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My First Build

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M

markk

New Member
Joined
Dec 29, 2010
Hello All,

This is my first time trying to build an adequate gaming PC on a budget.
I currently have a stock HP Pavilion a1630n with the exception of the GeForce 9600 GT I have in it. I am basically looking to upgrade my whole rig.

Currently this is what I'm thinking of buying:

COOLER MASTER Storm Scout - 89.99
AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Thuban 3.2GHz - 229.00
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus (Heat Sink) - 29.99
Crucial 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 - 51.99
ASUS M4A88T-V - 109.99
Antec EarthWatts EA650 650W Power Supply - 69.99

And as far as the hard drive I plan on reusing the one I have in my Pavilion.
For the graphics card I plan on using the 9600 GT I currently have.

Total Cost: 580.95

I would like to receive some feedback on this setup. And suggestions or opinions would help. And being that it is my first build I would appreciate it if someone could confirm that the above items are compatible.

Thanks a lot! :attn:
 
It looks good so far. The video card will be a big bottle neck. You can also get better ram from g.skill for less money. That board/CPU combo is good and will last you a couple of years. If you want to save 30$ check out the antec 300. It's a great case for 60$
 
Id also recommed going with the haf-922 same price as the sniper case

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119197&cm_re=haf-922-_-11-119-197-_-Product

because of its larger dimensions 22.20" x 10.00" x 19.70 vs 19.20" x 8.60" x 19.50"

which will give you more room for cable management(thus better airflow and cleaner look) but will also allow you to have big cards and big heatsinks when you upgrade in the future

personally id say go with more ram 8 gb is goodyour dvd encoding and video encoding is pretty ram intensive from what i gather, so id assume its pretty similiar for video encoding right? more ram = faster encoding
 
Last edited:
The gigabyte ud3 is also a board to look at. It has 2 pci 2.0, sata 6 and USB 3. All for around 100$
 
Thanks for all the feedback.
So far I think I am ging to get the Antec Three Hundred instead of my previous case choice, since I like the inconspicuous look.
And I also decided Ill probably go for the G.SKILL Ripjaws seeing as they have such great reviews and are often recommended.
However I do have a dillemma. I dont know whether I should go for the AMD Phenom II X6 or save almost $100 by going with the AMD Phenom II X4 955.
By going with the cheaper one I should have enough to get a new hard drive like the Western Digital 1TB, and possibly Windows 7 OS.

My question is, will going with the Phanom II X4 significantly reduce performance or will it be almost unnoticeable with current games/multi tasking?
 
When gaming you will not notice any difference. No game uses all 6 cores. The 955 is a great overclocker and will work well with that set up.For the hard drive I would go with the wd black with 64mb of cache.

Edit: if you do a lot of multitasking then the t1055 would also be good and it can be overclocked the 4ghz easy.
 
Last edited:
NO games use 6 cores.... right now... 6 core will be future proofing to a degree, i faced the same dillema, i chose the 955 because I beleive it will be a LONG time till a OC 955 at say 3.8Ghz will be completely outdated and un usable, AND you can wait a year till hex cores are down in price or about to stop production and then swap one in for a nice performance bump, and get a better HD and OS NOW...

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/88?vs=146
THere is a nice 1090T Vs 955 BE comparison, the important piece is at the bottom where Frame rate is so close it is not a factor IMO...

IF you OC your 955 to say 970 speeds (given they are the same friggin thing this is 99% a sure thing) you get this:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/186?vs=146

Look at fallout3 for instance, your talking 1 frame per second now between the 955 and the 1090: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/CPU/47
 
markk said:
However I do have a dillemma. I dont know whether I should go for the AMD Phenom II X6 or save almost $100 by going with the AMD Phenom II X4 955.
By going with the cheaper one I should have enough to get a new hard drive like the Western Digital 1TB, and possibly Windows 7 OS.

My question is, will going with the Phanom II X4 significantly reduce performance or will it be almost unnoticeable with current games/multi tasking?
Click to expand...

Yes there is quote significant performance difference between those two if utilized to full potential, i would suggest AMD Phenom II X6 1055T Thuban 2.8GHz its much closer performance wise to AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition 3.2GHz than AMD Phenom II X4 955, but its only $35 more, check here http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103851
 
Yea save the money on the cpu upgrade and stick with the phenom II 955 if mainly all you do is game. A new hard drive is pretty important too since it will be the main bottleneck if your old drives are very slow.

This is why some people say ssd upgrades feels like a new cpu/ram upgrade.
 
markk said:
Thanks, Ill probably go with the GIGABYTE GA-880GA-UD3H seeing as it has SATA 6Gb/s, and the ASUS M4A88T-V does not.
Click to expand...



Why not go with the biostar ta890fxe, its the same price at tiger direct:http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...keywords=ta890fxe&searchbtn.x=0&searchbtn.y=0

Comparison Link though i would not buy it form newegg, but reall what is the gigabyte offering that the biostar isnt, that you NEED to have... better northbridge in the Biosatar, and more PCI 2.0 slots

My .02
 
I guess if your not getting a dedicated GPU the Gigabyte is worth the money then, best of luck hope it works out well for you, good rig for a very good price!
 
I was looking over the compatibility of the items I chose one last time and I noticed the motherboard supports DDR3 1866(OC)/1333/1066. However the RAM I chose is DDR3 1600, will these be incompatible??
 
I should just run at 1333 i beleive, or possibly yo ucan OC it at 1600 OR 1866 or anything in between, your system will run though don't worry
 
bigben6 said:
Why not go with the biostar ta890fxe, its the same price at tiger direct:http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...keywords=ta890fxe&searchbtn.x=0&searchbtn.y=0

Comparison Link though i would not buy it form newegg, but reall what is the gigabyte offering that the biostar isnt, that you NEED to have... better northbridge in the Biosatar, and more PCI 2.0 slots

My .02
Click to expand...

It has usb3 and sata 6. in the next year you will see much more things coming out that takes advantage of them.

markk said:
I was looking over the compatibility of the items I chose one last time and I noticed the motherboard supports DDR3 1866(OC)/1333/1066. However the RAM I chose is DDR3 1600, will these be incompatible??
Click to expand...

The ram will work. 1600 is just the max it is rated at so you can overclock it.
 
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