New System Build

[new_builder_49]

PURCHASE DATE: End of January/early February.

BUDGET RANGE: around $1000 or cheaper.

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming mostly, dvd ripping, work.

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: monitor, mouse, keyboard.

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Newegg is usually the best, but whichever is cheapest.

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Cananda

PARTS PREFERENCES: whichever works

OVERCLOCKING: not sure. Still new at this.

SLI OR CROSSFIRE: SLI

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1920x1080

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: First time building my own pc. Would enjoy imput on extra ideas and compatabilities.


Case - RAIDMAX SMILODON ATX-612WBP Black 1.0mm SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Foldout MB Computer Case With 500W Power Supply - $89.99
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811156062

CPU - AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor- $174.99
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103674

Mobo - ASUS M4N82 Deluxe AM3/AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA nForce 980a SLI AMD Motherboard - $169.99
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131383

PSU - Rosewill Xtreme Series RX750-S-B 750W Continuous @40°C ,80 PLUS Certified, ATX12V v2.2 & EPS12V v2.91, SLI Ready CrossFire Ready, Active PFC "Compatible with Core i7, i5" Power Supply - $91.99
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182067

RAM - G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ- $88.99
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231122

HDD -Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3500418AS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - $79.99
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148395

Optical - LITE-ON Black 24X DVD+R 24X DVD-R SATA Black 24X DVD Writer LightScribe Support - $31.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827106335

Video Card - GIGABYTE GV-N26OC-896I GeForce GTX 260 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card - $195.99
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125291

Alright that's about it for now. I' still learning so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! I'm going to use windows 7 home as my OS. I would also like to know if I would need a CPU cooler.



Total is a little higher than $900.00 before shipping, and taxes.

 

[BohleyK]

Quite frankly, you need to make some changes and look at what you are doing. You have a Chassis bundled with a power supply unit and you have also selected another power supply on top of that. The Rosewill is not a wise choice as they almost always fail in a short period of time and sometimes taking out other components in your system. Quality power supply manufacturers are Antec, Corsair, Seasonic, and the more expensive OCZ's.

Choosing nVIDIA right now isn't a wise choice either. ATi has monopolized the market with greater performance while still being an equal or less than price over any nVIDIA counterpart. This means choosing an SLI board probably isn't the best choice either. If you really prefer nVIDIA I suggest you wait until their new line of cards have launched which should be in a few months.

 

[MadAdmiral]

@BohleyK: I've never seen OCZ units more expensive than any of those...

Agree with everything Bohley said. My suggestions:

Case: I've never been impressed with the RAIDMAX cases. I highly recommend the Antec 300, 300 Illusion, or 900. Or the HAF 922.

Mobo: Don't bother getting an AM3/AM2+ board. It forces you to use the worse/dying DDR2 memory. I highly recommend the Asus M4A79XTD EVO. It's probably a little pricier, but it's a very high quality, high value board.

RAM: You'll need DDR3 with that. I recommend getting at least 1333 mhz CAS Latency 7 (timings 7-7-7-x) sticks. Stick with G.Skill for the value.

HDD: Try to find a Samsung Spinpoint F3 500 GB. It should be about the same price, but better performance. If you can't find one, the Seagate's a good choice.

Optical: You can probably find a cheaper SATA DVD burner.

GPU: HD 5770. Enough said. You could wait for Fermi to come out in a few months, but the early indications show it runs very hot (they teamed with Thermaltake to make special cases for multiple card solutions). To me, that means they had to massive overclock the cards in the factory to even compete with the 5xxx series. It's really not worth it unless use lots of PhysX, which seems to be disappearing from newer games.

CPU Cooler: You only need a CPU cooler if you're going to overclock. If you decide to, the Coolermaster Hyper 212 is one of the best and fairly priced.

 

[new_builder_49]

Thanks for all the suggestions!

 

[BohleyK]

@BohleyK: I've never seen OCZ units more expensive than any of those...

Ah, you misunderstood. The more expensive OCZ's are quality, not more expensive than other brands. I suppose I wrote it wrong lol [:bohleyk]

 

[new_builder_49]

I'm wondering would this also be a suitable mobo:
ASUS M4A78T-E AM3 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131366

I looked up the other Mobo and I'm concerned that it may not boot AMD Phenom II...

 

[MadAdmiral]

The M4A79XTD EVO supports the Phenom II. I have it in my computer as I type. with an X4 955.