New PC, thoughts?

[mudlord]

http://www.eyo.com.au/trolley.php?wishlist=19883

Finally came up with that. Got a initial budget of $500 AUD to get initial parts. I aimed to build this entirely on a shoestring budget, to finally get a PC up to par with my "old" one, which was a Core 2 Quad 8400. From there, I can afford to get a bigger PSU to accomodate the graphics card etc. And then, upgrade as time goes by, like I did with my old one which was remotely usable.

I chose the particular mobo because I don't need more than 8GB RAM for my needs. My "old" PC had 4GB RAM, which even that was enough. I remember someone suggesting a cheap GeForce to handle graphics. I don't do much OpenGL shader programming anymore, so ATI's can be a option I suppose.

Any thoughts?

note: I don't live in the US so Newegg and stuff like that ain't a option, sorry.

[odditude]

did the old one die or was it given to another? only asking because that chip seems like a sidestep from your c2q.

in terms of actually answering your question, the mobo's onboard graphics will be suitable for nongaming (i.e. no need for even a cheapie gf card if you still have no need for real graphics muscle). not familiar with the case/psu brand, so the psu makes me leery. besides that, looks good.

oh, and i liek mudkipz.

[mudlord]

Yes, the old one did indeed die.

My interim replacement until my new one is sorted is a single core 1.7Ghz Pentium 4, so its still a improvement. The PSU to me is not a worry as I can easily upgrade it later for when the time a proper one is needed.

[Gil_Hamilton]

RIP Old PC. :'(


Personally, I'd get a good supply right off the bat. They generally output "cleaner" electricity, and are less likely to damage something.
Most important part of the system.

[kode54]

Surge protector and/or UPS are also a good idea, even if you don't live where there are many electrical storms or otherwise bad or inconsistent power.

[odditude]

wisdom

[mudlord]

Ordered the initial parts today, which are the case, mobo, RAM, HD, DVD burner and CPU.

Found this for a surge protector board. Still deciding on video card.

Found this for PSU. Would be nice to get something similar in price and specs.

[odditude]

600W is overkill for that build, unless you're planning on adding an ultra-high-end video card.

[lordmissus]

lol

[kode54]

More power, less cost.

Yes, you have that right. They definitely use more power than their more expensive Intel counterparts. You still get what you pay for.

For instance, as I've already posted on this forum, the fastest Phenom II X4 965 is outperformed by the cheapest Core i5 processor. They both cost about the same. I haven't read up lately, so maybe the situation may have changed with the newer Core i3 and i5 processors available.

There's also that overpriced X6 processor, which it turns out is even outperformed by the X4 965. Maybe Intel can pull a better consumer grade six core processor out of their hat, assuming the average consumer even needs six cores at this point. While various processing heavy tasks such as video encoding could divide the work amongst threads, and multitasking on the desktop could also make use of the extra cores, I doubt that many games are so optimized for multithreading yet, even with dual and quad core processors being mainstream.


Of course, you're right on the money with AMD/ATI video hardware. That seems to be the best bang for your buck compared with the overpriced and power hungry Fermi. At least for now. Although if ATI is still using that horrible Catalyst Control Center, their drivers are still pretty bad compared to Nvidia's.

Oh yeah, Linux support. ATI having better Linux support. HAHA.

[paulguy]

I would recommend ATI RadeonHD 4xxx for their excellent Linux support.

[adventure_of_link]

man I remember this one time, when AMD dominated Intel and nVidia was better than ATi

[mudlord]

600W is overkill for that build, unless you're planning on adding an ultra-high-end video card.

Righty-o, managed to find a Antec 500W PSU with 40amps on the +12v rail. And at a modest price, too.

Oh yeah, Linux support. ATI having better Linux support. HAHA.

Linux is dead to me. I can just ask AamirM or Nach to deal with my Linux needs, and I trust them enough to do a good job. For me, Windows XP/7 *works* and I know its APIs.

Although if ATI is still using that horrible Catalyst Control Center, their drivers are still pretty bad compared to Nvidia's.

They still are using that .NET based tripe.

There's also that overpriced X6 processor, which it turns out is even outperformed by the X4 965

ROFL....just, lol.

[AamirM]

Yeah, ATi seems to be better and bit cheaper in gaming from my experience. Though, nVidia has CUDA which attracts me infinitely for some reason. >_>

Otherwise, system looks good.

[odditude]

gtx 460 appears to be a solid new entry at the $200 point, being a new design instead of just a standard-but-hamstrung fermi. reviews peg it beating the 5830 handily, and matching the godawful-for-its-price gtx 465 it seems to be destined to replace for $70 cheaper.

[Deathlike2]

It is one of the few times I can actually recommend NVidia... because the ovenheater known as the Fermi architecture was too late to the party...

ATI still has to best bang for the buck.. only if you have no concern over OpenGL (whether it is using it or developing for it).

Also, the needs to have multi-rails. I mean, some PSUs still have single rails, but you really want multi-rail (at least dual-rails) for good measure IMO. I'm unsure if 80 PLUS PSUs have saturated the market now, but those are definitely ideal nowadays (although, it is a lot of market-sell, but I guess you can hold the manufacturer to their word).

[I.S.T.]

It is one of the few times I can actually recommend NVidia... because the ovenheater known as the Fermi architecture was too late to the party...

ATI still has to best bang for the buck.. only if you have no concern over OpenGL (whether it is using it or developing for it).

Also, the needs to have multi-rails. I mean, some PSUs still have single rails, but you really want multi-rail (at least dual-rails) for good measure IMO. I'm unsure if 80 PLUS PSUs have saturated the market now, but those are definitely ideal nowadays (although, it is a lot of market-sell, but I guess you can hold the manufacturer to their word).

Don't you mean can't recommend nVidia?

[Deathlike2]

I said it correctly the first time. Everything prior to the GTX460 is unimpressive.

[kick]

* Even the GTX460 is unimpressive: The VRM section of these cards heats up to 105 degrees C . That's more than toasty.


* AMD has finally fixed their OpenGL drivers with Catalyst 10.7
Old games (and emulators using OpenGL like DeSmuME) are working fine with this release