My First Build, How do you think I did? Criticism WELCOME

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DizturbedOne

New Member
Here goes... I just ordered a setup on TigerDirect and think I did pretty good about getting a good performer with a good upgradeability for later, but I would like some scrutiny on my decisions. I had a limit of 500 bucks, so I decided to go this route and use my old mouse/keyboard/monitor/dvd-rw drives to save some money and get the most I could (as far as the basics go). But honestly I am totally self taught via reading in my private time due to a hobbyists curious ways.

I wish I would have found this site earlier, but please tell me if you forsee any conflicts or problems!

1TB Hitachi HD (7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3G)

Biostar TA890FXE Mobo (AM3, DDR3, SATA 6G, PCIe 2.0)

AMD Phenom II X2 560 Dual Core CPU @ 3.3GHz

2 sticks of Kingston HyperX Blu 2GB DDR3 1600MHz CL9 for 4GB

Visiontek Radeon HD 5670 Video Card - 1024MB DDR5, PCI-Express 2.0, DVI, VGA, HDMI

It will all be ran by a DiabloTek 600W PSU in a DiabloTek Case with a 120mm side fan, a 120mm rear fan, and a 80mm front fan.

I figure that with this setup, down the road I could Crossfire another card, add 12gb of memory, and get a 4gb 6-core Phenom II (or whatever else will be out for AM3 by then) and be golden for another long while whenever it's necessary or I get the money and a wild hair to do it. USB 3.0 is the only thing I wanted but didn't get (any combo I came up with was $100 more at least) so I figure I could add it later via PCIe if it ever becomes viably needed. Sound good?
 
I already had a Soundblaster Audigy ZS-2 Soundcard for it in PCI. I also have a 12x Lite-On BD-RW drive and a 3.5" all-in-one media card reader coming with it. I'm going to run it on my 42" 1080p 120Hz Vizio TV via HDMI... WOOHOO CAN'T WAIT
 
Wouldn't gotten a faster hard drive, personally. You could have done worse, though. You also would most likely have saved money by going with Newegg.

The power supply, though...that's going to be a problem. Nearly all Diablotek units are junk. They won't meet their rated power, use crappy capacitors, and usualyl won't stay in spec. One line in particular, which is still in production, lists its rated ripple measurements on the label, and they're out of spec. It tells you right on the label that it can't perform to ATX specifications.

The case doesn't sound too hot either...80mm on the front? The only ones I've seen that still use 80mm fans are the cheapo ones with no cable management.

Otherwise, though, it seems you've made a fairly balanced system. The FX mobo is a bit overkill, but it'll take a lot of upgrades and overclocks like a beast. It's one of the only good boards that Biostar makes.

Out of curiosity, what on earth are you going to use 12GB or memory for? I'd rather upgrade the CPU and GPU...anything more than 4GB is mostly useless right now.
 
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I ditched the all-in-one media reader and the BD RW drive (I have a Dual Layer DVD-RW for now) for a 64GB SSD for my windows install along with my photo/video software. :D

Thanks for pointing that out, boot time is actually really important to me and I never thought about it in a hardware aspect before, your comment got me off on a tangent, next thing you know I'm elbows deep in SSD literature... LOL

On the PSU - I really wanted at least a 600w, but didn't want to break the bank on it for now. I hope nothing makes me regret it because I could've gotten a better brand with less wattage that would have worked for now. Thinking back, I should have just got the bare minimum with a good brand and upgraded to what I really wanted later. I think down the road I would like a modular one with more like 850w+, any suggestions there?

Here's the new boot drive Crucial 64GB SATA III SSD

Thank you again for the comment, such a small thing said helped me so much!
 
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I wish I knew more about SSD drives, but AFAIK the Crucial RealSSD ones are good. That'll definitely speed things up.

The HDD you bought isn't awful for a mechanical drive, though...it's just not as fast as a Samsung F3 or WD Caviar Black. If you had a slow-as-christmas "storage only" drive like a WD Caviar Green, I'd say otherwise, but as-is you'll be ok. :good:

As for the power supply, the best budget units on the market right now are the Seasonic S12II models, and the modular M12II variants. Antec's Neo ECO line is also based on this platform, though it has some cost-cutting tweaks that drop its performance a little bit. (still a cut above most everything else, though)
You can also occasionally find a good deal on Antec's Truepower New line, which performs brilliantly and is way overbuilt. (a good thing in this case)

The case will be perfectly ok for ventilating that system as long as you figure out how to get the cables out of the way...two 120's and an 80 isn't all that bad, especially with one on the side panel.

Something I would consider doing is attempting to unlock the other two cores on the processor. One or both of them may actually be perfectly functional, though you may need to add some voltage to get them stable. An aftermarket cooler may be in order, especially if you want to do any overclocking. It's definitely worth the price IMO.

Also, I'd suggest holding off on crossfiring the graphics card unless you find a good deal on another 5670. Two 5670's is roughly equal to one 5770, which can often be had for as little as $100.
 
