Suggestions for New Build

I built my current computer at least 10 years ago and now it's time to build another one for the next 10.

I've been going through "newegg's" listings and I have come up with something I think will go together nicely. Since it's been a while, I quickly realized that some technology has changed so I'm not quite sure I took everything into consideration and that's why I'm asking for some of you to critique my choices.

BTW, I only use my computer to get online, pay bills, print out a few things here and there, not a big gamer...just general usage!

• Corsair Obsidian Series 550D Black Aluminum / Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
• ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 AM3 AMD 890GX HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
• AMD Phenom II X4 975 Black Edition Deneb 3.6GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Desktop Processor HDZ975FBGMBOX
• G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL
• Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
• Pioneer Black 12X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 10X BD-ROM 4MB Cache SATA Internal BD/DVD/CD Writer BDR-207DBKS
• SILVERSTONE SST-ST40F-ES 400W ATX 12V 2.3 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply[/*]
  
  Oh, and I wanted a nice monitor, so I'm looking at,
• LG E2241VB-BN Black 21.5" 5ms HDMI Widescreen LED-Backlit Super Energy Saving LCD Monitor 250 cd/m2 DFC 5M:1 (1000:1)

I'm not to sure about the Power Supply. I used neweggs power calculator and found that I needed 265 watts w/out a video card and around 300 watts w/a high end one.

I'll have to admit that when it comes to cooling fans, there's just too much to choose from. I do want to change the CPU fan to a quieter one.

You'll notice also, that I chose to get a MB with onboard video instead of a video card. My thought was that I'm not into watching movies on my computer or playing lots of games with 3d effects. But the MB does come with enough PCI Express slots just in case I do later.

I picked a large HDD because I always seem to run out of space too soon.

There is a possibility that I'm going too big on somethings, or just way off base for my use, but I'm just not sure. I wanted to get all this together for under $1000 but, I'm having a hard time with that! I will also be getting a copy of Windows 7 for this build.

So, be my guest, and fire away!

 

one suggestion take an am3+ mobo with the 990 chipset
that way if you want to go amd you can buy the processor you listed
but you will leave an upgrade path for the future

or you can always go with an intel build
the upgrade path will be much better
and you will have less power consumption

but then it is what you prefer in cpu

my last build was amd but my new is going to be intel

 

Greetings, linuxpowers...

Just a head's up about the case: I've worked on Corsair units before, and was not impressed.

IMO, if you're going to spend that kind of money ($150) for a case, you would be advised to get one from a dedicated case manufacturer (Antec, Cooler Master, SilverStone, Thermaltake, etc.) instead of one from a company that sub-contracts. Corsair does good memory and power supplies, but their cases I've seen leave a lot to be desired...

In other words: don't order seafood when you go to a steakhouse...

 

gloozit - I'm glad you brought up that info about the PSU anyway. As time goes by, I will be forced to upgrade just to stay up with technological changes. In my current system, I went from win 98se to the current win xp (and some parts came from win 3.1) and had to upgrade the cpu, increase the hdd size, added some more cooling fans and a few more peripherals. In all that time I never considered the PSU! Even with my usage, over time the PSU will be a factor....thanks!

ouranos - Great idea with the socket form! If I stick with the AM3, I'll just be stuck with that! At least AM3+ will give me additional upgrade time...thanks!

Caliban - My current case is an antec and I like it.... I was even thinking of just reusing it! But, I got tired of all the screws everywhere and decided to buy a higher-end one. Since you've had some experience with the Cosairs, I will take your advice and look a bit farther....thanks!

Thanks to all of you that responded so far for your advice. I'll do some more research and post my changes for further critique.

 

OK...Revision II

Caliban, I did some more research on that case and found what I think is a better case at a much lower price!

• Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case with Upgraded USB 3.0

ouranos, I looked for a MB with an AM3+ cpu socket and the 990 chipset but, I could find none with any onboard video chipsets. So, for the same price, I stepped up to this board along with the following CPU and video card.

• ASUS M5A99X EVO AM3+ AMD 990X SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
• AMD FX-8120 Zambezi 3.1GHz Socket AM3+ 125W Eight-Core Desktop Processor FD8120FRGUBOX
• ASUS ENGTX550 TI DC TOP/DI/1GD5 GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

and, to power all this up, I also upgraded to 600 watts with this Corsair PSU.

• CORSAIR Gaming Series GS600 600W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC High Performance Power Supply

Everything else has stayed the same!

I started thinking more in line with future upgrades and figured I would have to spend a bit more to accomplish that. I also realize I could have chosen higher-end components but, I don't want to buy options I'll never use! So, have I made any improvements or am I just getting things more screwed up?

 

well an uefi mainboard is the way to go since hd are start to ship in larger than 2tb capacities with no uefo mainboards you would be limited in that also
so uefi in a new build is a must
well as for the graphic card you were going to use the onbaord of the 880g chipset so any graphic card will beat that so with this graphic card you will be able to do some playing also
enjoy building

 

Sweet. Nice case and you save 50 bucks - I like it...

 

Much thanks folks for your insights! I really do appreciate your taking the time to answer my questions!

One other thing....does anyone know of a good replacement fan for the CPU? Everything I read about stock cooling fans were pretty negative.

Thanks again for all your assistance. I'll start the ordering process this week!

 

http://www.frozencpu.com
at this site you will find a lot of products for cooling
very good collection of fans
and a very good engine to search
by size by noice by cfm
good site to get an idea of the fans
or even if you ment the whole heatsink with a fan
and not for the fan

 

Just wanted to check back and tell everyone thanks for their much appreciated input on my new system! Spent the weekend putting it all together and decided to try and connect with it via an ethernet wire connected to my old modem....bing, it works!

Just wanted to also share with you a build mishap that some might find humorous.

I first put together my case and had everything installed except the motherboard. I got it out of the box and set it up on my table to start installing cpu and memory boards. I got the cpu and dropped it into the slot, locked down the lever and proceeded to install heatsink and fan. This is where things went south for a while.

When I mounted the heatsink/fan (stock) onto the cpu, I had two plastic retainers mounted to the MB that I was supposed to connect the spreader onto and lock it down. I noticed that one retainer kept lifting up and separating from the MB...it was missing a screw! I also noticed how hard it was to lock it down and I was afraid I would crack the MB. I went ahead and powered it up to let it go through "POST" but noticed cpu error LED was warning me. So, I decided to remove heatsink and see what I could see.

When I lifted up the heatsink, the cpu came right out with it. I found a similar screw to install in the retainer but had to use pliers to cut it short on the back of the base plate. But, after looking at the pins on the cpu, I noticed several that were bent over! Since I'm 53 years old and blind, I had my 13 year old daughter look it over and point out all the bent pins while I used a knife to bend them back up straight. It took several attempts but I finally got it back into the socket and now everything works GREAT!

This is the best computer I've ever put together. Everythings fast and clean!

Any way, thanks to you all, for which this would not have been this good!