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Budget AMD Gaming Rig

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Hello again, part two of my setup attempt cause the otherone dropped off the forums. I compiled advice from the other thread with the exception of case recommendations. What can I say, I love the case. I want to keep it under 1000, the more the better, yet still have it very flexible for upgrades as I don't wish to reinvest in another year.
This is what I have so far but its a touch over the budget, and its still without extra cooling options, and the PSU I selected is currently out of stock, but I'll post for the sake of it. End wall of text.

RAIDMAX SMILODON Extreme Black ATX-612WEB 1.0mm SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Foldout MB Computer Case - Retail $84.99

MSI K9A2 Platinum AM2+/AM2 AMD 790FX ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail $149.99

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 32-bit English 1pk for System Builders DSP OEI DVD - OEM $109.99

LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model LH-20A1L-06 - Retail $33.99

SAPPHIRE 100242L Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail
$179.99

AMD Phenom 9850 BLACK EDITION 2.5GHz Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Processor Model HD985ZXAGHBOX - Retail
$205.00

G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8500CL5D-2GBPK - Retail
$59.99

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
$59.99

CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply - Retail
$129.99 (out of stock atm)

Any tweaks are welcome, suggestions or constructive criticism, alternatives as well as cooling ideas. Thanks for your help.

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Obviously an Intel Q6600 will stomp the crap out of that Phenom. You'll have to purchase a cooler for that Phenom while a retail Q6600 will include a cooler capable of getting you up to 3.0 Ghz. Considering that Intel's core architecture is already faster (clock for clock) and the CPU will inevitably clock higher... it just seems like you're going against the wind on this one.

Message edited by rodney_ws on 07-18-2008 at 02:51:14 AM

Reply to rodney_ws

i dont really think that $1000 is considered a "budget" build. for that kind of money, i would have to recommend you go intel instead, and im even an amd user! but other than that your build looks good, but consider one of the seagate 7200.11 series hard drives. they are newer, and aren't that much more expensive. also the fact that they have 32MB of cache is very nice.

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to Nik_I

Don't worry about the 750TX out of stock, it's a bestseller, for good reason, and will be in stock again soon.

I'd get 2x2GB of DDR2-800 RAM instead. It's a few bucks more, and Vista likes more RAM.

Get Vista 64-bit.

HDD - check out the WD6400AAKS - better speed, much better price per GB

The Smilodon is not bad. Take a look at the RC-690 and the NZXT Tempest anyway.

I know the Tuniq Tower fits in the Smilodon. Not easily though. You'd have an easier time with the RC-690. That's a good cooler, and it works for Phenom. Quotes from newegg:

Quote :

Cons: Installation... ugh lol. WAs so big I had to take my blue LED fan off of the side panel for this thing to fit, also my mobo tray neded t be inserted a unique way (Smilodon case)

Quote :

Pros: This keeps my Phenom 9850 running cool and doesn't make much noise.

Cons: When moving the case around the fan does tend to slide out of the heatsink.

Other Thoughts: Keeps my 9850 running around 53C idle with fan turned down all of the way and around 59C full load with fan turned up all of the way. Ambient temperature 96F (35.5C).

Reply to aevm

That's a very good case, but I recomend you a modular PSU.

Reply to Anonymous

Nik_I wrote :

Keep in mind that the K9A2 790FX is equivalent to x38/x48 in the Intel world, with Crossfire running at x16 on both slots. It even has additional slots, which helps for weird setups with 3 or more monitors. That is, it's a high-end MB.

He's also getting a 750TX, which will allow Crossfire.

The 9850 is slower than a similar priced Q6600 if you overclock them both as far as you can, yes, but who cares, since most games wait on the GPU, not the CPU, and both 9850 and Q6600 are fast enough not to cause bottlenecks. He's saving $75 or more from the MB by going AMD, and not really losing much.

My feeling is that this is a very nice machine, especially once the second HD 4850 is added. Yeah, it's not really "budget"

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to aevm

Sorry, trying to get back into the swing of the new hardware and of course, my idea of budget is as outdated as some of my knowledge. Questions then would be...

800 bus speed ram, would that bottleneck the system a bit, or is it hardly noticeable between that and 1066, its part of the reason I chose the ram and the motherboard.

Tuniq tower, I've heard alot of good things, I'd even try to jar it into that case of mine, at the same time its a little pricier, but like a PSU you prolly don't want to skimp on it. That leaves the 4850, or will it be ok as is heat wise. [Double checked the price, got me sold.]

Vista, I'm really leery of it as is, I like my software and some of it is as ancient as the pyramids. I heard 64 bit is much tighter on the security, but as a cost its a lot less compatible than the 32 bit equiv, and if I recall was pricier. Any clarification on that one?

