Hey there everyone, my first post on this forum. I posted over with the guys at PCMech over the past few days, but I have always valued the judgment of Tom's Hardware so I thought I'd get your opinion(s)!
This is a mid-ranged gaming build. I'm upgrading from a really dated system I built about 4 years ago (i.e. it's a socket A system). The setup I've got picked out right now is listed below, with links to the newegg product listings:
CASE - Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
CPU - AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor 3.0GHz Socket AM2 89W Dual-Core Processor Model ADA6000CZBOX
MOBO - ASUS M3A78-T AM2+/AM2 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard
PSU - CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
RAM - G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ
GPU - HIS Hightech H485QT512P Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported IceQ4 Turbo Video Card
OPTICAL - LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA Model iHAS120-08
HDD - Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
I'm still pondering over a couple of items, but feel free to throw in your own criticism on other things.
1. I'm trying to decide on whether to go for the 4850 1GB for $15 more, the 4870 512mb for $70 more, or the 4870 1GB for $90 more. If none, do you have a better suggestion? I'm leaning ATI for the first time in 5 years because of the motherboard.
2. The price tag on the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ is really hard to turn down. I was pointed towards that instead of the Phenom X4 9850 for a suggestion of Dual processors over Quad for gaming... thoughts?
3. I realized suddenly tonight that if I bought this system that I might need a different OS from the XP Pro I'm using right now (it's not the 64bit XP). I'm guessing I'm right?
When I built my first system, which I'll list below, I skimped on a lot of things because it was my first time building. It cost me about $800 and worked beautifully on games up until about a year ago. My initial thought was to stay within that price range for this build as well, but I also don't want to find myself wishing I had spent that extra $50-100 on the system 6 months from now because I'm just barely squeaking by on high performance.
This is a mid-ranged gaming build. I'm upgrading from a really dated system I built about 4 years ago (i.e. it's a socket A system). The setup I've got picked out right now is listed below, with links to the newegg product listings:
CASE - Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
CPU - AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor 3.0GHz Socket AM2 89W Dual-Core Processor Model ADA6000CZBOX
MOBO - ASUS M3A78-T AM2+/AM2 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard
PSU - CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
RAM - G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ
GPU - HIS Hightech H485QT512P Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported IceQ4 Turbo Video Card
OPTICAL - LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA Model iHAS120-08
HDD - Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
I'm still pondering over a couple of items, but feel free to throw in your own criticism on other things.
1. I'm trying to decide on whether to go for the 4850 1GB for $15 more, the 4870 512mb for $70 more, or the 4870 1GB for $90 more. If none, do you have a better suggestion? I'm leaning ATI for the first time in 5 years because of the motherboard.
2. The price tag on the Athlon 64 X2 6000+ is really hard to turn down. I was pointed towards that instead of the Phenom X4 9850 for a suggestion of Dual processors over Quad for gaming... thoughts?
3. I realized suddenly tonight that if I bought this system that I might need a different OS from the XP Pro I'm using right now (it's not the 64bit XP). I'm guessing I'm right?
When I built my first system, which I'll list below, I skimped on a lot of things because it was my first time building. It cost me about $800 and worked beautifully on games up until about a year ago. My initial thought was to stay within that price range for this build as well, but I also don't want to find myself wishing I had spent that extra $50-100 on the system 6 months from now because I'm just barely squeaking by on high performance.