New Member - Seeking Advice

[Linesix]

Hey Guys,

Long time reader, first time poster here. How is everyone tonight?

I am looking to build a new PC and i am trying to stick to a budget but get the best performance i can get for the price, AND get something that is easily upgraded to stay current as long as possible.

The PC will be used for Gaming (Diablo 3) and Multimedia, nothing crazy but i love my games and love some nice graphics.

Processor : AMD Phenom II x4 955 ( I was wondering roughly what this can be OC to with stock cooling ? i was thinking 3.6Ghz - 3.8Ghz)
Mainboard : Gigabyte GA-790FXTA-UD5 ( This was chosen for the USB3, SATA3, and Dual PCIe x16 slots)
RAM : 4gb DDR3 OCZ Obsidian Series 1600Mhz Ram (Will this run @ 1600? or drop to 1333?)
Graphics : XFX ATI 5850 1gb (Last minute change from the 5770)
HDD : Western Digital 500gb Caviar Black 32mb Cache + 1TB WD HDD
PSU : Antec Six Hundred
Case: Antec 650w
Monitor: LG 21.5" Full HD LCD, 2ms, 50,000:1 Contrast, etc etc. (This was really CHEAP)

Total price is $1550 $AUD, which from looking around is a fairly competitive in my local market.

Ok so thats the parts im looking at. My future plans for the PC are.

1. New cooling system and OC the Processor more, probably chasing 4.2Ghz or higher. Then one day replace with a newer AM3 processor.
2. Upgrade to 8GB ram, then Eventually one day 16Gb Ram
3. SATA3 Solid States or Ultra fast HDD's
4. Second 5850 running in Crossfire and both cards O/C, and with this M/B both cards should work at 16x
5. Probably will need a bigger PSU

With those upgrades it should see the PC lasting me a couple of years at least.

I know that i wont get high end performance from these mid range parts, but i'm hoping im on track for what im after, something with middle of the range performance for a good price.

Any advice / feedback would be greatly appreciated from you experts out there.

Thanks in advance guys

 

[MadAdmiral]

HDD: WD is getting killed right now. Switch to a Samsung Spinpoint F3 (500 GB or 1 TB). It's all around better, and should be cheaper. If you can't find it, get a Seagate 7200.12 for the same reasons.

RAM: Get at least CAS Latency 7 sticks. I believe the Obsidians are CL 9 (timings 9-9-9-x). There isn't much difference between 1600 mhz and 1333 mhz, so if you can get CL 7 with 1333 mhz, do that.

GPU: That was a good switch.

Case: I would consider uping that to either the HAF 922 or Antec 900, just to be safe. These will give you some better cooling, and are larger.

PSU: I would go ahead and get a 750W PSU. That would be big enough to support Crossfire, and it will probably only cost you a little now instead of a lot later.

On your upgrade plans:

1. I like to recommend the Coolermaster Hyper 212. It's really good, and fairly cheap.

2. I wouldn't do this anytime soon. 4 GB is good enough for gaming, and should be enough for a long time.

3. I've heard that SSDs are the #1 improvement you can make that you will notice every time you use the computer. I, however, wouldn't buy one until the 80 GB ones are under $100.

4. Another upgrade that will take a long time. Like 2-3 years. This is only needed if your monitor is 1900x resolution. If it's lower, you won't notice a difference.

5. Do that now. It's only a marginal cost to increase the size of the PSU before you buy it, but it's a large cost to do it later.

 

[Linesix]

http://www.scorptec.com.au/computer/32186-ea-750

Would that be okay for the PSU?



http://www.scorptec.com.au/computer/35100-ocz3p1600lv4gk - 1600MHZ might be too expensive

http://www.scorptec.com.au/computer/35101-ocz3p1333lv4gk - 1333Mhz

Is this the RAM your talking about? Could you explain the differences in CL? I didnt know it made a real difference.



http://www.scorptec.com.au/computer/35078-hd502hj

Wouldnt the WD be faster than the Samsung because it has a 32MB cache?


I do love the Antec 900 Case but im worried about going over my budget. $1700 was my Max and like i said i was at $1550 with the parts i chose.

Thanks again, sorry about having so many questions... Big learning curve working out all this stuff. I just want to get it right now..

Also what would be the max i could O/C the processor on the stock cooling? and is it worth it?

 

[Linesix]

Also i just had a look at that cooler master case and i think i am going to get that one, it looks amazing!

 

[MadAdmiral]

That's a good PSU. I generally stick to Antec Earthwatts, Corsair, and OCZ.

I can't really describe the importance of CL off the top of my head. Here's a review that examines the differences in RAM.

You would think so, but it's not the case. The reason for the speed is that the F3 uses 500 GB platters, which is rarely ever shown in the specs. The platter is the physical disk the data is stored on. A larger platter means higher data density, which means it's faster to access and write. Each platter requires 2 heads to access/write the data, so the larger platter also means fewer heads. Fewer head means less noise from them moving around and less heat. Currently, the only HDDs with 500 GB platters are the F3s, Seagate 7200.12 500 GB and 1 TB and WD Caviar Black 2 TB.

You certainly should have the extra budget for the bigger case. The reason I suggested that is it looks like you want to overclock and add another card. That's a lot of heat in a smaller case with few fans. Another option is the Antec 300 Illusion. It's a little cheaper than the 600, but has 4 fans. It doesn't have a side window, if that's an issue.

I don't really know about how high you should OC on stock. I would pick up a cheaper heatsink/fan if you're doing any overclocking. My recommendation is the Coolermaster Hyper 212. It's one of the best out, and it's only $30 here in the US.

 

[Linesix]

Ok,

Well the parts have been ordered, changes i made are below.

I got the faster timing RAM from OCZ.

I couldn't get a hold of the Samsung HDD for now, so i went with the WD, even though the Samsung was cheaper, i was just impatient.

I went with the Saphire 5850 card

I decided on the CM HAF-922 Case

I got the 750w PSU



Im going to be getting a new cooling system for the CPU, just something so i can O/C to around 3.8ish and im going to O/C the GPU to 1Ghz and 1.1Ghz which seems to be a stable setup at the moment.

Thanks again for your help.

I'll post up some benchmark results when i get the parts in " Probably about a week "