Cheap yet Solid

[Mishkin]

Hi all, just ordered my new build from newegg(replacing a skt 939 3500+ system). I was originally planning on an Asus Evo mobo (the current $105 one), due to its features and quality. And then sticking an x6 cpu in there once Bulldozer came out and prices fell. Actually, the whole build has been a long ordeal of research.

However, I decided last minute to go with a cheaper Biostar board, to tide me over until Bulldozer, then likely going with a Bulldozer mobo + cpu a little while after release. Or I could go Intel too. I chose my parts mainly off of price and to tide me over, but wanted some solid stuff that I will keep around after my mobo+cpu upgrade later on as well. I'm happy with what I got for $414 shipped, after the instant rebates, combo discount (mobo + cpu), and one promo discount:

PSU - Antec Earthwatts 650W
Mobo - Biostar TA880GB+
CPU - AMD Athlon 2 645
Memory - G.Skill 1 x 4GB - 12800 CL9 (Ripjaws)
HDD - 320GB Samsung Spinpoint
Case - Antec 300 Illusion
Optical - Asus Dvd Burner black

A few days from now I'll be ordering Windows 7 Home OEM, an Asus 21.5" 1080p (1920x1080) led-backlit monitor (the $160 one), and a GTX 460 1GB vid card (I'm a fan of Nvidia and single card setups). Down the road I'll be adding a 1TB Samsung Spinpoint HDD for storage, another 4GB stick of the same memory, and a blu-ray reader. The 320GB HDD will become my OS and programs drive then.

So what do you think? Do my plans (not to mention my already purchased items) look alright to you? I'm assuming everything other than my mobo + cpu will work fine with whatever I get once Bulldozer comes out. One of the reasons I went with 1600Mhz memory was because it should be compatible with Bulldozer, and obviously is with Sandy Bridge already. Due to my plans to always run single-card gpu setups, the 650W Antec Earthwatts psu should last quite awhile as well. The only iffy component in my mind is the Biostar mobo, but I figure as long as it works fine, I'm good. The features and performance aren't a big priority there, and the combo deal with the cpu was very cheap. I'm sorry for the long post, but would like some expert opinions. Usage will be moderate gaming, internet, media.

Edit: You know, I could have sworn the same combo, except with the Athlon 2 640, was a few dollars MORE than going with the 645, due to the 645 combo being $5 less (and the 645 being only 99.99, same as 640). It appears the 645 was actually 109.99, so it did cost me 5 more bucks. Not a big deal. It is weird how that crap tends to happen RIGHT when you order though, then its back to normal when you check afterwards.

 

[CrayonMuncher]

Your plan seems solid, the cheaper parts you buy should last and the psu, gpu and such can certainly be moved forward.
Since you are moving to bulldozer when it comes out this may be irrelevant but you probably will notice in gaming that the dual core will hold you back and will effectively the cpu will bottleneck the gpu.
Ensure you get the gtx 460 1gb edition with the 256bit bus, not the other 1GB version that has the 192bit bus (called the SE edition I believe) I'd also do a bit of shopping around and see what other offers are available, The radeons are good for performance and you may find the a similarly priced radeon will out perform the GTX460.
Only thing I will point out is that you should have got a 2x2GB kit of ram at least as it will be dual channel which, even tho bulldozer will be quad channel, I imagine bulldoze will still work in dual mode, or was that your plan to upgrade to ram to 4 similar sticks and run in quad channel?

 

[Mishkin]

Your plan seems solid, the cheaper parts you buy should last and the psu, gpu and such can certainly be moved forward.
Since you are moving to bulldozer when it comes out this may be irrelevant but you probably will notice in gaming that the dual core will hold you back and will effectively the cpu will bottleneck the gpu.
Ensure you get the gtx 460 1gb edition with the 256bit bus, not the other 1GB version that has the 192bit bus (called the SE edition I believe) I'd also do a bit of shopping around and see what other offers are available, The radeons are good for performance and you may find the a similarly priced radeon will out perform the GTX460.
Only thing I will point out is that you should have got a 2x2GB kit of ram at least as it will be dual channel which, even tho bulldozer will be quad channel, I imagine bulldoze will still work in dual mode, or was that your plan to upgrade to ram to 4 similar sticks and run in quad channel?

Thanks for the reply.

1. What dual core?
2. I plan on getting the regular 1GB version of the GTX 460. I was originally planning on the 768MB one, but I can afford the reg, non-SE variety, so I'll be going with one of those.
3. I may check out some of the similarly priced Radeons. They do tend to be better for price/performance. Just never really been a fan of ATI. The sins of the ancestors trouble the descendants, I guess is my take on it.
4. I got one 4GB stick of memory for a few reasons. I plan on adding a 2nd identical stick very soon, for a dual-channel 8GB setup. In the meantime, the lack of dual-channel performance doesn't bother me at all. Also, 4GB sticks (rather than 2GB) obviously give me a much higher max memory, and if I'm keeping this (and the 2nd) 4GB sticks around for Bulldozer, there's no chance I'll want to start over due to being limited by my memory size per stick. To cap it off, the 4GB stick of 1600 I bought was 39.99 after the $10 promo code I used on it. Also - while this is a long shot and played no part in my memory selection, what if Bulldozer comes out and I want to get into it but am looking at a cheaper board with only 2 memory slots? At least this way, I could still keep my 1-2 4GB sticks and max out at 8GB. (rather than replacing 2x2 sticks or maxing out at 4GB)