Asus 790GX AM3 combo for $254 worth it?

[adenosine]

I have decided to repair my squiggly blinking screen by upgrading my old MSI 939 board AMD 3000+ with something more up to date. I would like to get back to gaming a bit. I do lots of graphics and photography stuff. My plan was to just upgrade the board, processor and RAM for now. When funds are available I would upgrade the graphics utilizing the crossfire. Until then I would use the on board graphics.

Now from what I gather, since I have been out of the building loop for some ages now, this should soot me fine:

- ASUS M4A78T-E AMD 790GX AM3 Phenom II/Athlon X4/Athlon X3/Athlon X2 Socket AM3 5200 MT/s PC3-10600 (DDR3-1333) ATX Motherboard
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10010097

- AMD HDZ955FBGMBOX Phenom II X4 3.20 GHz AM3 4 x 512KB Desktop Processor
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10011708


I have read quite a few threads here and looked around but it must be my age or time or my kids yelling in my ear. I just can't seem to retain the information like I used to. I'm a bit lost on the RAM choices that would best work with this board. Also am I completely broken in the head with choosing this motherboard and processor? Are there better choices?

Thanks for any help you can give.

 

[squirrel15]

Thats a very good board and good cpu. It really depends on how much your budget is for the entire build, what you are doing with the computer such as gaming or something. But that is a good combo but it is out of stock.

 

[False_Dmitry_II]

Also, check out newegg. I used to use zipzoomfly mainly but then their site design and prices had a turn for the worse, and newegg is constantly cheaper and easier to find what I'm looking for. I've actually stopped comparison shopping and just go straight to newegg.

But yeah, those are good choices for board and CPU. I wouldn't say that there are better choices, but I would say that there are cheaper ones. Like going with a 785g chipset motherboard or an athlon II x3 CPU. You may want to get a motherboard with USB3 and SATAIII though. Gigabyte seems to have the most different kinds of this.

You really just need DDR3, I'm not sure what you mean by what would work best because it's not like you need to choose any specific stuff. I'd recommend the DDR3-1333 speed, if you aren't comfortable with setting timings and voltages in the motherboard get one that is using the default 1.5v amount. Otherwise get a CAS7 set that you'll likely have to set manually.

 

[adenosine]

First, thank you for helping.

[Budget] Board, CPU, Ram I was hoping not to go over 300-350.

[Motherboard] I was looking for AM3 for longevity and onboard graphics because my PCIe 16 card is older and would probably be out done by the newer onboard anyway until I can afford to upgrade with crossfire.

[RAM] I was never comfortable messing with voltage so I would like to just find what would be the most stable.

Drives, PCU and case I should be all set.

[Uses] Photoshop, Gaming, Web design.

 

[False_Dmitry_II]

So like I said, find a set of DDR3-1333 that says it uses 1.5v and it should be fine.

I'd go with a gigabyte board with USB3/SATA3 either 790GX or 785G chipsets. And a Athlon II x3 or x4. If an X4 get one with 2.8 gigahertz or higher per core, and you should be set. These changes should save you some money.

And it depends on the graphics card if it's still faster or not, so what is it.