Additional generic "how's my build?" thread

[homicsbane]

Greets,

I used to be all about building PCs and whatnot in high school. My last system I built in 2003/4 was an Athlon XP, Radeon 9500 and additional other similarly old components. Just over 3 years ago I bought a laptop as I wanted one for when I travel and to play games at the same time.

Fast forward to today.

I think it's about time I look at building a mchine again. The laptop won't cut it anymore for games (though it's held out alot longer than I thought it would)that I might get in the future.

I'm not really looking to spend alot at all, but I want something half decent that will last me long enough without having to upgrade something within the next couple of years. I just bought myself a new monitor last week, an HP 2509m. I know, it's a TN etc... but it was on sale for $200 and I had a $50 gift card...couldn't go wrong and it looks great for the price I paid. As its native resolution is 1920x1080, I'd like to be able to play at that resolution as much as humanly possible. The laptop even runs CS:S with everything max and 2xAA & 2xAF at that setting, and Star Trek Online same resolution and mediumish details. Using that as a benchmark, I'm sure whatever my next system is will completely clobber the laptop.

Anyways, onto the important bits. I did as much research as I could and did some shopping around. Best place for prices was a locally based retail chain.

This is what I've been thinking of for system specs:

Coolermaster Elite 310 (its $47. I know cases have gotten a little cheaper but it seems like it will do just fine)
Phenom II x6 1055T
ASUS M4A87TD/USB3 (would it really be worth the extra $$ for a 890 chipset..?)
Mushkin PC 10666 Silverline 8GB kit (2x 4GB)
Seagate 1TB 7200.12 (are the Seagates trustworthy again after what happened with the .11?)
DVD Burner (I dont care which one I buy, theyre mostly $20 anyway)
Sapphire 6850 1GB
Corsair CX600 PSU

All in all it comes out to $790CDN. I'd like to keep the money I spend as close to that as possible. I'm not a hardcore gamer at all, but sometimes I have hardcore stretches I guess. I'm never going to crossfire/SLI anything and as long as the framerate is smooth (around 60fps) I'm happy. I doubt I'll overclock anytime soon, but further down the road that is a possibility.

I also sometimes do some video encoding for making AVCHD discs so I'm sure that's where the 6 cores would probably come in handy.

What do you think?

 

[homicsbane]

I just read up on the new "Sandy Bridge" CPUs. Maybe that's a better way to go..?

 

[Wathnix]

Seagates are not reliable, their drives are having big problems, go with either a Hitachi drive (best in quality) or a Western Digital Black edition with 64 MB cache (high speed drive)

Looks like the 890 chipset gives you more video card slots and a few other bells, this won't be important to you unless you plan on adding another video card in the near future and going 'crossfire'

 

[Theocnoob]

I'd go to 4GB of RAM and a 1090T processor because it has more overclockability. I'd also add an aftermarket cooler. Overclocking isn't really that difficult. It can just be time consuming if you have a nit-picky made on monday part or two.

 

[Adhoc]

You might as well get the 1090T with that memory at that speed, and it'll make overclocking a breeze too

 

[bigben6]

1090t and drop to 4gb RAM unless you know you will need 8gb

 

[homicsbane]

Alright, so 1090T and 4GB instead.

Overclocking aside, would this system be decent enough overall to last me about 2 years?

 

[bigben6]

Yeah deffinitly, stock it'll be good for a few years and an oc will give u even more time....

 

[homicsbane]

Awesome.

I just had a look at several charts on the new i5-2500k. Looks pretty good considering it seems to be on par with or better than some of the i7's from last year.

I priced out a new system with all the same components except for cpu I have the 2500k, motherboard a Gigabyte P67A-UD3, and 4GB of XMS3 instead of the 8GB of mushkin. With this combo, the price goes up to about $830 CDN.

Would it be more feasible to go down this path, especially since it's a new platform and the AM3+ is due to be released at some point (whevener that is)?

 

[Wathnix]

I would not bother waiting for AM3+, there is always something new around the corner, an i5 is a good product

 

[homicsbane]

Ended up going down to Memory Express today. Here's what I bought:

i5 2500k
Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD3
Sapphire Radeon 6850 Toxic
Antec Three Hundred
4GB Corsair XMS3 1600mhz
Seagate 7200.12 1TB
Samsung 24x DVD writer

 

[bigben6]

Only thing id say is go back and get the illusion instead of the 300, they fill it with fans for cheap...