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$450 general purpose pc

Forum Homebuilt Systems : New System Build - $450 general purpose pc

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I have created a wish list on newegg and have listed what I have selected below. I would love some input on what the experts here think about the system I plan on building.

I'm open to all suggestions. But please give an explanation with your suggestion. Don't just name a part and then not back up why. Or if you think I'm not selecting a good part, state why and name an alternative.

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: (within a week)

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: (I'm a web developer so I'll be doing a lot of work in dreamweaver, photoshop, illistrator, and the whole Adobe creative suite. I don't do much gaming, but would like to be able to when I feel like it. I know that my budget doesn't allow a blazing fast gaming system and I'm ok with that. I just want to be able to run the most current games on decent settings if I want to. Will be running Windows 7 RC1 for now. Als I will be reusing a 420W power supply unless I need to upgrade.)

PARTS I HAVE SELECTED:
mobo - GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P AM3 AMD 770 ATX
cpu - AMD Phenom II X3 710
hd - Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB
ram - G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066
graphics - EVGA 512-P3-N973-TR GeForce 9800 GT 512MB

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: (newegg.com)

PARTS PREFERENCES: by brand or type (I would like to use an AMD CPU and am open to the brand on all other parts)

OVERCLOCKING: Maybe

SLI OR CROSSFIRE: NO

MONITOR RESOLUTION: (examples: 1024x768 or 1280x1024 I use both on a 19" Samsung)

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Looks fine, however that mother board requires DDR3 ram, you have DDR2 Ram.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820146740
Try that. It's a little more expensive, but it's only 20$ overbudget.

Here, instead of the 9800, get a 4850. It's more powerful, and generally just as cheap.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Comb [...] mbo.212569

Here's a nice combo deal where you save 20$, and the card comes with a 10$ MIR.
You save 25$ compared to the 9800, enough for you to get the RAM. Good luck.

Reply to radiowars

The stats for the PSU are needed to know for sure. Please list what the +12v amps are.

Also, is the case being recycled?

If you count mail in rebates, here's what I would to even though it goes over by $10.

AMD 945 X4 combo with 4 gigs OCZ DDR3-1600 cas 7 ram $246
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Comb [...] mbo.206892

Gigabyte AM3 770 mobo combo with gigabyte 4670 1gb ddr3 $140 - $10 mir
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Comb [...] mbo.212577

Your hard drive of choice $75
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822136319

Here's the thinking on these. If you're PSU isn't the strongest in 12v amps, the 4670 can pull all the power it needs through the motherboard. So no extra cables or adapter cables to use. At 1280x1024, this GPU does well enough to play everything. Might not get all the eye candy, but it will do very well. And it lets you step up to a much faster quad core than the slower tri core. And the combo it offers means you're paying $20 for the ram, and its good stuff too at cas 7.

If you do want a more powerful GPU, heres the X3 720 with the ram combo for $185. The extra $60 can be applied to a GPU combo with the 770. The 4850 is $170 I think and a 1gb card is $10 more. But we'll have to see which PSU you have.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Comb [...] mbo.206904

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Reply to skora

The 710 is great value right now

This RAM
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 for $67
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820231200

is much better than the mushkin mentioned earlier . It has much tighter timings and will probably out perform most of the 1600MHz kits , for a much lower price .

Whether you stick with the 9800 or go with a 4850 probably depends on which games you play . Some are noticeably better on nvidia hardware , some better on ati

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to Outlander_04

This would be my suggestion

Reply to batuchka

Outlander_04 wrote :

That's a great kit Outlander. And there's plenty of articles to prove there isn't noticable performance gain going from 1333 to 1600 ram speeds. What minor increase will be offset by the timings I'm guessing.

However, it was pointed out by hunter315 that the 955x4 actually comes in cheaper than the 945x4 right now. So with the same ram as I spec'd out and the 955, it's $5 cheaper.

amd 955x4 + 4 gigs OCZ ram $241
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Comb [...] mbo.207089

But that desicion will have to come after you decide on a vid card.

Message edited by skora on 07-16-2009 at 05:25:22 PM

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Reply to skora

Just because I have a budget of around $450 doesn't mean I should/need to spend it all.

I think I might go with the Gigabyte AM3 770 mobo combo with gigabyte 4670 1gb ddr3 that was suggested and save some money on the graphics card.

Like I said in my original post, I mostly am doing web developement stuff with about 3-4 Adobe products open at the same time (dreamweaver, flash, photoshop, fireworks etc...) and only game once in a while (maybe for 2-3 hours a week).

That being said, which proc should I go with now that I have saved a few bucks on the graphics card? Will the 710 do everything I need? Should I spend $20 more and get the 720? Should I ditch the X3 all together and go for the 920? The 940 and 955 are a bit more than I wanted to spend.

I know that more cores are better for applications that are written to utilze the multi-core technology, I'm just not sure how much of an increase I will see going from 3 to 4 cores. Not to mention I have little to no intentions of overclocking.

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to bigmike7801

bigmike7801 wrote :

Just because I have a budget of around $450 doesn't mean I should/need to spend it all.

I think I might go with the Gigabyte AM3 770 mobo combo with gigabyte 4670 1gb ddr3 that was suggested and save some money on the graphics card.

Like I said in my original post, I mostly am doing web developement stuff with about 3-4 Adobe products open at the same time (dreamweaver, flash, photoshop, fireworks etc...) and only game once in a while (maybe for 2-3 hours a week).

That being said, which proc should I go with now that I have saved a few bucks on the graphics card? Will the 710 do everything I need? Should I spend $20 more and get the 720? Should I ditch the X3 all together and go for the 920? The 940 and 955 are a bit more than I wanted to spend.

I know that more cores are better for applications that are written to utilze the multi-core technology, I'm just not sure how much of an increase I will see going from 3 to 4 cores. Not to mention I have little to no intentions of overclocking.

I'd spend the extra on the 720 , but the 710 is strong enough to meet your needs .
There may be combo's with the 720 that offset some or all of that extra outlay .
Just watch the am2/ am3 thing

I believe you are better off with an am3 mb and ddr 3 ram
[ even though the 710/720 will run just fine in am2 mb's with ddr2 ram ]

good combo with the mb and gfx

Message edited by Outlander_04 on 07-16-2009 at 10:28:03 PM

Reply to Outlander_04

So I ordered my parts today and decided to go with the 720 over the 710. I just didn't want to regret not spending the extra couple bucks if I decided to overclock plus I got a good combo deal that had me spend $5 more for a 4GB OCZ thumb drive pls it came with a free 6 months subscription to CPU mag.

I went with the DDR3 version of the [url=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231189] G.SKILL memory[url]

and the mobo/gfx card combo stated above.

Hopefully I'll get the parts soon and I'll let you all know how it goes!

Reply to bigmike7801

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$450 general purpose pc

Forum Homebuilt Systems : New System Build - $450 general purpose pc