AMD Build need Suggestions

slong

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APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: Within 6 months BUDGET RANGE: $1000-$1200

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming! and some movies/graphics

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: keyboard, mouse, speakers

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Newegg,tigerdirect,zipzoomfly(or w/e its called)

PARTS PREFERENCES: Amd phenom x4 955 with a easy oc and good appearance mobo, that can hold 16gb of ram
OVERCLOCKING: Yes SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Yes

MONITOR RESOLUTION: Any of these 1600x1200, 1680x1050, 1920x1080, 1920x1200)

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: Other Parts that would fit this build would be nice, ill prolly go with a ati 4890 gpu so idk what psu ill need to run it
 

fullmetall

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Good Good:

CPU: 955

RAM: DDR3 1600 ocz / mushkin / G.skills. CL: 7 or CL:8

HDD: WD Black 640gb / Seagate 7200.12 500gb

MOBO: might be able to get it in combo's. Gigabyte 790x/790gx or 785g evo AM3 Asus

Heatsink: s1283v / Scythe Mugen 2 / Sunbeam CR-CTTF( i think thats the name )

GPU: 4890 sapphire / xfx / vapor-x sapphire.

PSU: 650tx (For single / 750tx For cf )

Case: Big selection of good cases: RC-690 / Antec 900 / SM Storm Scout / CM Haf 922 / Antec 300 illusion.

Thermal compound : Arctic silver 3 / mx-2/ ceramique

Optical Drive: LG 22x/24x / Samsung 22x/24x


Monitor: Hanns-g / Asus 22" / 24"



Always check everything for Combo's to lower prices.


You can get the HDD with vista 64bit + windows 7 patch ina combo

 

slong

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alright, well it might be sooner, im gettting school money back so i might be able to start ordering as long as my job will pay enough while going to school ill find that out in about a month
 

slong

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AMD Phenom x4 955 BE [$190.99]
XFX HD-489A-ZDFC Radeon HD 4890 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 [$199.99]
MSI 790FX-GD70 AM3 AMD 790FX ATX AMD Motherboard [164.99]
Patriot 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Triple Channel Kit [ 119.99]
(OR)
Patriot Viper Tri Channel 6GB PC10666 DDR3 Memory - 1333MHz [$99.99]
Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb [74.99]
CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready [119.99]
LITE-ON Black cd/dvd burner [27.99]
NZXT Nemesis Elite Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case [89.99 after rebate]
GELID Solutions Slim Silence AM2 65mm Ball CPU Cooler [21.99]

Total= 1100.00 without monitor so about 1300 all together, this look good or should i spend the extra cash for a i7 build?
 
AMDThunder is somewhat correct. In a month or so a whole bunch of new cards will be hitting the market so if you're not buying until then, your choices could change rapidly. It really doesn't hurt to start looking now though.

I think full metals suggesstions are solid.

For crossfire board I would look at these
msi gd-70 fx: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130223

Asus m4a79T: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131363

Lower end 790gx:
Biostar micro http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138140

I lkie the Jetway for the option to run ddr2 and ddr3 mwemory:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813153151
 

slong

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which one of those asus evo am3 mobos is the best? i like that board alot just dont know the difference between them. also the msi gd-70 is the orginal mobo i posted above but either of these two boards look great! this pc is goin to be alot CHEAPER then i thought
 

slong

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well this build is for the future also, the new processor amd will be coming out with will run only ddr3 so ill need a mobo that supports it, the socket is not changing also so all ill have to do is purchase the new processor. ill be running 64 win7
 

slong

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ima get the gd-70 due to the fact that it runs tri channel ram and not dual, it be better in the long run for when i decide to do upgrades... but why is it bad to run tri on amd?
 
AMD CPU's have dual channel RAM controllers, not triple channel. The only chips that have triple channel RAM controllers are the Intel i7 chips. You would be running your RAM in single channel mode if you used one of those RAM kits designed for the i7 CPU. You're best off going with an even number of RAM sticks for anything but an i7.
 

slong

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i need to know what im lookin at cost wise and idea more or less... but alright thx for clearing up the ram issue :) ill get dual channel ddr3 its cheaper anyways lol
 
Ya a lot of sensible tips for mobo/RAMs :D Well have a read here:
http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3517&p=13
And after taking into consideration plummeting prices w.r.t the time review was written:
But the real stand out has to be the Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 X2 2GB. This unique card really shined and held it's own all the way up to 2560x1600. And sometimes, like in the case of the Sapphire 4850 X2 2GB, we see a single card that costs the same as two separate lower spec'd (in this case lower memory) parts and can therefore offer great scaling and incredible value.
It also eats up less power than a pair of HD4850 in CF configuration hehe
So my suggestion at a price point way lower than $1.2k with a Full HD 23" LCD in

BioGR.jpg
 


you are looking at $1000-1200

gfx card , cpu and other hardware will have changed in 6 months New models will be available , prices will have moved .

its too early to plan
 

kokin

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Stop saying it's too early to plan. D: Let the guy learn how to shop/look around. I started planning 3-4 months ago and I have yet to buy most of my parts, but I am finally doing so in the next 2-3 weeks. He even states he might be buying it even sooner than 6 months. It's best if he learns what to get now and just start changing parts around when he's ready to buy them.

