*Guide to Choosing Parts* - Page 4

Fixed some broken BBCode.

You could add a quick section on HDDs briefly explaining cache and platters. Seems like it's hard for people to believe that a 640GB drive is a better deal than their generic 1 tb drive.

Given your preference for the value in the AMD CPU's (for gaming) and going the socket AM3 route, what are your feelings about the new AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition Callisto 3.1GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 80W Dual-Core Processor ($100) ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819103680 )
as opposed to a 720 ($140) or 940 ($180)? And which motherboard and videocard (not going to be going Crossfire in the future) would you pair with the CPU? Thanks!

I added a title in the message text to make it more Google friendly.

Lol nvidia is not going to quit pfff

Good guide. I read through it all. Maybe add some suggestions for a good sound card if one wanted one. Like, buy your speakers and use the integrated audio, then buy a sound card if the sound is not good enough for you. Then suggest a few sound cards.

Overall, a very good guide. Would recommend people to read this through when building a new PC.

My only question that seems missing from this guide.

The effect of ambient tempreture and humidity.

I live in Thailand so for example yeaterday was 38c with RH48%

Everything running cool except hard disks 51c

Please not ment as a criticm of what you have done. I think this guide is fantastic and all your other work here. I like so many other people have learnt a lot.

Actualy I should not have posted this here it is a general critic of hardware reviews.

Why not write a book with regular electronic apdates. Your quality of information is well worth it.

Thanks for all your hard work it is more than appreciated.

Would you mind including a link or write-up to demonstrate/explain how to overclock?

Nice n refreshing but I would have to disagree on the chipset info....

I build and mod rigs for fun and to tell ya the truth comparing the i7 and 955 (naked eye) I could barely see a difference in performance when it comes to gaming (Crysis, Farcry etc.)

Of course as far as numbers the i7 kills the 955 in a hearbeat. We all know this, but is it really worth the cost and bragging rights?

I own 3 systems: An i7 920 Build, an AMD 955BE build and my sons mid-range x2 550BE build and after all the money, research and time I have come to the conclusion that the i7 is by far the fastest of all 3 systems by a long run (don't get me wrong), but when it comes to real-world apps and benchmarks I kinda feel i'm getting ripped off by Intel. Not so much when it comes to the 920 because paying 279.99 for a chip is really not that much and much less knowing you getting a very fast chip. But knowing that if you go with an AM3 platform as far as bang for buck/price to performance ratio you wont be able to beat the AM3/DDR3 platform. I really don't know, for some odd reason it is more challenging for me to overclock my sons system compared to the i7. Its so easy to overclock and once your done there is nothing else to do... Maybe i'm old who knows but I thank you for posting this...found out many things i thought i knew.....

I guess the real reason I am posting this is due to the fact that I thought Id be blown away when i fired up my i7 rig for the first time and didn't really see a significant difference when comparing to my AM3 rig. Yes in all benchmarks the i7 was the clear winner but not by a margin that was expected.

[edit: removed statement]

So: Developers/Code Slingers (aka hackers), Photo stuff, Movie Stuff ect, multi tasking, ect... will expose the power of the i7 much further than games. Another thing is the i7 also holds a high advantage of preformance gain when scaling graphics cards. So SLI and CF will shine with an i7 as well.

Don't get me wrong the AM3 is by no means a bad cpu. When it comes to strickly gaming AM3 is probally a better bang for your buck cpu, but if your in a situation noted above, the i7's extra in price might warrent itself. I also forsee as time ticks applications/games will be written to take advantage of multiple cores vs higher clock speeds as well. We have started seeing apps and games start scaling by taking advantage of mulitple cores and threads already. This change in the developing community might not have fully taken place yet but it might happen in the lifespan of the i7 which again increases the value and longevity of this particular cpu.

Not bad at all.......Hope you have fun with your new pc!

Your probally right...This is a dangerous thread to make a statement like that. I appoglize to the community for it (I edited it out). I was trying to imply for a lot of everday bussiness type applications such as excess/ microsoft access/ it developement community apps / CAD and Modeling tools / Photo and movie editing & encoding / servers / ect.. (aka it will increase productivity in reducing complex caculations time.)

And believe me excess and access can crank on a cpu at times.

Great stickie! Two suggestions, near the end you might post:
1. Some links to the different "stock" builds designed by reputable sights (THG, ExtremeTech, Anandtech, etc) for builder to use as a starting point
2. Strong encouragement to read a bundle of forum posts on systems similar to one they are considering before posting own for questions.
3. A short discussion of designing systems for different applications and how to target resources

nice guide proximon, i really appreciated.

Just a minor update to a link. Not much has changed in the last month.

please help me..
right now im using gigabyte ep45-extreme mobo with a radeon hd 4870 1gb. im planning on buying one more 4870 1gb to crossfire both of them.

will my mobo bottleneck the performance of my graphics card? (since it will run x8/x8, not x16/x16 like x58)

FYI, im a hardcore gamer.

This is not the place to ask questions. Please start your own thread. I think this question is addressed in the P45 section of the guide however.

The answer is about 4 FPS difference, depending on the game and drivers used. Not huge. You'll have to decide if 4 FPS is significant enough to upgrade your board.

Hey man -

Your guide and personal picks have helped me through 2 builds now, and neither has disappointed. IMO your ability to translate technical mumbojumbo into clear english is rare and much needed on tech forums and I thank you for it. That, and your recs are spot on...

so cheers!

Yes indeed, looks like I have some work to do.

I have been able to make some updates today, YAY.

P55 is looking very promising, but one has to wonder where the low end is going now. Will there be a P53?

lack of updates in 8 days, some prices changed

I would like to contribute with a correction regarding integrated graphics. The original post indicated that the... "790GX chipset has the best onboard graphics and uses AMD CPUs." However, I am not sure that is entirely true.

The 785G chipset uses Radeon HD 4200 for the IGP, while the 790GX chipset uses Radeon HD 3300. This means that the 785G could support up to DirectX 10.1 (instead of 10.0 from the 790GX), OpenGL 3.1 (instead of 2.0 from the 790GX), and UVD2 (instead of regular UVD from the 790GX). These are strong points in favor of the 785G.

One point in favor of the 790GX's IGP could be that its core clock is 700MHz instead of the 500MHz found in the 785G. However, I think that would be its only advantage.

It's a good point though. Reviewers were a bit disappointed by the differences or lack thereof, but still I think the two chipsets have strengths of their own. I'll have to change that a bit.

The awesomeness, thanks a lot!