Seeking advice on a build...

Mad Dog Hoek

Mad Dog Hoek

New Member
AMD 790X ATX AMD Motherboard$130

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM$65 x 2

Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA$100

ASUS VH226H Black 21.5 Monitor$180

COOLER MASTER V8 RR-UV8-XBU1-GP$63

COOLER MASTER Tower Computer Case$80

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1$40

EVGA 02G-P3-1185-AR GeForce GTX 285 2GB 512-bit DDR3 / AMD Phenom II X4 945 Deneb 3.0GHz$555

Total $1276
Is this a good build for the price? and will it everything work with each other? I am a novice when it comes to this stuff. and I want to use windows xp pro 64 edition. Is it better to use xp then vista? and will stuff fit in the case, i am unsure how to pick a proper case.
 
The Sound Blaster Audigy SE is a waste of money. Its no better then the onboard sound. If your getting a crossfire board why not get a ATI 4890, get another one later and Crossfire them
 
thanks for the advice on the cooler and the sound card. i dont really care about the sound that much so i guess ill just skip a sound card for now.

also does anyone know anything about the video card like is it any good? sorry for the noob questions in advance
 
StrangleHold said:
The Sound Blaster Audigy SE is a waste of money. Its no better then the onboard sound. If your getting a crossfire board why not get a ATI 4890, get another one later and Crossfire them
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Yea you will save your self Money in the long run by getting a ATI 4890 and later on get another 4890. The 4890 is as good as the GTX 275 a GTX 295 is made of 2 GTX 275s so if you get two 4890s then you will have something close to a GTX 295. Forget about the V8 cooler they are over priced get this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233014 then get another 92mm fan for it and use what is called the push N pull effect. One fan will push air through the other will pull air out. Post a new thread if you need to know more about it. Everything else look awesome good RAM,HDD,MOBO,etc oh and change the sound card like the others mentioned. Get this CPU http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103471 it is cheaper and almost the same as the other one but it has a little less cache.
 
Fatback said:
Here is a different motherboard http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131381
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The Guy is building a AM3 DDR3 system. You have him changing the board, CPU and memory.

Just to save some money, if he is never going to be running C/F or SLI, I would change the board to this one and get the DDR3 memory and the AM3 Phenom II 945
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128392


If your building a new system now, its better to go AM3/DDR3.
 
StrangleHold said:
The Guy is building a AM3 DDR3 system. You have him changing the board, CPU and memory.

Just to save some money, if he is never going to be running C/F or SLI, I would change the board to this one and get the DDR3 memory and the AM3 Phenom II 945
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128392


If your building a new system now, its better to go AM3/DDR3.
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Of course I want to try to save him money you don't have to spend $1300 to have a good computer. The motherboard I picked is AM2,AM2+,and AM3 compatible so he can use any new CPU on the market. There is nothing wrong with DDR2 RAM its not going to be outdated any time soon as long as there is still motherboards that use it. He can get 8GB of DDR2 for the price of 4GB of DDR3.@ OP you decide what you want to do go with a less expensive system that is going to run just as good or a DDR3 system that will cost you more. Unless your going to be doing some intense gaming or heavy video editing or something like that then get the cheaper CPU,Motherboard, and RAM it will be just as good. On the other hand if you won't to spend $1300 on a computer while you have the money then by all means go right ahead but I would not go all out on your first computer build start small and work your way up that's what I am doing and I have learned a lot that I didn't know before my first build stuff that will help me tremendously with my next computer build.
 
Thanks for all the advice everyone. I would like to save some money on the build if at all possible, but it doesnt matter to me that much. I really just want too be able to play eq1 with it and some of the newer FPS games that are coming out now.

with all the parts i picks i kinda just judged them on looks i have no idea on the compatibility. oh and the graphics card i picked is that a good one? what about 2 graphics cards working together like someone said in an earlier post. and how does one do that?

oh and a power supply how do i pick out one of those for this?
 
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Mad Dog Hoek said:
Thanks for all the advice everyone. I would like to save some money on the build if at all possible, but it doesnt matter to me that much. I really just want too be able to play eq1 with it and some of the newer FPS games that are coming out now.

with all the parts i picks i kinda just judged them on looks i have no idea on the compatibility. oh and the graphics card i picked is that a good one? what about 2 graphics cards working together like someone said in an earlier post. and how does one do that?

oh and a power supply how do i pick out one of those for this?
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Build the AM3 system you had picked out. The AM2+ processors are being fazed out, plus you dont want to build a new system with yesterdays hardware.

The video card you picked out is fine. (But) the board you picked is a ATI Crossfire board. You can not SLI two Nvidia cards on it. For the money you could get a 4870 X2 and get another one and crossfire them later.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...iption=&Ntk=&CFG=&SpeTabStoreType=&srchInDesc=

Or you could lower it to a 4890 and get two and run them in crossfire.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...iption=&Ntk=&CFG=&SpeTabStoreType=&srchInDesc=

Power Supplies
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817256050

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341003

Best deal
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139009

Alittle high but a good supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703022
 
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thanks for the suggestion on the graphics card. it looks kick ass to me! and its cheaper, so cool beans. anyway what would the best operating system be to install on this? is it worth it to get vista? i have never used it but have only heard bad things about it and i like xp so far. i have heard that since vista sucks they will let people who are just getting vista now to upgrade to windows 7 for free.

plus is this a good system to over clock? and how does one do that? i have heard something about messing with the bios to give it more voltage and that is how its done but i am unsure.
 
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Mad Dog Hoek said:
thanks for the suggestion on the graphics card. it looks kick ass to me! and its cheaper, so cool beans. anyway what would the best operating system be to install on this? is it worth it to get vista? i have never used it but have only heard bad things about it and i like xp so far. i have heard that since vista sucks they will let people who are just getting vista now to upgrade to windows 7 for free.

plus is this a good system to over clock? and how does one do that? i have heard something about messing with the bios to give it more voltage and that is how its done but i am unsure.
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Dont forget to post a final build list so we can scan over it one more time. I would get vista 64bit, as it includes a free upgrade coupon for windows 7.
 
You could go for this, free upgrade to 7
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116677

Or just use the RC for now, free
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/download.aspx


Overclocking the 945, you use the bus. Just start raising it a few mhz. till it gets unstable then back it off a few. If you want to go higher, you will have to bump up the CPU voltage. If you do raise the voltage keep a eye on the temp.

When you use the bus to overclock the memory speed will increase, so you will have to raise the memory voltage after a point. Or you can just bump back your memory speed, say if your runing DDR3 1333, just set it back to DDR3 1066. After raising your bus you can get your memory back close to it default speed.
 
 
Good lookin setup. I am 50/50 whether I would go with a 4870 X2 or just get two 4870/4890 and crossfire now.
 
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