Ah Intel, not a big fan of it but hey it was in my laptop, and yeah, I've heard the q6600 machine to my amd woes. At the same time, it seemed damn near impossible to find a motherboard to support it and ati/crossfire (not really big on ASUS). Though I did consider an alternate build just to see the price points of both sides. Links if you got good info for an 'Intel' variant.

Message edited by DigitalKitsune on 07-18-2008 at 03:37:26 AM

Reply to DigitalKitsune

aevm wrote :

He's saving $75 or more from the MB by going AMD, and not really losing much.

that's exactly why i chose amd over intel . i couldn't find a similarly spec'd board as my 780G-based one for anything within even $50 of mine.

Reply to Nik_I

the 800 ram and 1066 will basically offer no difference, unless there is a huge price gap. it definitely will not bottleneck.
as for the OS, Vista x64 is not so problem stricken as XP x64 was, so there won't be a problem there. Most older programs are emulated, and they all usually run. Right now, if I remember right, x64 and 32 bit were the same price, but if you are running 4GB of ram, you want to make sure that you get x64, as it will actually use all of it.

Reply to the last resort

Heck, even the ATI is out of my field, I'm normally a Nvidia fan. But I've heard too many good things about this recent ATI series, and its priced well, to ignore. So breaking out into a new jungle to try it, and sadly seems the easiest to equip an amd to. One day I may really try the Intel jungle, but with Nehalem around the corner I don't think it may be wise to sucker myself into a dead end socket line, though AMD may pull the same.

Reply to DigitalKitsune

!!! By all of it do you mean vista 64 will enable all 4 gigs or USE them for itself. That's a little daunting, bloated, and severly going to curve my memory ideas.

Reply to DigitalKitsune

"can make use of all of it" would be the way to phrase it. It's not going to take up any great amount of RAM.

Reply to Proximon

Hmmm, so this is the revised rig option, though it costs more something tells me I'm not going to escape that to make it a little future proof (haha... weird phrase for computers). So far its...

RAIDMAX SMILODON Extreme Black ATX-612WEB 1.0mm SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Foldout MB Computer Case - Retail
$84.99

MSI K9A2 Platinum AM2+/AM2 AMD 790FX ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
$149.99

SAPPHIRE 100242L Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail
$179.99

CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply - Retail
$129.99

AMD Phenom 9850 BLACK EDITION 2.5GHz Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Processor Model HD985ZXAGHBOX - Retail
$205.00

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL4D-4GBPK - Retail
$89.99 (There was an OCZ combo for this and the phenom I think, same price for the ram in the end at higher bus speeds)

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
$89.99

LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model LH-20A1L-06 - Retail
$33.99

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit English for System Builders 1pk DSP OEI DVD - OEM
$109.99

Tuniq Tower 120 Universal CPU Cooler 120mm Cooling Fan and Fan Controler/Heatsink - Retail
$49.99

By the way, does the Sapphire variant of the 4850 run well. I could have swore I read some negative words to the Sapphire version.

Reply to DigitalKitsune

I like it, cept the case, but i have a boring p182, so dont pay attention to me, or to those telling you to go intel, cant go wrong with the spider paltform, and with the 4850, running games, even a le 1600 would look fast.

------------------------------ Q6600 (overclocked to 3.2ghz) GAp35-DS-3L mobo, 8BG G-SKILL ddr2-1066, gigabyte gts 250(1GB), 2x dvd burner,320gb hard drive,640gb hard drive, black antec p182 case with corsair 750 watt psu.
Reply to reconviperone1

I think Sapphire is in fact one of the best ATI partners. AFAIK they sell more cards than any other ATI partner. I've had good experiences with them so far. Should be a safe choice. I'd also trust Visiontek and Diamond, based on reviews, but I haven't tried their stuff myself.

TBH I have my reservations about the Smilodon too, mostly because it's not designed for today's huge coolers and because it has some 80 mm fans. But, on the other hand, it's got 4 fans, and the OP likes its looks, so why not. The price is very good too.

Reply to aevm

Looks good. Don't forget some thermal interface material. You'll want to be sure you have all the fans the case will hold as well.

Reply to Proximon

Could always mod the case too, though thats another new jungle for me, and changing up said fans would make me wonder if I have the wattage with the PSU, let alone the cables.

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to DigitalKitsune

First thing after you install Vista 64, install service pack 1.

BTW, I think you might actually end up liking Vista, I've got no complaints.

Reply to San Pedro

DigitalKitsune wrote :

Could always mod the case too, though thats another new jungle for me, and changing up said fans would make me wonder if I have the wattage with the PSU, let alone the cables.

No worries about the PSU. Changing a fan with another fan will add or remove a few watts. Adding a high-performance 120mm fan fan will need only 8W more, or something like that. Play with this if you want:
http://extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine

Reply to aevm

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