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How's this build?

A

Ackmey

New Member
Joined
Aug 30, 2010
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I'm buying online from Newegg.ca... got a total budget of maybe just over $700, that has to include shipping and taxes.

Anyway, so far, I've got:

Rosewill Blackbone Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case (49.99)

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive (58.49)

Antec EarthWatts EA650 650W Continuous Power ATX12V Ver.2.2 / EPS12V version 2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified (89.99 from 99.99)

POWERCOLOR PCS+ AX5770 1GBD5-PPG Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 CrossFireX Support Video Card (164.49)

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-4GBRL (89.49)

AMD Athlon II X4 630 Propus 2.8GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Processor ADX630WFGIBOX

&

BIOSTAR A770E AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard (Bundled w/ CPU for 144.98)
Click to expand...

I think I'm mostly happy with this build, I'm just slightly worried about the MoBo since Biostar seems to not have a great reputation... any help with that? Or other adjustments I can make without spending more money? I'm not adverse to a completely new build if it's getting me more for my money. :)

The total cost of this is $726 all included.

Thanks for any help!
 
Id buy MSI/GB/ASUS.
Biostar is just cheap and getting lucky with a few boards doesn't make reputation enough for me.
Not suggesting any particular brand,google a bit and find out whats the most popular model that fits your budget/cpu.

Welcome to TPU :)
 
Thanks. :)

I've been looking for other motherboards, it's just hard to find one in the same price range, and that works with the CPU... especially considering I'm saving $25 with the bundle.
 
Why not take a look at these boards?

GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P or the ASUS M4A77TD Pro, they are pretty cheap but decent boards, if you don't fancy Biostar.
 
There's no GA-MA770T available on the site, and the ASUS MoBo doesn't have "pro" attached to the end... is there a difference?

And it's not that I myself have anything against Biostar; it's just what I've heard... in any case, would that ASUS board be better than the one I have posted in my cart?

Thanks for the help so far :)
 
I would get a better brand mobo with the newer AMD chipset. On NewEgg I found a combo with an Asus M4A87TD/USB3 AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 and an AMD Athlon II X4 635 Propus 2.9GHz for $176.99. It is a little more money but you get an Asus mobo with the newer chipset and a slightly faster CPU.

Combo Deal Details
 
With the pro, you get a couple more options, and you can CF, which since you're going cheap, is out of the equation anyways.

Yeah, the GB models seems out of stock.
 
ron732 said:
I would get a better brand mobo with the newer AMD chipset. On NewEgg I found a combo with an Asus M4A87TD/USB3 AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 and an AMD Athlon II X4 635 Propus 2.9GHz for $176.99. It is a little more money but you get an Asus mobo with the newer chipset and a slightly faster CPU.

Combo Deal Details
Click to expand...

That's on the American site, which is too bad because I liked the looks of it.
 
For that money man, you better buy a super mobo, rather than a "biostar" mobo.
Check this site out, cuz it helps in builds:
hardware-revolution.com
 
How about this:

ASRock M3A770DE AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard

It's only 65$ and has crossfire support; was in the recommended 500$ PC at that hardware-revolution site... I really don't know about the rest of its specs, can anyone enlighten me on how good it is compared to the BIOSTAR A770E AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard?

Thanks :)

Also, how does dual compare to quad core? If I got a dual @ 3.2mhz how would it compare to the Athlon II Quad I have now?
 
Sorry about overlooking the fact your shopping on NewEgg Canada. How about this combo for $408.90. Add on your picks for case, PSU, and GPU and you are at about $714.

Phenom II x4/880G/4GB/750GB Upgrade Kit

It is a different CPU but you get a name brand mobo with newer chipset, same amount of memory, and a bigger hard drive. The Phenom II X4 955BE should be as good a performer as thea Propus chip especially if you overclock it.
 
PSU overkill 500 watt is more than enough.
 
Last edited:
If you plan to CrossFireX the 5770 in the future the Antec EarthWatts EA650 is a good choice. You could also safely run a single 5850 or 5870 with that PSU.
 
i would say, asus low end board of new chipest (870/880). Trust me, biostar is good... when it works. As for the cpu, i would sincerely go for a x2 that's faster and keep it for some months till you can afford a proper Phenom II X4
 
Biostar seems to not have a great reputation
Click to expand...
funny it is this way because a while back biostar was the only company that had a good reputation,and the only company that could make boards that didnt fry 40% of the time, i decided to give biostar a go on my last work pc build and it did good wasn't to impressed with the bios though
 
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