First Time Builer

[Lephtee9]

I am looking for some feedback on an initial build I put together. I'm looking for a light to moderate gaming / high end home entertainment (audio/video) pc. Basically, the most important issue for me is compatibility of components. Any feedback is appreciated. I'm also very interested in any suggestions regarding comparable parts / necessary parts that I have missed. Here it goes:

-Antec Sonata III 500 Quiet Super Mid Tower ATX Case
-AMD Phenom II X6 1090T 3.20 GHz Processor HDT90ZFBGRBOX
-Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit System Builder 1pk
-ASUS Crosshair IV Formula AM3 AMD 890FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
-EVGA 01G-P3-1372-TR GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) Superclocked 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
-XFX HD-567X-YNF3 Radeon HD 5670 512MB 128-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card with Eyefinity
-G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-8GBRL
-LG WH10LS30 10X Blu-ray Burner - LightScribe Support - Bulk - OEM
-Microsoft Wireless Desktop 3000 Keyboard and Mouse Combo

Thanks in advance.

 

[MadAdmiral]

Ditch the X6 CPU. You don't need it. Instead, grab something like the X4 955, or even an i5-2500K.

Drop the Crosshair board. It's overly expensive. Instead, go with something like the ASRock 870 Extreme3 ($90, AMD) or the ASRock P67 Extreme4 (with the i5-2500K)

Why do you have two GPUs? The GTX 460 alone would be better. If you stick with AMD, you should probably switch that for the HD 6850 so you can do Crossfire.

You can probably drop to 4 GB of RAM. Also, 1333 mhz CL 9 is pretty slow. I'd recommend getting 1600 mhz/CL 9 or 1333 mhz/CL 7 instead. It won't be much more than 1333 mhz/CL 9 either way. You don't need more unless you're doing a lot of rendering or encoding or the like. I like the Corsair XMS3 2x2 GB 1600 mhz CAS Latency 9 sticks for $40 after rebate.

I'm not a huge fan of the Sonata cases. I'd probably go with something more like the Antec 300 or Rosewill Destroyer. Also, 500W isn't that much, especially for two GPUs. I'd want to stick a 650W in there. The XFX 650W is a great PSU and fairly cheap at $67 after shipping and rebate.

Finally, I don't particularly think a BR burner is necessary. I'd suggest either dropping BR entirely (for now) or getting a BR reader/DVD burner combo drive instead.

 

[Lephtee9]

Thanks for the quick reply.

The only XFX 650W PSU I found listed for $95 on newegg, and your link didn't work for me. What site did you find that on?

I swiched up the RAM to the 1660mhz class 9 (4GB for now). Does the brand of RAM matter in terms of compatibility?

I saw that I had the two GPU's and switched over to the HD6850, which was cheaper than the GTX 460. I read that there were installation space issues for this GPU with the ASROCK board. Is that something i should worry about?

I'm assuming I still need a sound card. Any suggestions?

 

[Lephtee9]

One more question:

Would i need multiple sound cards if I wanted to run a multi zone surround sound system through my pc?

 

[MadAdmiral]

The link didn't work? It works for me...

The 650W is $65 on Newegg. It's just $65 after rebate, which XFX is decent about handling.

As long as the RAM isn't made by OCZ, brand doesn't matter too much. I generally stick with the proven companies (G.Skill and Corsair), especially since there is little price difference.

Space issues would be more likely with the GPU and a case, not the board. Even then, the 6850 isn't that large, so it's typically not an issue.

As for a sound card, you don't generally need one. Onboard audio supports 7.1 systems, and is fairly high quality. Unless you're a huge audiophile, you won't be able to tell a difference between onboard and a discrete sound card. It's typically not worth the $100 you'd need to spend for a good one. Even if you think you might notice a difference, I'd at least try out the onboard sound first. After all, it's free, and a sound card is an easy upgrade.

Outside of the small differences in sound quality, there is practically no benefit to having a discrete card. Some claims have been made about lightening the load on the CPU during gaming, but even then, the actual performance results displayed were insignificant. Even if the gains were significant, the i5-2500K is so powerful it won't make a difference.

 

[boiler1990]

I'd just like to add that sound cards can amplify the sound better than the onboard chips. I use cheap headphones (Sennheiser HD201s) and noticed an immediate different with an old Creative card I bought off Craigslist. The key thing there was that it amplified the bass signal (there's almost no bass with the 201s).