New Build! Recommendations?

Black-Tom

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 26, 2006
Messages
408
Hey all, building a computer to replace the one that I have relied on for about three years (one in sig).
I do a lot of internet browsing, photo editing and some gaming (tf2, l4d, . Essentially I need everything to just be faster. Loading photoshop and the like is just too slow. Booting my computer takes about four minutes to get into the desktop without any background programs, haha. My monitor runs 1440x900.

Budget is $400.
Looking for mobo, proc, ram, case, card reader, hard drive.
What I have chosen so far:
Western Digital Caviar Green WD7500AADS 750GB 32MB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136359


ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO AM3 AMD 785G HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131398

Koutech IO-RCM620 USB 2.0 3.5" Card Reader
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820162016

Kingston HyperX 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1800 (PC3 14400)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104135

Combo deal:
AMD Athlon II X2 245 Regor 2.9GHz Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core; APEVIA X-Gear ATXB5KLW-BK Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 420W Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.266164



The power supply would go into my old computer and I would move the antec from my current pc into the new one :)

Tips or considerations? Better parts to consider?
 
You don't need DDR3 1800 RAM. Even if you plan on overclocking the processor, you can obtain good performance with DDR3 1333 or DDR3 1600 RAM.

Drop the Apevia PSU; it's garbage. Go with the Antec EA380 or Corsair CX400 instead.

If the WD Caviar Green 750GB HDD is going to be the sole HDD in your system, I recommend that you obtain a faster HDD. If you don't need that much storage capacity, go with one of the recently released HDDs with the 500GB drive platters, like the Samsung F3 500GB HDD or the Seagate 7200.12 500GB HDD.
 
Again, ditch the Apevia PSU/case combo. Get the case if you like it, but don't use the PSU. Danny has about a dozen links that'll show you why, but to save you some time, just ditch it.

Do you need an OS? Which OS will you be using?

g's build is good if you need a quad. If not, then an X2 or X3 phenom2 would suffice.
 
I like the case, and I wasn't really planning on using the psu except for a little crossover time between systems... Will it be risky to only use it a few times?

As for operating system, I was going to get win7 when it comes out. I have the rc2 iso so I'll be using that until I procure a release version.

What I have so far:

Seagate 500GB: $54.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148395

ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO AM3 AMD 785G HDMI ATX: $99.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131398

Rosewill RCR-IC001 40-in-1 internal card reader: $11.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820223103

Corsair XMS3 2x2GB DDR3 1600: $80.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145260

AMD X2 245 Regor 2.9ghz/Apevia X-Gear ATXB5KLW-BK ATX Mid Tower: $95.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.266164

Total: 343.95 Before shipping.

Also Gwarren: that dvd drive was out of stock :(
 
I like the case, and I wasn't really planning on using the psu except for a little crossover time between systems... Will it be risky to only use it a few times?

Yup. Very risky. So again, DO NOT BUY APEVIA. Not even worth keeping it as a spare. For gods sake it only has 18A on the +12V rail!!! That's pretty damn low considering that many quality 400W PSUs out there have 30A on the +12V rail. So that 18A on the +12V alone should tell you how shitty the Apevia PSU is. Then there's the above reviews I linked to to factor in.

Other case recommendations:
$50 - Cooler Master Elite 335 RC-335-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$50 - Cooler Master Elite 331 RC-331-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$40 - Cooler Master Elite 332 RC-332-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$50 - Thermaltake WingRS 201 VJ60001N2Z ATX Case
$60 - Antec 300 ATX Case
$60 - Cooler Master RC-590-KKN1-GP ATX Case
 
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