Help with building a tower

[kyubixmunky]

AMD Phenom II Black x4 3.4 Ghz

This is a 965 if I'm not mistaken. Get the 955 instead. It a better overclocker from what I have read. I have a 955 but I don't overclock.

If you intend to go with AMD, get a board that supports AM3+. It doesn't have to be a 900 series mobo. 900 series is almost the same as the 800 series but with a few tweaks to support bulldozer's features + SLI

As for the PSU, I use a PSU calculator to compute the power requirements. I max out TDP, cap aging and utilization in that calculator then add 50 W more to the result. The result will be more than you need but you'll be able to use that PSU longer (assuming you get a good PSU)

What's the rule of thumb for vcore adjustments per ghz increase on the calculator?

.
If you want your system by the end of July & are willing to go with what you've already suggested:

Go with the AMD 955 @3.2 GHz.  You can get that up to 3.8 GHz stable on stock air cooling.  So, no cooling block budget, and you can get a 955 for ~$135-$140 by watching for specials.

Adjust my above base estimate down to ~$510.

Now, you can also consider going with 4 GB RAM.  Definitely stay with the 1600, but look for chips with aggressively low timing.  G.Skill is very solid and affordable, and you can get a 4 GB kit for ~$45.  This is plenty, although you might have to pay attention to your OS and make sure you're not running a stupid amount of apps & candy all at the same time.  You can get another 4 GB kit by end of year, or even an 8 GB for a total of either 8 or 12 GB.

Adjust the base system estimate down to ~$470.

You now have ~$330 to distribute across video card, possibly an SSD, or go with a Caviar Black for your OS install drive.  Depending on your needs to purchase an OS (or not) &/or an extra case fan &/or surge protection, you may well come in under $800, maybe as low as $750.


Don't worry about playing 1080 video: this system will eat them alive.

Stuff like Photoshop will be fine, especially if you get the SSD and budget room on it for your work space.

"Some" encoding will work just fine.  Your render times will be longer, but you're not in it for bulk production.  It would help to list the 2 or 3 apps you intend to use for this.

The remaining question is: which games you intend to play/are interested in?  I'm not a gamer, but if you list five of the most resource-intensive games you're interested in, I'm sure other folks can jump in on the video card you'll want to match to them.


As said, you can also just watch the market and new hardware releases for the next 3-4 months and start buying in October.  Almost nothing listed here will apply by then, unless you want to try and get this system for ~$600 or under ...

Yeah it's not likely going to be done by the summer. Waiting till December is fine with me. The most graphics intensive game I'll most probably get is Skyrim. And for video editing, I'm using sony vegas.

[mgz]

i didnt read the whole thread but i would avoid ocz psu only psu i have ever had die on me was a ocz. I personally have stuck with corsair for years since that happened

[kitamesume]

.
The remaining question is: which games you intend to play/are interested in?  I'm not a gamer, but if you list five of the most resource-intensive games you're interested in, I'm sure other folks can jump in on the video card you'll want to match to them.

for some decent reference:
i3-2100 (is in between AMD phenom II x4 840 and AMD phenom II x4 955 so yea 955 is faster)
HD6670 (is in between HD5670 and HD5750. is in between GT240 and GTS250)
4gb ram 1600mhz CL9

crysis : 1920x1080p med 0xAA settings = 40fps stable(dips to 25fps at some occasion)
metro 2033 : 1920x1080p low 0xAA settings = 30fps stable(dips to 20fps on some occasion)[this monster of a game eats too much fps]
WoW : 1920x1080p med 2xAA settings = 60fps stable(dips to 30fps on some occasion)[i hated wow for being a pay to play game -,-]
CoD4 : 1920x1080p med 2xAA settings = 60fps stable(dips to 40fps on some occasion)
HoN : 1920x1080p med 0xAA settings = 60fps stable(dips to 30fps on some occasion)[say hello to open beta on Garena ]

i listed some games and their settings that ran on my HD6670 and listed their fps, for the most part you could fine tune the settings more to get an acceptable 60fps.

