New Semi-Budget Build

Z

Zetro

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 2, 2005
Messages
296
Hey Guys, after moving my Athlon XP-m machine to be used as my Windows Home Server I am in need of a new workation. Here is the "sheet"

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Some gaming, photoshop, tons of encoding and torrenting
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
No real budget, just need something value oriented that supports 64-bit, VT, lots of drives and is semi power efficient
3) Where do you live?
Vancouver, Canada
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.

I was thinking on the lines of this for this build:

-AMD Athlon X4 620 Quad Core - $114
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=42600&promoid=1120
-Gigabyte MA790X-UD4P AM2+/AM3 DDR2 Board - $112
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=36856
-Sythe Katana 3 Cooler - $29.99
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=37695
-Thinking about a 5770 as an upgrade to the aging 3850 for $189
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=44932

Total is $445 before tax and shipping with the 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.
Reusing...
-Antec 3700BQE Case
-2 x LITEON SATA DVD-RW Drives: http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=45244&promoid=1120
-Corsair TX750 Power Supply
-Gigabyte 3850 512MB Card (maybe... HSF is going)
-G Skill PC8000 2 x 2GB Kit:
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=26456&vpn=F2-8000CL5D-4GBPQ&manufacture=G.Skill
-2 x 150GB VRaptors
-2 x 1.5TB WD Green
6) Will you be overclocking?
-Yes, of course :D Case has good cooling with a 120x38mm Panaflo as exhaust and the 140mm fan on the Corsair PSU
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
-Have 2 x 19" LCD already (1280x1024 max)
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.
-GB Lan, 6 or more SATA Ports, RAID, Xfire is nice but not required
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?
-Yes

Basically I have my Core i7 workhouse that is my gaming beast but I require another machine to take care of a lot of day to day things. Between research papers and friends coming over to game it is sweet having 2 full machines side by side. I have a large stable of spare parts which makes building a new PC quite easy.

Going through the options available I could not figure out another option that offered as much value for the price. Any insight or suggestions would be outstanding as I am not as up on these things as I used to be.

Thanks again :D
 
Last edited:
At that low of a resolution, the HD 5770 is a bit of a waste. Just go for the HD4850 512MB or HD 5750 1GB for a more suitable card for that low resolution.

Since XFire is not required, then this cheaper mobo will be meet your needs perfectly:
$83 CAD - GA-MA770-UD3 AMD 770 Motherboard

Assumiong that you go with the XFX HD 5750 and the above mobo swap, that frees up $68 CAD which is enough for you to upgrade the CPU to the AMD X4 810 at $176 CAD:
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=36294&vpn=HDX810WFGIBOX&manufacture=AMD

The X4 810 is significantly faster than the X4 620 when it comes to Photoshop and media encoding. As such, I believe the above changes provides more value in terms of Photoshop and media encoding while still being a very capable gaming PC. Unless you're planning on upgrading to 1680 x 1050 or higher in the immediate future, no point in getting the HD 5770.

So IMO, the above changes will provide more value than your planned setup.
 
Thank you for the reply Danny,

I was leaning towards that board due to the SB750 southbridge as it is much better silicon overall than the SB700 on the AMD770 based board. Also with ACC on the SB750 overclocking with the X4 620 or X4 810 should be a lot easier right? If I do go with the X4 620 I also have the "chance" of unlocking L3 cache which should be a bonus.

You are 100% correct on the 5750 being a better option, I only purchase XFX cards and the XFX 5750 is basically impossible to find in Canada. Now the XFX 5770 is $40 more than the 5750 but at least I am able to source it.

Lastly go for the Phenom over the Athlon X4?
 
Zetro said:
I was leaning towards that board due to the SB750 southbridge as it is much better silicon overall than the SB700 on the AMD770 based board. Also with ACC on the SB750 overclocking with the X4 620 or X4 810 should be a lot easier right? If I do go with the X4 620 I also have the "chance" of unlocking L3 cache which should be a bonus.

.......

Lastly go for the Phenom over the Athlon X4?
Click to expand...

Understandable about the SB. The SB 750 does OC a bit better than most AMD chipsets.

Definitely the Phenom. Faster guaranteed performance.
 
Your chances of unlocking L3 cache with the Athlon II x4 is slim to nil. If, and that's a big if you get a Deneb cored Athlon II you may be able to. If you get a Propus core it's physically impossible as the cache isn't disabled it just isn't there. IIRC the Deneb cored Athlons were on the market a very short time before AMD pulled the plug on them as people were doing just as you described. So why buy the Phenom? I was knee deep in this very topic for a while as I just built and finished the Phenom based system in my sig. If you can grab a Phenom I recommend you to do so over the Athlon if your budget allows. I have the 805 and had a dead easy OC to a stable 2.8ghz (had it at 3.0 but my OC technique sucks, so dumped it to 2.8 for ease) and fully unlocked the extra 2mb of L3 cache on my 785g mobo. I think you'll have a good backup system either way though. Enjoy.
 
Question actually after thinking about this further...

Cooler wise there seems to be a big problem with many third party coolers not pointing out of the case. What AM2 cooler would be suggested to take advantage of this or if that isn't possible what you be suggested? TRUE and the Xigmatel both do not point in the correct orientation :(
 
Zetro said:
Question actually after thinking about this further...

Cooler wise there seems to be a big problem with many third party coolers not pointing out of the case. What AM2 cooler would be suggested to take advantage of this or if that isn't possible what you be suggested? TRUE and the Xigmatel both do not point in the correct orientation :(
Click to expand...

What do you mean by "not pointing out of the case"? What do you mean by "correct orientation"?
 
With many tower heatsinks when instaled on the AM2/3 platform the fan ends up blowing up toward the power supply which in many respects is useless:

http://www.pcper.com/image.php?aid=268&img=12-Testing_big.jpg

The Sythe Katana III that I quoted mounts facing the rear exhaust fan but with a Phenom II that smaller HSF will probably not suffice. I am looking for a HSF assembly that blows the air out the rear exhaust of a case.
 
LOL!

You do know that you can easily reorient the Xigmatek or Thermaltake to face the rear of the case right?
 
The Thermalright can only be mounted in 2 directions, not 4 as you are suggesting. With the mounting base of the HSF being rectangle and not square like the Intel ones the orientation of the HSF is determined based on the socket orientation. The same canbe said for the Xignatek as it uses the stock clips to mount and is directly affected by the sockets orientation.

Reference the TRUE manual:
http://www.thermalright.com/new_a_page/download_images/booklet/120ex_revc/am2.pdf
 
Zetro said:
The Thermalright can only be mounted in 2 directions, not 4 as you are suggesting. With the mounting base of the HSF being rectangle and not square like the Intel ones the orientation of the HSF is determined based on the socket orientation. The same canbe said for the Xignatek as it uses the stock clips to mount and is directly affected by the sockets orientation.

Reference the TRUE manual:
http://www.thermalright.com/new_a_page/download_images/booklet/120ex_revc/am2.pdf
Click to expand...
I still don't see the issue in this case. From the manual, it shows a second installation method which would have the HSF oriented towards the rear of the case if you were using it with the Gigabyte mobos mentioned in this thread.
 
*facepalm*

I linked the solution and did not read the second page... lol

Thank you so your help Danny, much appreciated :D
 
IIRC, the CM Hyper 212+ also allows you to mount it that way.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top