Revised Final Build - Hopefully! Any Advice?

[aadamszc]

Hello,

I have posted about a build that I was going to make for a while now. I think I finally have perfected it. Here we are:

Motherboard
ASUS, M2V, VIA K8T890, DDR2-800 8GB /4, PCIe x16, SATA RAID /2, HD Audio, Gb LAN, ATX

I do realize that it only has one PCIe x16 slot, but I am not doing any SLI(obviously) and I cannot think of a use for another PCIe x16 slot. If worse comes to worse, and I find some use, I'll just use the PCIe x1 slot. I'm basicallt just looking for a budget board because this is a budget system. I am a bit worried about this "AMD COOL AND QUIET TECHNOLOGY", but I figure that you can turn it off in the BIOS. Another concern of mine: Is SATA used for anything besides HDDs and optical drives? <--- That goes to show you my inexperience.

Processor
AMD, Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core 6000+ 3.0GHz, AM2, HT 2000MHz, 2x 1MB L2 cache, 125W, 90nm

Why are you going with AMD, are you some kind of fanboy? I will tell you why. I am not a fanboy, but it appears that AMD pulls ahead, not in super fast CPUs, but in the budget area. From what I know, nothing in the price range of the CPU, on the Intel side, touches the performance of this. Despite the fact that I would love to go with intel, I am on a really tight budget and this seems like an excellent choice.

Case
COMPUCASE (HEC), 6C28 Black/Silver Mid-Tower Case, ATX

What can I say? I like to cut back on the case because of my budget. That does not mean that I am stupid, though. Judging by a review, this case doesn't really have anything wrong with it, albeit some HDD scratching and the lack of 90mm fans included with the case. It seems to fit my needs nicely, and doesn't look half bad.

Power Supply
CORSAIR, VX Series 550W Power Supply, 24-pin ATX12V EPS12V, SLI Ready

I've been around here long enough that you people don't joke about power supplies. I figure it will have enough power to power my system and the tier rating(although it is not listed) is not to bad. Judging by hearsay, the PSU would either fall into the TIER 2 or 3.

Memory
CRUCIAL, 4GB (4 x 1GB) PC2-5300 DDR2 667MHz CL5 SDRAM DIMM

It pains me to do this, but I am going with 667MHz. I have *absolutely* no plans of overclocking. The fact is that I do need to save some money and the difference between the two is almost very little for those of us who do not live in "Benchmark World". I figure I should get 4GB 667MHz rather than 2GB 800MHz because the more ram will help me in Vista.

Operating System
Vista 64bit.

I do not live in the world of yesterday. I am not going to buy XP because minor performance differences that will probably be fixed sometime. I will probably dual boot linux.

Hard Drive
WESTERN DIGITAL, 250GB WD Caviar® SE, SATA II 300MB/s, 7200 RPM, 8MB cache

A hard drive is a hard drive is a hard drive. Words have never been spoken that are less true than that statement, but for me I do not want 10K or 15K RPM, etc. Fact of the matter is that I will probably not be using too much space. I am kind of thinking of moving up to 320GB, though.

Video Card
XFX, GeForce™ 8800 GT 600MHz, 512MB GDDR3 1.8GHz, PCIe x16 SLI, DVI /2, HDTV-Out

Pending the release and performance/pricing of ATI/AMDs 3870, I will most likely be getting a 8800GT. Not much to say else about the card itself, but XFX's Double Lifetime Warranty is appealing. I don't think I will have the need of "stepping up".

Optical Drive
SAMSUNG Black 18x DVD±R/RW Dual-Layer Burner w/ LightScribe, SATA

Everything looks fantastic with this drive.

Monitor

Honestly, I will see what happens on black friday/cyber monday. I am probably just going to be purchasing a relatively cheap 19'' 16x12 5ms response time LCD monitor. Until then, I can use my CRT.

Conclusion
Yes, I know. Long post. Even if you are only able to agree with the compatibility or suggest one different component, I will be quite grateful. Basically, this is a budget system. I will mainly be gaming with it and will only do minor picture and video editing. Therefore, I really have no need for a quad core.

Thank you,
-Adam

 

[itotallybelieveyou]

yup everything's fine

 

[aadamszc]

Thanks. =]

 

[Onus]

Good reasoning throughout. If you're getting a Retail (rather than OEM) optical drive, it will cost another $7 or so, but include all the necessary software. I think I have one of those drives, and it works just fine.
Otherwise, at the risk of nitpicking, VIA is on my personal "never buy" list. I consider it an inferior chipset, having owned some VIA products and found their performance inferior to others'.
Is this $80 BIOSTAR TF560 A2+ AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA nForce 560 MCP ATX AMD Motherboard in your budget?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138081
It wants 800MHz RAM, but someone with more experience than I regarding memory can tell you if the 667 you selected will work.

 

[aadamszc]

Thanks for all the input!

I'll be sure to look into getting the retail version. Afterall, the software would cost more than $7 at the store.

Yeah, thing is....there really aren't any good cheap AM2 mobos, which is quite annoying, but I will look into the one that you suggested.

If anyone could elaborate on the needing of 800MHz RAM, I believe the board that I temporarily have also "requires" it.

Thanks,
-Adam

 

[aadamszc]

Well, sadly, I am not ordering from newegg -- so I do not actually have that wide of a selection of motherboards.

Alternate Possibilities
MICROSTAR, K9N Neo-F, AM2, nForce 550, DDR2-800 4GB /4, PCIe x16, SATA II RAID /4, Audio, Gb LAN, ATX

or

ASUS, M2N, AM2, GeForce 6100, DDR2-800 4GB/4, PCIe x16, SATA II RAID 5 /4, VGA, HD Audio, Gb LAN, ATX

I'm not going to lie, I am a little concerned about the memory on these things. Firstly, they both only support 4GB of ram. Honestly, though, I don't imagine we(mid-range system users, that is) are going to be seeing a functional use for more than 4GB in the near future. I am also a bit concerned that these motherboards will require 800MHz RAM, as the gentleman 2 posts above me mentioned.

Thank you,
-Adam
P.S. Comments and Advice on any part of the system is appreciated. ^.^

 

[computertech82]

The case WILL be a problem. It's a micro atx, typically sold with a 350watt or 400watt power supply, not enough for a 8800GT. Also must only use matx boards. If a gamer, you really should look into a dual pci-16x board, with the resolutions of lcd monitors, the higher that resolution is (like 1600x1200 or better) the more you need the option for dual cards just to keep 30fps or better.
The 6000+ is cute, but you can easily overclock a 3800+/4000+ (or really any 65nm cpu) to beat or match the 6000+. My X2 4000+ is oc to 2.8mhz and is almost the same performance as the 6000+ but still less power and heat.
G.skill ddr2 800mhz would be a better (cheaper) choice.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231098

 

[nightscope]

I would get ddr2-800 ram instead. The higher frequency really does make a difference with AMD processors. For the harddrive, get the 16 MB cache one. For the motherboard, that chipset isn't very good...I would just get a SLI motherboard for future upgrades.

 

[aadamszc]

Thanks for your suggestions:
-I just re-checked and I am 99.9% sure that the case is ATX.
-I've got a corsair 550HX for my PSU pending any news that it is bad.
-I really plan on never OCing.
-Honestly, Chances are slim that I will ever go SLI.

I'll see what I can do about 800MHz RAM and 16MB HDD. As of right now, my budget doesn't really permit much of an upgrade.

 

[aadamszc]

Meh, I hate putting not-really-recommended parts in my system.

Would anyone be able to choose from the 3 mobos I have listed and judge which one of them is the best, even if none of them are really that good.

Thank you very much,
-Adam