Building a PC: Advice\Guidance

[sublimeziggen]

Hey fellow Fanatics.

I am going to do my first desktop build and I just want some opinions\advice\guidance on some things. I am building this because of Civ 5 and my Photography. Here is what I am looking at right now, please leave your comments on improvements, bad ideas etc.

ASUS M2N68-AM PLUS Motherboard
AMD HD9750WCJ4BGH Phenom X4 9750 Processor (OEM)
Crucial 2GB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz Memory
Thermaltake TR2-R1 CPU Fan
Seagate ST31000520AS Barracuda LP Hard Drive
LG GH22NS50B DVD Writer
PowerUp ATX Black Mid-Tower Case with 450-Watt Power Supply
Raygo R12-40861 Keyboard & Mouse Combo

Video Card: Diablotek VTX Radeon HD 5770 1GB GDDR5 PCIE

And I would add another 2GB of RAM and use Windows 7 HP 64bit.

Monitor: eMachines E202H Eb 20" Widescreen LCD Monitor - 1600x900, 16:9, 50000:1 Dynamic, 5ms, VGA

I am also considering upping the PSU to above 600W

I am also thinking about adding a 500GB, 7200rpm HD as my main because the one that comes with the barebone kit is only at 5900 rpm.

My main question deals with the motherboard being able to handle the Video Card. I can't tell if the board has PCIe 1.1 slots or 2.0, it just says:
PCI Express X1 Slots: 1
PCI Express X16 Slots: 1

What are your thoughts everyone, and thanks for looking!

 

[tokala]

This hardware selection looks like "Quad-Core + decent gaming video card as cheaply as possible".
For commenting on that, it would be useful to know would you are intending to do with it.

For Civ5 this is a pretty ineffective build.

That first generation Phenom is not a good choice, unless you know exactly what you are doing. For almost the same price you can get a Athlon II 3GHz+ triple core, which will outperform that 9750 in almost any imaginable scenario.

A no-name PSU, be it 450,600, or 1000W is an invitation for desaster. Don't try your luck

PCIe standards are mutally compatible, and the performance differences are almost zero, as long as it is a x8 or x16 slot.

Unless you are recycling your old DDR2 memory, i would seriously consider going for DDR3. It's almost the same price.

 

[sublimeziggen]

Wow, you nailed it on the head. "Quad-Core + decent gaming video card as cheaply as possible".

It looks like It's back to the drawing board. Perhaps this time around I won't be as cheap...

 

[tokala]

Cheap is not necessarily bad

For reference, I suggested already in another thread a "gaming rig on a shoestring", was surprised myself what's possible for $400

That one will work just fine for Civ5, unless you insist on playing with everything maxed out and 4xAA and 30fps. In that case it would need a $500 machine

 

[sublimeziggen]

Thoughts on this processor?

AMD Athlon II X4 630 Quad Core @ 2.80GHz

 

[sublimeziggen]

Or..just came across this setup>AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition @ 3.20GHz for about 100.00 more.

 

[sublimeziggen]

Okay....thoughts on this set up? Really appreciate it!

Biostar TA890GXB HD Motherboard
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Processor 3.20GHz
700W power Supply
Corsair 4GB DDR3 RAM - PC10666, 1333MHz, 4096MB
Western Digital Hard Drive - 500GB, 7200rpm, 16MB, SATA-300
Diablotek VX5770 1GBD5-H VTX Radeon HD 5770 Video Card - 1GB GDDR5, PCI-Express 2.0, CrossFireX Ready, DVI, VGA, HDMI
Windows7 HP 64 bit
eMachines 20" Widescreen LCD Monitor - 1600x900, 16:9, 50000:1 Dynamic, 5ms, VGA
Keyboard, Mouse, Optical Drive

about $925.00

 

[tokala]

It's not easy to evalute computers "in a vaccum", it would really be helpful if you could specify what you intend to do with it, roughly what the budget should be, and if/how frequently you intend to upgrade it down the road.

Oh, and what the shop's name is where you dig up those systems.

And as already mentioned, the wattage that those "el cheapo" PSUs are designated with is pure fantasy, expect to pay at least $40 if you want a PSU that will deliver what the label says.

 

[sublimeziggen]

Well, I would be using it to play CIV V and work with Photoshop mostly. So I guess you could say gaming, large file photographs, and internet. I would hope to not have to upgrade it for at least 5 years.

I'm trying to keep it under 1K and I'm using Tigerdirect.com. The above set up was from scratch and not a barebone.

 

[tokala]

Assembled some stuff from TD for a bit more than $1000, though it's a big 16:10 monitor for $250 in there. Even if you prefer another model, you should think about buying more than a $100 monitor. The screen is the most used and longest lived part of the computer

Potential for saving is with the CPU: a Athlon II X4 640 is only about 15% slower for $50 less. Another $50 could be shaved off when going for a GTS 450 instead, though the 460 is 50% faster.

Edit: For Civ5 the Phenom is actually about 35% faster, at least for the rendering engine. Civ does like that L3 cache, it seems

 

[sublimeziggen]

That is a great setup you posted. I thank you for taking the time to put it together. I got back on Tigerdirect and put it together almost exactly the same. I need a keyboard and mouse and I ordered an extra 120mm fan. With those extra costs I had to drop the monitor down a little bit but still a much better one than I originally had. Came in at 1,010. So I think I'm set man, thanks so much for your help.

Am I going to need to order thermal paste?

 

[tokala]

It's included with the boxed processors, the heatsink has a thermal pad that melts into paste when you use it for the first time

 

[sublimeziggen]

Well isn't that convenient? Perfect! )

 

[civ_king]

Does it have to be tiger direct? Newegg is also very good

MoBo GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD3 $129.99
CPU Core i7-875K $329.99
RAM Kingston ValueRAM 4GB (4 x 2GB) $135.98
CPU Fan Tuniq Tower 120 $62.99
GPU Galaxy GTX 460 $159.99
HDD HITACHI 500GB 7200 RPM $37.99
ODD ASUS Black SATA DVD-ROM Drive $16.99
Case/PSU Antec Three Hundred Illusion/Antec EarthWatts 750W $109.98

Total: $983.90

 

[sublimeziggen]

No, but that setup doesn't have a monitor or operating system. And, I prefer AMD.

 

[civ_king]

AMD and Monitor+OS, got it

MoBo MSI NF750-G55 AM3 NVIDIA nForce 750a SLI HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard 84.99
CPU Phenom II X4 970 BE Deneb 3.5GHz $180.99
RAM Kingston ValueRAM 4GB (4 x 2GB) $135.98
CPU Fan Tuniq Tower 120 $62.99
GPU Galaxy GTX 460 $159.99
HDD HITACHI 500GB 7200 RPM $37.99
ODD ASUS Black SATA DVD-ROM Drive $16.99
Case/PSU Antec Three Hundred Illusion/Antec EarthWatts 750W $109.98
Monitor ASUS VH192D Black 18.5" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor $102.99
OS Windows 7 Home Premium $109.99

$1003