Proposed build, need advice

[thor04e]

Im thinking about finishing off my build although i thought it up about half a year ago so i dont know if there have been some clear improvements over the components i have chosen.

*Case - NZXT Lexa S
*PSU - Coolmaster eXtreme Power Plus 600W
*GPU - Twintech Geforce GT240 1GB
*Sound Card - Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio
*CPU Cooler - Zalman 9900NT

* - I already have

The last parts i need are;

-Motherboard
Gigabyte GA-890XA-UD3

http://www.mwave.com.au/newAU/mwaveAU/productdetail.asp?CartID=mAU@WHJ59NSL73436V15HZYB35YH1ML8ZF71BI66WWGMUERET6&sku=28010626

-CPU
AMD Phenom II x2 550 Black Edition 3.10GHz

http://www.mwave.com.au/newAU/mwaveAU/productdetail.asp?CartID=mAU@WHJ59NSL73436V15HZYB35YH1ML8ZF71BI66WWGMUERET6&sku=19040174

-RAM (depends on Motherboard)
-HDD (depends on when i can afford this mobo)
-OS Windows 7 Professional

Anyone think there is anything wrong with my idea? Upgrades i need to know about?
Im going to be gaming, not too seriously, and a bit of video editing. More importantly i enjoy building them.

 

[enzo matrix]

Alright. I think the build looks awesome but I would make some changes:
-600W is way overkill for that system. I have a quad core Athlon with a radeon 3870 and my system still has never drawn more than 200W. A good corsair 400W or OCZ modxstream 500W would be more than enough at a fair price.
-What is your reason for the GT240 1GB? The GT240 is decent but at the lower end of the video card spectrum. 1GB is pointless at this performance level because even games that need or could use the extra 512MB, you would have to lower the settings in anyway to get playable framerates, nullifying the need to more than 512MB of video ram.
whoops, just realized you already had those. Well then, great. Don't replace them. Unless you are unhappy with your gaming performance.

-The 550BE is a great CPU but really, most games can use 3 cores these days. You'll get batter gaming performance from an Athlon IIx3 at a lower cost. Even the 3 GHz model is $80 American. Look into it and prices. But if this phenom II x2 is what you want, be at rest knowing that it is still a really good CPU.
-Motherboard: Don't pay extra for the 890G chipset. Also, do you need the crossfire support? If not, you can get less expensive motherboards.
-RAM: "depends on motherboard". No... not unless you are having trouble choosing between an AM2+ and AM3 motherboard.
-Hard drive: How many GB do you think you'll need?
-OS. Think about this. Over Home edition, what specific features do you need that justify the cost increase?

 

[robin banks uk]

Alright. I think the build looks awesome but I would make some changes:
-600W is way overkill for that system. I have a quad core Athlon with a radeon 3870 and my system still has never drawn more than 200W. A good corsair 400W or OCZ modxstream 500W would be more than enough at a fair price.
-What is your reason for the GT240 1GB? The GT240 is decent but at the lower end of the video card spectrum. 1GB is pointless at this performance level because even games that need or could use the extra 512MB, you would have to lower the settings in anyway to get playable framerates, nullifying the need to more than 512MB of video ram.
whoops, just realized you already had those. Well then, great. Don't replace them. Unless you are unhappy with your gaming performance.

-The 550BE is a great CPU but really, most games can use 3 cores these days. You'll get batter gaming performance from an Athlon IIx3 at a lower cost. Even the 3 GHz model is $80 American. Look into it and prices. But if this phenom II x2 is what you want, be at rest knowing that it is still a really good CPU.
-Motherboard: Don't pay extra for the 890G chipset. Also, do you need the crossfire support? If not, you can get less expensive motherboards.
-RAM: "depends on motherboard". No... not unless you are having trouble choosing between an AM2+ and AM3 motherboard.
-Hard drive: How many GB do you think you'll need?
-OS. Think about this. Over Home edition, what specific features do you need that justify the cost increase?

might not be,if he unlocks the cores and keeps upgrading

 

[thor04e]

Alright. I think the build looks awesome but I would make some changes:
-600W is way overkill for that system. I have a quad core Athlon with a radeon 3870 and my system still has never drawn more than 200W. A good corsair 400W or OCZ modxstream 500W would be more than enough at a fair price.
-What is your reason for the GT240 1GB? The GT240 is decent but at the lower end of the video card spectrum. 1GB is pointless at this performance level because even games that need or could use the extra 512MB, you would have to lower the settings in anyway to get playable framerates, nullifying the need to more than 512MB of video ram.
whoops, just realized you already had those. Well then, great. Don't replace them. Unless you are unhappy with your gaming performance.

