New Desktop Setup - Advice?

gphillips5 · July 5th, 2009, 01:33 PM

Hi there,

I am just about to purchase a whole new setup and was wondering if anyone would take a look over the build before I buy - any advice or changes are welcome.

ASUS M3N78-VM GeForce 8200 Socket AM2+ VGA DVI HDMI 8 channel audio mATX Motherboard
ASUS 9800GT 512MB DDR3 Dual DVI HDCP HDTV out PCI-E Graphics Card OR
XFX HD 4890 1GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDTV Out PCI-E Graphics Card
Seagate 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache - Retail Box Including Cables & Screws
Antec TruePower New 650W Modular PSU - 80plus Bronze and SLI Certified 3x SATA
Antec 902 Nine Hundred Two Black ATX Case - No PSU
LiteOn 16x DVD±RW Dual Layer & Ram IDE Black Bare Drive - OEM
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition 3.2 GHz Socket AM3 8MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor

The total cost of all of this is £530, so there is about £70 left in my budget - any suggestions?

Aaron_8015 · July 5th, 2009, 01:51 PM

Hi and welcome.

Are you purcashing off a site or instore?

The 4890 is a much better card than the 9800.

You can get better motherboards without the on-board and that are full not micro ATX. Something like....

Gigabyte MA790XT-UD4P AMD 790X (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard

Have you picked out memory as it is missing from your list?
These will go with the board.

Corsair Dominator DHX 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit

pullmyfoot · July 5th, 2009, 01:56 PM

Aaron, that board is LG775. He needs AM3.

to the original poster, I assume you are building yourself? Here is what I suggest you change.

this is a killer motherboard. It will kick the 8200 based one in your list in the pants.

mobo: Gigabyte MA790XT-UD4P AMD 790X (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
ram: Corsair Dominator DHX 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit
HD: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 32Mb Cache Hard Disk Drive SATAII 300MB/s <8.9ms 7200rpm - OEM
PSU: OCZ ModXStream Pro 600w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Modular Power Supply

Aaron_8015 · July 5th, 2009, 01:57 PM

Sorry still editing.....

You may as well do a whole new list.....

pullmyfoot · July 5th, 2009, 02:07 PM

If you can wait a week though, I hear rumors of a Phenom II 965 BE in the works clocked at 3.4Ghz. There is a chance that the 955 will be lowered in price and the 965 take the price of the current 955. But then again they could just charge more for the 965... You could potentially gain a 'free' 200mhz or save a few bucks on the 955.

Even if the 965 is not priced at the current 955's price, you dont loose much from hanging on for a few more days... Heck you could spend a little bit more and just pick up the 965 then if you wanted... Either way you win (or you dont lose anything). IMO its worth waiting for.

AMD Phenom II X4 965 in the pipeline
AMD 3.4GHz Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition coming this week? - SlashGear

pullmyfoot · July 5th, 2009, 02:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aaron_8015

Sorry still editing.....

You may as well do a whole new list.....

nah

good choice on the board. Its the one I use in most of my builds for my customers and all I can say is that it is an awesome awesome board. And to the original poster, as Aaron said, the 4890 is indeed much much faster. Its in a different league.

If you dont plan on using the more enthusiast-class features on the 790X chipset though, you could live with the 770 chipset instead. Basically the only thing you lose is the option to crossfire and a little bit of overclocking potential. If both are not something you want/need than go for this board:

Budget Socket AM3: Gigabyte MA770T-UD3P Mainboard Review - X-bit labs

despite the low cost of the board, they managed to get their CPU up to 3.8Ghz. Impressive.

they dont have it on the site that Aaron and I are linking to, but then again it may be on the site that you are getting your stuff from.

gphillips5 · July 5th, 2009, 02:29 PM

Hah, forgot the memory, ridiculous. I had decided on some already but the Corsair is more economical for size and price.

Pullmyfoot: Why the change with the HD? Just personal preference? I think I'll stick with the PSU also, but with regards to waiting a week or so, that is something that could happen. I need to book a few days off work to build this, then game away for a few days.

Cheers guys

Aaron_8015 · July 5th, 2009, 02:36 PM

The WD caviar black is pretty much the fastest 7200rpm drive available and you will benefit from faster file transfers, app launch's and game loading speed's.

OCZ make some of the best PSU's on the market, although Antec make good PSU's also (I use one) some of their models are a little 'dodgy' and have had some problems in the past, better to be safe than sorry.

pullmyfoot · July 6th, 2009, 12:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gphillips5

Hah, forgot the memory, ridiculous. I had decided on some already but the Corsair is more economical for size and price.

Pullmyfoot: Why the change with the HD? Just personal preference? I think I'll stick with the PSU also, but with regards to waiting a week or so, that is something that could happen. I need to book a few days off work to build this, then game away for a few days.

Cheers guys

stick with the PSU then, its good too. Just personal preference.

BTW, where are you ordering your parts from?

gphillips5 · July 6th, 2009, 04:30 PM

Hey

I'm ordering my parts from ebuyer.com as I have found them usually cheapest across the board, but tbh haven't really scouted around that much. I will have to order the RAM from Novatech, but I am also going to price up the same rig on said website.