New Build, Need advice

[dantonicelli]

Hello,
I am in need of a new system, and any suggestions, or rating on my chosen components would be greatly appreciated.

My current system is the following: Athlon 64 Venice 3200 (2.0GHz), Abit AX8 939 MOBO, 2GB DDR memory, Nvidia 7600GT.

The new system will be used for the following:

1. It will run Linux(Ubuntu) as the primary OS, and Windows XP just for gaming.(Not sure if hardware compatibility could be an issue with linux.)
2. Light Gaming - just Starcraft, Starcraft2, Counter Strike Source for now.
3. Video Encoding - I currently don't do much of this due to how painful it is on my current system, but would like to do a LOT more of it. Editing home videos, transcoding them etc..
4. Music - I rip all my CDs to various formats, and will continue to do so from time to time as I purchase them
5. Movies - I rip all my DVDs to my hard drive, and watch them on my computer and tv, and will continue to do so as I purchase new ones.
6. Standard computer usage - Word processing, Internet browsing, etc...

Parts I currently have: all peripherals, hard drives, DVD drives.

I am not sure how powerful of a PSU I require, I believe the current 400W enermax I have would be enough, however I might want to keep that system, and turn it into a server. So I may need another PSU.
Parts I am looking at:

• ASUS M4A88T-M/USB3 AM3 AMD 880G USB 3.0 HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
• AMD Athlon II X4 640 Propus 3.0GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor ADX640WFGMBOX
• G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-8GBRL
• SAPPHIRE 100283-3L Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

and for PSU one of these two I could get either of these for about $59 after rebates. (not sure if they are overkill for this system)

• Antec NEO ECO 520C 520W Continuous Power ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
• CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 ...

I am not Absolutely Set on AMD, although I am a little partial to them. I figure with an AM3 mobo, I could always drop in a better CPU like a 1090T in a year or 2, while with an 1156 intel chipset I may not have as many choices.


Thanks for any input.

 

[mfenn]

Your build looks good. With a 5770, your build should be fine with your 400W Enermax. Since you need another PSU anyway, I think the 650TX is a better deal.

Since you will be using Linux primarily, I would consider going with an Nvidia GPU like the GTX 460 though. ATI (AMD now I guess) has been had historically had VERY poor Linux support. It's probably fine if you don't need DRI (ie. use Metacity instead of Compiz), but ATI on Linux is not worth the headache IMHO.

 

[dantonicelli]

Your build looks good. With a 5770, your build should be fine with your 400W Enermax. Since you need another PSU anyway, I think the 650TX is a better deal.

Since you will be using Linux primarily, I would consider going with an Nvidia GPU like the GTX 460 though. ATI (AMD now I guess) has been had historically had VERY poor Linux support. It's probably fine if you don't need DRI (ie. use Metacity instead of Compiz), but ATI on Linux is not worth the headache IMHO.

Thanks for your response. I've done a little research on the ATI linux support, and it seems that AMD has put out some working drivers as of late. I also searched "ubuntu 5770 problems" and "GTX 460 problems" I've gotten hits for both with people having issues with both cards.

I'm wondering if it is really worth it going for the 460 over the 5770. Anyone have any further input regarding the "linux vs ATI" Issue, or my build?

Thanks

 

[Sp12]

Does your video encoding need 8GB? Do you mulittask that heavily? IMO 4GB would be fine for those jobs, but I'm not you so I don't know how much you really expect to use.

Reason I ask is that you could drop the 8GB of ram and use the money to move to an X6 Phenom chip, which would help in video encoding/multitasking, and to a smaller extent in gaming.

I've had great success with both ATI and Nvidia on linux, though in general the two ATI cards I've tested have worked better in Wine. Speaking of which, WINE has some pretty good ratings for the three games you have listed, so you could consider trying wine first instead of dealing with dual-booting windows.