AMD Budget build - a little feedback.

[Cantii]

Hey guys, recently a classmate came to me asking me to put together a budget gaming build for him, with a budget of about $700 (before shipping). Here's what I came up with:

Cooler Master Storm Scout - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119196
ASUS M4A79XTD EVO AM3 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131402
AMD Phenom X4 965 Black Edition - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103727
Corsair 650HX PSU - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139012
4GB G.SKILL Ripjaws X 1600MHz DDR3 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231427
ASUS AMD HD6850 GPU - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121419

Total price is $698.94 before shipping, with $50 in mail-in-rebates. He will be using his old drives, so hard drives are not needed (for now, at least).

My reasoning behind this build:
I had given him a choice of what I believe to be 5 superior cases in the price range of $75-$100 (with one being $119). These cases were: Cooler Master Storm Scout, Cooler Master HAF922, Antec Nine Hundred, Antec Ninehundred Two ($119) and Lian Li Lancool PC-K62. He chose the Storm Scout, this was the only say he had in any of it (I would have gone with the Lian Li... I just like how Lian Li is super slick with their cases).

The motherboard I chose for the price and featureset. I'd read reviews that it doesn't suppor the C3 125W CPUs, however AMD has said that all boards that are shipping now have the updated BIOS needed to support these CPUs. This is really the only thing I'm on the edge about. If there are ANY other suggestions for motherboards, I would like a valid reason as well for it to still be below $100.

The CPU, well, I had originally chosen the X4 955, but since I had a little wiggle room, I decided to go with the X4 965. This might change, I'm not sure yet. Stock cooler, overclocking will not be done, so after-market cooler is not necessary. I will be using my own OCZ Freeze TIM when I install it, as well.

The PSU, I simply refuse to recommend anything that isn't modular. I think krakens are a waste. Period. There is no swaying me from this decision.

The memory, well, I like G.SKILL and G.SKILL has never, ever, ever, ever failed me and has always run at its rated speed with no headaches involved, so why go with something else that's the same price? Ripjaws X are their newest line, and for 4GB, it's still a great price.

ASUS HD6850 - I chose this because XFX's was out of budget. Even though the XFX card had a mail-in-rebate, it still would have been out of budget. I've read many reviews of the various brands, and settled on ASUS for somewhat of a synnergy with the motherboard, since ASUS's overclocking and monitoring tools are interchangable with the motherboard and GPU (assuming it's an ASUS GPU). So this was more of an ease-of-comfort decision more than anything.

Any constructive input is greatly appreciated. As I've stated, there are one or two parts that I am firmly set with (memory, PSU, case), everything is is open for valid discussion. I have until Wednesday to get a finalized list.

Thanks for your time, guys.

Edit: I FINALLY stood in the fire

[Scoobasteve1226]

I'd try to upgrade the mobo, for another 50$ or so. Other than that, Pretty good build. The GPU will be fine, and the processor is quite nice.

[Nellah]

I can vouch for the Storm Scout, a friend and I both have it and that handle is very sturdy (it's already survived > 30 moves from one house to another in the month that we've had them). I can't speak for how it performs cooling-wise versus other cases, but compared to my old Praetorian, GPU temperatures dropped 20 degrees (with two quiet side fans installed).

The rest of the build... not bad. I'm no expert on AMD performance, but it should run WoW completely maxed out at 1920x1200.

My only concern is lack of SATA-III or USB 3.0 on the motherboard. That's more a convenience thing, but still.

[Cantii]

I can vouch for the Storm Scout, a friend and I both have it and that handle is very sturdy (it's already survived > 30 moves from one house to another in the month that we've had them). I can't speak for how it performs cooling-wise versus other cases, but compared to my old Praetorian, GPU temperatures dropped 20 degrees (with two quiet side fans installed).

The rest of the build... not bad. I'm no expert on AMD performance, but it should run WoW completely maxed out at 1920x1200.

My only concern is lack of SATA-III or USB 3.0 on the motherboard. That's more a convenience thing, but still.

