New build for a friend

[CanesVenetici]

Trying to piece together a build for a friend of mine. He has a somewhat limited budget and I did some digging to try and find the best build I could, but more eyes and opinions are always helpful.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming mostly, but he does do some video capture, but mostly for gaming
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
Trying to stay below $800
3) Where do you live?
Central PA
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
Need mobo, cpu, ram, and video card
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
He'll be re-using everything else, just wants to replace the guts. Not sure about the psu, it's fairly new, so lets just assume it's up to snuff
6) Will you be overclocking?
Probably not right away, want to get it running for a lan by next week
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
24" widescreen
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
ASAP
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
usb3, sata 3 with at least 6 sata ports
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? 32bit or 64bit?
yep, he has win 7 pro 64 bit I think


Here's what I came up with in my quick effort.

GIGABYTE GA-870A-UD3 AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard $99.99

AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor $179.99

CORSAIR XMS3 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMX8GX3M4A1600C9 $259.99

XFX HD-583X-ZNFV Radeon HD 5830 1GB 256-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card $229.99

$769.96

or

GIGABYTE GA-870A-UD3 AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard $99.99

AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor $179.99

CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMX4GX3M2A1600C8 $119.99
and just add more later... if needed

XFX HD-585X-ZNFV Radeon HD 5850 1GB 256-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card w/ Eyefinity
Includes Aliens vs. Predator game, limited offer $309.99


$709.96 Only 4 gigs of memory, but a better video card


With his budget I figured intel was right out. He's coming from an Asus a8nsli with a 4400+ x2 939.
Critique it and have at it, find something better I'm all ears...

 

[Dangman]

Find out what PSU he has. Just because it's new does not mean it's up to snuff.

 

[lt_shiro]

What type of video capture? if in game, I would getting the x6 1055t. Other wise get x4 955, 965 isn't worth the extra cost.

 

[bastage]

I Would ditch that giga Mobo.. Would severly limit crossfire due to 2nd slot being x4. This asus is only a few dollars more (before rebate & then ends up cheaper) & supports x8 x8 when both slots are used.

 

[lt_shiro]

I Would ditch that giga Mobo.. Would severly limit crossfire due to 2nd slot being x4. This asus is only a few dollars more (before rebate & then ends up cheaper) & supports x8 x8 when both slots are used.

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
usb3, sata 3 with at least 6 sata ports

 

[TGA]

I don’t put any premium on having USB 3.0 or SATA 3.0 so the hardware you’re looking for is a bit outside of what I usually look at. Therefore I am not going to make any direct recommendations on specific hardware.

I just want to point out that Intel is not outside his budget.

Newegg has the i750 for $200 and a gigabyte P55 board with the new USB and SATA for $129 before rebate and seems well within the budget you have set.

Also you could look at going with 6gig of ram rather than just 4 or 8. 6gig should be within the budget while keeping the higher end GPU. Sure it means replacing ram if you want to later move to 8 but as an x58 user I find 6gigs keeps me happy.

I am not suggesting anything is wrong with the AMD option and I have both the X58 and an AM3 platform myself. But if I was going AMD I would save a little more money and just get a 955 BE if you’re looking for a quad and change the multiplier, this is the reason to the BE after all.. You don’t have to spend hours pushing and testing the limits of a CPU. A simple change of the multiplier to a reasonable speed can be tested for stability quickly and save your some cash for other hardware or more ram.

 

[CanesVenetici]

I don’t put any premium on having USB 3.0 or SATA 3.0 so the hardware you’re looking for is a bit outside of what I usually look at. Therefore I am not going to make any direct recommendations on specific hardware.

You may not, but he does. As for the intel thing, that's up to him. I'm just trying to get him the most for his money. He's looking and comparing as well. But if you can find an option that fits in his budget, we're all ears.

I Would ditch that giga Mobo.. Would severly limit crossfire due to 2nd slot being x4. This asus is only a few dollars more (before rebate & then ends up cheaper) & supports x8 x8 when both slots are used.

