Crit my build, if anyone would be so kind...

[Mireanor]

So I'm building an entire new system for my house, general use is for Gaming and some home office stuff. In my budget this is what I have put together thus far, would appreciate it if anyone would crit the build:

AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition Processor
Antec LifeStyle Sonata III Quiet Super Mini Tower Chassis - 500W
Asus M3A78-EM AMD 780G Motherboard w/A8 + G + LK + FW + SATA2 RAID + HDMI + DVI + DP
Western Digital 320GB Caviar SE SATA300 8MB 7200RPM Hard Drive
Corsair DDR2-800 4GB (2x2GB) XMS2 Twin2X Memory Module Kit
Asus EAH4870
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit DSP
LG GH22LP20
Samsung 22" T220

Now, I'm just trying to find out from my supplier if he can get me a Samsung 2333SW in which case I'll swap the display with that allowing more room in the budget. My questions are as follows:

If I am able to change displays should I add another 4GB of memory or another 320GB HDD?
Does anyone have an opinion on the board I'm using?
Is the case and PSU going to cut it?

 

[fullmetall]

Could change a couple of things, what would be the budget?

 

[Mireanor]

Well its difficult to say as I'm in South Africa, using current exchange rates that build works out to either GBP1000 or USD1500

 

[fullmetall]

oh, well, which site do you normally use for ordering parts?

 

[Mireanor]

www.prophecy.co.za and www.sybaritic.co.za are the two I'm currently working through. My total price is based on an entire system from Sybaritic

 

[fullmetall]

If its more for gaming, would go Intel IMO.

I would choose a E8500 dual core for the gaming, very good speeds.
http://www.sybaritic.co.za/store/product_info.php?cPath=21_367&products_id=14706

The 4870 you picked should do the job. For ram, i chose the DDR2 800 ocz platinums because they have more of a tighter timing than the corsairs. If you decide to OC, then you might want to look into getting a DDR2 1066(2x2gb) set.

http://www.prophecy.co.za/pc26400-ddr2-revision-plat-2x1gb-p-33335.html

The HDD WD320gb should be fine, i did find the WD320gb black which is faster than the regular but, price, idk the price if it says R1,114. Now for the motherboard, you have 2 really good choices, the ASUS and Gigabyte. There both crossfire supportive.
gig.
http://www.prophecy.co.za/gigabyte-gaep45ud3p-motherboard-p-33981.html
asus
http://www.prophecy.co.za/asus-p5qpro-support-crossfirex-8x8x-with-epu6-energ-p-29616.html

They seem pricey so, I looked at this one for non cossfire.

http://www.sybaritic.co.za/store/product_info.php?cPath=81_226&products_id=16002

Couldnt really find anything on cases for those two sites, so ill have to google search something for that area.

But if you tend to stick on the phenom, it looks alright other than changing the ddr2 800 corsairs to ocz platinums, for monitors/optical drives, would have to get someone elses perspective on them.

 

[aevm]

4 GB of RAM should be enough for gaming. This article shows very small gains from 8 GB compared to 4 GB.
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2008/07/08/is-more-memory-better/5

Fullmetall is right about the dual core. This year an E8500 is better for gaming than a quad. Next year, nobody knows. Game developers keep promising to make games that work on multiple cores but so far only Microsoft and Rockstar have managed it (FSX and GTA 4). If you're the kind of guy who upgrades the CPU every year go for the E8500. (Then next year upgrade to a Q9650 - that's the best CPU that will ever be made for LGA775.) The quad is worth it IMO only if you will keep it for 2 years or more.

 

[aevm]

Is the case and PSU going to cut it?

Yes, the Earthwatts 500W has the two PCI-E connectors needed for a HD 4870 and enough power.

It won't do for Crossfire (not enough PCI-E connectors, not enough power), but then the Sonata's cooling and the M3A78-EM don't support Crossfire anyway.

 

[Mireanor]

At this stage the build is more concerned with getting bang for the buck and lasting quite some time. I won't be making any other changes to it in the next 18 months at least, thus the use of a quad core above the dual core and the motherboard without crossfire.

 

[aevm]

Well in that case no worries. The PSU that comes with the Sonata can handle a quad CPU and a HD 4870 all right.