$500 Build, Want second opinion

[outbursterx]

Compiled this list from
http://www.hardware-revolution.com/500-gaming-computer-quad-core-cpu/

Open to any changes I should make. I'm thinking about a different motherboard, and graphics card? Maybe leave room to upgrade later and save myself some money for now? Any input would be appreciated thanks !

CPU:
AMD Athlon II X4 630 Propus 2.8GHz Quad-Core AM3 95W
Motherboard:
ASRock M3A770DE: Socket AM3, AMD 770 Chipset, ATX

Cooling:
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus 120mm CPU Cooler

Ram:

G SKILL 4GB 1333
​

Video Card:
Radeon HD 5770

Power supply:
Antec BP550

Case:
NZXT GAMMA

 

[CurseTheSky]

What's your goal for this computer (gaming, video encoding, 'net browsing and YouTube / Hulu, etc.)? Do you already have a monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers / headphones, and operating system? If so, what's your monitor's resolution?

Overall it looks like a fairly solid build, especially for $500. For me personally, I'd be tempted to grab a Phenom II X2 550 or 555 and go for an unlock. If you get lucky, awesome. If you don't... well, you'd have be better off with the X4 630. Considering it's a relatively tight budget, it's smarter to go the safe route.

 

[hnzw rui]

Will you be using this for gaming? If so, I strongly suggest going for a Phenom II X4 Deneb. They're not that much more expensive than Propus. Since you're already buying a cooler, you can just get a tray version of the CPU to save a few bucks.

 

[Dadofamunky]

I like this a lot for $500. More than capable of anything in the business/creative line. Provides upgrade to hexacore. Gaming? I think it's well-balanced, though obviously not cutting-edge. So what? For five bills it can't be beat. Kicks the crap out of almost anything you'll see in a corporate office, particularly laptops costing a lot more. In this case disk performance will be key. I note the disk setup is not mentioned, so it's not REALLY $500. A couple of cheap 500 Gig Seagates in RAID 0 would be a good complement. This whole thing is similar to my rig but I spent a lot more than $500!

 

[richierich1212]

AMD Athlon II X4 635 2.9GHz C3 $100.99

Biostar A785G3 785G mATX mobo $64.99

G.Skill 4GB DDR3 $99.99

Antec 300 Illusion + Antec 430W Green PSU $84.98

Cooler Master 212+ $29.99 (Amazon)

Total comes out to $385.76 + shipping. Use coupon code EMCYVNP52 for $10 off the G.Skill RAM. Add GPU of your choice. I picked the new 635 C3 because it's a better revision, and the Biostar mobo gets good reviews.

 

[mindless1]

OEM BE555 since you're already planning on an upgrade 'sink. Odds of unlocking at least one more core are pretty good.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103818

Today and looking forward I'd get a board with USB3. Yes add-on cards are cheap but why a card when you don't have to have it? Surely we will all use USB3 in a couple years when peripherals start appearing at competitive prices and whatever you build will surely be viable for many uses still at that point in time.

Personally I'd also consider going with a board chipset like 880G that has integrated video - when you are done using it as a gaming box it won't need the power hungry video card in it anymore for other uses whether that be an office box, HTPC, etc.

 

[outbursterx]

Hey thanks for the replies. I'll be using my old 20" dell(no hd)@1680x1050, keyboard, g5 mouse, 2.1 speakers/ice mat headphones, all on XP. Just wanted this computer for word processing, watching videos, and a few games. I'm thinking I'll just be playing street fighter 4, and starcraft 2.

I thought a bit about the processor, but can't spend the extra cash.


