PC on budget of $1200

[Kilhart]

Oh wow that's a big difference <_< definitely going to stick with the modular one then.

Do you think there'll be any cooling issues with the case I listed and the parts? (I edited some stuff, like switching from a $70 4GB DDR3 1066 with $5 shipping to a $75 4GB DDR3 1333 with free shipping and switching from microATX to ATX motherboard)

[fishstix]

Everything's looking good. The case should be fine, has 2 120mm fans, motherboard looks fine. Might I suggest a small upgrade to the video card though? The 5770 is only $15 more than the card you picked, any of these Newegg.com - Computer Hardware,Video Cards & Video Devices,Desktop Graphics / Video Cards,Radeon HD 5000 series,Radeon HD 5770 Benchmarks place the 5770 somewhere between the 4870 and 4890 I think

[Kilhart]

Everything's looking good. The case should be fine, has 2 120mm fans, motherboard looks fine. Might I suggest a small upgrade to the video card though? The 5770 is only $15 more than the card you picked, any of these Newegg.com - Computer Hardware,Video Cards & Video Devices,Desktop Graphics / Video Cards,Radeon HD 5000 series,Radeon HD 5770 Benchmarks place the 5770 somewhere between the 4870 and 4890 I think

Well, the reason I picked the 4870 is because of this deal:

Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more!

With coupon code (extra 21 bucks off the power supply), those 3 come to about $270 AR. The power supply alone would be about $90 AR, so if I can sell one of the 4870s for at least $100 that puts the price of the one I keep at $80. Either that or I'd have two 4870s for $180, but is there a point in having two of them considering the rest of my build?

[fishstix]

Oh wow, yea that's a pretty nice deal. It's up to you if you keep it, the only reason I would though, would be if I wanted to play on 3 monitors or something. I don't think the price/performance alone is worth it. I have a gtx260 and can max out all of the settings @1920x1080 resolution in the games I've tried since getting it, l4d, cod5, aion and the performance is similar to the 4870

[Kilhart]

Oh, alright, thanks a lot for your help O: just ordered all my parts and shipping came to a grand total of 8 bucks, lol. Hopefully I don't make it explode or anything when I try building it.

Edit: lawl, I just got a parts list and quote from a friend that runs a computer shop and offered to build me a computer. The parts were pretty similar in general but the quote was ~$900. <_< He said that if I want to hit under $550 it would involve a downgrade to a dual-core and integrated graphics.

[Olo401]

When I look at the specs on that motherboard, it doesn't seem to support DDR3 RAM... am I mistaken? I could very well be, but I'm just double checking.

Double checked Gigabyte's website and you're right.. I missed that one, good eye!

Motherboard: ASUS M4A79XTD EVO AM3 AMD 790X ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
CPU: AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz 3 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Black Processor
Graphics Card: XFX HD-487A-ZWFC Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP
Memory: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Dual Channel
Case: APEVIA X-SUPRA G-Type X-SUPRAG-BL Black / Blue SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower
Power Supply: Thermaltake W0106RU 700W Complies with ATX 12V 2.2 & EPS 12V version SLI Certified 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC

I have keyboard/mouse/speakers already, and I'm getting a DVD drive/HDD from a friend's old Dell. My monitor is a 22" LCD with 1920x1080 max resolution and DVI-D/VGA input. If I can sell the extra graphics card in the deal I posted earlier for $100 or more the total cost of these parts would come to about $510 after rebates.

Are there any problems with this setup (incompatibility issues, problems with case, power supply, just bad choices in general, etc.)? I've never built a computer before :<

Also, sorry for hijacking your topic, OP <_<

That all looks like it would work.. power supply @ 700W is a bit overkill but will give you good overhead for future expansion.

[Kilhart]

I have no idea about the difference between power supplies <_< will the 700W use up a lot more power, or will it not make much of a difference?

[Olo401]

Well the thing about power supplies is that no matter how much wattage your computer uses at any given time, the power supply will always draw as much power as it's rated to in active mode which, of course, will impact your electricity bill especially if you leave your computer on 24/7. Then again, that's what standby/sleep mode is for.

On the upside, if you decide to add a second video card, or an array of SSDs, or a water cooling system, or if you decide to overclock, you'll have enough power available.

[Kilhart]

Oh damn D: that may not bode well if I end up playing FFXIV.

[Kilhart]

So I set basically all of it up minus wireless card and DVD drive (forgot to grab the IDE ribbon thing attached to it <_<), and the startup reads that it can't detect the hard drive. When I go into BIOS settings, it actually lists the hard drive and its details, even though it can't detect it or something, and when I let it boot up completely it just gets frozen at the Windows XP loading screen (which means the HDD is at least SOMEWHAT detectable, right?). What's wrong D:

[fishstix]

WinXP doesn't naturally come with SATA drivers, you'll need the drivers that come with it and hit F6? while setup is booting to install "3rd party drivers" or something like that. OEM install cds sometimes have the drivers streamlined into the install, my Dell one does at least, since it was made for a laptop.

I would highly recommend win7 x64 with your system, unless you're worried about crash issues with Aion. Not saying that Aion crashes more in win7, but some people have seen improvements with going from 7 to xp (although for some, it didn't help)

[Kilhart]

Oh, alright. :< Yeah I'm just waiting for the new HDD to come in the mail now so I can just do a fresh install of Win 7 x64.