Not Exactly Killer, but Good for my use!

[bigfysh3]

Going to be rebuilding this rig over the next few days. Right now, all the parts are crammed into a case that is too small, will be transplanting it to the CoolerMaster Centurion 590.

Case: CoolerMaster Centurion 590
PSU: ThermalTake PurePower 500W Rev. 2.0
MB: ECS K8M890M-M Rev. 1.0
RAM: 4GB Corsair PC2-6400 DDR2-800
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 x 2 5400 65w 2.8GHz
Video: Sapphire Radeon HP 4830 512MB Crossfire Ready
HD: Hitachi 250GB PATA Hard Drive
DVDRW: 20x Lite-ON DL DVDRW (2 Ea.)
EXTRA: Koutech USB 3.5" Card Reader

I may be looking to upgrade in the near future, (proposed budget of $350.00), would like some suggestions.

Once I have this initial build complete, I will post pix.

Cheers.

 

[wildgene789]

thats certainly nothing to be embarrassed about but i would suggest a Asus mobo! i dont know but i never likes ECS

 

[Kill@dor]

Is this for gaming or media?

 

[bigfysh3]

I occasionally game with it, mostly it is a media station.

Forgot to add that in the configuration, I also have a Samsung 24" LCD (224BW I believe).

 

[aford10]

If it's stable at the moment and works for you, ride it till it dies.

Personally, I'd dump the Hitachi drive and ECS board. They are both pretty low quality.

 

[wildgene789]

oh wow i totally skipped over hitachi haha i would go with WD drives! and make sure u have good cache on it

 

[bigfysh3]

The hard drive is deffinately on the list for replacement first. The current setup allows me to play WoW with an awesome frame rate (46 to 60 fps). This is the 7th or 8th system that I have build ith an ECS Motherboard. I have never had any issues with them. I know that they are a lower class of board, but hey, they work for me.

The motherboard is up for replacement as in the near future as well, but I may ride with it till it gives up the ghost.

 

[Kill@dor]

I would recommend better RAM, but it doesn't sound like you will be gaming much LOL! However, i would OC the CPU to 3.2Ghz. You won't need any voltage increases or anything...

 

[bigfysh3]

Would I see that much of an increase in performance by OC'ing the CPU? I have never BenchMarked the system, all I know is that Vista gives at a 5.7 or so. What do you suggest for Benchmarking my system.

 

[aford10]

I doubt that mobo has a whole lot of OC options. I had an ECS board a few years back and the BIOS was pretty limited.

 

[bigfysh3]

There is something in the BIOS for OC'ing, but I never had the guts to go in and futz with it.

 

[Fortunex]

+1 on dumping the ECS board. They are about the lowest quality boards you can get.

OCing nowadays is nowhere near the headache it used to be. If you're even remotely competent with PCs, you can successfully overclock, even if just a little. Just read some guides, you may need an aftermarket cooler depending on your processor.