(click to show/hide)

[Prices are from newegg]
[115$] AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition
[105$] ASUS M4A87TD EVO AM3
[85$] Patriot Gamer 2 Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600 CL9 (the G.Skill that i thought was the cheaper was only DDR3 1066)
[100$] MSI R6670-MD1GD5 Radeon HD 6670 1GB 128-bit GDDR5
[70$] HITACHI Deskstar 5K3000 2TB - baredrive (HDD)
[125$] OCZ Vertex 2 60GB (SSD)
[70$] CORSAIR Builder Series CX600 V2 600W
[60$] Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower
SUM : 730$ without rebates.

[Prices are from newegg]
[125$] intel i3-2100
[85$] MSI PH67S-C43 (B3) -OR- [85$]ASRock H67M (B3)
[85$] Patriot Gamer 2 Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600 CL9 (the G.Skill that i thought was the cheaper was only DDR3 1066)
[100$] MSI R6670-MD1GD5 Radeon HD 6670 1GB 128-bit GDDR5
[70$] HITACHI Deskstar 5K3000 2TB - baredrive (HDD)
[125$] OCZ Vertex 2 60GB (SSD)
[70$] CORSAIR Builder Series CX600 V2 600W
[60$] Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower
SUM : 720$ without rebates.

[Prices are from newegg]
[190$] intel i5-2400
[120$] ASRock P67 PRO3 (B3) -OR- [115$]MSI P67A-C43 (B3)
[85$] Patriot Gamer 2 Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600 CL9
[100$] MSI R6670-MD1GD5 Radeon HD 6670 1GB 128-bit GDDR5
[70$] HITACHI Deskstar 5K3000 2TB - baredrive (HDD)
[120$] OCZ Vertex 2 60GB (SSD)
[70$] CORSAIR Builder Series CX600 V2 600W
[60$] Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower
SUM : 815$ without rebates.

i dont like the reviews about Hitachi. a better choice though more expensive [150$] Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB - baredrive (HDD).

ouch, its the hard drives that made it expensive -,- theres some other HDD 2TB for something like 70$ so that would drop down the sum to 760$ then bump the processor to i3-2400 and you get a 825$ rig.

note: the motherboard is expensive because its a p67, the h67 would mostly cost about 80ish$, the hdd is weee expensive plus the ssd and the ram is an 8gb(2x4gb) for 85$.

PS: the whole thing uses less than 400watts, even if you put in the i5 instead.

for reference point, an i3-2100 is in between AMD phenom II x4 840 and AMD phenom II x4 955, an i5-2400(this can be overclocked via turbo mode by up to 3.8ghz) is just right in between AMD Phenom II X6 1075T and AMD Phenom II X6 1090T cpubenchmark - high end cpus.

REWORKED: changed some products. separated i3 and i5 and added a phenom II X4.

[Lupin]

What's the rule of thumb for vcore adjustments per ghz increase on the calculator?

Sadly, I can't help you with overclocking. The last time I did overclocking was during the Barton days.

I would add around 100W to what you get from the stock results though.

for reference point, an i3-2100 is in between AMD phenom II x4 840 and AMD phenom II x4 955, an i5-2400(this can be overclocked via turbo mode by up to 3.8ghz) is just right in between AMD Phenom II X6 1075T and AMD Phenom II X6 1090T cpubenchmark - high end cpus.

using a single benchmark and a synthetic one at that is a reference point?

About the PSU, this might be useful: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/power-supply-oem-manufacturer,2913.html

[kitamesume]

it can at least help, rather than reading tons of articles and reviews. more like its their ranking and it is still pretty accurate.

[kyubixmunky]

Ok I'll swap out the PSU for a corsair.

And datora, Amd phenom 3.2 Ghz can overclock to 3.8 on the stock fan?

