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Before I pull the trigger...

H

Hal|9k

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Jan 2, 2001
Messages
5,624
I'm on the cusp of a LONG overdue rebuild of my general use (Office, web, moderate gaming) rig. It's overdue to the point where I'll only be recycling the following:

Monitor (Sammy 245t)
Case (Antec Sonata)
Optical Drive (LiteOn DVD-RW)
Keyboard/mouse

I have a mass-storage hdd on hand, and I'm looking at taking advantage of the Egg's Memorial Day sale with the following list of components. I'm ready to check out, but I wanted to run it past you guys in case I'm missing something egregious. Oh, and NOT planning to overclock, at least not initially. If I do, the cooling will be goosed considerably.

Mobo: MSI 870A-G55 AM3 AMD 770 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 840 3.2GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor
RAM: CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
GPU: ASUS EAH6850 DC/2DIS/1GD5/V2 Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express
PSU: PC Power and Cooling Silencer Mk II 750W
SSD: Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1 2.5" 64GB SATA III
OS: Win 7 Home Premium 64-bit

With shipping, the total is $767.56. That's close enough to my $750 budget that I won't complain. I also like the fact that this rig gives me an upgrade path with the CPU (x6), RAM (16GB), and video card (Crossfire).

Any questions, comments, or concerns? If not, I'm going to fire it up!

No more AGP?!? Starting to get a little excited... :D
 
...AGP? what is this 1999 all over again? :p

looks good to me.

but... dont think that you have to upgrade just because of neweggs' sale. they have a sale literally every day. im sure they will have a "post memorial day sale extravaganza" starting the day after memorial day.
 
Actually, that build is way overpriced for its performance. In fact, $767.55 is too high IMHO for a system that's based on a fairly low-end CPU to begin with.

What's more, that PC Power & Cooling Silencer MkII is not one of the company's better PSUs: In fact, it is of worse quality than several 750W PSUs that are priced around the same price point. The Silencer MkII is the one PC Power & Cooling PSU line that's been futzed with by OCZ (the brand's owner): It is basically the same PSU as OCZ's own branded higher-end PSU. And OCZ has not gotten a good reputation as a company of late. Worst of all, that PSU is clearly overpriced at $120 shipped (yes, I do not trust rebates because you'd still be paying full price up front, and that you may or may not receive the rebate at all).

Furthermore, why buy an expensive AMD build now when new Bulldozer CPUs are supposed to come out this summer? IIRC that mobo might not be upgardable to AM3+ at all, which means that you are pretty much at a dead end as far as the CPU upgrade path is concerned (especially since all of AMD's current X6 CPUs deliver a relatively poor bang for the buck these days: The slowest Intel i5-2xxx quad-core Sandy Bridge CPUs equal or beat the fastest AMD Phenom II X6 CPUs in most programs).
 
Thanks, E4g1e. That's exactly the kind of input I was looking for. I've been out of the game for so long, I didn't even know PCP&C had sold out. In my head, anything they produced was tits and could be trusted implicitly. I'll dig further into the current state of the PSU.

As for the AMD path, I went there for three reasons:
1. I've been on an AMD CPU for over a decade, since the K7's hit
2. Upgrade path. Seems like AM3 has more legs than LGA 1156
3. Price/performance ratio. I agree that the i-series intel processors rock, just not for the budget I set myself.

First pass, if I bump up to this AM3+ mobo and this PSU, there's not much difference in cost. Actually, forget that Antec PSU. Seems like it'd be smart money to spend an extra $20 for this Corsair.

Oh, and I'm not factoring mail-in rebates. If I bother to send them in and the money does show up, great. I don't have the world's best track record, though. :)
 
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Hal|9k said:
Thanks, E4g1e. That's exactly the kind of input I was looking for. I've been out of the game for so long, I didn't even know PCP&C had sold out. In my head, anything they produced was tits and could be trusted implicitly. I'll dig further into the current state of the PSU.

As for the AMD path, I went there for three reasons:
1. I've been on an AMD CPU for over a decade, since the K7's hit
2. Upgrade path. Seems like AM3 has more legs than LGA 1156
3. Price/performance ratio. I agree that the i-series intel processors rock, just not for the budget I set myself.

First pass, if I bump up to this AM3+ mobo and this PSU, there's not much difference in cost. Actually, forget that Antec PSU. Seems like it'd be smart money to spend an extra $20 for this Corsair.

Oh, and I'm not factoring mail-in rebates. If I bother to send them in and the money does show up, great. I don't have the world's best track record, though. :)
Click to expand...

