Surprisingly Powerful Build? Reccomendations for the future?

[Jello Man]

Hey, I built this computer for my cousin on a strict budget. It seemed almost impossible to me, he wanted to spend around $400 on the box which would be able to do some real high-end gaming AND Photoshop CS3 and Aftereffect stuff. I came up with this general list of parts. The only issue i had with it was that after only about a week the PSU went kaput. But it ran surprisingly well, and still is. So far he's running FO3 capped with a very good framerate (I'd guess somewhere between 35-50, haven't checked) and Crysis runs very well mostly on very high. He hasn't had any issues with any older games, Oblivion, Steam based games etc. He only has a Dell CRT monitor running at I think 1280x1024 (i know no WS). Mind you all NO OC YET, I don't really wanna have him (or me) messing around with that til' I read more up on it here.

$100
MOBO:Newegg.com - BIOSTAR TFORCE TA790GX A2+ AM2+/AM2 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - AMD Motherboards

$85
VIDCAR:Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100255L Radeon HD 4670 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

$80
PROC:Newegg.com - AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor 3.0GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM2 125W Dual-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops

$45
RAM:Newegg.com - G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory

$50
CASE+PSU:Newegg.com - Broadway Com Corp 939PL-BLACK Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case Okia ATX 550W Power Supply - Computer Cases

$65
HDD:Newegg.com - Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3500410AS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - Internal Hard Drives

I know now the price is over 400, but when i ordered stuff was on sale. Plus I gave him an old 16x DVD writer reader combo I had lying around since he doesn't use optical drives for much of anything.

I'm gonna try and have him take some screenies of CPUID and GPUZ windows.

And I've only been here a couple o' days and I already love it.

 

[DawnOfDoom]

IMHO i woulda went a little farther with the vid card and got a 4870 but eh thats me. you were on a strict budget. Just get him to upgrade it later and it'll even beter.

That RAM probably wont overclock well.. but who knows you might have found a jewel...

BTW NEVER i mean NEVER use PSU's that come with cases. I've had many bad encounters with those things killing my system. Always buy a separate PSU. but then again your on a budget somethings must happen.

Either way congradulations to you and your friend for the PC build hope it runs smooth while he has it.

Welcome to the forums btw

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

Raidmax generaly gives you a decent quality psu for low end to mid range home computers when ordering there cases, but that is it as far as i know.

 

[DawnOfDoom]

some are good some arent. i heard antecs were alright to buy with the case.

the only time i'd buy PSU and case combo is when im building just a net surfing rig for someone else.. never for myself.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

The build looks pretty good considering the price. I would have went with a more modern cpu like a E5200 or x2 7750 though.

As DawnOfDoom already said don't use power supplies that come with cases (except for antec).

 

[Jello Man]

Yeah guys, thanks for the rapid feedback. And I learned my PSU lesson the hard way. I ended up swapping in a Rosewill PSU and it ran just fine after that. But I was thinking maybe in the future OC'ing the Proc a bit. Another issue is that the desk he keeps this box in is REALLY cramped in the only place he can put it, so air circulation is pretty cruddy. Maybe if/when he want to get some cash together, we can get some better cooling in there and pump the CPU up a bit.

 

[hikaricloud]

If you want to stick around that price for a CPU, grab the X2 7750...or you can wait for the Phenom II X3 720BE to hit newegg, it's pretty slick.

Though I would probably switch to an intel build, since you're getting a video card and you don't need the onboard.

 

[Jello Man]

Well, what happened was when i did some canyourunit.com tests it said that total VRAM available was 1.9GB, and i thought it was just lumping extra RAM together since he only has a 32bit Vista Home Prem. That is confusing me too, because that rig theoretically shouldn't be able to run Crysis un-OC'd as well as it does.