Building a new rig

[gloomba38]

CPU (and mobo automatically) is dead. LGA775 served it's time.

What would I be looking at instead?

[SnOwBunZz]

Core i5/i7.

If you want AMD, you'd be looking at phenom II x4 955 or x6 1055t

[gloomba38]

1156 is dying. Intel is replacing it with 1155, and they are NOT backward compatible. I'd say it's a better idea to look at AMD if you plan to upgrade. Don't be like me, I bought a 775 rig a year before the new sockets came out. >.< It's happening with the 1156 right now. 1155 is estimated to come out next year...

That's kinda what I thought. And same thing happened to me with AMD lol, back then I bought the socket 754, and a couple months later 959 was the new norm. I was pissed.

AM3 is going to be here for a decent time I'd guess? Or is AM4 or something on the way soonish?

[Suspectx]

For sure the AM3 mobos will be around for quite some time. Considering how AMD's hexacores have just recently been released on AM3, id say they will be there for a while. Even then im 99.99% sure if there will be an AM4 socket, it will be backwards compatible to AM3 seeing as how AM2 is compatible in an AM3 socket.

Besides any modern quad core will be good to go for gaming for now (955's i5's etc) and for a pretty long time. You could even OC them if you were up to it and let them be even more potent.


oh and definitely go for DDR3 ram. I use Kingston HyperX 4gbs and no problems so far as far as ram goes. Gskill is also nice.

[gloomba38]

For sure the AM3 mobos will be around for quite some time. Considering how AMD's hexacores have just recently been released on AM3, id say they will be there for a while. Even then im 99.99% sure if there will be an AM4 socket, it will be backwards compatible to AM3 seeing as how AM2 is compatible in an AM3 socket.

Besides any modern quad core will be good to go for gaming for now (955's i5's etc) and for a pretty long time. You could even OC them if you were up to it and let them be even more potent.


oh and definitely go for DDR3 ram. I use Kingston HyperX 4gbs and no problems so far as far as ram goes. Gskill is also nice.

Sounds pretty good, and I'm sure the Phenom will be plenty good enough for decent gaming right now. I'm sure the i7 is better, but it's a lot more pricey too.

So far this is what I've ended up with;
Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119196
PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139006
Mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131363
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103851
Ram: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231277
Video: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150477
SSD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227393
DVD Drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827136177

Which comes up to a total of $1070.88 before shipping.

edit: Found out that the Phenom II X6 was only about 30 more dollars than the X4, put that in instead.

[SnOwBunZz]

Also, no HDD?

He has his old 1.5tb HDD that he's going to use as storage.

Check the HDD line in the OP.

[Bad Hamster]

Core i5/i7.

If you want AMD, you'd be looking at phenom II x4 955 or x6 1055t

if he wants to be a bit cheaper with AMD a Phenom II X$ 920 works fine to. Then again, I haven't had any other quad core yet and the rest wasn't out yet when I bought mine xD

[SnOwBunZz]

If we're talking about Intel's princerange, he might as well get the better AMD CPUs.

The x4 965 is still cheaper than it's Intel counterpart and alot of it's weaker CPUs.

[gloomba38]

Okay, so changes.

PSU, I'll trust it since I've always used and liked Antec in the past. (using one right now actually, longest lasting PSU I've had.)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371026
DVD drive, thanks for catching that.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827136168
CPU cooler, it's pricey but if it works as good as you say, I'd guess it's worth it. If for some reason I have to cut back, I'll go with SuspectX's choice.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835103055
Mobo, I've never used a Biostar before, but I read some reviews on this exact model and they said it was a good buy, so I'll trust it.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813138193

edit: reading the replacement video card was still 10.5", so I went back to my previous choice. I'm guessing all the video cards in this series are gonna be about that size? Maybe not, I don't know.

[SnOwBunZz]

You pretty much can't miss with the HAF. It doesn't even have a problem fitting an ATI HD5970.

There's a new one out and has quite a bit of changes made to it:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-225-_-Product

Pretty much the gaming case for the moment.

[gloomba38]

You pretty much can't miss with the HAF. It doesn't even have a problem fitting an ATI HD5970.

There's a new one out and has quite a bit of changes made to it:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-225-_-Product

Pretty much the gaming case for the moment.

Also pretty expensive... no doubt it's nice, but I'm not really looking to spend $200 on a case.

I've seen screenshots of people putting dual CrossFire 5850's into the Storm Scout with no cutting, just a little bending on the cables, but I'm not sure how the XFX card is setup, or how long it really is, I can't find anything on that specific model. I'd guess its plugins would be on the end instead of on the side which is a bummer, but eh.

edit: Found my case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-194-_-Product

Watched the video review 3DGAMEMAN did for it, and it will easily fit the 5850. It also has some extra features too, like fan speed control and water cooling ports.

[Sakumo]

I'd change your cooler to this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835233029
I've never been fond of Coolermaster coolers, except for their Hyper 212+. But it's like $50 on newegg, even though it's suppose to be a $30 cooler.