Another "Build Suggestions" thread...

jalu6

jalu6

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I haven't upgraded my computer in about 3 years, and while I was helping a friend get ready for his A+ exam, it sort of gave me the bug to upgrade.

I picked out a bunch of parts on Newegg that I thought struck a good balance between budget and performance, and since I really only play WoW and Guild Wars on my PC, I don't need a crazy rig that will be playing Crysis a few months from now. But I do want it to run Vista smoothly, and I do want it to have some media center capabilities.

My problem is I am never sure if I got the right parts... I may have a decent mobo picked out, but I never know if theres a better one that I may have overlooked.

Anyway, here's what I came up with...

Mobo - GIGABYTE GA-M59SLI-S5 Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce 590
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16813128011

CPU - AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16819103747

RAM - Kingston 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820134046

PSU - Rosewill RP550V2-D-SL 550W
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16817182030

Vid Card - XFX PVT71PUDP3 GeForce 7900GS 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16814150202

The video card is always the most difficult. I realize its a terrible time to buy a new card, with DX10 around the corner, and I have a decent one now (BFG 6800GT) but I bought THAT card about week before PCI-E hit the market, so I don't really have a choice but to upgrade. So I'm really only looking for something that will give me slightly better performance, but doesn't so much that I'll feel bad about upgrading about a year from now.
 
I built a similar system recently. I went with a slightly faster proc though; only $20 more for 2.4 GHz. If you decide to stick with the 2.2 you may as well go for the 65W model. It's the same price.

I noticed that your mobo supports 800 MHz DDR2, but you chose 667 MHz. Mistake? Kingston seems to be a more expensive brand too, but lacks the specs to back it up (in my observation anyway).

I like my new 7900GS, but that's an upgrade from an old FX5900, so I don't know how much of a difference you'll see compared to your previous card.

You may want to go with a higher wattage PSU if you plan on doing SLI down the road.
 
Thanks for the suggestions, I didn't even notice the 65W version (this is the kind of stuff I'm talking about me overlooking.)

The RAM wasn't a mistake, I noticed the lower speed. Basically I was just looking for a good deal and 2Gig for a little over $100 seemed pretty good. I don't know all that much about what brands are high or low quality, do you have any suggestions about what to look for?

I highly doubt I'll ever be going SLI, but thats something to keep in mind for way down the road.
 
[quote name='jalu6']The RAM wasn't a mistake, I noticed the lower speed. Basically I was just looking for a good deal and 2Gig for a little over $100 seemed pretty good. I don't know all that much about what brands are high or low quality, do you have any suggestions about what to look for?[/quote] A-DATA (the brand I purchased) has 2 GBs of 800 MHz for $119, less than 15 more than your choice. It doesn't have the best specs, but the reviews were positive and it's probably comparable to the Kingston stuff (Newegg doesn't list the timings for the Kingston ram, but the cas latency is the same). GeIL offers a pair with more aggressive timings for $11 more than the A-DATA. I don't know how much impact that has in real-world performance, but if you're the type that fights for every fps in your games, it's something to consider.
 
Hmm, last night I looked at the A-DATA but since I've never heard of the brand before I wasn't sure of the quality. I don't play a ton of FPSs on my PC and especially online so this should be fine with me. I'll give this one a shot.

Thanks for the advice.
 
I'd wait a bit longer on the GPU... Nvidia will release their low and mid range DX10 cards and ATI will release their R600 line (meaning everything from low to high end). That'll surely cause price drops all over.

Now's a good time to build because of how cheap HDs and memory have gotten as of late. AMD's processors are cheaper too but... why AMD? Honestly, it looks like AMD is being hit with blow after blow from Intel.

I'd look at getting a more powerful PS, something aroung 600 watts.
 
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