First Time builder - advice needed

Discussion in 'Building a new PC' started by jmh1980, Apr 22, 2009.

  1. jmh1980

    jmh1980 Guest

    So my budget is around 1k.

    I am not a big gamer, so thats why i have the cheaper card, im not looking to spend much more then 75-90 bucks on a video card, i have a friend who keeps suggesting 200-300 cards, when i dont play games.

    The first part 2 parts I bought are :
    1. AMD Phenom ii x4 940 3.0 black edition - $168
    2. 750gb sata WD cavier green drive. - $60

    The rest of parts i am looking are the following.
    1. Biostar TA790GX, either the am2+ or am3+ motherboard - $95
    2. 8gb ddr2 or ddr3 ocz platinum mem $95-$140, havent decided yet
    3. COOLER MASTER Centurion 534 RC-534-SKN2-GP Black Case - $50
    4. OCZ StealthXStream OCZ700SXS 700w power suppy - $90.00
    5. EVGA 01G-P3-N959-TR GeForce 9500gt - $70.00
    6. vista 64 home premium or ultimate, havent decided yet $100-175
    7. 2 sata dvd writers, brand to be named, prolly LG or Liteon - 60-75
    8. flash card reader - $20.00

    My big questions are

    1. too big of power supply? whats recommended?
    2. should i get more fans?
    3. should i use phenom x4 heatsink/fan, or should i buy 3rd party, if so, which one.
    4. What do think of the setup?

    Any advice would be nice.

    Email is jmh1980@charter.net
     
  2. KillerBug

    KillerBug Active member

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    -Biostar makes terrible boards; get something from DFI or Gigabyte.
    -OCZ's quality has dropped a lot lately, you can get Corsair for about the same price.
    -You can get a pair of nice LG DVD writers for $50. Liteon has low build quality.
    -If you are not overclocking, the stock phenom cooler is just fine.
    -You might want to get an 80mm fan for the front.
    -What are your goals for the system...what do you want to do?
    -NEVER POST YOUR EMAIL ON THE FORUMS; THIS IS FOR YOUR OWN GOOD.
    -You can get a nice corsair power supply for that kind of money, no need to get a lower quality unit from OCZ. For what you are doing, 500W is more than enough.
    -You can get a SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4650 1GB Video Card for $60.
    -If you are looking to do a lot of video encoding and such, you might want a pair of hard drives, might I recomend the 1.5TB seagate series?
     
  3. jmh1980

    jmh1980 Guest

    I never even thought about the e-mail thing, thanks for that.

    My primary goal is video encoding, I do a lot video work, whether its weddings, receptions, home movies, etc.

    I am coming from a Sony VGC-RA830G, which I may say has been a great machine for the 5 yrs I have owned and used it. I have currently have a 320gb drive in it, 2gb ddr ram, 3.4ghz p4 with Hyperthreading. I would like to keep this PC as a backup and my wife could use it.

    I would like to get a case that has atleast 4 open 5.25 drive bays, i have 2 external dvd drives that I would like to mount internally, along with the 2 lg dvd burners.

    The hard drive is a good idea, but I will be waiting on that, let me fill up these first, lol.

    I would like to have atleast 6-8gb(pref 8)ddr3 memory, and a motherboard that can handle that.

    I would also like to keep the project under 1g, if i can, i would like to get an nice keyboard/mouse also.

    any suggestions would be helpful.

    If you have a e-mail, maybe we could exchange e-mails through the private message part.

    thanks

    Jon
     
  4. KillerBug

    KillerBug Active member

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    How does this list sound:

    $52 - TWO LG DVD Burns with LightScribe - N82E16827136153
    $60 - Seagate Barracuda 500GB SATA hard drive - N82E16822148395
    $110 - Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4P Mainboard - N82E16813128387
    $60 - Gigabyte 1GB Radeon HD 4650 Video Card - N82E16814125253
    $75 - Corsair 450W power supply - N82E16817139003
    $20 - Nippon Labs AIO Card Reader - N82E16820816001
    $128 - 2 Sets of Corsaid 4GB Memory - N82E16820145215
    $245 - AMD Phenom II X4 3.2GHZ Quad Core - N82E16819103674
    $179 - Windows Vista Ultimate x64 - N82E16832116493
    $50 - Cooler master case from your first post - N82E16811119104
    $16 - Two Rosewill RFX-120 Case Fans - N82E16835200021

    Total: $995, and there are $55 worth of mail-in rebates...all these prices & item numbers are from newegg.

    For mice & keyboard I would go with a G11 keyboard and a G5 mouse...unless you are left handed.

    BTW...this isn't exactly part of the build, but you might consider getting an HD video camera & blu ray burner in the near future in order to keep your wedding video business from falling behind the times.
     
    Last edited: Apr 24, 2009
  5. jmh1980

    jmh1980 Guest

    Thanks for the advice, finaly got stuff purchased

    I went with - $100 bucks over budget, but went with bigger processor and video card.

    GIGABYTE GA-MA790FXT-UD5P - motherboard - $180 - N82E16813128377
    2 sets of Reaper 4gb ddr3 memory - $150 - N82E16820227320
    Gigabyte case - $35 - N82E16811233041
    700w ocz power supply - $70 after rebate - N82E16817341018
    amd phenom x4 955 processor - $245 - N82E16819103674
    card reader - $20.00 N82E16820816001
    Vista 64 - $180.00 - N82E16832116493
    sapphire 100259L Radeon HD 4870 card $149.99- N82E16814102810
    2 lg burners - $52 N82E16827136153

    this is the only one i see Scythe SCKTN-3000- N82E16835185096 $ 27.00

    Suggestions on fans, and aftermarket cpu fans?

    Also what are the proper motherboard settings for that combination?
     
  6. jmh1980

    jmh1980 Guest

    Any suggestions on heatsinks/cpu fans for the above build
     

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