My build:

Case: Antec 902 ($125)
CPU: AMD Phenom II x4 955 ($190)
Mobo: MSI 790FX-G70 ($165)
GPU: Sapphire HD 4890 Toxic ($250) [Bought @ alrightdeals.com]
RAM: Mushkin XP DDR3 1600mhz 7-7-7-20 timing ($100)
PSU: Antec TruePower New 750W Blue ($99) [Bought]
HDD: Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black ($95)
Optical: Whatever's available ($25-$30)
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver 5 + Nippon Labs HDMI combo (~$13)
Keyboard: Saitek Eclipse Blue Version ($30) [Bought]
Headset: Plantronics Gamecom 377 ($30) [Bought]

This totals to around $1100, $1150 with keyboard and headset.

Things I already had:

Monitor: Samsung 22" ToC HDTV (T22HD) 1680 x 1050 resolution, but is full 1080p when it's in TV mode.
Mouse: Logitech VX Revolution

My build is focused on a slightly bleeding edge range and a blue/black theme. Close to fullmetall's recommendation list. You don't have to go close to getting the top-end parts, it's really best to buy the 2nd or 3rd highest part if you want to be practical and still have a high-end computer.

Although it's more expensive than the reference 4890's the Toxic is MUCH more quiet and runs cooler. I would advice you to look into the Sapphire Vapor-X/Toxic models for the 4890 if you want less noise and lower temps without having to replace the stock HSF. Noise-wise: 60% fan speed for the Toxic = 30% fan speed for reference 4890s. It will probably be available to buy anytime by the time you get to buying it, but right now, it sells out fast. If you don't care about noise or lower temps, I would recommend any XFX 4890. That company takes care of you and I've experienced their top-rated customer service first hand. My Toxic went up over 100mhz for both core and memory [960mhz core/1050mhz memory ===> 1065mhz core/1175mhz memory]

Best thing I can tell you is to look around at the builds people are putting on the forum, look up those parts in Newegg, read the reviews in Newegg, read site reviews on the hardware, and see what appeals to you the most. Don't get trapped by the Intel/AMD/Nvidia/ATI fanboy wars, just go with what appeals to you. Good luck.

Edit: You should get a 23"-24" LCD monitor that has a native resolution of 1920x1080/1200. My 4890 doesn't get fully utilized when my monitor only goes up to 1680x1050. Also, you can keep the stock HSF of the AMD 955. The stock Heatsink/Fan does fine OCing up to 3.6-3.8mhz. People say it gets noisy though. I plan on keeping the stock one on for a while and buying an aftermarket one later on.
 

fullmetall

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ring up a build with the info you have been given, get a price, that will probably drop alot by the 6 month period and there will be newer parts out to buy, really useless to say you can plan ahead when technology moves to fast for planning.
 

kokin

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When I started planning 3-4 months ago, the only changes were the drop in prices. Yeah, new parts did get released, but it will only be 1, if very rarely 2 models higher for a specific part. The only major change for me was looking at 4870's to 4890's. The parts that move quickly are the CPU and the GPU, but even then it takes a good half a year to a year to see a major change in the performance of new parts. Most of the parts I planned to buy are still parts I'm buying in a few weeks. Now I can see you guys have a point and by six months, the OP will probably be looking into faster and cheaper RAM, the new DX11 cards, i5 from Intel or whatever AMD has in store, and MAYBE a new motherboard, but as of now, the current mobos are already good enough for future builds. In the end, he/she will be looking at 1-2 new upgrade(s) to maybe 3-4 parts, I still don't understand why researching it now would be useless if you look at the computer as a whole.

There's no hurt in learning the what's and how's in building a computer. The more he/she looks into it now, the better his/her understanding is when he/she comes to buy it. I would hate to see a person with little knowledge come to this forum a week before buying the system and just get build suggestions from people. Typically, that's what happens and if the person ever goes on to research their parts, they might not be satisfied with their build anymore.

@slong: If you plan to buy the top/high parts of a specific part, you'll be spending at least $1000 without the monitor. As you go downgrade in the parts, you'll find that prices decrease dramatically. Having a 4870, AMD 945, and a 770/780 chipset alone will lower your total by about $100-200. These are just 1 or 2 models lower than the models recommended in this thread and they have been out for close to a year or more.
 

fullmetall

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It will lower it alot more than that... $800 tops with the combo's. with the 770/780-785G.

AMD did make a new board for AM3 and it's the tri sli board. Not in store's yet but, it's been researched. $200.

If he wanted to know more about computers, then all he needed to do was ask. All he wanted was a price range in choice. We gave him seperate buids to look at. That's about all he asked for. Now, if I were to of seen, " how do I know what parts to look at" then it would of been a different story.

 

slong

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yea i just wanted to see what was out there and get some prices in my head, i know things will change but its better to have some sort of plan then go in blind ya know :) how is that msi board your using ? was it easy to oc and all that? i was looking at the msi gd-70 and another 720x or something like that but i cant decide on which msi to get ;(
 

fullmetall

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For a budget around that much, you can do better in board picking.

Motherboard Brand: Gigabyte / Asus / ASRock(depending on the type) ---AMD

This is for 770 and up, those are the main brands usually picked from.

For that amount, there is a new board coming out in gigabyte as of what I seen is the new am3 sli board, looked pretty descent but, was the price of an i7 board.

But, by the time your ready to buy, there will be i5 and pretty sure some better combo's and price drops.
 

slong

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yea gigabyte is good but i personally dont like the look of any of their boards... i like black base with either blue/red/green/orange contrast colors, reason i liked the msi boards looked alot cooler