AMD Athlon II X4 635 2.9GHz C3 $100.99

Biostar A785G3 785G mATX mobo $64.99

G SKILL 4GB 1333 80.99

Antec 300 Illusion + Antec 430W Green PSU $84.98

Radeon HD 4850 512mb 99.99

Artic Silver 5+Reading light combo- 9.99

$501.14 (shippin+tax)

Cooler Master 212+ $29.99 (Amazon)

$36.16 (shippin+tax)


Total: 537.30 (shippin+tax)


OR

AMD Phenom II X2 550 80.99

ASUS M4A88T-M 99.99

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB 89.99($10 off)

Radeon HD 4850 512MB 99.99($10 rebate)

Antec 300 Illusion + Antec 430W Green PSU $84.98

Artic Silver 5+Reading light combo- 9.99
___
$527.16 (shippin+tax)

Cooler Master 212+ $29.99 (Amazon)

$36.16 (shippin+tax)

Total: 563.32


Sorry have a few more questions...
Would you guys rather go with the RIP JAWS 1600, or the regular 1333?
Does it matter about what hard drives I use?
I think the motherboard on my other computer died, so I pulled out a maxtor 160 ata/133 and a WD 40gb from it hehe. Thinking about upgrading later on, maybe in a year.
If any, is there a piece that I could go cheaper on?

Whew thanks guys.

 

[repoman0]

Go with the regular 1333, higher memory bandwidth doesn't really matter. Latency is more important (lower timings)

Also if I were you I'd get the cheaper of the two motherboards along with the cheaper X2 550 and get yourself a new hard drive. Mechanical disks are the slowest part of any modern system and a fast 500GB or 640GB drive will be a huge improvement over those old pieces of crap that you'd be using otherwise.

If need be get a $37 Sempron 140 to make room in the budget for a new hard drive. Unlock it to a dual core for now and upgrade it later. You should be able to fit a better CPU + HDD in the budget though.

 

[richierich1212]

Well it looks like the 212+ from Amazon is backordered. You can get a refurbed one directly from Cooler Master for $14.99 + shipping/tax. Good deal:

http://cmstore.coolermaster-usa.com/product_info.php?products_id=412

 

[Arkaign]

Dude ditch the 212+ for now, and get this PhII X4 945 instead w/stock cooler.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103809

Then get a better cooler later if you want to OC. The stock cooler for stock speeds is MORE than good enough, and the PhII 945 will max out a 4850 all day long at stock speeds.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

Dude ditch the 212+ for now, and get this PhII X4 945 instead w/stock cooler.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103809

Then get a better cooler later if you want to OC. The stock cooler for stock speeds is MORE than good enough, and the PhII 945 will max out a 4850 all day long at stock speeds.

Seconded. It's about the same price as the Athlon X4/aftermarket HSF. I'd go with a faster per clock (5-25% in typical situations) Phenom 2 over an Athlon 2 if the price is right. In this case it is.

 

[daveybrat]

AMD Athlon II X3 440 Rana 3.0GHz Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Desktop Processor ADX440WFGIBOX
Item #: N82E16819103843

NZXT GAMMA Classic Series GAMA-001BK Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Item #: N82E16811146061

Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Item #: N82E16822136073

BIOSTAR A785G3 AM3 AMD 785G Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
Item #: N82E16813138182

MSI N250GTS Twin Frozr GeForce GTS 250 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
Item #: N82E16814127495

Rosewill RV2-700 700W ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V SLI Ready Power Supply
Item #: N82E16817182173

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL
Item #: N82E16820231277

With the Promo codes for the ram and hard drive applied the total comes to $475.93 and their is a $30 mail-in rebate on the video card making the final grand total:

$445.93 + $9.99 shipping

This is an extremely fast system, very ugradeable, AND includes a new 500GB hard drive that will be significantly faster than your old IDE Maxtor drives.

 

[TemjinGold]

Dude ditch the 212+ for now, and get this PhII X4 945 instead w/stock cooler.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103809

Then get a better cooler later if you want to OC. The stock cooler for stock speeds is MORE than good enough, and the PhII 945 will max out a 4850 all day long at stock speeds.

Agreed. Absolutely no reason to waste money on aftermarket cooling when your budget is that tight and it sounds like you don't plan on OCing anyway based on your usage, which means the money spent on the sink is a total waste.

 

[mindless1]

I couldn't disagree more. The aftermarket cooler allows higher o'c, the fan will last longer at lower RPM, and at lower RPM it can remain quiet even overclocked (more). A multi-hundred dollar system build can easily squeeze a $20-30 'sink in, in the end the goal is not highest benchmark no matter what, it is the sum of the parts, a system you like till it's time to upgrade again.