[kitamesume]

(click to show/hide)

.
The remaining question is: which games you intend to play/are interested in?  I'm not a gamer, but if you list five of the most resource-intensive games you're interested in, I'm sure other folks can jump in on the video card you'll want to match to them.

for some decent reference:
i3-2100 (is in between AMD phenom II x4 840 and AMD phenom II x4 955 so yea 955 is faster)
HD6670 (is in between HD5670 and HD5750. is in between GT240 and GTS250)
4gb ram 1600mhz CL9

crysis : 1920x1080p med 0xAA settings = 40fps stable(dips to 25fps at some occasion)
metro 2033 : 1920x1080p low 0xAA settings = 30fps stable(dips to 20fps on some occasion)[this monster of a game eats too much fps]
WoW : 1920x1080p med 2xAA settings = 60fps stable(dips to 30fps on some occasion)[i hated wow for being a pay to play game -,-]
CoD4 : 1920x1080p med 2xAA settings = 60fps stable(dips to 40fps on some occasion)
HoN : 1920x1080p med 0xAA settings = 60fps stable(dips to 30fps on some occasion)[say hello to open beta on Garena ]

i listed some games and their settings that ran on my HD6670 and listed their fps, for the most part you could fine tune the settings more to get an acceptable 60fps.

[Prices are from newegg]
[115$] AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition
[105$] ASUS M4A87TD EVO AM3
[85$] Patriot Gamer 2 Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600 CL9 (the G.Skill that i thought was the cheaper was only DDR3 1066)
[100$] MSI R6670-MD1GD5 Radeon HD 6670 1GB 128-bit GDDR5
[70$] HITACHI Deskstar 5K3000 2TB - baredrive (HDD)
[125$] OCZ Vertex 2 60GB (SSD)
[70$] CORSAIR Builder Series CX600 V2 600W
[60$] Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower
SUM : 730$ without rebates.

[Prices are from newegg]
[125$] intel i3-2100
[85$] MSI PH67S-C43 (B3) -OR- [85$]ASRock H67M (B3)
[85$] Patriot Gamer 2 Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600 CL9 (the G.Skill that i thought was the cheaper was only DDR3 1066)
[100$] MSI R6670-MD1GD5 Radeon HD 6670 1GB 128-bit GDDR5
[70$] HITACHI Deskstar 5K3000 2TB - baredrive (HDD)
[125$] OCZ Vertex 2 60GB (SSD)
[70$] CORSAIR Builder Series CX600 V2 600W
[60$] Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower
SUM : 720$ without rebates.

[Prices are from newegg]
[190$] intel i5-2400
[120$] ASRock P67 PRO3 (B3) -OR- [115$]MSI P67A-C43 (B3)
[85$] Patriot Gamer 2 Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600 CL9
[100$] MSI R6670-MD1GD5 Radeon HD 6670 1GB 128-bit GDDR5
[70$] HITACHI Deskstar 5K3000 2TB - baredrive (HDD)
[120$] OCZ Vertex 2 60GB (SSD)
[70$] CORSAIR Builder Series CX600 V2 600W
[60$] Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower
SUM : 815$ without rebates.

i dont like the reviews about Hitachi. a better choice though more expensive [150$] Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB - baredrive (HDD).

ouch, its the hard drives that made it expensive -,- theres some other HDD 2TB for something like 70$ so that would drop down the sum to 760$ then bump the processor to i3-2400 and you get a 825$ rig.

note: the motherboard is expensive because its a p67, the h67 would mostly cost about 80ish$, the hdd is weee expensive plus the ssd and the ram is an 8gb(2x4gb) for 85$.

PS: the whole thing uses less than 400watts, even if you put in the i5 instead.

for reference point, an i3-2100 is in between AMD phenom II x4 840 and AMD phenom II x4 955, an i5-2400(this can be overclocked via turbo mode by up to 3.8ghz) is just right in between AMD Phenom II X6 1075T and AMD Phenom II X6 1090T cpubenchmark - high end cpus.

REWORKED: changed some products. separated i3 and i5 and added a phenom II X4.

bump for the rework.

[Tatsujin]

i didnt read the whole thread but i would avoid ocz psu only psu i have ever had die on me was a ocz. I personally have stuck with corsair for years since that happened

I bought this what I got. 2K reviews on this one. My last PSU was a Cooler Master and it was amazing but ... the noise was high on it.

