Hello folks.
Lemmie preface this by saying a few things before I go into what I'm asking for help with..I'm in my 4th year of college taking Networking/IT Security courses. I say this, because I'm usually quite broke, and in being broke, have never had the opportunity to purchase and/or build my own computer before. I've suffered through for 6 years with this 1GBRAM, Athlon 3200+ with I believe is an Nivida 5200 in it. And I'm a gamer.
However tax season hit, and being a college student has finally paid off (You know, barring all of that "Knowledge" stuff)..And I'm getting a refund big enough to net me a new computer! Awesome.
So I've been tinkering with stuff on Newegg trying to find the right build/right products for me. Here is my current build.
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W
Motherboard: ASUS M4A79XTD EVO AM3 AMD 790X ATX AMD
RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel
Power Supply: CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready
Video Card XFX GS250XZDFU GeForce GTS 250 1GB 256-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support
Case: Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3250318AS 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5"
DVD Burner LITE-ON Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 24X
Other-
(I'm currently using an MS Optical Mouse, and this is figured into my overall cost.)
Logitech MX518 8 Buttons 1 x Wheel USB Wired Optical 1800 dpi Gaming Mouse
And some Arctic 5 Silver Thermal Compound
This sticks me at about 900 dollars. I'm planning on loading Windows 7 64bit on it (I get it for free from my college)
---
If anyone has any suggestions, personal experiences, or otherwise a general knowledge of what to buy or what not to buy when you're comparing to my system, please tell me. The only thing is that I really need to stay under 900 bucks, so anything replaced should be less or equal in expense (A few dollars doesn't matter)
- I am not planning on overclocking (At least to start)
- I am planning on getting two video cards one day and Crossfiring them. (Which is the main reason I'm using a 750W PS)
- I may want to upgrade to 8GB of RAM as well.
So my questions
1) Is this build decent? I'm just trying to run games with it, mostly newer titles (Bad Company 2 being the newest)..I'd like to be able to get some decent FPS out of the machine.
2) I hear when installing your heatsink on top of the motherboard it may already come with thermal compound on it. Would I need to remove this before using my new compound? Would it just be better to go with the manufacturers compound if I'm not planning on overclocking and not bother with it?
3) I notice a LOT of people talking about RAM timings on reviews, and I'm curious if I'm going to need to work on that. I've read that AM3 CPU's set the RAM to 1333, while the RAM I'm selecting is 1600. Is it worth messing with the BIOS settings (Technically overclocking but *Shrug*)? Serious difference? Or would that just be like getting the last drop of orange juice from the jug instead of just tossing it?
Any other helpful tips are appreciated if anyone has anything to mention..I'm one of those sorts of folks who want things to work the FIRST time..Or at least not create a situation where it's my fault it didn't work.
Thanks!
Lemmie preface this by saying a few things before I go into what I'm asking for help with..I'm in my 4th year of college taking Networking/IT Security courses. I say this, because I'm usually quite broke, and in being broke, have never had the opportunity to purchase and/or build my own computer before. I've suffered through for 6 years with this 1GBRAM, Athlon 3200+ with I believe is an Nivida 5200 in it. And I'm a gamer.
However tax season hit, and being a college student has finally paid off (You know, barring all of that "Knowledge" stuff)..And I'm getting a refund big enough to net me a new computer! Awesome.
So I've been tinkering with stuff on Newegg trying to find the right build/right products for me. Here is my current build.
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W
Motherboard: ASUS M4A79XTD EVO AM3 AMD 790X ATX AMD
RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel
Power Supply: CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready
Video Card XFX GS250XZDFU GeForce GTS 250 1GB 256-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support
Case: Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3250318AS 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5"
DVD Burner LITE-ON Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 24X
Other-
(I'm currently using an MS Optical Mouse, and this is figured into my overall cost.)
Logitech MX518 8 Buttons 1 x Wheel USB Wired Optical 1800 dpi Gaming Mouse
And some Arctic 5 Silver Thermal Compound
This sticks me at about 900 dollars. I'm planning on loading Windows 7 64bit on it (I get it for free from my college)
---
If anyone has any suggestions, personal experiences, or otherwise a general knowledge of what to buy or what not to buy when you're comparing to my system, please tell me. The only thing is that I really need to stay under 900 bucks, so anything replaced should be less or equal in expense (A few dollars doesn't matter)
- I am not planning on overclocking (At least to start)
- I am planning on getting two video cards one day and Crossfiring them. (Which is the main reason I'm using a 750W PS)
- I may want to upgrade to 8GB of RAM as well.
So my questions
1) Is this build decent? I'm just trying to run games with it, mostly newer titles (Bad Company 2 being the newest)..I'd like to be able to get some decent FPS out of the machine.
2) I hear when installing your heatsink on top of the motherboard it may already come with thermal compound on it. Would I need to remove this before using my new compound? Would it just be better to go with the manufacturers compound if I'm not planning on overclocking and not bother with it?
3) I notice a LOT of people talking about RAM timings on reviews, and I'm curious if I'm going to need to work on that. I've read that AM3 CPU's set the RAM to 1333, while the RAM I'm selecting is 1600. Is it worth messing with the BIOS settings (Technically overclocking but *Shrug*)? Serious difference? Or would that just be like getting the last drop of orange juice from the jug instead of just tossing it?
Any other helpful tips are appreciated if anyone has anything to mention..I'm one of those sorts of folks who want things to work the FIRST time..Or at least not create a situation where it's my fault it didn't work.
Thanks!