1. He never plans to crossfire, or sli for that matter.
2. That board doesn't have usb3 or sata3, features he wants.
3. Also not enough sata ports.

What type of video capture? if in game, I would getting the x6 1055t. Other wise get x4 955, 965 isn't worth the extra cost.

Take that back, no video capture. At least not on this system.

Find out what PSU he has. Just because it's new does not mean it's up to snuff.

Okay, so it's a wee bit older than I thought. I didn't think it was that long since his PSU died, time flies, eh?

ENERMAX Liberty ELT500AWT 500W ATX12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply


Here's his thinking right now...

So Option 1 if i went with the cheaper 4GB RAM AMD version you posted and lowering to a 5770 video card I'm looking at $564.96 with roughly $235 bucks left to spend. This would allow me to get two 1TB drives to put in RAID1 for the new system, new guts, and better video. This is assuming the 500W PSU I have now will be enough.

There's some things i'm not sure i can get up and running on the new without having both my old and new systems sitting side by side so that i can effectively transfer what i need over. Obviously i wont need all the drives to remain in the old system and i wil have to move it to another case. I would probably downgrade to one my older video cards in the old system. That would allow me to utilize the current video card in the new system and free up another $165 (along with the $235 above). Then Option 2 I could get a new PSU, and two 1TB drives to put in RAID1 for my OS. I would just upgrade the video at a later time, but i wouldn't have to worry whether or not the old power supply will handle the new guts, and the 6 drives in my current system.

Option 3 (provided i can get a good backup of my current system to bring up on the other side) would be to put my OS on my 73GB raptors in RAID0 like i have now and then purchase only 1 additional 1TB drive to mirror with the one I already have in use. Then if i went with your recomendation on the guts and the cheaper 5770, then I could spend the $235 on the extra 1TB drive and a new Corsair 750 PSU.

 

[Dangman]

Okay, so it's a wee bit older than I thought. I didn't think it was that long since his PSU died, time flies, eh?

ENERMAX Liberty ELT500AWT 500W ATX12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply

Yeah option 1 is out. That particular PSU line was prone to above average death rates and it's a bit too old for a modern system. So yeah, you're gonna have to replace the PSU.

I don't see what's up wiht the RAID 1 plan.

For a 24" monitor, I highly highly recommend the HD 5850. And we can fit that easily into a $800 budget:
$240 - AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition CPU + GIGABYTE GA-870A-UD3 AM3 AMD 870 Motherboard combo
$410 - XFX HD-585X-ZNFV Radeon HD 5850 1GB PCI-E Video Card + G.Skill Ripjaw Series F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL 2 x 2GB DDR3 1600 RAM Combo
$150 - Corsair 650TX 650W PSU + Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive Combo
---
Total: $800 shipped pluxs tax.

So basically an option 3.5: Reuse the 73GB RAID array. use the Samsung 1TB drie as a mirror for the other 1TB drive you have now. But go with the HD 5850 and not the Corsair 750W PSU.

If you really need to save some cash, go with the HD 5830:
$345 - XFX HD-583X-ZNFV Radeon HD 5830 1GB PCI-E Video Card + G.Skill Ripjaw Series F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL 2 x 2GB DDR3 1600 RAM Combo

But I don't recommend any card lower than the HD 5830 for a 24" monitor.

 

[bastage]

1. He never plans to crossfire, or sli for that matter.
2. That board doesn't have usb3 or sata3, features he wants.
3. Also not enough sata ports.

well..

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming mostly, but he does do some video capture, but mostly for gaming

that would tell me that the features you are asking for don't meet the needs.. Thats like saying I want a new moped, but its gotta have dubs.. Seriously if the rig is made for gaming then I would want to at least leave the door open. If he absolutely has to have the pointless ass SATA III & usb 3.0 then about 140 would get you all of it inclusing crossfire in either asus or giga form.