more V-RAM, was just saying that a 1GB 5870 can still cut it at 1080p.

dmullen1994 said:
I looked at the 302 and it seems like an ok deal for 20 more. Also, i haven't checked my temps in a while but i am probably mistaken if 70 is really high. I have a noctua nhd140 so my temps are probably average at worst. And the piece of paper thing was concerning dust/airflow. If you cover the side panel you can get pretty good flow in the front and out the top/back.

Also i changed the CPU the the fx4 and the video card to the 7950. Thanks for the help sirs.
Click to expand...
I still think you should go for the 300R from Corsair. The 300 is an old and pretty crappy case, sorry.
 
I've been using an AMD card for over a year and recently gotten a second. I've had zero problems even when overclocking to the limit of Control Center. I did have some weird graphical issue with 2 monitors on my 5770 that was a slight annoyance, but games and everything else was fine.
 
I can vouch for AMD drivers being great.
I've had a 6950 2GB since release, never had a problem with drivers.
Also, the 300R is an amazing case, you should really get it :)
 
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