Need Confirmation That This Build Works Alright

[silentmemories]

I'm going to be building the ultra budget rig below. I just need confirmations to see if this build works together fine and if it would have any compatibility problem or something like that.

CPU: AMD Athlon II X4 630 2.8GHz
RAM: Kingston DDR3 2GB
Graphics Card: Sapphire HD5770 1GB
Motherboard: ASUS M4A87TD
Power Supply: CORSAIR CMPSU-550VXCN 550W

Case: NZXT M59
Hard Drive: WD Caviar Black 500GB

Also, would it be necessary to buy any extra fans for this or do they come with the case?

 

[Proximon]

The case comes with one side fan and one rear fan, both 120mm. They should be adequate.

Without any more information, those parts work together.

 

[guanyu210379]

Looks good to me.

 

[silentmemories]

I might be planning to Crossfire in the future. Would the Biostar TA890FXE AMD 890FX motherboard be a working motherboard for this cause?

 

[iRaiden]

I might be planning to Crossfire in the future. Would the Biostar TA890FXE AMD 890FX motherboard be a working motherboard for this cause?

Absolutely. You could QuadFire with that board with all the cards at full speed.

 

[guanyu210379]

Choosing motherboards can not be done just by seeing the specs and features.
It is true that the mobo from Biostar looks good, but the problem is, Biostar is known for it's cheap price with cheap quality.
I have bought several Biostars and they are all became problems less than 2 years, some even under 1 year. So, I have decided not to get another one from Biostar ever.
You have to pay attention also to the reputation of the brand.

I always use only these brands :
Gigabyte, ASUS, and MSI

 

[silentmemories]

Choosing motherboards can not be done just by seeing the specs and features.
It is true that the mobo from Biostar looks good, but the problem is, Biostar is known for it's cheap price with cheap quality.
I have bought several Biostars and they are all became problems less than 2 years, some even under 1 year. So, I have decided not to get another one from Biostar ever.
You have to pay attention also to the reputation of the brand.

I always use only these brands :
Gigabyte, ASUS, and MSI

What motherboard would be good for my build that can also CrossFire? I am a beginner to this so I have no idea when choosing motherboards.

 

[guanyu210379]

I am not clear about how much you would spend on the mobo, but I will keep it under USD200.
I like GIGABYTE GA-890FXA-UD5

 

[silentmemories]

There's only the GIGABYTE GA-890XA-UD3 Socket AM3 AMD 790X ATX here, is there any difference between that and the one I have found? (Difference is that it is XA-UD3 instead of FXA-UD5.)

 

[guanyu210379]

The differences are in the XFire mode.
GA-890XA-UD3 : Single XFire only, it runs only x8+x8
GA-890FXA-UD5 : Multiple-XFire-able, and it runs on x16+x16 for single XFire
I would pick GA-890FXA-UD5 for for it's optimum XFire

 

[silentmemories]

Would the GIGABYTE GA-890XA-UD3 Socket AM3 AMD 790X ATX work though? I can't find the FXA-UD5 here.

What is the difference between Single and Multiple Crossfire?

 

[guanyu210379]

Single XFire means you can only use 2 graphic cards, while multiple means more than 1 XFire (up to 4 cards on GA-890FXA-UD5).

As you can find on the spec sheet, beside only single XFire is possible, GIGABYTE GA-890XA-UD3 runs only on x8 Xfire, hich is not optimal, unlike GA-890FXA-UD5 which runs on x16 on single XFire.

Info :
GA-890FXA-UD5 :
non Xfire x16 (1 Card)
single way XFire x16 (2 Cards)
2 way XFire x8 (3 Cards)
3 way XFire x4 (4 Cards)

BTW : where do you live? if you are in USA or Canada, you can get GA-890FXA-UD5 on newegg. If you are living in germany, just get it from kmelektronik.de or alternate.de.

 

[silentmemories]

Ahh... I understand. I think I will only be using 2 graphics card at the maximum. In that case, would it be better to use the XA-UD3.

How would I know if a card is XFire compatible? Is the Sapphire 5770 1GB okay for it?

 

[guanyu210379]

UD3 will work but it is just not optimal due to the x8 for XFire, but it will do, since you can not find the UD5.

HD5770 will do, but if you can still afford HD5850, I would say get the HD5850. 2 HD5770s is a lot weaker than 2 HD5850s, if you are planning on XFiring, in fact 2 HD5770s is about equal to a single HD5850.
But, your budget will have to determine this choice.

Now, pay attention : (important)
you are planning to XFire your system. The 550W is "no longer sufficient". Get 750W for 2 HD5770s or 2 HD5850s.

 

[silentmemories]

Is the power usage really this big? Budget's quite tight right now so I don't think I can spend any more, and I have gone $200 above the budget.

Is it possible to switch the PSU later on if I want to XFire?

 

[guanyu210379]

you can always change the PSU anytime you want, but what will you do with the old one if you replace it with a new one?
Isn't that a waste?

 

[silentmemories]

Yes, but I don't think I can get a 750W now. It's really quite expensive right now.

Is SLI really worth all the money being put to getting a better motherboard and a higher watt PSU?

 

[guanyu210379]

Hmmm...you want my honest opinion?
No! You pay for 2 cards and pay double for the electricity bill of your cards but you don't get double performance.
I built XFire or SLI for other people but not for me.

But the thing is, if you are playing hardcore games such as crysis, etc. on high resolution (high res is needed on big monitors, low res on big monitor is a torture for my eyes), you are going to need the XFire/SLI thing to get decent frame rate.

 

[silentmemories]

If I want to play games like Assassin's Creed 2 on medium high, is it unnecessary to go SLIing right now?

My standard for graphics in games is quite low as I have been playing games mainly on my laptop for the past few years.

So the best option would be to get the 750W later and possibly reuse the older PSU for something else then if I want to save money.

For installing hard drives into the case, do I need to buy any enclosures or wrap anything around the hard drive before putting it into the HD bay in the case?

 

[guanyu210379]

1. Xfire, you can make them anytime you want if the mobo and PSU support it. No need to do it right away, just prepare the infrastructure. AC2 is not heavy, no need for Xfire. If you meet problems with games, just reduce the resolution.
BTW : ATI GPUs are XFire GPUs...not possible for SLI.

2. No problems for installing HDDS, no need to buy anything extra. Just a screw driver.

 

[silentmemories]

Yes-I understand that XFire is the term for ATI GPUs, while SLI is for nVidia's.

What about the fans? Is it necessary to buy extra fans for the build or is it fine with the ones that come with the case, as well as the heatsink on the CPU and fans on the GPU?

 

[guanyu210379]

Extra fans? Case fans you mean? Get them later, build your rig first and then judge. I have never used that case (the one you picked). So, I can say for sure.

Proc fans? Only for OC.

GPU fans? It is already attached.

 

[silentmemories]

Alright. Is it good to use a SSD for a boot drive and have your other programs in another? Some people suggested it but I'm afraid C:\ might fill up too quickly if all my programs are installed there.

 

[guanyu210379]

Well...you will gain 100% advantage if you install all programs on the SSD, and in order to maintain SSDs live (reducing writing activities) and also because of the relatively small capacity of SSDs, you will have to put your data on a bigger capacity mechanical HDD.
SSD will improve your system significantly but if you are short of money to get an SSD which has enough capacity for you, you can always add it anytime later on, so...no hurry..
You will need ideally about 60-120GB space for the OS and programs.

 

[silentmemories]

If I don't plan to use XFire because of budget issues, can I just use ASUS M4A87TD?