Phenom II 940 Performance Build

[tomstar]

Since my previous thread is invisible to other users and I, myself, can't open it I have to the whole thread again. Sorr for being a little bit more to the point because if this.

I have chosen all my components for a new computer and decided Phenom II 940 was the way to go over the Q9550. This choice was made mainly because the Q9550 has shared cache memory and it has an older architecture. A nice extra is the fact that AM3 processors wil be supported on AM2+ boards. In most reviews and benchmarks the Phenom II 940 beats the Q9550 but only by a few seconds or frames. There will be benchmarks where the PII fails but here will also be benchmarks where it will "own" the Q9550. Anyway, since I am not looking for a fanboy flamewar I would like to add that my choice is made. There are only a very few things that can or will be changed, shuch as the memory and motherboard.

The reason why I made this thread is because I am doubting between 2 motherboards and because I am not sure whether my RAM of choice will work with my motherboard I've chosen. But that's why I have you guys for. I have check both OCZ's site and Gigabyte's site but I am not getting any wiser on RAM support, probably missed it somewhere.

The build I am talking about:

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-DS4H
Memory: OCZ 4 GB DDR2 800 Mhz (2x2GB)
Case: NZXT HS-001B
Power supply: OCZ ModXStream Pro 500 Watt
Hard drive: Samsung SpinPoint F1 640GB
Graphics Card: ATi Radeon HD4850 (512)
CPU: AMD Phenom II 940 BE

Prices:

139 euro's
45 euro's
89 euro's
72 euro's
59 euro's
139 euro's
229 euro's

The total build, including a DVD-rewriter comes down to 791 euro's. I think this is a fair price for a gaming build that performs pretty close to 1200 euro builds, it's not worth buying more expensive parts looking at the performance gain.

The questions I have:

Does the RAM go with the motherboard and should I go for 800 Mhz or 1066 Mhz RAM?

The motherboard itself:

I am stuck between 2 choices:

Asus M3A78-T (119 euro's)
Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-DS4H (139 euro's)

Both have equal specs but I love Gigabyte moer then I love ASUS. Also I have to make sure I will have BIOS updates available incase I ever want to go with AM3 CPU's. Therefore I went with Gigabyte.


All the other parts seem fine to me but feel free to add a comment on my build.

Thanks in advance,

Tom.

 

[tomstar]

This one may die, cookie issue.

 

[aevm]

Looks good. I'd pick the Gigabyte and DDR2-800 too.

Maybe get a larger PSU (Corsair 550W or 650W, PC Power & Cooling 610W, etc.). That would allow you to add a second HD 4850 later if you need more graphics power.

 

[techwizard08]

Gigabyte is a popular board these days, though, in the same vein, so is the ASUS.

Really, for 20$ if you could have the brand you want...*shrug*. It'll make you happy, and in the end, isn't that part of the point of building your own?