Budget PC need input.

[Gumbi]

Takin what everyone has told me, and built a gaming PC. Any last minute changes anyone would recomend? I thought it was a pretty sweet deal. I was looking to spend $450 max and this came out at $458 so I'm pretty happy with that as well. Here it is.

Fan -- $15
Masscool 5W1081F1M3 CPU Fan - Socket 754, AM2+, AM2, 939, 940 at TigerDirect.com

Dvd drive--$28
LG GH22NS50 DVD Writer - DVD+R 22x, DVD+RW 8X, DVD-RW 6x, DVD-RAM 12x, SATA (OEM) at TigerDirect.com

Win 7 64 bit-- $105
Newegg.com - Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - Operating Systems

Hard drive 160gb--$40
Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Blue WD1600AAJS 160GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

CPU case RAM mobo psu-- $200 Asus M3A78-EM Power Up Barebones Kit - Asus M3A78-EM AMD 780G Socket AM2+ Mobo, AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ CPU, Ultra 2GB 2048MB PC5400 DDR2 667MHz RAM, Power Up Black ATX Mid-Tower Case w/450-Watt PSU at TigerDirect.com

Radeon HD 4670 -- $70
XFX Radeon HD 4670 Video Card - 1GB GDDR2, PCI Express 2.0, CrossFireX Ready, Dual DVI, HDTV, HDMI Support at TigerDirect.com

Total==$458

 

[Trotter]

Sorry, but that build gives me the shudders from so many angles. The PSu in that case is below crap, LG sucks majorly for opticals, and that GFX card uses GDDR2.

Try this one:
Newegg.com - AMD Athlon II X2 240 Regor 2.8GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops
$61 w/free shipping

BIOSTAR A785GE AM2+/AM3 AMD 785G Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
&
Kingston HyperX 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Desktop Memory Model KHX6400D2/1G - Retail
$85 w/fre shipping

Newegg.com - Rosewill TU-155 Black 0.8mm SGCC Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case with 400W(20+4 pin) Power Supply - Computer Cases
$50 w/$10 shipping

Newegg.com - LITE-ON Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW SATA CD/DVD Burner - Bulk - CD / DVD Burners
$29

Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Blue WD2500AAKS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
$48 w/free shipping

Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100255HDMI Radeon HD 4670 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards
$65

Newegg.com - Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - Operating Systems
$105 w/free shipping

Total = $443 plus shipping

The Athlon II 240 will outperform the 3000+ and run cooler. Rosewill ain't sexy, but their PSUs aren't as likely to go BOOM either. Lite-On is solid. 250GB should be the minimum for a drive, plus this one has a 16MB buffer. The Sapphire uses GDDR3.

 

[Gumbi]

Ok, kind of new to this PC building thing. Thank you. My only thing is why wouldn't the other motherboard be good. it has twice as many RAM slots, and I want to be able to upgrade to a good bit of ram.

Edit:
And why is that processor better, and what about the power supply? Not saying your wrong I'm completely new and just trying to learn/understand. Thanks again for the help

 

[Trotter]

I didn't notice the RAM slots, sorry. Yes, the mobo was good in that combo, but not the case/PSU. Try this one:
ECS IC780M-A AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
&
Kingston HyperX 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Desktop Memory Model KHX6400D2/1G - Retail
$84 w/free shipping on the RAM and $16 MIR on the mobo.

The Athlon II 240 is the latest generation, while the 6000+ is a couple of generations old. The 6000+ may be 3.0GHz, but the 240 gets loads more done on 2.8GHz because of how it is made. think of it as a 4-banger and a V8... at 2500RPMs the V8 is putting out a lot more power than the 4-cylinder is putting out.

Ultra is not known for good power supplies. Rosewill's PSUs are decent if not good. There are much better out there, but on this thin of a budget you have to use what you can. If you can find a good sale on Antec, FSP Group, BFG, OCZ, Corsair, PC Power and Cooling, or SeaSonic (all good brands off the top of my head), go for it. We have a PSU guide posted around here somewhere...

Don't worry about being new and not knowing this stuff. We all started there at one time or another.

 

[Gumbi]

THat makes more sense. Ok, but everything else looks good (for what budget i have)?

 

[Trotter]

That combo with the other I posted will be a solid budget gaming build. Your next order of business will be to get another stick of 2GB.

 

[Gumbi]

Yeah thats what I was thinking. I've been hearing something like RAM only runs at the speed of the lowest stick, so should I just buy 3 more 2gig sticks of that same speed?

 

[Gumbi]

just bought this build, should be coming in soon. My only concern is am I not going to need another gig of ram? I got windows 7 64 bit and it says it needs 2 gigs

 

[Trotter]

i would get another matching stick or three.

If you have the money you might want to spring for a set of 2x2GB as a 64-bit operating system can utilize more than 3.5GB. That would also leave you open to ad an additional 2x2GB some day to max out your RAM for the board.

 

[philbar71]

just bought this build, should be coming in soon. My only concern is am I not going to need another gig of ram? I got windows 7 64 bit and it says it needs 2 gigs

win 7 runs fine on 1GB of ram. my sisters old laptop is running a single core centrino CPU and 1GB of ram and it cruses along just fine.

i also have a old Athalon XP rig with integrated GFX and 512MB of ram, it runs great for what i am doing with it