Actually, forget that Corsair PSU that you linked to: It is of an older and inferior-quality design that's being superceded by the new and higher-quality TX750 v2, which sells for the exact same price shipped.

And as I mentioned about the AMD mobo that you originally specified, it is not AM3+ compatible (this means that the currently available AM3 CPUs will be among the last for AM3; any future AMD CPUs for that socket will either be at the extreme low end or have a very poor performance-to-price ratio ~~ in other words, there will be no new worthwhile AMD CPUs that are compatible with AM3). The new AM3+ CPUs will require a completely new 942-pin socket (that will not even physically fit the existing AM3 socket, which has only 938 pins), but the socket itself will be both physically and electrically compatible with current AM3 CPUs. Socket AM2+ CPUs will not be electrically compatible with AM3+.
 
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Unless you're getting that HD 6850 1GB for substantially less than $175, I recommend this video card instead:
$188 - XFX HD-687A-ZNFC Radeon HD 6870 1GB PCI-E Video Card

The above card has a better price to performance ratio than the HD 6850 you linked to. As such, the extra cash for the above card is well worth it for the extra performance you're gonna get.

As E4g1e noted, the AM3 socket itself doesn't have a good upgrade path. In addition, there's no guarantee that even current socket AM3+ mobos will be compatible with AM3+ CPUs. With that said, if you want to stick with AMD and hope that Bulldozer's AM3+ CPUs will be an excellent choice, at least go for a AM3+ motherboard for a higer chance of compatibility with AMD's Bulldozer CPUs.

As for the current AMD CPU that you chose, are you getting it for less than $105 shipped? I ask because at that price point, it's a really bad buy considering that the significantly faster AMD Phenom II 955 is $15 more:
$120 - AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition CPU

The extra L3 cache, sligtly faster clock for clock performance, slightly higher clock, and the capability to OC makes the AMD Phenom II 955 a significantly better bang for the buck value than the Phenom II 840 CPU, well worth the extra $15.

Also, note that the Phenom II X4 840 isn't a true Phenom II X4 CPU at all: All Phenom II CPUs comes with a L3 cache. The Phenom II X4 840 doesn't. Considering that and the fact that it's based off the same Propus core as the Athlon II X4 CPUs, the Phenom II 840 is basically just a Athlon II X4 CPU but with a different name and slightly higher clock speed.

But if you really really can't afford the extra $15 to $20 for the Phenom II 955 upgrade, then drop the CPU down to the Athlon II X4 640:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103871

Basically the same as the CPU you chose but $5 cheaper and therefore a sligthly better price to performance ratio than the 840. Still not as good as the Phenom II 955 though.
 
If op would sign up for newegg's e-blast mailer he could get the 955 cpu for $110. this sale lasts until 5-30-11.
 
Ok, guys. After all the good advice, I'm giving myself another $150 and going with these components:

Mobo ($145): ASUS P8P67 LE (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX
CPU ($190): Intel Core i5-2400 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz (3.4GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core
RAM ($75): CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
GPU ($160): ASUS EAH6850 DC/2DIS/1GD5/V2 Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express
PSU ($110): CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX750 V2 750W ATX12V v2.31/ EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS BRONZE
SSD ($115): Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC064MAG-1G1 2.5" 64GB SATA III
OS ($100): Win 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Thanks again for the guidance!
 
Could I just quickly jump in and inquire as to how future proof sandy bridge/lga1155 is?
 
I think you would be better off with the CPU mobo i posted earlier:
2500k + Z68A-D3H $330

It's 5 dollars less, you get a faster CPU, and you gain the ability to OC if you want in the future. You also get quick sync with the z68 chipset.
 
No one knows... Hopefully there will be some.ivy bridge procs that fit 1155.. But that would be about it with intel... Dont matter tho... My last intel rig was good for 5+yrs so if this does the same I have no issues with it
 
luluthemonk said:
I think you would be better off with the CPU mobo i posted earlier:
2500k + Z68A-D3H $330

It's 5 dollars less, you get a faster CPU, and you gain the ability to OC if you want in the future. You also get quick sync with the z68 chipset.
Click to expand...

You nailed it, lulu. I was literally looking at that motherboard's specs when I clicked back over here. I like that z chipset, and the combo deal with a faster processor makes it a no-brainer.

Ok, I'm done waffling. The trigger has been pulled, and I'm stoked!

Thanks, fellas, for all the good input. There's a reason I've been coming to the [H] for better than a decade!
 
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