New system build help please.

A

andypnb

Gawd
Joined
Dec 18, 2002
Messages
964
I have been out of the game for a bit but a somewhat new job means its time for a new PC for me and old one goes to my wife. I know how to do it, I know how to overclock and all that jazz, I just have not been keeping up with parts in a year or so.

Timeframe: No deadline, looking to start mid April or so.

Budget: I think I want to stay under 600 bucks or so.

Haves:a nice Antec case, a 550watt nice Antec power supply, sata2 hard drive, dvd and the side stuff from here old PC.

Needs: I need mobo, cpu, video card, memory.

Monitor: I will likely get a Samsung 1080p monitor to pair it up with, but that's not in the 600 budget, its separate. Any advice on monitors? I am running a 1280 19inch one now and want to go to widescreen. I may settle for a 1680x1050.

Uses: gaming occasionally, I don't need latest and greatest crysis, but I want it to last a couple years. I do want to run the new Total War game in relative good settings. Video encoding occasionally (streaming to PS3). Otherwise, just a normal box with normal use.

Do I want quadcore? 4gb of ram? What type of video card? I think I am leaning Intel.

Thanks in advance.
 
Exactly what power supply do you have? TruePower / TruePower 2.0? If so budget for a new PSU -- it is trash, and will almost certainly die under the load of a new system.

For $600 i7 is pretty much out of budget .. it would be around $550 with just CPU, mobo, RAM, and you need a GPU as well, which will likely be $200+ if you'll potentially be pairing with a 1080p+ monitor.
 
What silent-circuit said: What exact PSU do you have? There are a ton of Antec 550W PSUs that range from poor quality to excellent quality. So we need to know the exact model.

We also need the following questions answered:
3) Where do you live?
6) Will you be overclocking?
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?
Oh and what Antec case do you have?
 
silent-circuit said:
Exactly what power supply do you have? TruePower / TruePower 2.0? If so budget for a new PSU -- it is trash, and will almost certainly die under the load of a new system.

For $600 i7 is pretty much out of budget .. it would be around $550 with just CPU, mobo, RAM, and you need a GPU as well, which will likely be $200+ if you'll potentially be pairing with a 1080p+ monitor.
Click to expand...


I think its a Trupower 2 (the one that comes with the Sonata case). Or is it an Enermax 550 that I upgraded. Ill look when I get home.

I don't even know what the i7 are in terms of advantages, should I care and up the budget? Will waiting a bit make any differnce? Everyone talks about price drops in April, I can wait til May really if it would mean a new tech (i7 and DDR3) rig,
Would a 1650x1050 monitor make a big difference? I was thinking of going to about 21-23 inches widescreen, so I figured higher resolution is better.

Danny Bui said:
What silent-circuit said: What exact PSU do you have? There are a ton of Antec 550W PSUs that range from poor quality to excellent quality. So we need to know the exact model.

We also need the following questions answered:
3) Where do you live?
6) Will you be overclocking?
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?
Oh and what Antec case do you have?
Click to expand...

3) I live in TN, US, no fry's nearby, so its all online components.

6) Only overclock if needed, makes no difference. I do like to keep things cool and quiet. I am currently running a well oced Opteron thats been rock solid for a couple of years. I have and can lap heatsinks, do all sorts of OC stuff, but I want to keep it simple if I can.

That said if I can save 50-100 and do a rock solid overclock like the Opterons do and I know some of the Intel Qs do nowadays, then by all means point me there. I dont mind waiting and shopping around for a good deal on a good part.

9) None of those are needed. Builtin sound would be nice to power stereo speakers. The usual 4-8 USBs and a tether for front USBs. SLI/Crossfire if the GPU recommendations lean that way, but I would rather keep it simple.

10) I have a copy of Vista Ultimate 64 that is unused and waiting for this system. No worries there. I will likely move to W7 when it comes, so I guess this rig needs to run that.

As to case, its an Antec Sonata, the more recent one. With two 120mm fans, one front one back.

And PC_User, thanks, Ill take a look.
 
andypnb said:
I think its a Trupower 2 (the one that comes with the Sonata case). Or is it an Enermax 550 that I upgraded. Ill look when I get home.

I don't even know what the i7 are in terms of advantages, should I care and up the budget?
Would a 1650x1050 monitor make a big difference? I was thinking of going to about 21-23 inches widescreen, so I figured higher resolution is better.
Click to expand...
Yeah figure out which Enermax PSU you have as well. Some of Enermax's PSUs have a tendency to die.....

1650x1050 is a good resolution. However if you don't need/demand/want max settings at 1920x1200 or 1920x1080, then go with those higher resolutions.
 
Danny Bui said:
Yeah figure out which Enermax PSU you have as well. Some of Enermax's PSUs have a tendency to die.....

1650x1050 is a good resolution. However if you don't need/demand/want max settings at 1920x1200 or 1920x1080, then go with those higher resolutions.
Click to expand...