-The 550BE is a great CPU but really, most games can use 3 cores these days. You'll get batter gaming performance from an Athlon IIx3 at a lower cost. Even the 3 GHz model is $80 American. Look into it and prices. But if this phenom II x2 is what you want, be at rest knowing that it is still a really good CPU.
-Motherboard: Don't pay extra for the 890G chipset. Also, do you need the crossfire support? If not, you can get less expensive motherboards.
-RAM: "depends on motherboard". No... not unless you are having trouble choosing between an AM2+ and AM3 motherboard.
-Hard drive: How many GB do you think you'll need?
-OS. Think about this. Over Home edition, what specific features do you need that justify the cost increase?

About the OS, i get it free from a friend at UCL, they get loads of free software if they are doing a course like programming, so there isnt a cost increase, thanks for the feedback about the Motherboard, ill post again once i get most of it, asking specifics about RAM, i dont know much about it. I dont need crossfire support so ill look into new ones. My HDD i have a 500 GB one for now, but im thinking of getting a second 1.5TB one as i keep a lot of movies/music on my HDD and im always deleting ones to make space.

 

[tecmo34]

My suggestions...

CPU: 2nd enzo matrix's suggestion on the Athlon II X3 440!!

MOBO: I like your motheboard myself!!

RAM: G.Skill 4GB (2x 2GB) Dual Channel Kit, PC3-10666 (1333MHz) DDR3, 240-pin DIMM, Unbuffered, Non-ECC, CL 7-7-7-21-2N (GS-F3-10666CL7D-4GBRH)

GPU: XFX Radeon HD 5770 Video Card, 1024MB (HD-577X-ZNFC)

HDD: Look at eithe getting the Samsung Spinpoint F3 or Seagate 7200.12 in either 500GB or 1TB size. They are based on single 500GB platters and are some of the fastest HDD's you can buy (plus they are good priced)

HSF: Make the switch to the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus!! It is a better performing heat sink at a better price.

Sound Card: Drop it!! It isn't needed!

PSU: Go with an Antec, SeaSonice or Corsair 550 watt PSU, 650 watt if you plan on Crossfiring the XFX 5770.

Case: If you like the case, I say get it since you are the one that has to look at it everyday!!

OS: Windows 7 64-bit OS of your choice. I won't worry about getting the Pro, unless you need the "free" Virtural Windows XP for some applications.

 

[thor04e]

My suggestions...

CPU: 2nd enzo matrix's suggestion on the Athlon II X3 440!!

MOBO: I like your motheboard myself!!

RAM: G.Skill 4GB (2x 2GB) Dual Channel Kit, PC3-10666 (1333MHz) DDR3, 240-pin DIMM, Unbuffered, Non-ECC, CL 7-7-7-21-2N (GS-F3-10666CL7D-4GBRH)

GPU: XFX Radeon HD 5770 Video Card, 1024MB (HD-577X-ZNFC)

HDD: Look at eithe getting the Samsung Spinpoint F3 or Seagate 7200.12 in either 500GB or 1TB size. They are based on single 500GB platters and are some of the fastest HDD's you can buy (plus they are good priced)

HSF: Make the switch to the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus!! It is a better performing heat sink at a better price.

Sound Card: Drop it!! It isn't needed!

PSU: Go with an Antec, SeaSonice or Corsair 550 watt PSU, 650 watt if you plan on Crossfiring the XFX 5770.

Case: If you like the case, I say get it since you are the one that has to look at it everyday!!

OS: Windows 7 64-bit OS of your choice. I won't worry about getting the Pro, unless you need the "free" Virtural Windows XP for some applications.

Thanks, but im not dropping the sound card, i use it for my 5.1 sound system and the optical to channel the sound from my Xbox 360.

Again the OS is free for me so i thought i might as well get the best version, the ones with the '*' next to it i already have, so im not going to switch the PSU, as well as the heatsink, i put up some threads on another website asking about the HSF and out of my options that was the one everyone chose, so a bit late to change that.

Thanks for the information though.

 

[enzo matrix]

GPU: XFX Radeon HD 5770 Video Card, 1024MB (HD-577X-ZNFC)

HDD: Look at eithe getting the Samsung Spinpoint F3 or Seagate 7200.12 in either 500GB or 1TB size. They are based on single 500GB platters and are some of the fastest HDD's you can buy (plus they are good priced)

Sound Card: Drop it!! It isn't needed!

PSU: Go with an Antec, SeaSonice or Corsair 550 watt PSU, 650 watt if you plan on Crossfiring the XFX 5770.

Case: If you like the case, I say get it since you are the one that has to look at it everyday!!

Haha. Pretty much exactly what I would have said if I hadn't noticed that he said he already had:
*Case - NZXT Lexa S
*PSU - Coolmaster eXtreme Power Plus 600W
*GPU - Twintech Geforce GT240 1GB
*Sound Card - Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio
*CPU Cooler - Zalman 9900NT

 

[tecmo34]

Yeah... I missed that statement (or just hoped it was true :lol: )