New Rig Plan

[Kweku]

Motherboard

gigabyte GA-M55S-S3
CPU
Support for Socket AM2+/ AM2 processors: AMD Phenom™FX processor/ AMD Phenom™ processor/ AMD Athlon™ 64 FX processor/AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core processor/AMD Athlon™ 64 processor/AMD Sempron™ processor.

Memory
1. 4 DDR2 DIMM memory slots (supports up to 16GB memory)(Note 1)
2. Supports dual channel DDR2 800/667/533/400 DIMMs
3. Supports 1.8V DDR2 DIMMs
4. Support ECC Memory

Chipset
NVIDIA® nForce 550

Graphics Card

GeForce 9500GT

GPU Engine Specs:
Processor Cores 32
Graphics Clock (MHz) 550 MHz
Processor Clock (MHz) 1400 MHz
Texture Fill Rate (billion/sec) 8.8

Memory Specs:
Memory Clock (MHz) 800 (GDDR3) and 500 (DDR2) MHz
Standard Memory Config 256/512 MB
Memory Interface Width 128-bit
Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec) 25.6 (GDDR3) and 16.0 (DDR2)

Feature Support:
NVIDIA SLI®-ready* 2-Way
NVIDIA PureVideo® Technology* HD
NVIDIA PhysX™-ready yes *
NVIDIA CUDA™ Technology yes
HybridPower™ Technology*
GeForce Boost
Microsoft DirectX 10
OpenGL 2.1

Display Support:
Maximum Digital Resolution 2560x1600
Maximum VGA Resolution 2048x1536

Processor
AMD Athlon X2 7750
Black Edition, 3MB

Memory
2 X 1GB DDR2 800Mhz


Build is not for games, but may play call of duty once a month or so, but don't really need it to be that spec, would rather be using this to code programs, watch TV, movies, play music, typical bedroom(im bored) pc.

 

[h3llb3nd4]

are you gonna use a generic case?

 

[silkstone]

9500 isn't a very good vga card, you might want to look at maybe a 8600 or even better 4830

 

[h3llb3nd4]

a 9600GT is good for a TF2 session.
so it's a battle between 9600GT and 4830

 

[blkhogan]

4830 all the way. best bang for the buck.

 

[aCid888*]

It may be goo bang for buck but depending on the price where he is, he would be better off with a 8600GT/GTS as his budget doesnt look to be that large.

 

[h3llb3nd4]

but a 9600GT Kicks 8600s in the Ass.

 

[Kweku]

are you gonna use a generic case?

Raidmax aztec, same one im using now.

im not too sure on the card though, but yeah, i am on a big small budget, reason being i gotta build about three pc's at the same time and i just moved to a new place and have to buy furniture and all.

 

[blkhogan]

It may be goo bang for buck but depending on the price where he is, he would be better off with a 8600GT/GTS as his budget doesnt look to be that large.

Maybe look at a 4650 or 4670 if the 4830's are to much.

 

[silkstone]

Or buy second hand if possible.
The 9500GT is really only any good if you get an o/c'd version. My old 8500gt would run at 770 core and was ok, but i had a special one You also need to make sure it's the ddr3 version as the ddr2 sucks

 

[King Wookie]

What's your price range on the gfx card and where are you shopping?

Let's see if we can source you a better card for the price.

EDIT: Case in point :
http://www.prophecy.co.za/force3d-hd4670-512mb-p-31156.html

 

[Kweku]

i was looking for something in the ranges of that, R800-900, i think i might be able to do. Forgot to check this place, thanx homeboy

 

[Kweku]

just did a lil research on the HD4670, it don't look like a bad card indeed

 

[h3llb3nd4]

It's better than my 8600GT

 

[Kweku]

It's better than my 8600GT

lol. looks like im not the only one with the need of an upgrade.

 

[h3llb3nd4]

I also need a better CPU cooler, Mobo, HDD...the list goes on...

 

[Kweku]

Just checked that the HD4670 stock cooling is kak, one of the users says the temp was high, here is a direct quote:

by David Wiles Date Added: Wednesday 28 January, 2009
Good card that is very fast and was good value for money, BUT please be very careful that you have adequate ventilation or some sort of GPU cooler in your PC casing. The fan for this card is woefully inadequate. Under 0% load the core temperature of the GPU was 62 degrees, and rose as high as 82% when running ATI Tools (using Artifact Scan) Artifacts appeared every 2 seconds and running Spore and other games like Sturmovik IL-2 would lock the screen and activate "GPU Recover" in Catalyst 8.12. (This was with NO overclocking or any sort of tweaking)

I have had to go out and buy a special GPU cooler to fix the overheating issue and to run the PC normally. So please be careful when you buy this card!


So i guess i should start looking for a GPU cooler, any recommendations? cheap ones that work for their value

 

[h3llb3nd4]

Budget? R400?

 

[Kweku]

thats a bit heavy, R250, lol.

 

[h3llb3nd4]

Thermalright V1 Ultra
Zalman VF902-CU (OEM)
list of Zalmans
Gotta check if they're compaatible though

 

[Kweku]

i think i'll do more research on the cooling in a week or two, thats about when i'll be getting the card. getting the motherboard this very week, gonna bolt it in then next will be the graphics card, which as this point looks like it going to be the HD4670, it is said to be a good performer from all that i have read thus far just cooling issues, which might be sorted already if they are right.
Ram is already here, Harddrive(250Gb Sata2) will also arrive in two-three weeks. will maybe do a proper log, with pictures, plus i still got the case to do up, maybe i should log that too. Will start it tomorrow infect, just need to get the drawings intact. i should have made up my mind by tomorrow with the final internals, look to be set with the motherboard, just the card that needs a think or so.

 

[daragez]

great plan!...good luck...!

 

[Kweku]

cool. thanx man, just hope it all comes well. it all starts tomorrow

 

[kyle2020]

Try and see if the AC Accelero will fit on that card, they are excellent. Also the Akasa Vortexx NEO is good.

 

[Kweku]

cool, will check for those as well.