I agree with the lack of SATA-3 and USB 3.0, but as you said, more of a convenience thing, but my friend is nowhere near the power user, so sacrificing one or two non-essentials seems good to me. I'm sure I can convince him to get a couple extra fans somewhere down the road, I'm actually considering getting a 140mm fan for my Storm Sniper case to put on the bottom, however I'm concerned that it'll do more harm than good.

I'd try to upgrade the mobo, for another 50$ or so.

Believe me, I'd love to upgrade the motherboard, however I have to stay within the budget. If you can offer a suggestion for the same price range, I'd love to hear it. I'm open to other manufacturers such as MSI or ASRock if the board is solid.

[Nellah]

Believe me, I'd love to upgrade the motherboard, however I have to stay within the budget. If you can offer a suggestion for the same price range, I'd love to hear it. I'm open to other manufacturers such as MSI or ASRock if the board is solid.

Moved my edit for awareness. Something like http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157191 would be a solid choice. Good reviews on Newegg, great manufacturer, more modern chipset, USB3 and SATA3 support for the win. Onboard video as a bonus in case the video card craps out and you need to use it in an emergency... all for only $10 more than the board you listed.

[Cantii]

Hrm... handn't considered that board (mainly because it wasn't in the $75-$100 selection). Trying to stay within the budget, I could bump the CPU down to the Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition. I'll definitely run that by him when I get the chance.

Edit: Actually, getting that board and the 955 Black Edition lowered the price to $688. That's a very nice find, thanks! Only downside is the MIR from the ASUS board is gone, but I don't think he'll mind.

[vesseblah]

Cheaper case would give more options for motherboard upgrades. Dropping out support for SATA3 and USB3 is big gamble.

[Cantii]

Do you maybe have a suggestion for a case? I'd really like one with a removable hard drive cage, or one that's facing the side, as oppose to front-rear facing. I'm consdering maybe something like the RAIDMAX Quantum (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811156241), however I don't like the drive cage... but that's just a minor inconvenience.

I've switched out the ASUS board for the ASRock board Nellah linked, and I actually like the ASRock board more. Full SATA-3 and two USB 3.0 ports.

Edit: Ah hah! The Cooler Master RC-690 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119137) seems to fit the bill... I could definitely work with this, would just have to run it by my friend, however it looks similar to the Storm Scout, so it probably will work out . What about the ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...E16813131646)? Seems like a solid board, and using the cheaper CM case, comes out to be about the same price.

[Asera]

1600mhz RAM is a bit of a waste with an AMD system, unless your overclocking through the BCLK, which isn't necessary with a Black Edition CPU.

I run my RAM at 1066mhz instead of 1333 cause I was having weird issues, and I can't tell the difference at all. My kit was about $65 too.

[Cantii]

Well, I've done a little more research and came across the AM3 issue supporting DDR3 memory @ 1600MHz, and it seems that the C3 CPUs and motherboards support it, however it's a mixed bag from what I've been reading.

I think I've settled on motherboard and memory, now.

ASRock 880G Extreme3 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157191)
G.SKILL Ripjaws 4GB PC3 10666 1333MHz - (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231275)

Maybe I'll be able to go up to an 890FX motherboard if I can find one for the right price.

[TanAxys]

For a case I like Xion http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811208037

It doesn't have a removable cage, but it does mount sideways. It uses a rail system that's completely tool-less. The HDDs can be mounted forwards or backwards, but if you want to mount backwards (for whatever reason) you'll need a right angle SATA cable (which 2 of those reviewers seemed to do). The biggest draw back to this case is the complete lack of printed directions--none at all.

fwiw... you might not want a case with a side fan included, if you want to get a big aftermarket CPU cooler. Case width is the biggest problem with coolers fitting or not. If you have a fan taking up some of that width, it reduces your options even further.

There's also some minor debate about a smooth airflow through the case. Some argue that in through the bottom/front and out the rear/top is much better than just pumping air into the case randomly. Not sure about that one tho...

Maybe I'll be able to go up to an 890FX motherboard if I can find one for the right price.

If you never plan on running a SLI or CrossFire GPU set-up. Then you might want to look into getting a mATX form factor board. Both ASRock and MSI make micro 890 boards for pretty good prices. I'm partial to MSI because they have some great customer service as far as RMAs and such goes.

