Ah yesh, I actually am getting a caviar black 750 gig hardrive, I had less funds then I hoped for.

The mother board I am considering is: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813131402

Its recieved some fairly nice reviews, though im not sure about its chipset?

The process and ram:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDeal ... mbo.286563

+graphics card HD4890

This look alright?

Thanks
KB

perfect!

the board look alright, processor ram are fine, you should be fine ...
however you could get 2 hdd, and raid them. but 1 hd is also fine.

what have you planned for casing ?

Ahh this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811103011

I would recommend against that board due to it's audio chipset.
The realtek chips are far better than the VIA ones in my experience.

I would recommend This.

I did look at that one actually, the only gripe i had with it was the onboard video, will that conflict with my HD4890?

No, not at all, quite the opposite, you may be able to get them to work together, check out 'hybrid crossfire'.
Besides, as with all onboard video, it can be disabled.

I thought the one you were looking at was a GX? I thought they had onboard!

What operating system do you plan on running? Windows (which version) or something else? The reason I ask is it may make a difference in which board you would want.

none as of right now, dad will prolly let me have his old windows xp software.

kanga, dont get too confused and held up by all this.. buy whatever you can buy, in the end, your computer wont be behind. Id say the config you plan to buy isnt that much different from intel i7. You wouldnt notice much difference really. besides you are paying far far less. just pick a board (peanut suggested for example) and buy it, dont look further. You wont get any better.

Your config looks very close to mine. Trust me i dont have any problems .. i have upgraded from intel D. its fastest one ive ever been on. Doubt if i could get better.

Anyway you graphics card looks really nice. It should work well, and everything together will work well. Take care.

P.S- could you post the final parts you decided?

Thanks Mate!

Heres the specs

Case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811103011

HArdDrive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822136283

Motherboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813128398

Processor & Ram:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDeal ... mbo.286563

Pricey for a case i know, but it has super reviews and i like the style.
Pricey for a computer too.

Thanks mates hope to purchase tommorow!

KB

i'd love to throw in a spanner : )

i've been browsing, im not right up to date. but!

i think you might regret not going with intel.

the new LGA 1156 format looks awesome with that combined north/south. maybe you could save a bit on the case, save up a few weeks longer, beg for some change etc and go with a nice shiny i5 system? there isnt THAT much price difference at the level youre talking. i have no experience with i5/7, but intel systems are always a nice path to something plush at the higher end.
plush. i need to use that word more.

has anyone used an evga motherboard? that company has style. theyre going to go far if their hardware's as well made as it looks. i know their g cards are fine.

dont listen to laptop, if you ask him whether or not he would buy an intel, (when he had the money to afford even 2) he would say no. (id rather buy some good food etc) ...

EVGA do make lovely stuff, but I've yet to splash out on one.

That case is crazy, certainly not to my taste, but thinking back, I did like that kinna thing when I was 17

I do have to disagree with Yusuf on the performance side, The Phenom II isn't even upto i7 levels, let alone the Athlon II.
However, the perceived difference isn't that big, which is the bit that matters.

With the i5, It's not a combi north/south, the north is going completely, all being moved to the CPU (mem controller, PCI-E lanes, QP thing), least, that's my current understanding.
However, although the price of the i5 isn't too great currently, yet comes with decent performance, it's still intel. So expect a new motherboard to be required when you wish to upgrade your CPU next time, that often means a new CPU cooler too (you'll prob end up getting a 3rd party one at some point KB).

Overall, for the average Joe, AMD is still the best company to go with, especially is you're running an AMD graphics card.

I'd speculate that an Intel SSD on that system would give better perceived performance than an i5 with a HDD. Should you wish to put MORE money into this build for more performance.




Food? Vodka you mean?
And there I was, thinking you two were friends

The AMD route is a cheaper alternative to a decent performing system. For real outright performance the current king is Intel, the i7 processor, if you opt for the new ones (LGA 1156) then you only get dual channel memory but if you go for the LGA 1366 socket version, then you get triple channel memory controllers. The i5 uses the the LGA 1156 socket, is cheaper than the i7 but does not have hyper threading, unlike the i7.

The parts you have selected all seem alright for a decent performing setup, the only thing I didn't like was the case, have a look at Cooler Master's HAF 932 or the mid tower HAF 922. Both are nicer looking imo though slightly more expensive, but they have very good ventilation properties.

As for the motherboard, either Gigabyte or Asus is good, I cannot say the same for MSI as i have had problems with MSI boards in the past. The last 4 pcs i built all used Asus boards and all of them worked perfectly from the onset and are still doing so now. A cheaper alternative to the 790 chipset board you're planning on getting is the 785 chipset boards. They're equally as good.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

This particular model has better onboard graphics than the Gigabyte board you plan on getting. However, you already have an ATI HD 4890, you don't need the onboard graphics, it's also not worthwhile to combine the onboard with the HD4890, the effects would be minimal, hybrid crossfire was only meant to boost graphic performance if you had a lower spec graphic card like an HD4600 series card.

As Laptops Daddy mentioned, look for boards that have solid capacitors Also make sure it has at least 2 PCI express slots, with at least one slot providing x16 bandwidth (i think that's standard nowadays). The current best boards have 2 slots providing x16 bandwidth but I think that's only on the x58 boards (Intel processor).

As for RAM modules, G-Skill, Corsair, Kingston, Patriot and OCZ are ok, just get ones with elaborate heatsinks, they do help at cooling the RAM sticks. Get ones which are rated at 1333 MHz, your choice of motherboard supports it.

Your hard drive choice is a good choice for a standard hard drive, western D makes good drives, and the 7200rpm model is fast enough, but like Peanuts said, you could get 2 smaller sized drives and set them up in RAID configs for a faster setup. Ultimately an SSD will be the best option for outright speed...but the price

Good Luck, the best part is putting them all together and booting it up for the very first time.

PS: If you plan on overclocking your cpu, get a good cpu cooler, I won't trust the stock cooler for a prolonged or permanently overclocked system.

I must point out the errors in Radens post (I don't the chance very often as he's often correct).
the i7 chip can be had with wither the 1156 or 1366 socket which will be dual or triple channel memory respectively.

The Asus board pointed out has the VIA audio chip I said was a bit poo. I specced that board for a customer who had a couple of issues (resulting in him buying another board) and he found the sound to be a serious issue (bought an add-in sound card).
The other issue with that board is the x4 PCI-E x16 slot, as you already have a 4890 and with the continuing drop in 4890 prices, a second card for crossfire would be ideal for you in 3-5 months, however a minimum of x8 lanes for the second card is required (16 lanes is not really required, however 4 is too low and would give a noticable bottleneck).


I may be incorrect, due to my lack of research into hybrid xfire, but I was under the impression that when the add-in gfx card was not required, it would shutdown and the on-board would take over to display the desktop/films etc..
That would decrease system noise by a noticeable amount and also lower the power requirement (as you're 17, I doubt you care about that currently).

EDIT: I just checked and unfortunately, like Nvidia, AMD have pretty much ceased development of the hybrid graphics, leaving them with only the option of boosting graphics performance for low end cards (34xx).
This is suprising, given that AMD will have CPUs with built-in GPUs coming out in just over 12 months, which will also support add-in gfx.