Looks pretty good. Biostar is an OK brand, I wouldn't buy it, Visiontek...I don't think I'd have bought that either. I'd have tried getting Western Digital Caviar Black, because I had one of those before, and LOVED it.

Other than that though, it's a solid build!
 
Thanks for the input guys, I can still change it up a little if it's in my price range. I looked HIGH AND LOW for a ASUS or Gigabyte mobo with Dual Channel RAM slots (at least 4), USB 3.0, DDR3, AM3 socket, and SATA 6gb in full ATX without the clutter of onboard audio/video and just couldn't find one in my price range.

This mobo has good reviews so I pulled the trigger on it even though I had never heard of the brand.

I do not plan to OC until I can get a cooler and a nice power supply to run it. I will look into a Truepower PSU, that sounds like my cup of tea for this build. I want good longevity from it and will finish it up over the next couple months as I get more money to dump into it.

I'm video card illiterate these days. It has been years since I looked, and I was blown away with the choices and advancements. I'm not a gamer, so I couldn't justify spending $150 or more on that part of the build to get it off the ground... So I figured I will crossfire this card with another of the same later on and should be OK. I hope I don't turn out to regret that too much.

Is there another viable option at about the same price range?

Nothing is set in concrete. ;)
 
The HD5670 is a good choice if your not a gamer, I have the HD4670 it works great and runs games well but if you crossfire it's pointless as the above post says you can get a better gpu for the price you'd pay for two HD5670's and by the looks of it there is no crossfire bridge needed to c/f it which means it would route data through the pci express bus, meaning across the mobo, which means it could cause a reduction in performance.

You say you'll spend at most $150.00 on a gpu, what are you going to use the computer for? is there any specifice games you play?

I ask because it would help to pick a gpu that would max out everything you need.
 
innercx said:
you could also go with the tri core athlon

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7023171&Sku=A79-0455

for 89.99, you'll lose l3 cache and the unloacked multiplier on the phenom but gain a core

just at hought if you wanted to save some moeny
Click to expand...

What are thoughts on this performance-wise? I actually dwelled on it for a bit and ended up going with a chip that had a higher cache and less cores. I would like to know which is the better performing setup in day to day multi-tasking use. Having photoshop and a browser in use while encoding video on the fly as a media server in the background isn't uncommon for me. FWIW, I plan to OC it in a month or two, after I get a cooler (sticking my nose into that today) and a nice PSU.

innercx said:
The HD5670 is a good choice if your not a gamer, I have the HD4670 it works great and runs games well but if you crossfire it's pointless as the above post says you can get a better gpu for the price you'd pay for two HD5670's and by the looks of it there is no crossfire bridge needed to c/f it which means it would route data through the pci express bus, meaning across the mobo, which means it could cause a reduction in performance.

You say you'll spend at most $150.00 on a gpu, what are you going to use the computer for? is there any specifice games you play?

I ask because it would help to pick a gpu that would max out everything you need.
Click to expand...

$150 is too much for a video card for me, I'd spend up to $100. It seemed like the next step up from what I got was all the way to $150. The only games it would see are World of Warcraft and Diablo III when it comes out, things like that. My wife loves those games, but nothing else is ever played on the computer. Me and my son both play games on the 360 and PS3. If there is something for $100 that would serve me better, I would get it.
 
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DizturbedOne said:
What are thoughts on this performance-wise? I actually dwelled on it for a bit and ended up going with a chip that had a higher cache and less cores. I would like to know which is the better performing setup in day to day multi-tasking use. Having photoshop and a browser in use while encoding video on the fly as a media server in the background isn't uncommon for me. FWIW, I plan to OC it in a month or two, after I get a cooler (sticking my nose into that today) and a nice PSU.

$150 is too much for a video card for me... I'd spend up to $100. It seemed like the next step up from what I got was all the way to $150. The only games it would see are World of Warcraft and Diablo III when it comes out, things like that. My wife loves those games, but nothing else is ever played on the computer. Me and my son both play games on the 360 and PS3. If there is something for $100 that would serve me better, I would get it.
Click to expand...

there are things that l3 helps for but since you said you plan to geo six core in thr future you could save a bit now.

Using passmark to bench cpus at

www.cpubenchmark.net

the phenom II x2 ranks in 268 th place and the athlon II 455 ranks at 182 meaning it is better on this bench, i personally have the athlon 445 and i have no problems with it at all, i went for another core rather than l3 cahce.

The phenom gives you the chance to unlock to quad and so does the x3 (without the l3). depends if you will be using apps that use l3 cahce, for gaming the x3 athlon or x4 if you spend a bit more will easyily suffice for gaming and most other tasks.
 
I think I'm fine then. The games that will be played won't be high-demand on the system at all. Now that I want to get a cooler and overclock it, I wish I would have went with the 3-Core and saved a little money, it probably would've ran about the same for what I use it for. Return shipping charges makes it a moot point though.

I exchanged my BD-RW & All-In-One Multimedia reader ($150 total) for the Crucial SSD ($130 after shipping) and was still able to cover 2-day shipping with the difference. :D
 
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