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Upgrade Advice

C

C McCarter

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 13, 2007
Messages
183
Hello all,

I am thinking of upgrading my computer and wanted advice on components. Here are my answers to the standard questions. I will be upgrading the GPU later this year (Christmas time) and the rest is within a month (finances willing).

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming (BF BC2, LOTRO, 4xRTS, Tactical RTS), Photoshop, Movies, Modeling
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
~500$CND
3) Where do you live?
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
Motherboard, CPU, RAM (6GB), Main HDD (~500GB)
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
EVGA 8800GT SSC, PC&C 750 Silencer CF Ed, Hard drives, Case (CM Storm Scout), Monitor 24 1920x1200 BenQ FP 24vw (I think it is the model, currently away from main computer), Asus Zonar DX, Hauppauge 1800, DVD Drive
6) Will you be overclocking?
Possibly but it will depend on hardware
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
24inch 1920x1200
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Building
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
At least 2 PCIE x1 that can be used with a duel slot video card, 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
Win & professional x64

I want to go with AMD to keep costs down and a Quad core is the minimum.

Currently I am thinking, I am unsure of a motherboard and have not found one that I like within my price range.

AMD Phenom II X4 945 - http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=50691&vpn=HDX945WFGMBOX&manufacture=AMD
G.SKILL F3-12800CL9T-6GBNQ 6GB DDR3 3X2GB DDR3-1600 - http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=34719&vpn=F3-12800CL9T-6GBNQ&manufacture=G.Skill&promoid=1058
Western Digital Caviar Black (WD5001AALS) 500GB - http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=15_210_212&item_id=020449

Any suggests would be great. Thanks
 
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Ditch that Wd 500GB Black drive as it has not been confirmed that it is a single platter design. As such, I recommend going with the WD 500GB Blue drive instead:
http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=15_210_212&item_id=010671

Motherboard wise, here are my recommendations:
[URLhttp://ncix.com/products/?sku=52499&vpn=870A-G54&manufacture=MSI%2FMicroStar]$112[/URL] - MSI 870A-G54 AM3 AMD 870 ATX Motherboard
$110 - Gigabyte GA-870A-UD3 AM3 AMD 870 ATX Motherboard
 
C McCarter said:
I like the motherboard. Will the blue be just as fast as the black?
Click to expand...

No, the Blue is more of a value drive...but it is still pretty darn fast. If you have room in your budget though I would highly recommend spending a little more ($75) and getting the Samsung Spinpoint F3. It is one of the fastest drives on the market and twice the size for only a little more.
 
C McCarter said:
I like the motherboard. Will the blue be just as fast as the black?
Click to expand...

Actually, the Blue (at least the newer revisions) has significantly higher physical (sequential) transfer speeds than the 500GB Black. The 500GB Black (in most revisions) is actually one of the slowest Blacks around (the 500GB Black can't even achieve 100 MB/s on the outer tracks while the newer revisions of the 500GB Blue can exceed 130 MB/s on the outer tracks).
 
Thanks for the advice. I will go with the blue instead of the black. Is there any noticeable difference between duel and triple channel memory?
 
C McCarter said:
Thanks for the advice. I will go with the blue instead of the black. Is there any noticeable difference between duel and triple channel memory?
Click to expand...

Not really. Do note that AMD technically does not support running RAM in triple channel. You'll probably get dual channel or some off type thing.
 
Thanks!

Looks like i am going with

AMD Phenom II X4 945
Samsung Spinpoint F3 1000GB
Gigabyte GA-870A-UD3 AM3 AMD 870 ATX Motherboard
G.SKILL F3-12800CL9T-6GBNQ 6GB DDR3 3X2GB DDR3-1600

Thanks for all the help, now just to wait for my pay cheque!
 
C McCarter said:
Thanks!

Looks like i am going with

AMD Phenom II X4 945
Samsung Spinpoint F3 1000GB
Gigabyte GA-870A-UD3 AM3 AMD 870 ATX Motherboard
G.SKILL F3-12800CL9T-6GBNQ 6GB DDR3 3X2GB DDR3-1600

Thanks for all the help, now just to wait for my pay cheque!
Click to expand...

Do note that AMD does not officially support the use of three DIMMs with any of its current CPUs. As a result, your new build is not guaranteed to work reliably or at all with three DIMMs installed.

So in other words, anything can happen if you install three DIMMs on an AMD system with a dual-channel memory controller. In the worst case, the system will simply refuse to even POST at all unless one stick is removed or one extra stick is added. (And in my brief experience with one such system with three DIMMs installed, the CPU got "locked" at a molasses-slow 800MHz until one of the DIMMs is removed - but worked fine with two or four DIMMs.)

Do note that the above varies by motherboard BIOS. Technically, it should support the "Flex" memory mode similar to the one in recent Intel memory controllers. But some motherboard manufacturers disable this mixed-mode memory controller support in their officially released BIOS versions - and if this support is disabled by the mobo manufacturer, the system would simply refuse to POST when three DIMMs are installed.
 
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Interesting, the board specs that it only accepts DDR3. Should I get DDR2 even if the board says it does not support it?
 
DDR2 and DDR3 refer to the speed range of the RAM, not the number of sticks that comprise a bank. You can buy dual channel DDR3 memory or triple channel DDR3.
 
Ah, thank you for clearing that up. So I will switch the ram to 4GB DDR3 Duel Channel. Are there any brands that would be good. I was thinking corsair or Gskill.
 
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Thanks, I have ordered Gigabyte GA-870A-UD3 AM3 and AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Quad Core Processor AM3 3.4GHZ 8MB Cache 125W 45NM. Going to wait on RAM and HDD till I have a bit more money.

As for the ram I have been looking at GSkill F3 series and am having trouble figuring out what timings I should get. I do not fully understand what the timings do and what would be best for my system. If someone could clarify this that would be great.
 
All that you need is RAM that can run at 9-9-9-28 at DDR3 1066 (or, "stock") speeds. RAM timings matter little overall, and even less while overclocking, so don't spend more money on tighter (e.g. CL8 or CL7) RAM.

Additionally, sitck with the "basic" G.Skill series RAM, as they perform just as well as the more expensive "performance" RAM. If you can't find G.Skill, Mushkin, Corsair (XMS3 series), Patriot, and Geil also have good RAM.
 
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