Okay guys, thanks for all of your help, from what you’ve suggested I’ve taken from here and there and assembled what I feel is a pretty solid deal overall, and especially for my price range.
I was wondering if you guys could give me any feedback in regards to compatibility or problems I may have overlooked. Again, I’ve never built a PC before, I know what specs I like I just dunno if all of this will work together.
I also intend to add another ATI card and Crossfire 'em at some point, hence the somewhat cheaper and less powerful one (by current standards) that I have in this:
I checked as much as I knew how to and it looks like it’ll all work together. Is there anything else I need to keep in mind about compatibility, etc.? I hear PC assembly is relatively simple, and I’d very much like to not run into any surprises when I place this order.
Total comes out to about $760.
Also, my roommate last year built a PC and had mad trouble keeping it cool at first, is there any apparent problem that suggests this build would overheat? I don’t plan to overclock or do any of that, I have no idea how to do it anyway.
I would recommend this case instead of the one you chose for cooling reasons, as well as it’s $30 cheaper. It has three 120mm fans. One in the front, side, and back.
Also, from what I’ve heard, having the PSU mounted on the bottom makes wiring easier.
I can vouch for that. The PSU in my new PC isn’t modular, so has no removeable cables. If I was using a top mounted case, it would have been a nightmare.
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Yeah, whatever PSU you get, make damn sure it’s modular. Makes things so much easier.
Also, the 4850 is a DirectX 10 card. It’s not really a big deal, but depending on how long this rig is going to hold you, you may want to consider DirectX 11 (5xxx series).
Look at the combo deals on the motherboard that you picked out. You can get it with the 955 and get $50 off and a $10 rebate AND a voucher for a CODMW2 download. Or you can get the same discounts and get the 965 for $20 more.
I would highly recommend the Antec 900 because I know the quality that line has produced. Most of the case is vented so it gets the best airflow possible. The coolmaster and the 900 both have 3 120mm fans, but the 900 has a 200mm fan on top with the ability to put a 4th 120mm on the side panel. I’m not sure, but if it’s like the 1200, a 5th one can be installed inside the case to cool expansion cards too. It also has better aesthetics with blue led’s in every fan with a side panel window to show off all your hardware.
Other than that it looks like you’ve picked out a pretty sweet setup. I don’t see anything that’s incompatible and it should dominate anything you run on it. JUST DON’T FORGET THE COMBO DEALS!
EDIT: The price difference of the two cases is only $10 when you add the $20 shipping to the coolmaster. The shipping on the 900 is free.
You made a smart choice going with the 4850. DX11 is brand new, and I doubt there will be very many games that will take use of it for some time. I have a 4650 in my computer, and my dad has 2x 4850’s in his. They are decent cards that will run most anything out there. The 4850 is just shy of the 5000 series, and to get it for $95 is the best bang for the buck right now. The 5000 series is a new line and it shouldn’t be necessary to upgrade to something like that until DX11 becomes pretty much standard on games. If you get a game that runs in DX11, you can often get it to run in DX10 mode. You will probably only get to run medium settings, but you will atleast be able to play it.
Um… from the pictures I don’t see any power supply/case arrangement conflicts, but its hard to be sure that there aren’t any. If there are, jsut get your self some tin snips or a dremel and cut a hole where needed. When I built my Desktop over the summer I recycled an older case we had at the house and I was forced to do some cutting to make the power supply fit. Its never fun, but it could become necessary if things don’t quite work.
When picking up computer parts ALWAYS discharge your static before you touch anything, and never touch the metal slot connectors. Becareful about what you put your parts on when your building it. When you go to build it, have all the parts out and in arms reach before you start working, so that way you don’t have to get up and move around to go chase something down and build up static in the process. Never touch any of the gold contacts on your processor, and don’t touch the pace you put it in your motherboard.
Processors typically come with some kind of heat sink fan. Sometimes the heatsink will connect to the motherboard with plastic spreaders. These can be hard to insert and hard to match up all the holes at times. No matter how difficult it is, NEVER force a part into place especially on the motherboard. Circuit boards are brittle, and when just enough force is exerted, they can crack your board, destroy connections and trash your mother board. Work it in very carefully.
Before putting anything into your case, pay close attention to the shapes of your parts and the case. Some parts may have to go in before others because they may take up room necessary for you to put a part in. It is the most frustrating thing in the world when you just about have everything in and you find out that one part blocks another part. HD’s, DVD drives, and powersupplies often have to go in in a certain order in order to fit. Its hard to tell just by looking at it, but it looks like the mother board will have to go in before the drives.
I don’t know if you have purchased anything yet, but you might want to hold off till easter because Newegg will almost certainly have a sale, and you may find your part or better parts for a better price. If nothing else they will sometimes also have free shipping on a lot of items in conjunction with the sale, and free shipping is always nice . Sign up for their newsletter.
4850 is pretty outdated by now. If ur gonna go with a 4 series ATi card get the 4870 or 4890. But in all honesty and for future proofing a 5 series card would benefit you alot better.
Its not as outdated as you think. It can still run just about everything out there. If it can do that, then its not outdated. To my knowledge there are only three games that I know of that require DX11 and they aren’t even released yet. Everything is still running on DX9 or DX10.
There are a bunch out already that benefit from DX11, but yeah no DX11 only games yet. Im only saying get a 5000 series card for future proofing so he wont have to buy a new card when DX11 becomes more mainstream.
