Building amd3 pc under $500

[ktester]

im building this pc for project to watch movies. no games. what i have come up with so far
AM3 Sempron 140 2.7Ghz
ASRock 870 Extreme3 USB3 DDR3 Motherboard
ASUS 1GB 5450 PCI-E VGA Card
A-Power Mars M2-3025 with 680W PSU
SATA Samsung 2TB HDD
LG Blu-Ray Combo
the total of all this is $350
what i need is a single 4gb ram stick and all fans.
if have any part chages please see if i can get them at www.msy.com.au or www.allneeds.com.au.
or any totaly new system setup.

 

[jackspeed]

Well you should get a 4 gig kit of ram (2x2) not a 4 gig stick.

 

[rvilkman]

Get at least a Athlon x2 255 for the CPU, You want a minimum of dual core these days. seems to be $60-65

^+1 on the 2x2GB kit

For PSU go with a 350-450W PSU from Antec or Corsair. It will be enough for you.

For the video card you should really go with 5570 or 5670 as they seem to be about $60 as well. So that all your bluray stuff can be played properly.

Also take into account that you need a SW to playback the blurays from the PC and it's really guesswork if the bluray player comes with a proper one.
If it doesn't powerdvd 10 ultra is about 60 USD. While powerdvd 11 ultra is 90 USD.

 

[rvilkman]

CPU: Athlon x2 255 $63
MB: Asrock 870 extreme 3 $95
GPU: Sapphire 5670 $61
Mem: Corsair 2x2GB CMV4GX3M2A1333C9 $45
Bluray: LG $95
HDD: Samsung Spintpoint F3 1TB $59
Case: Antec 300 $59
PSU: Antec NEO 400W $62

Total: $539

You can save a buck to 10 with a few different choices here and there between the 2 stores. Like getting a cheaper 2x2GB 1333Mhz for like $33 or so.

 

[sadams04]

For blu-ray playback the onboard HD 4250 (also HD 4200 and HD 4290) on several motherboards will be fine. It will also do audio bitstreaming (audio and video over HDMI). The HD 5570 / HD 5670 are welcome upgrades, but not absolutely necessary.

CPU - X2 550 / 555 / 560 etc... would all be fine. In that same price range, an Athlon X4 is also a solid choice.

MB - The GIGABYTE GA-880GMA-USB3 would be a good choice as would the ASUS M5A88-M. Both these AM3+ motherboards will allow for a major CPU upgrade down the road to stretch your investment further. If you don't plan on upgrading this PC, any AM3 motherboard with integrated video mentioned above will be fine also.

MEM - 2GB is enough, however 4GB (2x2GB) makes more sense from a pricing perspective. As jackspeed stated, install memory in pairs...

PSU - I seond going with Antec, Corsair, XFX or Seasonic. Using integrated video your power consumption will be under 200w. Even adding a moderate video card any 350w / 380w / 400w / 450w will be plenty of power. The manufacturer is more important than choosing between those sizes.

HD - Good choice with the Samsung F4 2TB.

Blu-Ray - Check the box... If it doesn't come with software it is better to opt up to one bundled with it than turning around and buying software later.

 

[ktester]

the GIGABYTE GA-880GMA-USB3 i couldnt find but would this do:http://msy.com.au/product.jsp?productId=3220 and did you check the website i put down

 

[rvilkman]

Yes that will do fine. It's basically a microatx version of the other board.

 

[ktester]

the new build:
ASUS M4A88TD-M-EVO-USB3 AM3 DDR3 Motherboard $109
Kingston 4GB Kit(2Gx2) DDR3 1333 $36
SATA Samsung 2TB HDD $85
LG Blu-Ray Combo $73
Antec 300 Three-Hundard Gaming Tower without PSU $59
AMD AM3 x4 840 3.20Ghz Athlon II Quad Core $104
400W Antec NEO $62
total $528
the think im not sure about the ram i picked and do i need more fans because i backup my movies i will be pulling in more hdd's and on the case info it says front (optional) 120 mm fans to cool the hard drives. but i will also be adding one more bluray drive and two dvd drives.

i know this isn't the software form but software cost doesn't matter if it is good software ill get it so recommend software i need to buy to make the best movie back ups and watching if u want send me to a form all ready made up with the info on it.

 

[rvilkman]

Check out Cyberlink for the bluray playback SW, it is the best at this time. But this is only for actual bluray movies on bluray discs.

For anything else:VLC player rocks. They also have other things on the site but I've only used the player sw. They are worth checking out anyway. And after all they are free.

If you can afford it, upgrade to Phenom II x4 955BE it's only a few bucks more ( $112 ). You get the benefit of the additional cache and the adjustable multiplier.
Overall a great deal.

As for the fan issue, I think you should get the 1 or 2 fans for the front. They push air through the hard drives so they will be cooled down nicely.
Noctua fans would be the best ones but they are almost twice the price of the cheaper ones. Until you have more than like 3 hard drives one intake should be enough.

So the "Noctua NF-S12-1200 120mm 1200RPM Sound Optimised Fan" would be the best but it's $35.
Fractal Design Silent Series Case Fan 120mm 1000 RPM 15 dBA at $20 is a cheaper alternative.

 

[gammerx]

the antec HCG 520w is on sale for $55 on newegg, get that instead. for ram get G. Skill ripjaws. I would try to not get a micro atx board, but I am not that familiar with AMD boards

 

[ktester]

ok will be putting in the Phenom II x4 955BE and the good fan but i need ram that works with the motherboard i picked so the G. Skill ripjaws wont work if people can put the urls for the ram they tell me to get then this will be done

 

[rvilkman]

The kingston ram you have picked should work just fine with the motherboard. It helps if the ram is on the supported list, but usually the memory works regardless.