[Freedom Kira]

nah i was just making fun of it for being too expensive, imho wait till they send in the 6cores, gotta be around 500$ each

You obviously haven't heard of Gulftown. It's been out since last year. And yes, their cheapest one is over $500, which was discounted from around $900 earlier this year, March IIRC. But do you seriously need 12 threads? 8 should be enough.

[datora]

.

And datora, Amd phenom 3.2 Ghz can overclock to 3.8 on the stock fan?

Yes.

Check the feedback at newegg ... which is an excellent idea for all parts, no matter where you actually buy them.  Newegg geeks post back all sorts of useful tidbits, fixes, advice & work-arounds.

A 955 can usually go up to 3.8 GHz on stock cooling; rarely they don't quite make it and you're limited to ~3.6 or ~3.7 ... but lots of folks take them to 4.0 GHz, also.  You will see them regularly recommend a good thermal grease (like arctic silver) instead of stock, which is like +$5 or so.  Personally, I'd feel more comfortable with an advanced cooling block, both for extra quiet and for lower temps ... but the chip runs at 3.8 GHz within its safe parameters, and folks post regularly it's stable for extended use on the stock cooling block.

It's also why I like that you're looking at G.Skill ... you'll likely be taking that up to 2100 from the rated 1600 to match the overclock on the CPU and get some extra performance.  The Ripjaws series has a solid rep for handling that without problems.

As mentioned earlier ... you'll use some extra wattage, but the power supply advice you've been given so far is pretty solid; a 630 or 650 should take care of you quite well.

I'm also glad to be corrected on the price for the 955 ... I think I was mixing it up with the 965 when I posted my estimates.


As far as hard drives go, you can look for/wait for the Hitachi to go on special for $60, which it did over Memorial Day weekend.  Some people swear by them, I'm still a little skeptical given some of the reviews I've seen.  I am very happy with my Samsung F4 2 TB drives (just got two of them for $70 each) ... but, again, this is using them as they are designed: as mass data storage-archive.  NOT intended as your OS install drive.

Western Digital Caviar Black drives come in 2 TB, also.  I'd still hesitate to use it as my OS install ... but these are significantly more robust than most other drives and are designed for performance.  If you must use a 2 TB for your OS, then seriously look into trying to afford one of these.  They were $190 just a month ago, now are $150, and were on special for $130 last weekend.


Now, keep in mind that all hardware has its flukes.  It's always possible to get an item that fails upon delivery or during the initial burn-in.  Another reason why newegg rocks ... they have pretty much the best RMA policy of anybody right now.  You're playing the odds by building your own, but all the recommends you've received here are steering you in Good Directions.  Your chances of a component failure are very low ... but not zero.  You'll just have to roll with it; it's the same chances we all take.


[ EDIT: missed this deal over the weekend:

 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147145

Normally $70, was $54; really great looking case with lots of nice features and copious cooling capacity.  Advice:  sign up for the newegg email newsletter and keep an eye on their deals in real time.  Two to four newsletters each week, sometimes with 24-hour specials that are pretty amazing.

 - http://promotions.newegg.com/NEemail/latest/index-landing.aspx

is where their newsletter gets posted, but not all of them and sometimes a day later than the email gets sent out.  Subscribe as an E-BLAST Insider in the header.


This is quite pricey, but could have been do-able under the different price models that have been posted in the previous comments:

 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227706

A top-end SSD using SATA III specs, 120 GB for $255.  That would be very substantial room for all applications, and they'd run at full available performance of any motherboard out there right now.  Tweaking hardware & looking for best prices, you could swing something like this on your $800 budget.  But still, a 64 or 80 GB is enough, so you don't really need to get all the way into this price range.  By October/November, price structures on these should change substantially, too.


