About to finish my first pc build

**JonB** · 10-14-2010, 07:44 PM

Last of the parts arrive tomorrow(HD and video card). This is my first build that i've done myself. My pc now my brother built and its a bit dated now so I did a low budget(spent about $600) get me up to date build. Pretty stoked about doing this one myself, it was a bit intimidated at first as I have very little pc knowledge, but its really rather straight forward. They kinda make most the connections well labeled and dummy proof.

So heres the specs its nothing crazy as it is a budget pc.

1. AMD Phenom II X2 550 Callisto 3.1GHz Socket AM3 80W Dual-Core Desktop Processor

2.G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory

3.ASUS M4A77TD AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard

4. EVGA 768-P3-1360-TR GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 768MB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

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

6.Acer S231HLbid Black 23" 5ms HDMI LED-Backlight LCD monitor Slim Design

7. New Microsoft mouse and keyboard.

**rbob93** · 10-14-2010, 10:22 PM

Might wanna figure on a power supply too.

**JonB** · 10-15-2010, 04:45 AM

Originally Posted by rbob93

Might wanna figure on a power supply too.

Whoops, I'll be reusing my antec 550w power supply, the case and case fans.

**rbob93** · 10-15-2010, 07:39 AM

I don't think 550w is going to be adequate.....also gonna need a decent cooler

**JonB** · 10-15-2010, 01:27 PM

Originally Posted by rbob93

I don't think 550w is going to be adequate.....also gonna need a decent cooler

All the calculators I have ran show I will use 400-480w max, I would think 550w should cover me. A cooler for what? As the pc shits now everything but the new hd and video card the pc(gpu and core) run right at 45 celcius goes up a bit when gaming but not much. From what I read the EVGA 768 GeForce GTX 460 video card runs pretty cool as it sits.

**krese** · 10-18-2010, 09:41 AM

amd quads are so cheap now i would not go with a x2 at all anymore........ just saying....

**00z28bubba** · 10-19-2010, 06:13 PM

phenom x4 965 is only 160. compares with i7 in production but half the price. its nice to shop around but im still in the research phases. i want as much asus as i can get though. tough to get their cases seperately.

**JonB** · 10-19-2010, 08:16 PM

Originally Posted by krese

amd quads are so cheap now i would not go with a x2 at all anymore........ just saying....

And next month you can say the same about the next greatest processor. When I bought the cpu, motherboard, ram 2 months ago I was on a tight budget and needed them asap. I will probably never use the cpu I bought to its full potential so what the point in spending double or triple on something that I will really never even come close to using to it full potential.

**Spaz** · 10-20-2010, 05:18 AM

Originally Posted by JonB

And next month you can say the same about the next greatest processor. When I bought the cpu, motherboard, ram 2 months ago I was on a tight budget and needed them asap. I will probably never use the cpu I bought to its full potential so what the point in spending double or triple on something that I will really never even come close to using to it full potential.

it's like modding a car... better to have the power and not use it that to not have the power and need it one day...

**SiggyZ** · 10-20-2010, 08:17 AM

Reading this makes me wanna beef up my system at home. I've got a new system here at work now that's as powerful or more powerful than it. My biggest downfall is my main board. It's limited to 3gb of memory and I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit. My new system here at work is an HP desktop that came with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (running 6gb of memory) but I have to run a CAD program that'll currently only work on 32-bit systems. So I had to get a copy of Windows 7 Home Premium to wipe the HD and install a new copy of the 32-bit version.

**JonB** · 10-27-2010, 02:25 PM

Originally Posted by Spaz

it's like modding a car... better to have the power and not use it that to not have the power and need it one day...

True. Since my original post I have picked up a new psu, old one only had one pci express cable and did not have the recommended amps the video card called for. It worked but under heavy loads or benchmarking my fps would cut it half and then stay there until I rebooted the pc. Also picked up 2 more gigs of ram, over-clocked the video card. Unlocked the other 2 cores on the cpu so it is a quad-core(got lucky on this one as not all can get all 4 cores unlocked) and over clocked it to 3.45ghz from 3.1. It went from a budget built to and addiction of buying crap every week to make it even better. Now i'n thinking of getting a new heat sink for the cpu since the over clocking it is running a bit hotter.