Tower on a budget -$500 no VC

[MarcinPretorius]

Hey guys I'm new here and I'm having troubles picking out the best bang for the buck pieces. I have a gts250 OC graphics card already so I need at least a 500w powersupply. I need ram/cpu/mobo/hd/cddrive/powersupply/case.
I was thinking of getting a x2 phenom and unlocking the 4 cores, with 4 gigs ram I'm looking for and not a huge hd, 360 if even enough for me. I would appreciate any help and feedback regarding good mother/cpu choices as well. Thanks!

[ShyguyXPC]

don't buy an x2 Phenom with the hopes you can unlock the 2 extra cores and expect it to happen, saving some money in the process, if you need a quad, then just buy one.

not all AMD chips unlock the extra cores, and you usually need a specific chipset to get it to work right anyways.


Newegg.com - LG Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM SATA DVD Burner - Bulk - CD / DVD Burners

Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER Elite NV-334-KWN1-GP Black SECC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Newegg.com - ASRock M3A770DE AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard

Newegg.com - Antec EarthWatts Green EA-380D Green 380W Continuous power ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply

Newegg.com - CORSAIR XMS3 DHX 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TW3X4G1333C9DHX

Newegg.com - AMD Athlon II X4 635 Propus 2.9GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor



total, $499.25 after shipping.


PSU is more than enough power for the whole system, and to run your video card.

[MarcinPretorius]

Hmm I thought my video card needed a 500 w power suppply, its the OC version. Otherwise everything looks great, do I need thermal paste to mate the cpu to the mobo or does it come with ?

[nickslick74]

Watts don't really mean a whole lot, it's the Amps on the 12+ volt rail(s). That Antec psu has more than enough power (amps) for a 250GTS. The heatsink has a thremal pad already applied to it, so unless you are going to overclock, the pad should suffice.

[MarcinPretorius]

Ok I see what you mean, I may tweak it a little bit but not too much, probably get the paste just in case to put me at ease. Also I really appreciate you folks taking the time to respond and look for this for me, I searched but I couldn't find a setup that would be good/and not that pricey. Didn't want to make a mistake. Thanks alot!

[RandomNameHere]

you should double check to see if anything you are going to buy comes in a combo deal to save a few extra bucks, or get something better for the same price.