Also, something I forget often, you'll need at least a DVD player/burner.  For me, there is only one:

 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007589%2050001315&IsNodeId=1&name=ASUS

ASUS.  If you can still find a PATA model, get it.  A DVD burner cannot use the throughput of a SATA connection, so you can save one SATA connection this way and use it for a hard drive, or maybe a BluRay player/burner if you need/want one.  I got a PATA version last year for $18 delivered on special; the SATA version also shows up at about that price pretty regularly.  The ASUS DVD burners are a monument to reliable workhorses; can't speak to their BluRay since I don't do that.  The only equivalent I consider are the Plextors, and they usually go at a good couple dollars more. ]

[kitamesume]

speaking of AMD, have you tried considering X6 1055T? its just a couple of $ away.

(click to show/hide)

for some decent fps gauge:
i3-2100 (is in between AMD phenom II x4 840 and AMD phenom II x4 955 so yea 955 is faster)
HD6670 (is in between HD5670 and HD5750. is in between GT240 and GTS250)
4gb ram 1600mhz CL9

crysis : 1920x1080p med 0xAA settings = 40fps stable(dips to 25fps at some occasion)
metro 2033 : 1920x1080p low 0xAA settings = 30fps stable(dips to 20fps on some occasion)[this monster of a game eats too much fps]
WoW : 1920x1080p med 2xAA settings = 60fps stable(dips to 30fps on some occasion)[i hated wow for being a pay to play game -,-]
CoD4 : 1920x1080p med 2xAA settings = 60fps stable(dips to 40fps on some occasion)
HoN : 1920x1080p med 0xAA settings = 60fps stable(dips to 30fps on some occasion)[say hello to open beta on Garena ]

note : i listed some games and their settings that ran on my HD6670 and listed their fps, for the most part you could fine tune the settings more to get an acceptable 60fps.

for some simple reference point, an i3-2100 is in between AMD phenom II x4 840 and AMD phenom II x4 955, an i5-2400(this can be overclocked via turbo mode by up to 3.8ghz) is just right in between AMD Phenom II X6 1075T and AMD Phenom II X6 1090T cpubenchmark - high end cpus.

[Prices are from newegg]
[115$] AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition
[105$] ASUS M4A87TD EVO AM3
[85$] Patriot Gamer 2 Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600 CL9 (the G.Skill that i thought was the cheaper was only DDR3 1066)
[100$] MSI R6670-MD1GD5 Radeon HD 6670 1GB 128-bit GDDR5
[70$] HITACHI Deskstar 5K3000 2TB - baredrive (HDD)
[125$] OCZ Vertex 2 60GB (SSD)
[70$] CORSAIR Builder Series CX600 V2 600W
[60$] Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower
SUM : 730$ without rebates.

[Prices are from newegg]
[160$] AMD Phenom II X6 1055T
[105$] ASUS M4A87TD EVO AM3
[85$] Patriot Gamer 2 Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600 CL9 (the G.Skill that i thought was the cheaper was only DDR3 1066)
[100$] MSI R6670-MD1GD5 Radeon HD 6670 1GB 128-bit GDDR5
[70$] HITACHI Deskstar 5K3000 2TB - baredrive (HDD)
[125$] OCZ Vertex 2 60GB (SSD)
[70$] CORSAIR Builder Series CX600 V2 600W
[60$] Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower
SUM : 775$ without rebates.

[Prices are from newegg]
[125$] intel i3-2100
[85$] MSI PH67S-C43 (B3) -OR- [85$]ASRock H67M (B3)
[85$] Patriot Gamer 2 Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600 CL9 (the G.Skill that i thought was the cheaper was only DDR3 1066)
[100$] MSI R6670-MD1GD5 Radeon HD 6670 1GB 128-bit GDDR5
[70$] HITACHI Deskstar 5K3000 2TB - baredrive (HDD)
[125$] OCZ Vertex 2 60GB (SSD)
[70$] CORSAIR Builder Series CX600 V2 600W
[60$] Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower
SUM : 720$ without rebates.