 

[Face2Face]

I would go with a different Mobo---Cheap 8 series chipset 870 or 880-- try to get USB 3.0 and sata 3 if you can. everything else looks fine.

 

[Arkaign]

I couldn't disagree more. The aftermarket cooler allows higher o'c, the fan will last longer at lower RPM, and at lower RPM it can remain quiet even overclocked (more). A multi-hundred dollar system build can easily squeeze a $20-30 'sink in, in the end the goal is not highest benchmark no matter what, it is the sum of the parts, a system you like till it's time to upgrade again.

This isn't a Prescott or an Athlon XP we're talking about here, it's a 45nm X4, they're not that toasty. I haven't seen a CPU fan fail in I don't know how long. I also prefer aftermarket cooling but while it's easy to grab a decent $20-$30 cooler 6 months down the road, it's a PITA to try to sell an existing CPU, put $130 together, and buy a replacement CPU.

So :

PhII X4 w/212+ > PhIIX4 w/stock > A4 w/212+. And the budget is basically the exact same for the two best scenarios.

 

[TemjinGold]

I couldn't disagree more. The aftermarket cooler allows higher o'c, the fan will last longer at lower RPM, and at lower RPM it can remain quiet even overclocked (more). A multi-hundred dollar system build can easily squeeze a $20-30 'sink in, in the end the goal is not highest benchmark no matter what, it is the sum of the parts, a system you like till it's time to upgrade again.

Look at the OP's planned usage post. I seriously doubt he's planning on OCing at all. Hence the sink is a waste of money.

 

[edplayer]

I also vote for the Phenom II X4. You can even do a little overclocking with the stock hsf.

If you live near a Fry's, they will have the best deal on a motherboard/cpu combo

 

[Arkaign]

This mobo is well reviewed, has Sata 6.0gb, usb 3.0, supports x6, etc. Seems decent for $75 free shipping. As you're not using xfire or onboard video apparently, this might be ideal for the $.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157195

 

[outbursterx]

Thanks for all the responses guys, really made me consider things I wouldn't have thought of. So it's going to look something like this:

Antec Three Hundred Illusion+Powersupply

ASRock 770 EXTREME3

http://detonator.dynamitedata.com/c...t/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.432088MSI N250GTS Twin Frozr GeForce GTS 250

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB

Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM

AMD Phenom II X4 Deneb or AMD Athlon II X3 440 Rana

I'll be gathering the parts in the next couple of months, so I'll be sitting on the decision of which processor to go with for a little bit. About the heat sink I'll see how the combo deals will be at fry's or microcenter at the time before I consider it. Thanks for the info again everyone.

 

[Arkaign]

Looks pretty nice. That case and PSU combo will be great for airflow compared to a lot of others, making the need for better CPU/GPU/Mobo cooling less important until you really start overclocking components (if you ever do). Stock it will be wonderful, and I'd even say that you could probably hit 3.4ghz or so on all stock cooling while still being in very comfortable ranges. With the class of GPU that you're going with though, I honestly would just leave things stock, perhaps tighten ram timing some, but it will be extremely well balanced out of the box.

As you're assembling this over a short period of time (~2 months?), leave the GPU for your last purchase, or jump on a steal along the way perhaps. There's nothing wrong with a GTS250, particularly for 1680x1050 duty, but if you can squeeze in a 5770 or if Nvidia brings a GT450 to the table sometime soon, that would be a decent improvement.

 

[perdomot]

I would make two points:
1. If you are going to buy DDR3, there is no reason to stay with the AMD 7xx series mobos and lose out on usb 3.0 and sata 6GB. Not this combo from newegg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.444550
There are over 100 combo deals on that cpu so check them out:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ize=100&Page=1

2. The video card should be from the HD 5xxx line so you can take advantage of all the new technologies. Based on several reviews, I chose this HD 5670 card and have been happy with the performance:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102870
The MIR makes it even more affordable. Got two PC monitors and my HDTV hooked up to this card and it is flawless. I took advantage of the combo deal on this card to get an active displayport adapter too.