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Help building first system, would appreciate your comments!

Forum Homebuilt Systems : New System Build - Help building first system, would appreciate your comments!

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btc2008   12-02-2008 at 11:27:47 PM

I've been researching building a computer, and so far the list below is what I've come up to make a decent gaming computer that I wish really not to have to upgrade for a few years. Accordingly, I would like to have all of your input on the products, especially the motherboard, the PSU, and which type of 4870 I should buy. I'm only planning on running games in the 1440. 900 resolution, and, for the time being, I plan on not doing any overclocking. The only thing I purchased so far was the Antec case, which I got for about 65 dollars, so it's not as expensive as the linked Neweggs say.

Antec P182 Gun Metal Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

AMD Phenom 9950 2.6GHz Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Black Edition Processor

GIGABYTE GA-MA770-DS3 AM2+/AM2 AMD 770 ATX All Solid Capacitor AMD Motherboard - Retail

Rosewill RX630-S-B 630W 80 PLUS Certified , ATX12V v2.2 & EPS12V v2.91, SLI Ready, CrossFire Ready, Active PFC Power Supply - Retail

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory

HITACHI Deskstar P7K500 HDP725050GLA360 (0A35415) 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

ATI 4870 512 MB Graphics

Samsung 20X DVD/R,W Burner

Vista 64 bit


Also, not really sure which 4870 I should get. There are quite a few on Newegg from His and Sapphire, etc., and I try to look for the card that has the highest rating (most number of votes too) and that is decently priced. If anyone can recommend I'd appreciate.

Also, I try to look for a PSU that is 80+ Certified as that's what I've been reading is the best to get.

Suggestions?

Thanks.

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jthorn   12-02-2008 at 11:48:49 PM
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Really nothing wrong with your specs. Folks may tell you to ditch the Rosewell PSU for something that might be better quality and long lived. But dont settle for less that a 550W 80 plus. I am not going to criticize your choice of CPU. I am sure you already know many feel intel duos and quads on a P45 MB deliver the most bang for the buck. Make sure your MB and periferals all connect SATA 3. The 4870 is nice but it is overkill for 1440 by 900. A 4850 is a good match for resolutions up to 1600X1050 and would save you $50.

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btc2008   12-03-2008 at 12:32:15 AM
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Thanks for the input. I think I am going to go for the 4850 after all--good reasoning.

I could always choose the Q6600 over the Phenom, but then I'd have to change my MB around--which is no big deal.

jthorn wrote :

But dont settle for less that a 550W 80 plus.



I am having qualms about the Rosewil PSU. What power supply company/config do you recommend?

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aevm   12-03-2008 at 01:22:44 AM
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Beautiful build, except for the Rosewill. Get a Corsair 750TX or PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750W.

Sapphire or Visiontek for the HD 4870.

Change the burner to a SATA version, e.g. SH-S223F or SH-S223Q.

Reply to aevm
aevm   12-03-2008 at 01:26:08 AM
- 1 +

Oops, that MB won't do Crossfire, one slot only. If you're not interested in Crossfire you can get a smaller PSU, like 550VX or 650TX or PC P&C 610W.

If you do want the ability to do Crossfire, get a $125 K9A2 Platinum or a $140 DFI LANPARTY DK 790FX-M2RS, and one of those 750W PSUs.

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geofelt   12-03-2008 at 01:29:22 AM
- 1 +

For gaming, the vga card is most important component. 4850 is good. 4870/GTX260 is better.
Good vga cards will be the hottest part in your case.
Look for a unit that has a two slot cooler that sends ALL the hot vga air directly out the back of the case instead of recirculating it.

If your game is cpu bound and quad core optimized, like fsx or supreme commander, then a quad is good. Otherwise, a faster clocked duo is usually better. I like the E8500 and a P45 based motherboard.

Rosewill is not highly regarded on this list:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forum [...] p?t=108088
Read the specs; it is rated at 25c which is unrealistic in a case.

I suggest the PC P&C silencer610:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817703005
It will power the fastest single vga card out there today.


Message edited by geofelt on 12-03-2008 at 01:33:45 AM
Reply to geofelt
aevm   12-03-2008 at 01:31:47 AM
- 0 +

btc2008 wrote :

Thanks for the input. I think I am going to go for the 4850 after all--good reasoning.

I could always choose the Q6600 over the Phenom, but then I'd have to change my MB around--which is no big deal.




Actually, the Phenom 9950 is faster in most benchmarks than the Q6600, at stock. The Q6600 trades blows with the Phenom 9850.
With overclocking, the Q6600 can make up for it, but you didn't add a cooler or get DDR2-1066 or use an Antec 900 so I'm guessing you're not into overclocking.
Also, you can do full speed Crossfire without bottlenecks with $125 K9A2 Platinum and Phenom, while with Q6600 you'd need a $225 GA-X48-DS4 or similar for the same thing


Just to clarify: you don't need Crossfire at 1440x900. However, with LCD monitors getting cheaper every month, you might want a 24" one of these days.