[Prices are from newegg]
[190$] intel i5-2400
[120$] ASRock P67 PRO3 (B3) -OR- [115$]MSI P67A-C43 (B3)
[85$] Patriot Gamer 2 Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600 CL9
[100$] MSI R6670-MD1GD5 Radeon HD 6670 1GB 128-bit GDDR5
[70$] HITACHI Deskstar 5K3000 2TB - baredrive (HDD)
[120$] OCZ Vertex 2 60GB (SSD)
[70$] CORSAIR Builder Series CX600 V2 600W
[60$] Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower
SUM : 815$ without rebates.

[kyubixmunky]

.

And datora, Amd phenom 3.2 Ghz can overclock to 3.8 on the stock fan?

Yes.

Check the feedback at newegg ... which is an excellent idea for all parts, no matter where you actually buy them.  Newegg geeks post back all sorts of useful tidbits, fixes, advice & work-arounds.

A 955 can usually go up to 3.8 GHz on stock cooling; rarely they don't quite make it and you're limited to ~3.6 or ~3.7 ... but lots of folks take them to 4.0 GHz, also.  You will see them regularly recommend a good thermal grease (like arctic silver) instead of stock, which is like +$5 or so.  Personally, I'd feel more comfortable with an advanced cooling block, both for extra quiet and for lower temps ... but the chip runs at 3.8 GHz within its safe parameters, and folks post regularly it's stable for extended use on the stock cooling block.

It's also why I like that you're looking at G.Skill ... you'll likely be taking that up to 2100 from the rated 1600 to match the overclock on the CPU and get some extra performance.  The Ripjaws series has a solid rep for handling that without problems.

As mentioned earlier ... you'll use some extra wattage, but the power supply advice you've been given so far is pretty solid; a 630 or 650 should take care of you quite well.

I'm also glad to be corrected on the price for the 955 ... I think I was mixing it up with the 965 when I posted my estimates.


As far as hard drives go, you can look for/wait for the Hitachi to go on special for $60, which it did over Memorial Day weekend.  Some people swear by them, I'm still a little skeptical given some of the reviews I've seen.  I am very happy with my Samsung F4 2 TB drives (just got two of them for $70 each) ... but, again, this is using them as they are designed: as mass data storage-archive.  NOT intended as your OS install drive.

Western Digital Caviar Black drives come in 2 TB, also.  I'd still hesitate to use it as my OS install ... but these are significantly more robust than most other drives and are designed for performance.  If you must use a 2 TB for your OS, then seriously look into trying to afford one of these.  They were $190 just a month ago, now are $150, and were on special for $130 last weekend.


Now, keep in mind that all hardware has its flukes.  It's always possible to get an item that fails upon delivery or during the initial burn-in.  Another reason why newegg rocks ... they have pretty much the best RMA policy of anybody right now.  You're playing the odds by building your own, but all the recommends you've received here are steering you in Good Directions.  Your chances of a component failure are very low ... but not zero.  You'll just have to roll with it; it's the same chances we all take.


[ EDIT: missed this deal over the weekend:

 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147145

Normally $70, was $54; really great looking case with lots of nice features and copious cooling capacity.  Advice:  sign up for the newegg email newsletter and keep an eye on their deals in real time.  Two to four newsletters each week, sometimes with 24-hour specials that are pretty amazing.

 - http://promotions.newegg.com/NEemail/latest/index-landing.aspx

is where their newsletter gets posted, but not all of them and sometimes a day later than the email gets sent out.  Subscribe as an E-BLAST Insider in the header.


This is quite pricey, but could have been do-able under the different price models that have been posted in the previous comments:

 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227706

A top-end SSD using SATA III specs, 120 GB for $255.  That would be very substantial room for all applications, and they'd run at full available performance of any motherboard out there right now.  Tweaking hardware & looking for best prices, you could swing something like this on your $800 budget.  But still, a 64 or 80 GB is enough, so you don't really need to get all the way into this price range.  By October/November, price structures on these should change substantially, too.


