Budget build for a newbe, advice and thougts please

[petoniano]

Hi everyone, cause it´s my first post here. I´m petoniano from Spain. I´m quite newbe about this, but after reading a lot here and other forums I´m planning to order a build like this, what do you think about it?

- Primary Use: A litle bit of everything including video editing, (all in user level)
- Secondary Use: Gaming. (f.ex COD4)
- OC: I´m not sure because i don´t have the knowledge, maybe i´ll do my first steps in overclocking
- Not really planning crossfire at the moment (maybe in the future?)
- I´ve panic with the system heat, i had a bad experience with my last PC (many reboots, stacked, one Mobo damaged) It´s in a quite hot room.

Here it is: (i put the price here in Euros, the conversion euro-dollar for pc components is near to 1:1, maybe a litle more $ i think)

MoBo: Asrock P45XE-R (94€)
CPU: Q8200 (169€)
Cooler: ¿?
Mem: G. Skill 2 x 2 Gb DDR2-800 PC2-6400 CL4 (55€)
GPU: Asus EAH4850/HTDI Glaciator (149€)
PSU: OCZ ModXStream Pro 600W (82€)
HD: Seagate ST3500320AS 7200rpm 500Gb (54€)
CASE: Antec Three Hundred (54€)
total ~650€

I already have screen, keyb, mouse, speakers 2.1, IDE optical drive and printer.

Questions: I´ve choosen Q8200 because i think works with less temperature and i´m not a great OCker (the other option in the same price are Q6600 and E8400) (read a lot but not sure yet)
The cooler included is not enough? should i get a better one?

Reading here i think i´ve understood that for this system DDR3 or DDR2 1066 are not worth.
ATI radeon HD4850 will let me play most games with good resolution and FPS.
The rest of the components are half my litle knowlegde, half read here.

What do you think?, advices and thoughts are welcomed please, i don´t want to do a bad choice.

Thank you very much

petoniano

 

[petoniano]

i've heard good performance of the xigmatek s1283 in this forum,
the other components sound good

q8200, e8400, there i can't help you

 

[xthekidx]

Look for a Gigabyte P45 UD3R, Asrock isn't the greatest mobo company. You need to think about whether or not you will only use one GPU or upgrade later and xfire, if you think you might, then I recommend the Asus P5Q Pro or Gigabyte P45 UD3P.

CPU is ok, see if you can get the Q9400 within your budget, if not it will work well. For your purposes, a quad is probably the best option.

For a cooler I'd go with the Xigmatek S1283 with the bolt through kit. The Dark Knight version comes with it, the regular one just comes with push pins and you need to order the backplate separately. However if you will not OC then the stock cooler will be enough.

Memory is fine

That PSU is ok, but look also for Corsair, PC Power & Cooling, Seasonic, or Antec PSU's they are all better quality than that one you selected. I don't really know where you shop so I'm just going to give you brands and you can find them. You need to consider a few thing here though; are you going to xfire later with two GPU's? if you are, then you need probably around 650-750w PSU for both graphics cards. If you will only use one graphics card then a 400w PSU would probably be enough.

Do not get a seagate HDD, they fail all the time and you will lose everything. Look for the WD Caviar Black 640GB HDD, it is very fast and very reliable.

An HD 4850 will probably be enough for some moderate gaming, but it depends on the size of your monitor. If you have a big screen, then you will need a more powerful GPU. But for 1600x1000 res or less, 4850 will be fine.

 

[techwizard08]

Kid, i read an article that Seagate's latest fix actually unbricks the bricked ones and is making the other drives operable. Do you think they should be considered again, or are you just planning on waiting until the .12 units appear?

 

[techwizard08]

+1 on the mobos. ASrock is decent, but there are definitely upgrades possible.

How does the 8200 compare to the 6600?

 

[xthekidx]

Kid, i read an article that Seagate's latest fix actually unbricks the bricked ones and is making the other drives operable. Do you think they should be considered again, or are you just planning on waiting until the .12 units appear?

I'd love to see that article. I wouldn't want to mess with it anyways even if there was a fix for it, I'd rather just have a drive that was reliable to begin with and not need to be unbricked.

Think you can post the link to that article?

 

[petoniano]

i´m not sure if i´m going to do crossfire, i think most probably not. But i would like to have the option in the future. The Mobos you say are quite more expensive, i´ve seen the Gygabyte GA EP45 DS3 for just 10€ more than the Asrock, should be enough for a reliable Xfire with 2x HD4850? or what about going to a cheaper P43 chipset?

The HD is now changed to a WD caviar black 500gb for the same price, thank you for the advise, but the Q9400 sounds great but I think i can´t afford it at the moment.

i´ve found a PSU corsair CMPSU-650TX 650W 92€

uhhg X-fire is expensive isn´t it? maybe it´s easyer to get a cheap mobo with just 1 PCIex16 2.0 a PSU of just 500W and try to go for an HD4870 and forget X-firing?

And the xigmatek s1283 is changed to the s1283 dark knight

Thank you very much for your oppinion guys, they are very useful for me.

 

[xthekidx]

Yes if you want to leave the door open to xfire then it will be more expensive now and you may need to go cheaper on some other parts. I would look for either an ASUS or Gigabyte mobo if you can find it, they are usually the best brands, others are less reliable, I am not a fan of ASRock.

 

[xthekidx]

If you think you can live without xfire, then you can go with a cheaper P43 chipset (look for the ASUS P5QL PRO or the GIGABYTE GA-EP43-UD3L) and a Corsair 550vx, then get a better GPU like the GTX 260 or HD 4870, which would give you much better performance now and when those GPU's aren't doing it in like 12-18 months, you can buy another single card later to replace it that will be much better than two of those cards put together.

 

[techwizard08]

I can definitely look for it--just harder at the office since real work takes priority over my forum duties.

I agree with you on the concept though. In fact, I don't think I've ever had a drive (in my personal computers) that was anything but. Though I've definitely handled plenty a seagate in my time.

 

[stevensl2]

haha go for the most expensive heatsink you can get if your room is really that hot.. add the extra fans into the front of your case