Welp, I can't take it any longer! My old rig quit working for me about a year and half ago (cheap PSU, noob mistake), and since then my money has been tied up in school and a variety of other hobbies. Well my brother has a decent budget build I did for him a year ago, and I hate only being restricted to my Xbox 360. So anyways, after hours of studying the internet more so than my college course to get caught up on the latest tech, here is what I am planning on building this summer around June:
Case: Antec Nine Hundred
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16811129021
CPU: AMD Phenom II x3 720 BE (plan on overclocking to ~3.6ghz)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819103649
XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler (and some Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Paste)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16835233003
Mobo: Asus M4A78T-E AM3 790GX/SB750
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813131366
Memory: OCZ Platinum 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600 7-7-7-24 OCZ3P1600EB4GK
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820227286
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 4890 1GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814127427
Hard Drive: Western Digital 1TB 7200rpm SATA 3.0gbs WD1001FALS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16822136284
PSU: OCZ StealthXStream 700w OCZ700SXS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817341019
DVD: Samsung SH-S223Q 22x DVD+-RW Burner
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16827151173
This rig will primarily be used for gaming, some 3d modeling and photoshop
I'm looking for around $1000 to $1250
I live in the US and will most likely buy my parts from newegg.com
I'm primarily an AMD fanboy, was an Nvidia fan until AMD aquired ATI. But right now I'm looking for the most performance for my dollar, and based upon what I've researched that would be an AMD/ATI solution, but I am OPEN to any suggestions.
I've asked the same question on tomshardware.com forums, and only got some suggestions based on users personal opinions, but my major questions have yet to be answered (memory speed vs timings primarily).
I plan on overclocking at least to 3.6. Most benchmarks show little improvement past 3.6ghz, but I will benchmark it myself as high as I can push it, although I feel like 3.6 will do fine.
I'm planing to build this system either mid May or mid June, depending on what summer job i get back home.
This current system above will set me back a bit over 1k. I also plan on buying the Razer Barracuda HP-1 headphones and possibly an Auzentech Forte 7.1 soundcard depending on how my finances go over the summer (gotta save up for school next semester too). What are your all opinions on a discrete sound card versus onboard audio? Headphone preferences?
After all my research, I decided for now to stick with my Gateway 22" LCD (crap), and later on upgrade to possibly the new Dell G2210 22" LCD with LED backlighting, or a monitor with a PVA panel. But anyways, I decided for now to stay with a 22" monitor and 1680x1050 resolution, which also justifies this single GPU card build. If I went to a 24" and 1900x1200 resolution, I'd be compelled to buy a second video card, thus uping the cost of upgrading my monitor an extra $300 to $400 for a second card and 24" LCD over a 22" LCD. I'm happy with the resolution of my current 22" and spending the extra dough for a 24" just isn't worth it to me.
I chose an all AMD/ATI system because of the "Dragon" platform. Because I am only using one graphics card, the 790GX north bridge makes more sense considering I'm not planning on crossfire at the moment. Also, the onboard video supposedly helps to improve graphics performances with an ATI Radeon card, thus another reason why I chose the 4890. In the past I've always been an Nvidia fan, but because now that AMD owns ATI, but my allegiance has changed due to the price per performance of AMD and ATI.
As mentioned I plan on putting this together in June hopefully, but I don't expect anything is going to be released that soon to my knowledge. Other than anybody's personnel experience and suggestions, my only question I am seeking is suggestions on memory. I am planning on overclocking, but for the time being only to 3.6ghz since speeds of 3.8 and 4.0 don't improve performance much with this system configuration. Should I consider DDR3 1333 with slighty tighter timings, 6-6-6-20 vs 7-7-7-24 on the DDR3 1600? Also, for the same price of the 4GB of DDR3 1600 I could get 6GB of DDR3 1333 with the same timings of 7-7-7-24, but would the extra memory really be worth it over faster memory and overclocking?
Case: Antec Nine Hundred
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16811129021
CPU: AMD Phenom II x3 720 BE (plan on overclocking to ~3.6ghz)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819103649
XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler (and some Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Paste)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16835233003
Mobo: Asus M4A78T-E AM3 790GX/SB750
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813131366
Memory: OCZ Platinum 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600 7-7-7-24 OCZ3P1600EB4GK
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820227286
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 4890 1GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814127427
Hard Drive: Western Digital 1TB 7200rpm SATA 3.0gbs WD1001FALS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16822136284
PSU: OCZ StealthXStream 700w OCZ700SXS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817341019
DVD: Samsung SH-S223Q 22x DVD+-RW Burner
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16827151173
This rig will primarily be used for gaming, some 3d modeling and photoshop
I'm looking for around $1000 to $1250
I live in the US and will most likely buy my parts from newegg.com
I'm primarily an AMD fanboy, was an Nvidia fan until AMD aquired ATI. But right now I'm looking for the most performance for my dollar, and based upon what I've researched that would be an AMD/ATI solution, but I am OPEN to any suggestions.
I've asked the same question on tomshardware.com forums, and only got some suggestions based on users personal opinions, but my major questions have yet to be answered (memory speed vs timings primarily).
I plan on overclocking at least to 3.6. Most benchmarks show little improvement past 3.6ghz, but I will benchmark it myself as high as I can push it, although I feel like 3.6 will do fine.
I'm planing to build this system either mid May or mid June, depending on what summer job i get back home.
This current system above will set me back a bit over 1k. I also plan on buying the Razer Barracuda HP-1 headphones and possibly an Auzentech Forte 7.1 soundcard depending on how my finances go over the summer (gotta save up for school next semester too). What are your all opinions on a discrete sound card versus onboard audio? Headphone preferences?
After all my research, I decided for now to stick with my Gateway 22" LCD (crap), and later on upgrade to possibly the new Dell G2210 22" LCD with LED backlighting, or a monitor with a PVA panel. But anyways, I decided for now to stay with a 22" monitor and 1680x1050 resolution, which also justifies this single GPU card build. If I went to a 24" and 1900x1200 resolution, I'd be compelled to buy a second video card, thus uping the cost of upgrading my monitor an extra $300 to $400 for a second card and 24" LCD over a 22" LCD. I'm happy with the resolution of my current 22" and spending the extra dough for a 24" just isn't worth it to me.
I chose an all AMD/ATI system because of the "Dragon" platform. Because I am only using one graphics card, the 790GX north bridge makes more sense considering I'm not planning on crossfire at the moment. Also, the onboard video supposedly helps to improve graphics performances with an ATI Radeon card, thus another reason why I chose the 4890. In the past I've always been an Nvidia fan, but because now that AMD owns ATI, but my allegiance has changed due to the price per performance of AMD and ATI.
As mentioned I plan on putting this together in June hopefully, but I don't expect anything is going to be released that soon to my knowledge. Other than anybody's personnel experience and suggestions, my only question I am seeking is suggestions on memory. I am planning on overclocking, but for the time being only to 3.6ghz since speeds of 3.8 and 4.0 don't improve performance much with this system configuration. Should I consider DDR3 1333 with slighty tighter timings, 6-6-6-20 vs 7-7-7-24 on the DDR3 1600? Also, for the same price of the 4GB of DDR3 1600 I could get 6GB of DDR3 1333 with the same timings of 7-7-7-24, but would the extra memory really be worth it over faster memory and overclocking?
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