$600-$700 AMD/ATI Build

ncfranklin

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Oct 25, 2010
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New here, and way out of the loop on CPU hardware for the last few years. Wanting to run this build below past everyone to see if their are any better choices/options for my price range.

Approximate Purchase Date: October-November

Budget Range:$600-700

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Lightroom 3, Valve & Blizzard games

Parts Not Required: ALL

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: Newegg

Country of Origin: USA

Parts Preferences: No preference

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: Future

Monitor Resolution: 1680x1050 for now, soon to add 1920x1080

Additional Comments: A little future proofing is nice.

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Case & Memory : Antec 300 Illusion + RipJaw 4gb DDR3 1600
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.514370

Mobo & PSU : ASRock 870 EXTREM3 + Corsair CMPSU-650TX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.524514

CPU : AMD Phenom II X3 710
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103648

GPU : Sapphire Radeon HD 5770 1GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102873

HDD : Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 7200rpm
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136534

CD/DVDRW : LITE-ON 24X DVD Writer Black SATA Model iHAS-324-98
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106334

The plan is to unlock the extra core on the CPU and maybe OC it a little, so I'll likely add a aftermarket heatsink/fan to it.

I'll mostly play Valve & Blizzard games, along with some Adobe Lightroom 3 & Photoshop CS5 work.
 

Dougie Fresh

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Jan 3, 2010
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For your budget you can go hex-core thanks to a great combo deal going on right now at Newegg:

AMD Phenom II X6 1055T (Thuban) 2.8GHz 6 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor (Model: HDT55TFBGRBOX)
GIGABYTE Socket AM3 AMD 870 Chipset SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Motherboard (Model: GA-870A-UD3)
Kingston 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Dual Channel Desktop Memory Kit (Model: KVR1333D3K2/4GR)
Antec Nine Hundred + EA650 Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 650W Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspxItemList=Combo.514071
$458.99 after $20 MIR

The rest is from your original build:

SAPPHIRE 100283-3L Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102873
$129.99 after $20 MIR

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185
$69.99

LITE-ON 24X DVD Writer Black SATA Model iHAS-324-98
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106334
$21.99

Total: $680.96 after rebates + tax & shipping ($5.89)

Newegg also gives you a $15 gift card.
 

ncfranklin

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Oct 25, 2010
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Wow. Thanks! This looks pretty freaking awesome.

Quick Q : With this setup, would going the extra $50 to a Radeon 6850 give me significant performance increase? Am I bottlenecked anywhere?
 

Dougie Fresh

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I guess 4-core vs. 6-core depends mostly on what Lightroom can take advantage of. Games are going to run well on either. What Lightroom can take advantage of might be a different story. And ... what about the next version ... will it be optimized for hexa-core or not. Good question. It seems folks on the Adobe forums are wondering the same thing.

I did find one benchmark on Gizmodo showing the performance of the X6 vs the X4 for Lightroom. However, there's is the higher-clocked 1090T not the 1055.

thubanbenchmarks.png


The article is here: http://gizmodo.com/5525334/amds-300-6+core-cpu-too-good-to-be-true

It'd be worth a little Googling if you're concerned about performance of the hexa-core vs. quad-core in LR3.
 

ncfranklin

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Oct 25, 2010
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Honestly, I'm not overly concerned about the hexa vs quad argument.

Let's see if we can find a happy medium and get under that $700 mark. Here's what i got so far :

Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case (Any reason Rosewill over this?)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129066

ASUS M4A87TD/USB3 & AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.537750

GIGABYTE GV-R685D5-1GD Radeon HD 6850
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125348

G.SKILL NS 4GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231396

OCZ Fatal1ty OCZ550FTY 550W & SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.514469

LG DVD Burner
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136177

Total : $661.92 + $15.16 shipping = $677.08 - $30.00 in mail-in rebates = $647.08

Anyone else able to get under $650?
 

ncfranklin

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Oct 25, 2010
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Hopefully my last question, all of you have been an immense help and I really appreciate it.

Out of these ASUS Mobo's, what is the major differences? Are they worth the $10, $20 difference in future-proofing, reliability, etc? The thing that stuck out to me was the addition of a second x16 slot for Crossfire down the road.

ASUS M4A87TD/USB3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.537750

ASUS M4A87TD EVO
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.526581

ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.537683