New budget build completed: rate it.

[Farmer Paul]

HI guys, I finished this build two weeks ago. You like to tell people what they should have done, right? Well here's your chance. Here are my goals: 1: low cost, 2: will not be outdated in six months (like my last build) 3: ability to play new games at a medium resolution (my monitor is 17").

Case; Used E-machines. Oh come on, the price was right, free! It's got a card reader, front usb and front audio jacks. And unless you're OCing do you really need a ton of fans? It's got a 90mm exhaust fan and I can mount another fan on the side panal if needed.

Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-880GMA-UD2H AM3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128445

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103808

Memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231277

Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Green WD7500AADS 750GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136359

Mobo, CPU, Memory and Hard Drive were bundled $30 off. $353

Video Card: XFX HD-567X-ZNF3 Radeon HD 5670 1GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150467 $80

Yeah I could have gotten a more powerfull card. But I got to tell you, on a 17" monitor it looks awful good!

PSU: Antec EarthWatts EA750 750W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371026 $60

More than I need, but it was one of those "super deals". $60 after promo and rebate.

I wasn't going to buy a new OS originally, but I thought better of that and bought Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit $99. I'm really happy with the results. It's quite an inprovement over my old P4 2.8 Geforce 6600GT

Total cost with OS: $592

 

[bavman]

your psu is over kill for your card. Bump it down to 500w and with the money you save get a 5770 instead of the 5670, or get a spinpoint f3 1tb hdd. Its much faster than your current hdd.

 

[jasonw223]

Bavman is right on.

 

[Farmer Paul]

Best answer selected by Farmer Paul.

 

[Farmer Paul]

your psu is over kill for your card. Bump it down to 500w and with the money you save get a 5770 instead of the 5670, or get a spinpoint f3 1tb hdd. Its much faster than your current hdd.

I know you're right, my computer is not "balanced". it's light on the video card, heavy on the PSU. And I really hadn't thought much about the hard drive. But in my defence, at $60 for the PSU I don't know if a good 500w unit would be that much cheaper. If I ever get a larger monitor I'll upgrade my video card to something more suitable. Heck I need something to upgrade, that's one fun things about making your own computer. It's a work in progress. Cheers!

 

[bavman]

I see where your coming from. But it looks like your mobo has a 16x pci slot and 4x so crossfire/sli wont work too well for you.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005&cm_re=corsair_650w-_-17-139-005-_-Product

Heres a corsair 650w psu. It'll run basically any card on the market even a 480gtx or 5970. And it'll run around $65ish after mir/shipping.

I suppose if your planning on upgrading your mobo in the future than that might be another story, but its whatever you'r planning on doing that matters.