Also, something I forget often, you'll need at least a DVD player/burner.  For me, there is only one:

 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007589%2050001315&IsNodeId=1&name=ASUS

ASUS.  If you can still find a PATA model, get it.  A DVD burner cannot use the throughput of a SATA connection, so you can save one SATA connection this way and use it for a hard drive, or maybe a BluRay player/burner if you need/want one.  I got a PATA version last year for $18 delivered on special; the SATA version also shows up at about that price pretty regularly.  The ASUS DVD burners are a monument to reliable workhorses; can't speak to their BluRay since I don't do that.  The only equivalent I consider are the Plextors, and they usually go at a good couple dollars more. ]

Thanks. I think I will end up getting the Hitachi 2TB for storage, and getting a 64 Gb SSD for OS install and other graphic programs as was suggested earlier.

[Lupin]

it can at least help, rather than reading tons of articles and reviews. more like its their ranking and it is still pretty accurate.

It's a synthetic benchmark, not real world testing.

It's better to be informed consumer reading all those reviews than a stupid one that looks at one benchmark (synthetic) and picks a processor because of that.

[kitamesume]

i did confirm its accurateness by comparing them with reviews, the i3-2100 is indeed in the phenom II X4 league. not much of a proof but here http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/the-sandy-bridge-review-intel-core-i7-2600k-i5-2500k-core-i3-2100-tested/15

Edit: to OP, where are you gonna buy the parts? locally or internet? which site?

[kyubixmunky]

probably from newegg. or if i can find them at a micro center near here.

Edit: Just got around to reading all of the posts in detail.

speaking of AMD, have you tried considering X6 1055T? its just a couple of $ away.

for some decent fps gauge:
i3-2100 (is in between AMD phenom II x4 840 and AMD phenom II x4 955 so yea 955 is faster)
HD6670 (is in between HD5670 and HD5750. is in between GT240 and GTS250)
4gb ram 1600mhz CL9

crysis : 1920x1080p med 0xAA settings = 40fps stable(dips to 25fps at some occasion)
metro 2033 : 1920x1080p low 0xAA settings = 30fps stable(dips to 20fps on some occasion)[this monster of a game eats too much fps]
WoW : 1920x1080p med 2xAA settings = 60fps stable(dips to 30fps on some occasion)[i hated wow for being a pay to play game -,-]
CoD4 : 1920x1080p med 2xAA settings = 60fps stable(dips to 40fps on some occasion)
HoN : 1920x1080p med 0xAA settings = 60fps stable(dips to 30fps on some occasion)[say hello to open beta on Garena ]

note : i listed some games and their settings that ran on my HD6670 and listed their fps, for the most part you could fine tune the settings more to get an acceptable 60fps.

for some simple reference point, an i3-2100 is in between AMD phenom II x4 840 and AMD phenom II x4 955, an i5-2400(this can be overclocked via turbo mode by up to 3.8ghz) is just right in between AMD Phenom II X6 1075T and AMD Phenom II X6 1090T cpubenchmark - high end cpus.

[Prices are from newegg]
[115$] AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition
[105$] ASUS M4A87TD EVO AM3
[85$] Patriot Gamer 2 Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600 CL9 (the G.Skill that i thought was the cheaper was only DDR3 1066)
[100$] MSI R6670-MD1GD5 Radeon HD 6670 1GB 128-bit GDDR5
[70$] HITACHI Deskstar 5K3000 2TB - baredrive (HDD)
[125$] OCZ Vertex 2 60GB (SSD)
[70$] CORSAIR Builder Series CX600 V2 600W
[60$] Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower
SUM : 730$ without rebates.

[Prices are from newegg]
[160$] AMD Phenom II X6 1055T
[105$] ASUS M4A87TD EVO AM3
[85$] Patriot Gamer 2 Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600 CL9 (the G.Skill that i thought was the cheaper was only DDR3 1066)
[100$] MSI R6670-MD1GD5 Radeon HD 6670 1GB 128-bit GDDR5
[70$] HITACHI Deskstar 5K3000 2TB - baredrive (HDD)
[125$] OCZ Vertex 2 60GB (SSD)
[70$] CORSAIR Builder Series CX600 V2 600W
[60$] Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower
SUM : 775$ without rebates.