Good job selecting stuff. As far as compatibility, everything looks good to me. Haven’t noticed anything major, at least. CPU socket type matches the motherboard, motherboard form factor matches the case, looks like there should be plenty of room on the board and in the case to fit two graphics cards and crossfire them later. All looks good.
The only thing that might become an issue later is that power supply (see here).
Recommended Wattage: 385 Watts <-- Your current configuration
Recommended Wattage: 588 Watts <-- After adding 2nd GPU, HDD, ODD, and 8 USB
Recommended Wattage: 699 Watts <-- Almost maxed out configuration (4 sticks RAM, 6 HDDs, 1 ODD, 12 USB, 1 Firewire, etc.)
As you start adding stuff, depending on how far you take it, you might overrun your 650 watt limit there. Newegg’s power supply calculator is somewhat less conservative, (then again it’s not as customizable, either) reporting about 450 Watts for your system as it is right now, and it goes as high as 600 Watts as soon as you add that second graphics card you’re planning on getting, let alone a second HDD or ODD, which pushed it up to the 675 range.
Now, I want to stress that it’s not an issue right now, but depending on what you want to do with your rig in the future, (mainly whether or not you actually plan on going all-out with it in the long run, by filling in all of those crazy HDD bays ) you might consider getting a 700 or 750 watt supply, just to be safe. Again, for now, though, you should be more than fine.
Not that I can see. Your case has far better airflow than mine, and AMD’s stock heatsink should be fine, though a third party copper based heatsink might be even better. You won’t really know how well the machine’s doing until you power it on, go into the BIOS, and check the temperatures. If it goes up above 50 or 60 degrees celcius, you might have a problem. Anything in the 70s range might damage the processor — it should never get that high. Mine idles around 38 or 40C usually, and I don’t believe it’s ever gotten above 45C while gaming (then again, it’s been a while since I’ve checked). However, mine’s a dual core, whereas yours is a quad, so there might be a slight difference in the numbers there. Whatever you do, make sure one of the first things you do is set your PC’s auto-shutdown temperature level to the lowest possible value that they give you as an option in your BIOS, in order to protect your CPU, should it ever start overheating.
If your temperatures are higher than you would like, AMD’s stock heatsink might not be cutting it, or the thermal paste might be a bit messed up. In that case, you might consider replacing the thermal strip with some AC5 thermal paste (Newegg sells it in 3.5 gram and 12 gram packages… though you shouldn’t need even 1 gram for mounting your heatsink to your CPU) and then you could try remounting your heatsink to your CPU, or, if that doesn’t do the trick, you could replace AMD’s stock heatsink with a better one.
I’ve personally had good experiences with the Thermaltake brand. If you do get your own heatsink, just make sure to get one that will fit an AC3 socket type, although heatsinks designed for AC2, AC2+, or Socket 939 types should work just as well. I would personally recommend either this heatsink, or this one (which is the one I actually have right now, I’d say it’s working great so far) and there are a few reviews that seem to indicate either one would do the job nicely for a Phenom II X4.
It’s not “mission critical,” but if you’re so inclined, you might also consider replacing the stock CPU fan with one of these (if they ever come back in stock, that is) or adding one of these as a case fan. I bought two of the 80mm model, one for the CPU, one as an exhaust, and I can honestly say they’re the best fans I’ve ever purchased. They’re ugly as sin, but those things can move some air. They have a variable RPM, controlled either manually using a dial, or using an included temperature sensor, and can move up to 75CFM. Their only problem is that when cranked up to full blast (4800RPM) they sound like a loud hairdryer, so be warned… but if you ever have overheating problems like I was a while back (my PC auto-shutdown while playing Portal after I’d upgraded to an X2… it had reached 70C… so I replaced AMD’s stock heatsink, got those fans, and bought a case with better airflow, and the problem was solved) then those fans should definitely help put a stop to it.
Regardless, the case I recommended is bigger, has more expansion slots, has the PSU mounted on the bottom, comes with 3 120mm fans, and is $30 cheaper.
so does the Antec, along with a 200m fan, although the configuration is a bit different: 2x 120mm front, 1x 120mm rear, 1x 200mm top exhaust, but no side fan (although I suspect the CPU might be able to make up for that a bit anyway, because of the side vent) instead of only 1x 120mm front, 1x 120mm rear, and 1x 120mm side. As for which configuration is optimal, I’m honestly not sure, I think both would be just fine for the most part. But if I had to choose, I’d actually say the Antec probably has a better chance at staying cool, simply because of the top exhaust fan.
true, the Cooler Master is cheaper, but the Antec looks cooler, IMHO… I don’t know, guess that’s just me.
I normally don’t even like LEDs or side windows, but the case IDCWhatever selected isn’t actually that bad, I’d say. Plus, it’s rated a bit higher. Oh well, it’s up to OP. I think either one of the two cases would serve its purpose just fine.
I saw that it had fans in the Antec and that the PSU is mounted on the bottom after I posted, and just cba to change my post. $30 cheaper is always good, though. And idk about how quiet the Antec is, whereas all the reviews for the Cooler Master case that mention it say that it’s extremely quiet.
Also, for a PSU, you might wanna check the reviews about how loud it is. Because my parents have a 650w PSU in their computer and it is unbelievably loud.
Because a full-tower is usually fairly excessive, especially if you only have a standard-size motherboard. Not to mention it can inhibit where you put the computer since it’ll have to be big enough to fit.
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) you might consider getting a 700 or 750 watt supply, just to be safe. Again, for now, though, you should be more than fine.