[New System Build] $650 gaming build

smoooved

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Hi everyone.

Please offer feedback for this build.

This build is intended for budget gaming, movies, net. The PSU is uprated for possible CPU OC and crossfire in the near future.
I am intending to pull the trigger and order parts within the week.

CPU
AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103649&Tpk=X3%20720
$145.00

MOBO
ASRock A790GXH/128M AM2+
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157156
$94.99

GPU
SAPPHIRE 100277L Radeon HD 4770 512MB 128-bit GDDR5
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102835
99.99

HDD
Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136319
74.99

DVD
HP Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827140031
$26.99

PSU
OCZ StealthXStream OCZ700SXS 700W ATX12V
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341019
$89.99

CASE
NZXT TEMPEST Crafted Series CS-NT-TEM-B Black Steel
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146047
$99.99

MONITOR
ASUS VH226H Black 21.5" 2ms(GTG) HDMI Widescreen 16:9
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236051
$189


Thanks for help.

-DK
 
Ya i'd go with a Biostar TA790GX 128 : been building lots of budget gaming CF capable rigs and the feedback is great ^^ Perosnally i prefer a 790GX to a 790X as that HD3300 IGP may be a valuable fall back/safety net in case discrete goes AWOL hehe It could mean the difference between a still functioning rig and wasting time awaiting replacement
 

smoooved

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Thanks for the feedback.

I checked out the boards you suggested and have a couple of questions.

The BIOSTAR board has "PCI Express 2.0 x16 1 PCI Express x1 2 x PCI Express 2.0 x1."
To be able to crossfire, shouldn't you have (2) PCI-E 2.0?

The GIGABYTE board has (2) PCI-E x8. Is that enough bandwidth to crossfire?

Yep. I'm a noob.


Again, thanks!
 

kevin1212

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I would go with the gigabyte 790x, and yes, 2 in x8 mode will get the job done.

The stealthxstream psu is decent, but not that well suited for gaming pc's, you could try the modxstream or gamexstream series instead.

At your intended resolution, it would be great if you could get 2 of those 4770's for crossfire, that depends on your budget though.
 
oops, i put the wrong link into my first post on which Biostar. Batuchka had the right one. I've always had good luck with Biostar motherboards, but would still go with the the Gigabyte 790X, but then i have several unused PCIex16 cards laying around.
 

smoooved

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Thanks for the quick and helpful replies.


For 1920x1080, is it better to get (2) 4770s or (1) 4870?
 

JTP709

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Two 4770s, according to this review two 4770s are faster than a 4890 (faster than a 4870) at the higher resolutions.

Quick questions like these can be solved using the magical and majestic Google Machine. Most web browsers have a Google search bar in them. All I had to do was Google "4770 Crossfire" and I had the answer.
 

Cpt Deadboots

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You need to take into account future upgrades - if you want to further upgrade your machine later on, 1 4870 would be a better card to buy even if 2 4770s outperform it now (you can get another 4870 eventually).

I'd also get a different PSU; something by Corsair, SeaSonic, or Silverstone.
 

kevin1212

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I would still rather get the 2 4770's, its their efficiency that does it for me. And they scale so well that 2 4870's wouldn't be that big a jump, especially when you look at the price and power consumption difference. I don't think you would need more power than 2 4770's anyways.
 

ke7diz

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some thing to consider is that the am2+ socket is dead and so will not get any new cpu and in the futer ddr2 prices will skyrocket (just look at ddr) so the price of a upgrade from this platform will be more than if you went ddr3 and am3 now even thogh it will be more expensive now
 
I disagree: AM3 chips have there IMC able to read DDR2 and DDR3 and the only way AM2+ socket dies is if AM3 chips cannot talk to DDR2 so its way too early to pronounce AM2+ dead. In fact most of clients are on gaming rigs with P2X3 720BE/P2X4 940BE on DDR2 Cirrent AM3 chipsets are still on the same southbridge as their AM2+ cousins so apart from DDR3 DIMM slots there is no innovation whatsoever not to mention the gains :p Have peeps on $59 AM2+ chugging away with their IGP and a P2X3 710 but u dun see many options currently with AM3 chipsets apart from 790X/GX/FX i'm afraid
 

JTP709

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I agree that AM2+ is not dead, yet. I personally am going AM3 to take advantage of future upgradability options. DDR2 will eventually become more expensive as less becomes available and demand rises because people upgrade their older computers with more memory; DDR3 will be come cheaper as supply rises because it will be the new standard.

Also, assuming the next gen AMD socket is backwards compatible just like now (AM3 working in AM2+) then I'll have the option of upgrading to the next gen CPU without having to replace my mobo. Otherwise, if I go AM2+ and DDR2 now and want to upgrade my CPU in the future, more than likely I will have to replace the mobo, memory, and CPU. Or, once again assuming the next gen CPU will be backwards compatible, I'll only have to upgrade my CPU and maybe add some more DDR3 memory (which at that point will be cheaper than DDR2). Its only about $10 difference between a Gigabyte AM2+ mobo and a Gigabyte AM3 mobo, and about $25 between DDR2 1066 d DDR3 1600 memory (comparing sale prices). For me, that extra $35 i spend now will save me lots of cash in the future considering I will already have DDR3 memory and won't have to spend $50 on new memory, and (hopefully) save me ~$130 by not having to buy a new mobo.