$1000 build for a friend

A

Admiral_Ackbar6

Space Invaders High Score Champion
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Sep 21, 2004
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*edit* Hoorey for spelling friend wrong in the subject! *edit*
Hey guys, any thoughts or recommendations for a part swap? Thanks.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming at 1920x1200, TF2, LFD, SC2, etc
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
1000
3) Where do you live?
Arizona (Access to Frys, no Microcenter)
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
All components, no peripherals
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
N/A
6) Will you be overclocking?
Unlikely, very small at most
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
22-24''
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
1-3 weeks
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
Crossfire for future upgradability would be nice
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? 32bit or 64bit?
Win 7 pro for students, x64

Conponent Store Price
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Newegg 160.99
ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO AM3 AMD 785G Newegg 99.99
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 Newegg 104.99
XFX HD-585A-ZNDC Radeon HD 5850 (Cypress Pro) XXX Edition Newegg 324.99
CORSAIR CMPSU-650HX 650W ATX12V v2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 Newegg 109.99
RAIDMAX SMILODON ATX-612WB Black Newegg 64.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3160318AS 160GB 7200 RPM Newegg 37.99
Western Digital Caviar Black WD7501AALS 750GB 7200 RPM Newegg 79.99
LITE-ON Black 24X DVD+R Newegg 27
 
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Only thing I would change is the case and the harddrives. Otherwise looks pretty good
 
I split the HDDs since I like having a system drive and storage drive, but would be open to changing if there are better choices available. Casewise, he wanted one with a window, so I jsut chose one that seemed to have a decent price, space for the card, and OK egg reviews. Suggestions would also be appreciated.

Thanks for the input. :)
 
Admiral_Ackbar6 said:
I split the HDDs since I like having a system drive and storage drive, but would be open to changing if there are better choices available
Click to expand...

While that's a good idea, you just chose the wrong drives. I,e the Seagate 160GB drive is a somewhat slow drive. In addition, neither drives have a good price to performance value. I'd recommend the following setup:
$55 - Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive (Should be back in stock by the time you buy)
$80 - HITACHI Deskstar HD31000 IDK/7K (0S00163) 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

The Samsung drive is one of the fastest 7200RPM drives available. The Hitachi 1TB costs the same as that WD 750GB black but performs and costs about the same while offering 250GB more storage.

Go with this CPU + mobo combo instead since it has x8/x8 Crossfire whereas the mobo you chose only has x16/x4 Crossfire:
$260 - AMD Phenom II 955 CPU + Asus M4A79XTD EVO AM3 AMD 790X ATX AMD Motherboard Combo
 
Thanks. THe only concern is, I think that combo deal is the older revision of the CPU. Do you think that would make a difference? Ill go ahead and see if he is wiling to put up the extra $35 for better drives
 
Admiral_Ackbar6 said:
Thanks. THe only concern is, I think that combo deal is the older revision of the CPU. Do you think that would make a difference? Ill go ahead and see if he is wiling to put up the extra $35 for better drives
Click to expand...

Not a difference.

Extra $35? The Samsung ony costs $17 more than the Seagate 160GB and the Hitachi costs the same as the WD 750GB Black.
 
Extra $35 over the $1000, after shipping and such on some of the items. Comes to around 1035. Its hard for me now, with the new i7s and everything, to really want to spend money on a gaming machine on an AMD platform, but those new chips jsut are not at a price range where you can get a good gaming experience for 1k imo. I personally am wiating and hoping AMD can release something that will drive down these new prices, as I am hoping nVidia's cards will do to the graphic market in the coming weeks, and then Im gonna build my own for about $1600
 
What do you mean, "those new chips"? If you're talking about AMD, you have to realize that the Athlon II/Phenom II perform about as well as (and with each new "generation," better than) the Intel Core 2 Duo/Quad processors. For Intel, the Core i3 processors aren't really worth the money -- you'd get a much better performance-based bang for your buck with an AMD setup.

If you can't afford both HDDs right now -- but as an aside, why aren't you willing to partition one large HDD into smaller "ones"? -- get the fast one now and the large one later. Or, go for the best of both worlds and get the 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3 HDD (if/when it comes back in stock). Its performance is similar to that of its 500GB sibling.
 
The new coree series. I realize that the Phenoms preform well, which is obviously why I am choosing them over the slower i3s, and even the i5s. Its just the i7s. and those 6 core i7s that are just around the corner.
While partitioning is an option, I really hate having the entire OS slow to a crawl when doing large file transfers. Putting the second drive in allows the machine to navigate around bottlenecks when copying files over the network, or unraring that 15 GB file.

But yeah, value wise, AMD is winning, and the performance is nothing too shabby. Its just the i7 chips that are making me wait. I know, Ill be waiting forever, but hopefully Ill be ready to take the plunge on my own machine in May or June.

Once again, thanks so much for the help and input. I really appreciate it :D
 
The entire OS won't slow to a crawl, just the copying of the files. :p If you can't afford both, as tiraides said, get one now, the other later. This build isn't til May? psh, wait as long as you can. buy when you can't wait any longer. simple as that.
 
Yeah, think we are gonna start off with the one, and add the secondary in a few weeks. Will probably be building this next week, gonna wait on my own personal machine until may. :) Thanks for the input, gonna go ahead and order this weekend I think. I'll post again after I get it built with impressions, or if I decide I wanna swap something out and get advice. Once again, thanks a bunch!
 
Eww that case. I have that case cuz my friend hated it and gave it to me for free. Even though it is a free case to me I would never use it.

1) The front door barely stays close
2) Too many annoying LEDs
3) Stock fans are LOUD as hell
4) Stock PSU is a POS
5) It weighs more than my mother-in-law

Overall it is a riced obese $20 Rosewill case.
 
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