Polarman
New Member
- Joined
- Jun 24, 2008
- Messages
- 1,626 (0.28/day)
- Location
- Rimouski
System Name | Polar's Dragon |
---|---|
Processor | AMD Phenom II 975BE |
Motherboard | MSI 890FXA-GD65 (Bios 18.7) |
Cooling | Zalman CNPS 9700 Led |
Memory | Gskill 8GB DDR3-1333 (8,8,8,21) |
Video Card(s) | MSI HD6870 Hawk |
Storage | WD Raptor 250 - WD RE4 500GB |
Display(s) | Samsung T240 (1920 X1200) |
Case | Silverstone Raven 2 |
Audio Device(s) | Realtek ALC892 |
Power Supply | PC Power&Cooling Silencer 750 (Red) |
Software | Windows 7 Home Premium 64Bit + SP1 |
Changing my Dragon for a Scorpion (not anymore!)
Have'nt posted in quite a while. But i've never been that far.
I'm preparing a a small upgrade to my current Dragon platform. Nothing really over the top as my budget is a bit limited. This will make my wife happy because my current setup will end up as hers. So this will be a kill two birds with one stone upgrade.
I will only end up in changing a few components. Here's what i decided so far.
CPU:
AMD FX-4100 (3.6 GHz/95W) (150$-160$ probably)
Staying with a Quad is more than enough for my use. My 940BE will totally kick her single core Athlon 3500+ in the nearest garbage can.
Motherboard (135$):
MSI 990XA-GD55
This will replace my MSI DKA790GX Platinum and will replace a prehistoric Asus A8V. The 990XA has more than enough features to make me happy. I find those FX boards with 4-5 PCI-E are overkill and pointless.
Memory (50$):
CORSAIR Vengeance 4GB
It will be nice to switch from DDR2-800 to DDR3-1600. My wife has 512mb of Kingston value ram so the speed boost & capacity will be much better for her.
Hard disk drive (60$-75$):
Go SSD, short answer is NO. Waiting a few extra seconds is not worth the extra headache and money for my sake. I'm sticking to an old trusty mechanical drive.
Here's where it gets a bit harder to decide. I'm not sure wich one of these 2 to get.
Western Digital RE4 WD5003ABYX 500GB or Western Digital Caviar Black WD5002AALX 500GB
I never had any problems with WD so i'll get a new WD for this build too. The RE4 is Sata 2 but has a 64MB cache. The Caviar Black is Sata 3 but has only a 32MB cache. Both are single 500 GB platter. I know that Sata 3 will NOT do sqwat about speed for a HDD but the extra cache probably will. I'm leaning more towards the RE4 for reliablity reasons and it's only 15$ more.
Why get only 500GB you ask. Well right now, i only use about 200GB out of 640. My pc is not a PVR nor a p0rn library. My wife will appreciate the 640GB. Her paltry 80GB is slow and obsolete.
DVD Burner (25$):
Unfortunatly, i have to buy a new one because mine is IDE. Newer Mobo's don't have IDE anymore. Have to get a SATA burner. Good thing those things are cheap now.
Projected total is around 435$. Not too bad considering that 2 will profit from an update.
Comments welcomed.
UPDATE:
I've downgraded my Scorpion plan to a Leo.
Seeing the FX is not up to par, I'll be getting a Phenom II 975BE instead.
Even if the FX-4100 benchmark are next to inexistant, from the very few stats i've seen, it behaves no better than a X4 645 or A8-3850. :shadedshu
This changes my motherboards plans also. The new board will be an MSI 890FXA-GD65
For RAM, i've decided to get these: Gskill F3-10600CL8D-4GBHK
They're 1333 (8,8,8,21 @ 1.5V) this will assure me maximum compatibility and stability. (I hope )
Have'nt posted in quite a while. But i've never been that far.
I'm preparing a a small upgrade to my current Dragon platform. Nothing really over the top as my budget is a bit limited. This will make my wife happy because my current setup will end up as hers. So this will be a kill two birds with one stone upgrade.
I will only end up in changing a few components. Here's what i decided so far.
CPU:
AMD FX-4100 (3.6 GHz/95W) (150$-160$ probably)
Staying with a Quad is more than enough for my use. My 940BE will totally kick her single core Athlon 3500+ in the nearest garbage can.
Motherboard (135$):
MSI 990XA-GD55
This will replace my MSI DKA790GX Platinum and will replace a prehistoric Asus A8V. The 990XA has more than enough features to make me happy. I find those FX boards with 4-5 PCI-E are overkill and pointless.
Memory (50$):
CORSAIR Vengeance 4GB
It will be nice to switch from DDR2-800 to DDR3-1600. My wife has 512mb of Kingston value ram so the speed boost & capacity will be much better for her.
Hard disk drive (60$-75$):
Go SSD, short answer is NO. Waiting a few extra seconds is not worth the extra headache and money for my sake. I'm sticking to an old trusty mechanical drive.
Here's where it gets a bit harder to decide. I'm not sure wich one of these 2 to get.
Western Digital RE4 WD5003ABYX 500GB or Western Digital Caviar Black WD5002AALX 500GB
I never had any problems with WD so i'll get a new WD for this build too. The RE4 is Sata 2 but has a 64MB cache. The Caviar Black is Sata 3 but has only a 32MB cache. Both are single 500 GB platter. I know that Sata 3 will NOT do sqwat about speed for a HDD but the extra cache probably will. I'm leaning more towards the RE4 for reliablity reasons and it's only 15$ more.
Why get only 500GB you ask. Well right now, i only use about 200GB out of 640. My pc is not a PVR nor a p0rn library. My wife will appreciate the 640GB. Her paltry 80GB is slow and obsolete.
DVD Burner (25$):
Unfortunatly, i have to buy a new one because mine is IDE. Newer Mobo's don't have IDE anymore. Have to get a SATA burner. Good thing those things are cheap now.
Projected total is around 435$. Not too bad considering that 2 will profit from an update.
Comments welcomed.
UPDATE:
I've downgraded my Scorpion plan to a Leo.
Seeing the FX is not up to par, I'll be getting a Phenom II 975BE instead.
Even if the FX-4100 benchmark are next to inexistant, from the very few stats i've seen, it behaves no better than a X4 645 or A8-3850. :shadedshu
This changes my motherboards plans also. The new board will be an MSI 890FXA-GD65
For RAM, i've decided to get these: Gskill F3-10600CL8D-4GBHK
They're 1333 (8,8,8,21 @ 1.5V) this will assure me maximum compatibility and stability. (I hope )
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