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btc2008   12-03-2008 at 01:46:06 AM
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aevm wrote :

Actually, the Phenom 9950 is faster in most benchmarks than the Q6600, at stock. The Q6600 trades blows with the Phenom 9850.
With overclocking, the Q6600 can make up for it, but you didn't add a cooler or get DDR2-1066 or use an Antec 900 so I'm guessing you're not into overclocking.
Also, you can do full speed Crossfire without bottlenecks with $125 K9A2 Platinum and Phenom, while with Q6600 you'd need a $225 GA-X48-DS4 or similar for the same thing


Just to clarify: you don't need Crossfire at 1440x900. However, with LCD monitors getting cheaper every month, you might want a 24" one of these days.



Yeah, I am not planning on O/C'ing at the moment. I will eventually get a decent LCD monitor, but I don't really foresee myself running games at resolutions above 1600 mark. Would a 4850 (just one) and the above do for that?

Quote :

Rosewill is not highly regarded on this list:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forum [...] p?t=108088
Read the specs; it is rated at 25c which is unrealistic in a case.

I suggest the PC P&C silencer610:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817703005
It will power the fastest single vga card out there today.



Thanks for the list and advice; I had my eye on that PSU, and now I will most likely purchase it.


Message edited by btc2008 on 12-03-2008 at 01:49:42 AM
Reply to btc2008
aevm   12-03-2008 at 06:03:42 AM
- 0 +

Yeah, a single HD 4850 does a very decent job at 1680x1050. That's what most 22" LCDs run, btw. It can get 40 fps in World in Conflict or 73 fps in CoD4, etc.


Reply to aevm
shiv666   12-03-2008 at 11:42:58 AM
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nice...but dont get hitachi drives aka deathstars....

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btc2008   12-03-2008 at 05:06:11 PM
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shiv666 wrote :

nice...but dont get hitachi drives aka deathstars....



Western Digital it is then.

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Reply to btc2008
shiv666   12-03-2008 at 11:22:52 PM
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btc2008 wrote :

Western Digital it is then.


or seagate....i trust seagate more cause they have 5 years instead of 3 on there warranty... gives a bit more confidence in the purchase.

Reply to shiv666
AMG   12-04-2008 at 12:23:24 AM
- 0 +

seagate.. more than any i would say...as for your choice on CPU, its fine, don't let anyone tell you otherwise..personly I would wait till AMD lunches thier next gen phontoms than we will see intel shack in fear, these things can oc to stupid Ghz but AMD are keeping very sercret about it atm >_> they are due to be lunched along with the chipset in early q3 2009, but the phantom is a nice CPU

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UNiON_PlAYA_28   12-04-2008 at 12:55:21 AM
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well if you aren't looking to overclock get this
Athlon 64 X2 6000+ 3.1GHz 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM2 89W Dual-Core Processor

Reply to UNiON_PlAYA_28
aevm   12-04-2008 at 01:49:38 AM
- 0 +

AMG wrote :

seagate.. more than any i would say...as for your choice on CPU, its fine, don't let anyone tell you otherwise..personly I would wait till AMD lunches thier next gen phontoms than we will see intel shack in fear, these things can oc to stupid Ghz but AMD are keeping very sercret about it atm >_> they are due to be lunched along with the chipset in early q3 2009, but the phantom is a nice CPU



LOL, if AMD really had something like that, they wouldn't keep it secret. They'd make sure investors and banks knew all about it ASAP.

BTW, it's spelled Phenom, not Phantom :kaola:



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btc2008   12-04-2008 at 02:06:08 AM
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aevm wrote :

LOL, if AMD really had something like that, they wouldn't keep it secret. They'd make sure investors and banks knew all about it ASAP.

BTW, it's spelled Phenom, not Phantom :kaola:



Haha, yeah, I actually google'd the name Phantom thinking it was AMD's next model, but all I came up was the Phenom model :-)

Thanks for all the advice..I'm looking into a WD or Seagate.

But now I have another question. With the case I ordered,

Antec P182 Gun Metal Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

It comes with 3 120 mm fans, which I'm sure you can move somehow, but does anyone know of any useful links on cooling your system? I read somewhere on these forums that you should have exhaust fans>intake fans, and that you can reverse a fan's direction by turning the fan. Also, it doesn't explicitly state this on the case's specs, but are most fans like the 120 mm attached to the PSU via peripheral (molex) cables?

Thanks!

Reply to btc2008
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