[Cantii]

Thanks for the feedback, TanAxys. Keep in mind, this computer isn't for me. There will be no overclocking at all, since my buddy isn't a power user and really only plays WoW and the occasional shooter, so stock fan is good enough. I like the look of that case, too, and I'll definitely run it by him, though I think he is pretty set on the Scout, but I'm sure the alure of saving money will get to him. The hard drive cage, I like that too, it's so much easier to work with hard drives with a cage like that, especially since most motherboards have right-angle SATA ports now.

Side fans, when positioned right, help funnel air into top-mounted CPU coolers (like the stock ones), I even saw a case that has a fan with a telescopic funnel to help funnel air into the CPU cooler, which I thought was pretty damn slick. The side fans, such as on my Storm Sniper case (200mm x 35) helps in a number of ways, mainly additional cooling to the GPU and south/northbridge, however you DO need to be careful with extra fans, as if you have too many fans it could very well cause turbulence and then you'd get some pretty poor cooling.

I don't think he ever intends on going crossfire, and I've been looking at micro ATX boards. My only concern with m-ATX boards is upgradeability. They usually only have two DIMM slots and only one or two extra PCI/PCI-E slots and only a few SATA connectors, but I'll definitely take another look at them, maybe there's something I missed.

I know what you mean about MSI, too, all my motherboards have been MSI except this latest one, decided to try ASUS for once and I am very pleased (Sabertooth x58), pretty solid stuff.

[TanAxys]

I may have to report you to the proper authorities if you don't overclock that BLACK EDITION chip for him. I'm pretty sure it's against the BIOS EULA or something.

MBs:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130276 880 for $99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130269 890 for $130

You really can't put in anything else when the GPU is a double slot--just have the one PCI slot to work with. Not sure what else there is to put in tho. On board sound is great so a dedicated card is mostly a waste. Maybe a wireless card? Maybe some kind of TV tuner card or something...

You got an inside tip on the 890s? I thought they were just for the 975 chip with the 140w power suck.

Just got an idea....

If you stepped down to the 955, you could save enough $$ to snag the Hyper 212 cooler. Then you could OC that chip back up to the 3.4 of the 965 chip. You'd have a much more impressive looking machine to show off through that plexi window, you'd be getting some use out of the BE multiplier, and you'd avoid any hassles from the OC police.

Sounds like a win/win/win to me

[Cantii]

I'm actually going to go with the MSI 890GXM-G65, I like that it's fully featured, four DIMMs, six SATA-3 ports, two USB 3.0 ports and two PCI-E 16x slots, along with two others AND legacy PATA support. And that's not including all the other features in it.

The case we've decided to go with is a Rosewill Challenger ATX case (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...l%20challenger), has everything *I* like, since I'll be the one building it, and looks that my classmate likes, so that's a big one there. Full ATX boards are a tight fit, so I'm glad I went with the micro-ATX.

On the topic of overclocking and extra coolers, as I said, he's not a power user, he wouldn't even notice a difference. Already, though, that computer will be able to handle anything you throw at it, overclocking is just needless overkill, hah. And I'm fairly certain the 890GX chipset is able to handle the 955 @ 125W pretty handily, I mean it'd be stupid not to. It also supports the hexacore processors, Thuben, so... yeah.

To any OC police, I'll just show them my i7 950 4.1GHz OC on a Hyper 212 Plus... that'll sate them =p

---------- Post added 2011-02-15 at 04:57 PM ----------

I think we've got it. Thank you all for your time and suggestions, I've managed to squeeze a lot more power out of this $700 build:

Rosewill CHALLENGER ATX Case (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811147153)
MSI 890GXM-G65 Micro ATX Motherboard (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130269)
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition CPU (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103808)
ASUS EAH6850 DC/2DIS/1GD5/V2 GPU (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121419)
Corsair 650HX PSU (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139012)
4GB G.SKILL Ripjaws PC3 10666 1333MHz RAM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231275)

$671 before shipping, with a good amount in mail-in-rebates as well.

Thank you everyone for your help!