[Prices are from newegg]
[125$] intel i3-2100
[85$] MSI PH67S-C43 (B3) -OR- [85$]ASRock H67M (B3)
[85$] Patriot Gamer 2 Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600 CL9 (the G.Skill that i thought was the cheaper was only DDR3 1066)
[100$] MSI R6670-MD1GD5 Radeon HD 6670 1GB 128-bit GDDR5
[70$] HITACHI Deskstar 5K3000 2TB - baredrive (HDD)
[125$] OCZ Vertex 2 60GB (SSD)
[70$] CORSAIR Builder Series CX600 V2 600W
[60$] Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower
SUM : 720$ without rebates.

[Prices are from newegg]
[190$] intel i5-2400
[120$] ASRock P67 PRO3 (B3) -OR- [115$]MSI P67A-C43 (B3)
[85$] Patriot Gamer 2 Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600 CL9
[100$] MSI R6670-MD1GD5 Radeon HD 6670 1GB 128-bit GDDR5
[70$] HITACHI Deskstar 5K3000 2TB - baredrive (HDD)
[120$] OCZ Vertex 2 60GB (SSD)
[70$] CORSAIR Builder Series CX600 V2 600W
[60$] Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower
SUM : 815$ without rebates.

Thank you for summarizing them all neatly. I'll wait till around October/November probably buying the parts as they go on sale. But the Patriot is better than the g.skill for the price then?

Edit2: Can the 6 core processor overclock to 3.8 ghz on the stock fan? And how does it compare to the quad core in general?

[vuzedome]

Well you'll be better off with a nice after market CPU cooler since you plan to OC, just to be on the safe side.
Having a stable OC but with temps of up to 80C isn't really a good thing for the processor, especially on a long term basis.

[kitamesume]

overclocking the phenom II X6 1055T can take you to 3.7ghz easily at 1.35vcore

(click to show/hide)

cant say how much faster the X6 is over the X4 but it helps with multi-threaded application, specially on video editing. video encoding|transcoding

i just dont like the current phenom performance, they look disappointing, the only thing i liked on AMD was their Athlon II X4 for being so cheap of a bargain for a quad.

i'd really suggest to wait for the bulldozer to come out and compare them to each other, and it`ll be worth the wait because the phenoms would drop it's price too.

PS: any type of overclocking, even if its mildly(i.e. 10% overclock), would need you at least a decent aftermarket cooler. heck i`d even buy myself an aftermarket cooler even if i`m running it on stock just to make it run cooler. cheapest decent aftermarket cooler that i know of starts at 33$ Scythe SCSK-1100 100mm Shuriken. ohh yea, reviews about them that says "fan died" and shoot teh egg count to 1 are fags that dont know how replace the fan.
note: its the diameter of the fan that you should be concerned about when replacing the fan, not the thickness.

[vuzedome]

I don't know much about AMD CPU OCs but I think you'll be needing beefier, in other words faster, RAMS.

[kitamesume]

lol 8gbs of 1600mhz ram is enough. these rams can be overclocked as well you know, by up to 20% with the same timings or loose to be safe.

@OP ohh yea, about your question about patriot being cheaper than G.Skill, not entirely, they're pretty much a match on pricing. in the first place, i thought G.Skill was cheaper but when i looked closer the one that looked cheaper was actually a slower ram.
[85$] Patriot Gamer 2 Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600 CL9 VS [85$] G.SKILL Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600 CL9

[Lupin]

probably from newegg. or if i can find them at a micro center near here.

microcenter has great deals with intel processors. I say screw amd and get a sandy bridge i5 or i7 if you see good deals from them.

I'll wait till around October/November probably buying the parts as they go on sale.

If this is the case, wait for the release of BD. There's not much sense picking processor/mobo this early when there's a new uarch to be released soon. Intel will probably slash prices by then, either because BD outperforms SB or because they want to further reduce AMD's already small market share. Even if intel doesn't slash prices, AMD's BD will faster that their current ones. You can also get PhenomIIs at lower prices by then