First Build Please Help

I'm going to be purchasing the parts over the weekend, which is pretty soon so please help if you guys can. I'm burning more than 3 months worth of my salary on this rig (once again i live in the Philippines) so i'd really appreciate any input. Thanks.

I'm not sure about the mobo but good procie tho. are you using it to play games? I'm pretty sure you are so why not go for the 4870X2 and if you feel like it, go 4GB on your memory. One of the best ones that I can recommend is Corsair Dominator and keep the temperature around 60 celcius for your CPU. Anyway best of luck

Yep, i plan on playing games on them. Actually i just want a rig that'll max-out Diablo II and Starcraft II, i've asked some friends who build PCs and they seem to agree that the setup i want to get should be able to do the trick.

As for the 4870x2 i simply can't afford it. As it is i barely afford the components i plan on getting. I earn around $15 a day net, which is good enough to buy the necessities in the Philippines but not really enough to buy any dollar-priced stuff so i'm really sacrificing a lot for this rig.

As for the RAM, it's a typo. I intend on buying two sticks of 2GB Apacer RAM. Thanks for bringing my attention to that.

I'm really worried about the mobo not playing well with the Q9550. I'll have no idea how to upgrade the BIOS if it doesn't even show me a start-up screen. Yes, i'm that much of a noob when it comes to installing a processor. I've had experience installing everything else though.

I think I found the price list you were talking about. I'd ditch that Intel motherboard and pick up one of the Asus P5Q P45 boards instead. You really don't need DDR3 on a Core2Quad machine. The Asus board uses DDR2, which should save you some money. You also shouldn't have to flash the BIOS on the Asus boards to recognize the CPU.

It looks like the Corsair CMPSU-620HX 620w PSU is around the same price as the Enermax one you picked. I'd choose the Corsair one instead.

I agree - that motherboard is older tech. Get a P45.

Also, get 2x2GB of DDR2 800 RAM - it's less than $50 now and is well worth it.

+1 on the PSU suggestion

I agree with jit. The only justification for DDR3 is if you are using an i7 CPU.

Did you mean Diablo III? Graphic requirements for Blizzard games aren't very high. A 4830 is probably more than you'd need. If you did mean Diablo II, a 4650 will max it, no trouble.

Whoops. Sorry, i meant Diablo III, hehe. Oh and the pricelist i'm referring to is at: www.pcx.com.ph

I didn't notice the Corsair PSU so yep, i'll probably get that instead. Thanks for pointing that out.

As for DDR2 RAM i guess it makes sense that 4GB of DDR2 RAM would be enough. I just thought the DDR3 RAM would improve the rig that much more. If the Q9550 will bottleneck the DDR3 though i guess i'll go with DDR2.

The Asus board suggested only has one x16 PCI-E 2.0 slot and since i'm going to make this computer last as long as i can (money is tight), i was thinking of adding one more GPU to the DP45SG further down the road to boost the rig's staying power. Is my assumption correct?

As for the DP45SG mobo, i'm concerned it'll initially give me problems with the Q9550 because the Intel website says it requires version 0073 of the BIOS to use the Q9550. Since i've never installed a processor before i don't know if upgrading the BIOS will be a pain. If nothing pops up but a black screen i'll be pretty lost.

Thanks for all the help the guys.

^If you are looking to CrossFire see if you can get a P45-UD3P or a P5Q Pro. Imo, it's not worth it to get DDR3 for a C2D at any rate (there are exceptions, ie world record setting etc).

Neither of the boards are on the PC Express pricelist... I'm pretty limited with choices. As much as possible i want to buy from one place so i can get a bundle price. PC Express is pretty near my house and they've been around for quite a while. The other boards on the list that are crossfire compatible are either a lot more expensive or older than P45. I guess i'm stuck getting a DP45SG.

About the BIOS updating http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/260460-31-beware-upda...
A thread I wrote specifically about updating the BIOS.
Also intel's mobo's don't have as many features as ASUS, gigabyte, DFI, basically all branded mobo's have more features and overclocking.

Another thing is i would get a new SATA drive. Anything 2 years old is obsolete now. The new drives have denser data which in turn is optimal performance. Even a cheap Western Digital 3200AAKS will be inexpensive and make your PC fly compared to using an older drive even though it is SATA. As far as the board screw DDR3 to save some cash and just get a MSI or Asus P45 chipset board. Good luck with the build. And the P45 wont require the BIOS update

I am insanely pissed right now. I went over to the store to reserve the parts and whatnot and they don't have any stock for any of them except the motherboard. I entered a store next to it and they had the parts at a slightly higher price. Fine, i could live with that, so i asked them to list down the prices and to reserve them for me. They wanted me to pay 50% for a down payment. I was cool with that too, as long as everything was legit. Of course i ask for a discount (it's to be expected in the Philippines), they were willing to shave P100 ($2) off the price of the whole package. I said that isn't good enough since the competitor had much lower prices (they didn't have the parts in stock though). So i said update the motherboard's BIOS for me and you've got a deal. They agreed. Then it turns out they don't have the video card in stock (don't worry, i didn't pay for the down payment yet). Fine. I canvassed around and found a 4870 1GB at a slightly higher price. Now i come back to the store and they said they aren't willing to upgrade the BIOS. The store i was going to get the motherboard from isn't willing to do it either. What the hell??? So i said forget it, and canceled all my orders in all the stores.

So now i'm back to square one.

I asked around and am going to try another store tomorrow. It's got a better reputation but is a lot more expensive, and they are even more limited in parts... I think the Almighty doesn't want me to have a decent computer.

Anyway, here are the parts i'm thinking of getting from the other store:
(www.rsun.com.ph/)

proc: Q9550
mobo: MSI P45D3 Platinum
gpu: 4850 1GB
RAM: 2 x Kingston DDR2 800 2GB
psu: Gigabyte Superb 720
HD: Seagate ST3500320AS
case: Gigabyte Poseidon 310

I took the advice of several posters and stuck with DDR2 RAM since i'm not going to get an i7. I don't know if the motherboard i listed is good though. I only put a 4850 in there because i'm not sure if i can get a 4870 with them, and honestly i don't know if i really need a 4870, i'm thinking of using two 4850's instead. I'll probably add the second one at a later date though.

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