Will this build work?

Sparkz63

Beta member
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4
Hi, all! I've been meaning to build my own P.C. for awhile. My eighteenth birthday is coming up soon and I think I'm going to ask for $$ and put it with my stash to go towards a gaming P.C! =)

So far, below is the build that I'm thinking of:

Windows 7 64bit

Motherboard:
$118.99 Newegg.com - ASUS M4A79XTD EVO AM3 AMD 790X ATX AMD Motherboard
2x PCIe for later CrossfireX upgrade
2x PCIe
2x PCI
4 DDR 1600 RAM slots
7 3Ghz SATA
8 USB 2.0
Asus boards have pleanty of neat-o features. I wish I knew what they did.

Case:
Planning to reuse an old computer case. I measured the old board inside the case and it seems to be mATX, and the case has holes that expand past the old board to (hopefully) accommodate the new, larger board. There are many more slots in it than I'm ever going to use. Exactly how big should the case be?

CPU:
$139.99 Newegg.com - AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ955FBGMBOX
4x Cores @ 3.2 GHz, better than 6 lower speed cores for gaming
Some reviews say overclocking is easy

RAM:
$49.99 Newegg.com - CORSAIR XMS 4GB (2 x 2GB); 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800); Desktop Memory Model CMX4GX3M2B1600C9
DDR3, 1600 Memory standard, (2 x 2Gb)
Dual channel should work faster with Asus motherboard than single (correct me if I'm wrong)

PSU:
$69.99 Newegg.com - CORSAIR Builder Series CX600 (CMPSU-600CX); 600W ATX12V v2.3 Active PFC Power Supply
I've heard good things about Corsair
600W should be enough for me
Would like modular but price is even better

GPU:
$129.99 Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE Vapor-X 100283VX-2L Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT); 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card w/ Eyefinity
I found this card from benchmark studying and price comparisons
Maybe CrossfireX in the future? After the build, once I get money for a second card.

HDD & Optical:
$19.99 Newegg.com - ASUS Black 24X DVD-R 8X DVD-RW 12X DVD-R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - CD / DVD Burners

$39.99 Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKX 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5"; Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Both are cheap and effective

Total cost of components, exempting peripherals and provided case: $568.93

*sidenote* "Overclock" is a term I'm not too terribly comfortable with. I would like to do some light experimenting with it, but I don't really know much about it. From what I've researched, it is where you push the components of a P.C. past their intended limits.

So what do you guys think? Does this build work? Is this build worth the $$, or should I go for something different?

I plan to actually order the parts and such here in about a month when I have the $$. Two paychecks and a birthday away. =)

Please and thank you to all! =D
 
Hi there!

You seem to have it more or less sorted. You do say, is it worth the $$, yet you dont give us a price that it costs, and a budget that you have! To be honest its probably worth it anyway as the rig will be nice for gaming, and you generally save a little when you buy / build yourself.

The only thing you should be wary of really is re-using your old case. If you say its currently a MATX, then you should be wary about putting a normal ATX board in there. The measurements of the new board are: 12.0" x 9.6"... Also, check the pins / adapters of the new board, and that they are going to fit into the current holes of your case (theres plenty of pictures on the site you're buying off) Bear in mind as well you wont want a MOBO (motherboard) that JUST squeezes in, you will want to leave space for cable managment and good airflow.

The CPU is a nice gaming processor, its the black edition, which means, in this case, the multiplier is unlcoked. Basically with 'overclocking' you change the base rates of the CPU in order to gain more 'power' (GHZ).

The base rates are based around the FSB (front bus), the voltage, and the Multiplier. As you recieved a normal CPU (for example yours) it comes at 3.2GHZ stock speed. it might be running at X amount of volts (lets just say 5volts) and the multiplier is at '1.4'.
You can go into BIOS settings (or sometimes use software) and say ''Processor, run off 6 volts, and the multiplier, run at a 1.5 multiplier'' then your speed of the processor might go up to 3.5GHZ. You can get those sort of processors up to 4GHZ pretty easily, and probably on standard air cooling! However be careful when doing it, as you can do damage if you have no idea what your doing.

(theres plenty of posts on this forum about overclocking)

Yeah, using dual channels for the RAM is better than using the one, GENERALLY, as you can split the load the RAM has between 2 different slots, rather than pilling it on one. As long as you have the same type of RAM in both slots you're good to go. (yours is fine, DDR3 is newest / best technology atm for RAM, you might want to upgrade an extra 2GB/4GB in the future, but atm, your fine)

The specs on your MOBO, just tell you what you can use with it (Slots for Drives, Type of RAM, etc) The features, you can read up on, but anti-surge fairly self explanitory, TurboV off the top of my head routes CPU power to where its needed most (basically internal intelligent resources distribution)

Think thats roughly it - shout if you want more info :)
 
Thank you! Your help is priceless! =D

My budget as of yet, is precisely undetermined. I can't really give an estimate until after my birthday. This project is something that I'm saving up to do around probably early May.

Build Total on Newegg @ April 1st, 2011, exempting the case and monitor: $568.93

I'll update the first post with prices.

The case is 16" tall from the bottom of the case to the top of where the psu is, 17.5" from the backside to the front of the case where all of the bays are (12.5" from the back of the case to the backside of the bays), and 6.5" deep (all measured from the inside). The standoffs that were used for the old board don't extend the entire length of the case. The real challenge will be fitting both the board and the PSU together in there.

ImageShack® - Online Photo and Video Hosting
ImageShack® - Online Photo and Video Hosting
ImageShack® - Online Photo and Video Hosting
ImageShack® - Online Photo and Video Hosting

So do you think it will be okay?
 
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