AMD Phenom II 940 Build

[marshmallow905]

Hey,

I am Canadian, planning to purchase a brand new computer. I am still using a Pentium 4 Anyway, there is sale this week so I decided to finally purchase after months of researching and price matching.

Purpose: Office, Rendering, Encoding, Photoshop, Gaming, etc
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 940
Cooling: Zalman CNPS9700 LED Copper CPU
Case: Antec Nine Hundred
Power Supply: Corsair TX750W
HDD: Western Digital Caviar SE16 640GB SATA2 7200RPM 16MB Hard Drive
DVD: LG GH22NS30 Black DVD+RW 22X8X16 DVD-RW
Video Card: EDIT: friend works at ATI, I am getting a discount from him, I am "borrowing" his Radeon 4850 for now
RAM: 2x2 4GB - G.Skill or Corsair Dominator?
Motherboard: Originally ASUS M3A79-T Deluxe, recommendations?
Overclock: Yes, in the future
SLI/Crossfire: Yes, in the future

AMD Phenom II X4 940 and Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 are both on sale. Q9550 is nice, but I don't know any setup for it since I originally researched for PII 940 and it is still more expensive, not a huge significant difference between those two. E8400 is nice too especially for gaming, but I am going to use multi-thread applications. This computer will probably last me a very long time, as you can tell I am still using a Pentium 4 I need a motherboard suggestion, since the one I wanted sold out and out of stock. Any suggestions are welcome, thanks in advance.

EDIT: 1st time posting as well hi all

 

[Tech-Boy]

Welcome to the Forums!

Everything looks good, looks like you did your homework. I would however swap out the SE16 640gb (which is fast) for the Western Digital 640gb Caviar Black with 32mb Chache, booth are fast but the black is a tad faster.

For ram G.Skill or Corsair will not make a difference both good companies.

For motherboard look at the Gigabyte 790gx I think they run for about $139

Good luck with the build.

 

[marshmallow905]

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 940 3.0GHZ
Motherboard: ASUS M4A79 Deluxe 790FX AM3 DDR2
Cooling: Zalman CNPS9700 LED Copper
Memory: G.SKILL PC2-8500 4GB 2X2GB DDR2-1066 CL5-5-5-15
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB 7200RPM 32MB
Power Supply: Corsair TX750W
DVD Drive: Samsung SH-S223Q DVD+-RW SATA DVD Writer
Case: Antec Nine Hundred
Video Card: Radeon 4850

Thanks for the suggestion about Caviar Black 32MB, Tech-Boy.

This is what I have so far. Other suggestions are welcome as well, not finalized yet! I wasn't really a computer hardware savvy guy before, never built a computer myself before either. I researched the most I could and learned a lot but I am still in doubt. Is everything I have compatible? I will be using Windows XP 32-bit and a lousy PCIe 1.0 video card I have on my Pentium 4 right now for one week or two until my friend lends me his 4850, since he's upgrading & testing a new card. I know XP won't utilize more than 3.5GB of ram, waiting for Windows 7 I do plan on OCing/Crossfire in the future with my friend's help once I get more hardcore with my editing and rendering.

P.S. Paying for tuition blows.
Thanks,

 

[cherie22984]

Looks good~!

 

[xthekidx]

The Q9550 will be better for your uses, only in gaming does the PII 940 really compare well to it.

I would go with a Q9550+Asus P5Q Pro or Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P instead with DDR2 800 ram (low timings, look for 4-4-4-12 @1.8-1.9v if you can find it), price-wise it should come out pretty close I think since the MB is much cheaper than that 790FX (waste of money IMO, if you want an AMD xfire build go with the 790GX, the extra GPU bandwidth of the 790FX chipset isn't worth it unless you get an x2 ATI card, any single GPU solution ATI has to offer right now will not be bottlenecked by 8x bandwidth when they run in xfire).

What site are you ordering from that has a sale right now?

 

[marshmallow905]

Hey,

I am ordering from http://www.ncix.com/ since they offer price matching, basically the best deal in Canada.

If I stick with PII 940 and go with 790GX, what would you recommend? or let's say if I do go with Q9550 + Asus P5Q Pro or Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P that you recommended. Can I still use the set up I have right now? with the exception of CPU/Motherboard of course. I do a fair amount of multi-thread applications and gaming as well. It's a tough one considering the price.

P.S. I don't know too much sorry. I don't understand the lower timing very well, I remember reading it, it's faster with lower timing or something?

 

[gkay09]

Well I would get this...
Do a price matching from Ncix get it...
CPU -
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103674

Mobo -
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=36174&vpn=GA%2DMA790XT%2DUD4P&manufacture=Gigabyte

RAM
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227287

Cooling
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233003

The above config should easily fit in your budget and the P II 955 would be close in performance to the 9550 and the AM3 platform is more future-proof...

 

[xthekidx]

A review here on THG of the 955 put it only slightly above the 940, I don't think its worth the extra cost for it right now, especially at ~$60 cheaper and with an unlocked mutliplier on the 940.

P5Q Pro gives you free shipping on your entire order at NCIX
http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=30418&vpn=P5Q%20Pro&manufacture=ASUS

 

[gkay09]

Hmm...Well to an extent that is right but the overall platform is more future proof than the LGA...
But again if you are planning to keep the PC for long and when you upgrade, you upgrade the whole PC which seems to be the case as you are doing the same now, then even I would suggest the Q9550...

 

[batuchka]

Well if you dun need crazy multi GPU with 4 PCIex16 2.0 lanes you dun really need a high end 790FX so if you want more bang for buck there are 790GX and even 770 chipset like the Gigabyte 770-UD3 hehe

 

[marshmallow905]

Hey, thanks for all the inputs guys. I really appreciate it, I love this site already
Thanks for clearing up 790GX vs FX, I didn't understand at first but I just did some research and cleared things up. Sorry to bring another Intel vs AMD thread. I am sure there are plenty of threads about Q9950 and P940 already, but thanks again guys.

 

[xthekidx]

I just looked at NCIX...the Q9550 is just a few bucks more than the PII 940 ($270 vs $300), and the Q9550 is hands down the better CPU, and with free shipping on the whole order if you buy the P5Q Pro, I think its a no brainer.

 

[marshmallow905]

Yup, pretty sweet deal! I am proud of my decision especially with free shipping and less tax because it's in another province, came down to around $1000 CND after tax with insurance and free shipping. I saved myself at least a couple hundred dollars during this sale.

*P.S. Phenom II 940 was actually $230 CND compared to Q9550 $300. My friend got himself an AMD, while it was still cheap $230. Both stocks are running out fassst

EDIT: Forgot to say my thanks! Thanks again everyone, I really appreciate for all the help. I am glad I became a member of this website.

 

[bmuell]

Phenom II 955 is faster than the Q9550 and uses a newer platform with DDR3. Oh well... good luck!

 

[Helloworld_98]

@bmuell

actaully they're pretty equal but the Q9 stomps it when it comes to video encoding however the phenom wins at games. Hence equality and I figured the names out now , you see amd named them in correspondence of the equivalent core 2 quad.

And 775 has ddr3 too.

 

[batuchka]

Glad we could help ^^