AM3/DDR3 Phenom Build

[alpha88]

I'm looking to build a new gaming desktop, for such games as Empire: Total War, Civ 4, Supreme Commander. I also will run VMWare for my work. It's also gonna play movies for me.

I'm looking to spend less than $1000 today. I'll be purchasing from local stores in SoCal (ie Frys or Microcenter) or online (Newegg)

Thus far, I've only built AMD systems (with nVidia cards).

Current Parts:
150gig Raptor X
Various bigger storage drives
600 Watt Seasonic PSU
8800 GTS 640 meg
Many Cases
DVD Burner

I'm planning on overclocking and will buy within the next few days.

This is what I'm thinking of building:

PSU: Seasonic 600W (Already using)
CPU: AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz Socket AM3 - $169
Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-MA790FXT-UD5P AM3 DDR3 AMD 790FX - $179
RAM: OCZ Special Ops Urban Elite (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 - $99
Video Card: Radeon 4870 1GB (Asus) - $249 or reuse my 8800 GTS
Hard Drive: 150 gig Raptor X
Monitors: Dual 1920x1200
OS: Windows Vista Ultimate 64bit

 

[AstroManLuca]

What's your current mobo/CPU?

 

[Syran]

Why DDR3? It's pretty useless on the AMD scene. Only reason to do it on the Intel scene is for I7 processors.
Check out the Anandtech post on the front page, and save yourself some cash.

 

[betasub]

Is Empire:TW available yet? Does it make use of multiple cores (unlike its predecessors in the TW series)? Nevertheless, Supreme Commander will make multi-core use of your chosen CPU.

 

[alpha88]

I'm currently using a Opteron 165 on a s939 (with 2 gigs of DDR)

I feel that the price difference for an AM3 mobo with DDR3 compared to an AM2+/DDR2 is relatively minor compared to the increased upgrade options in a year.

Next year, when I want to add more ram, DDR3 will be cheaper than DDR2. And I imagine I'll have more CPU upgrade options as well.

 

[hans007]

why spend $179 on an overpriced am3 board and ddr3 ram that costs way more than ddr2 just to upgrade to ddr3 ram in the future.

you can probably get a 790gx/fx based board for $100 if you go with a lesser brand like jetway. and then you can save maybe $60 on ram if you get ddr2.

might as well just buy 8gb of ddr2 and a 790fx based am2+ board, for $70 less than an am3 board with 4gb of overpriced ocz ram.

 

[Denithor]

For those prices you can get an i7 system with much better performance.

 

[alpha88]

I'm pretty sure I can't get a good i7 mobo for $179 or an i7 chip for $169.

I figure I'm paying roughly $50 more for AM3/DDR3 vs a similar quality AM2+/DDR2 (And yes I realize that budget versions of AM2+/DDR2 exist). I don't think this is too much extra to pay for the potential for an easy upgrade in the future.

 

[zerocool84]

Originally posted by: alpha88
I'm pretty sure I can't get a good i7 mobo for $179 or an i7 chip for $169.

I figure I'm paying roughly $50 more for AM3/DDR3 vs a similar quality AM2+/DDR2 (And yes I realize that budget versions of AM2+/DDR2 exist). I don't think this is too much extra to pay for the potential for an easy upgrade in the future.

You must be looking at some really expensive DDR2 and AM2+ boards.