Haha, it must be an Enermax, because I have RMAd it about 3 times in the past few years.

I may go full 1080p simply because at some point I may throw a Bluray drive in there and watch movies, or just hook it up to a PS3. As to gaming, I am really content at 1280x1024 now, but I always like to use the monitor at native resolution so I dont get weirdo stretching, even if it means shadows low or off or a little less aa.
 
A ~$150-175 graphics card will be sufficient for a 1080p display, even with high settings.

i7's main advantages so far as speed are in video encoding and some very high end strategy games / flight sims. It will also have considerably greater longevity than a Core2 based system, since the LGA775 socket is End of Life. No new chips for it.
 
andypnb said:
The power supply is a SmartPower 450 from Antec.
Click to expand...

Get a new PSU then. The Truepower I and II series as well as the Smartpower series were well known for their above average death rates due to a poor choice in caps and cooling design. In more specific term, Antec/CWT specified/used caps that did not respond well to heat. Unfortunately, Antec made the decision to have the PSU fan only ramp at really high temps in an effort to keep the PSU quiet. However, just medium to high temps were enough to screw up the caps so really high temps were murderous. Over time, this degraded the quality and performance of those PSU series. So yeah it might be time to upgrade the PSU.

Here's what I'd recommend with your $600 budget in mind:
$259 - AMD Phenom II X4 920 CPU + Biostar TFORCE TA790GX AMD 790GX HDMI AMD Motherboard combo
$40 - G.Skill F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ 2 x 2GB DDR2 800 RAM
$180 - BFG Tech BFGEGTX260MC896OCE GeForce GTX 260 896MB PCI-E Video Card
$70 - BFG Tech LS-550 550W PSU
------
$549 plus tax and shipping

If you really want to use up that extra $50, go with one of the 750W PSUs that PC_User recommended.
 
PC_User said:
What's wrong with the Q9400 build I suggested, which is $70 cheaper?
Click to expand...
Good response:
FoxhoundOp said:
His build includes a power supply and a more powerful graphics card.
Click to expand...

In addition, the Phenom II build I listed above would have a sligthly longer CPU upgrade path than your Intel build. The Phenom II 920 offers comparable performance to that Q9400 CPU yet is cheaper once you factor in the costs of mobo.
 
Danny Bui said:
Get a new PSU then. The Truepower I and II series as well as the Smartpower series were well known for their above average death rates due to a poor choice in caps and cooling design. In more specific term, Antec/CWT specified/used caps that did not respond well to heat. Unfortunately, Antec made the decision to have the PSU fan only ramp at really high temps in an effort to keep the PSU quiet. However, just medium to high temps were enough to screw up the caps so really high temps were murderous. Over time, this degraded the quality and performance of those PSU series. So yeah it might be time to upgrade the PSU.

Here's what I'd recommend with your $600 budget in mind:
$259 - AMD Phenom II X4 920 CPU + Biostar TFORCE TA790GX AMD 790GX HDMI AMD Motherboard combo
$40 - G.Skill F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ 2 x 2GB DDR2 800 RAM
$180 - BFG Tech BFGEGTX260MC896OCE GeForce GTX 260 896MB PCI-E Video Card
$70 - BFG Tech LS-550 550W PSU
------
$549 plus tax and shipping

If you really want to use up that extra $50, go with one of the 750W PSUs that PC_User recommended.
Click to expand...

Do you have a similar up to date reccomendation in the same price range? I need the same parts, CPU, mobo, PS, ram, video card only.
I was also looking at the same X4 idea and a 260 216 video card.
 
andypnb said:
Do you have a similar up to date reccomendation in the same price range? I need the same parts, CPU, mobo, PS, ram, video card only.
I was also looking at the same X4 idea and a 260 216 video card.
Click to expand...

Pretty much the same recommendations:
$256 - AMD Phenom II X4 920 CPU + Biostar TFORCE TA790GX AMD 790GX HDMI AMD Motherboard combo
$47 - Corsair TWIN2X4096-6400C5 2 x 2GB DDR2 800 RAM
$165 - BFG Tech BFGEGTX260896OCE GeForce GTX 260 896MB PCI-E Video Card
$69 - BFG Tech LS-550 550W PSU
---
Total: $537 plus tax and shipping.

Only $12 more three months ago.
 
Thanks.

I went with the X4 940, ASUS mini atx motherboard combo on newegg. Then an XFX 4890, the BFGtech PS you recommended and G-Skill RAM that was on sale, sub 2v and 5-5-5 timing.

All for barely over 520.
 
When it comes I will. Its all shipped and en route.
64 bit vista or 64 bit 7 rc1? Not shy to reformat in the fall.
 
Your OS choice depends on whether you prefer to deal with Vista or Windows 7 over the next 12 months.

Go with whichever OS you prefer more.
 
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