The new build

[Silverel]

MSI K9A2 CF-F AM2+/AM2 AMD 790X ATX AMD Motherboard

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Brisbane 2.6GHz Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Black Edition

Step 1 and 2 are ordered and on the way.

I'll be keeping the PS in my specs.

2x 160gb HD's SATA3 16mb buffer RAID (room for 2 more mebbe)

2x 3850 512mb GeCube looks nice with its 2slot cooling. I'll be picking up one soon, and one later.

Other things that I'd like feedback on...

- Ram : ddr2 800 is cheap and plentiful A g.Skill 2x1gb set is around 40$ Not a big overclocker, but its so cheap I might have to abuse these lil guys.

- Case : Looking to spend less than 60$, I like function over flash, and a lot of these cases I've been looking at seem to have waaay too much plastic chunks trying to make it pretty. One with a PS is fine as I can use it for this rig when it gets retired.

- Cooling : HSF for the BE, and upgradeable for a x3 when they hit in march. This guy here looks like my best bet for quiet and cool running. That and he's pretty cheap too.


I'm hoping for a good 5 years minimum out of this rig, as my last one was built in '02 and upgraded last in '05. pci-e should last a good while, am2 is a decent foundation, and the reviews I've seen on the board suit my style just fine. If AMD's claims of backwards compatibility are true, I feel I could be a happy camper for a good long while

Thanks for the comments/criticism/hate

 

[Graogrim]

I'm not sure I could go five years without a major upgrade. Best I've managed is 3 1/2 years and I was getting ready to claw my eyes out toward the end. My hat's off to you.

 

[Silverel]

I've been waiting patiently for sure. I built an x2 rig, but ended up renting it to my brother. I've been waiting for some beefier am2 boards to come out, and this one just hits the sweet spot. Performance is on par with boards twice its cost, and it doesn't have all the extra crap I'm not going to use.

 

[CrAsHnBuRnXp]

Why not Intel?

 

[Silverel]

Me no likey.

 

[Duxx]

Check out these, i just ordered 2 myself.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148076

Crucial Ballistix Tracer (the pretty ones with LED's) 75$, 35$ MIR = $39.99 with free shipping.

 

[Silverel]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211174
Probably gonna go with these. 8-10 weeks for the MiR on the crucial ones and those LEDs are 3 different colors. Dunno if I want any lights inside the case, I might do some red cathodes and dimm em down a bit via magic marker, or something like that.

 

[Duxx]

w/e floats the boat . I like my crucial. Last rebate i got from them only took about 5.

 

[regan1985]

where did you find the sata 3 hard drives? and why not buy a 500gb hard drive for the same price?

 

[Silverel]

where did you find the sata 3 hard drives? and why not buy a 500gb hard drive for the same price?

Ah sorry bout that confusion, I had forgotten they were referred to as sataII at some point.

WD 160g Sata 3.0gb/s 60$ a piece, so 2 for 120$ Gonna RAID them since the mobo supports it.

As opposed to...
WD 500g Sata 3.0gb/s at 100$ a piece. I keep my drives pretty clean, so the 500g capacity isn't really making me drool for it. Besides, I'm keeping the rig I'm on for mass file storage, and building this one for speed. (relative in comparison to...)

 

[CrAsHnBuRnXp]

Me no likey.

This always gets me. How can you buy an inferior product? I can never understand this. Just because you dont like something, you'd rather get the suckier product? Thats just...idiotic. To me, Id rather get the product that gives me the best performance. And right now, Intel holds that crown.

 

[ShadowFold]

This always gets me. How can you buy an inferior product? I can never understand this. Just because you dont like something, you'd rather get the suckier product? Thats just...idiotic. To me, Id rather get the product that gives me the best performance. And right now, Intel holds that crown.

Just cause it doesnt score in the 20,000's in 3dmark doesnt make them bad.. an AMD x2 at 3ghz is about as good as a 2.6ghz C2D E6600 and its alot cheaper.

 

[CrAsHnBuRnXp]

Just cause it doesnt score in the 20,000's in 3dmark doesnt make them bad.. an AMD x2 at 3ghz is about as good as a 2.6ghz C2D E6600 and its alot cheaper.

I dont care about the personal benchmarks. To me it just seems as though someone would want something with faster performance rather than buying something thats cheaper that is on par with its competitor.

 

[PaulieG]

I'm not sure I could go five years without a major upgrade. Best I've managed is 3 1/2 years and I was getting ready to claw my eyes out toward the end. My hat's off to you.

LOL, I claw my eyes out if I don't build new at least once every six months,,

 

[Silverel]

I dont care about the personal benchmarks. To me it just seems as though someone would want something with faster performance rather than buying something thats cheaper that is on par with its competitor.

Thanks for the hate. I'll give more reasons than "Me no likey". Though I thought it was valid enough.

When I find a good product, a good brand, a good company that does me well, I'll stick through the times they aren't #1. Not a big deal, this is still a big upgrade for me, and they earned my repeat business by being an excellent company in the first place.

AMD is cheaper, the mobo's are cheaper for what you get, the processors are cheaper for what you get. They are competitive, they just aren't at the very top of the pile. I'm not the kind of guy that is going to spend "top of the pile" money on anything.

The board I have should be good for a few years as to what I can drop into it for a quick and dirty upgrade, i.e. AM2+ processors. Granted they won't run at full potential, but I don't have to go out and build a whole system at once.

AMD also brings crossfire. For 100$, which is what I paid for the board, I get two pci-e 8x lanes, which is more than enough for my aspirations. When I need more graphics power, I'll get another card. Also, cheaper than the competition.

Intel, I just don't like em. I must be drinking the same kool-aid the EU is, cause from what I hear Intel kinna gave a half-assed response to their anti-competitive allegations brought against em. It's a big corporation, and they're not going down in the foreseeable future, but that doesn't mean they play nice given the chance. Dirty money they've made. Reminds me of Walmart.

nVidia, can't complain much about em. They kick a lot of ass. AMD does too, again, just not at the top of the pile, which I just don't care about. The 3800 series was designed to put up a fight, and the 8800s that kinda got hacked together at the last minute are getting more convoluted by the minute. The version that knocked all the benchmarks out of the water runs around 250, or the weak-sauce one for around 210. Only issue I have really is finding SLi for cheap. Ah, maybe they don't make AM2+ boards with Sli... could be my issue.

For 100$ on the mobo, and 100$ on the processor, I really don't think I'm getting an inferior product. I've been waiting for prices on these to drop since they came out, they're more than capable of running just about anything you can throw at them. I'll be sure to let you know if I'm dissatisfied. My Super-pi scores might be 10 seconds longer, my 3dmark scores might be 4k lower, but I'll be able to game at 16x12 2xaa 8xaf.

If it's okay, I like AMD. I see that Intel has a good processor, looks like they just got caught up though.

 

[Silverel]

UPDATE : Got in the MSI K9A2 790x and a 5000BE G2 stepping sitting in my home.

Just sitting there....

looking at me...


I need more money, waiting for paychecks sucks.