Just built a new computer.

[p3]

What do you think? I'm not too savvy on the parts but heres what I got:


COOLER MASTER Centurion 534 RC-534-KKN2-GP

AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor

MSI NF980-G65 AM3 NVIDIA nForce 980a SLI HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard

G.SKILL 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory

Palit NE3TS25EFHD52 GeForce GTS 250 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card

RAIDMAX HYBRID 2 RX-630SS 630W ATX12V V2.2/ EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Modular Modular LED Power Supply

Western Digital VelociRaptor WD1500HLFS 150GB 10000 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

 

[Signs By Steve]

How much? Sorry, my name is Steve and I've been making sign since iwas 5.

 

[p3]

After rebates and everything i believe around 800/900

 

[choucove]

That's not too bad of a price for that kind of system really. I run an AMD Phenom II X 955 on an MSI 790FX motherboard, so your system is pretty similar to mine, and should be a little faster given the processor. I am really impressed by the performance I can get from this system!

Did you purchase the memory kit because of a special combo or price? I'm just curious why you went with the triple channel kit for 6 GB instead of doing either 4 GB or 8 GB as is standard for the dual channel in the AMD systems.

I've never used the Raidmax brand of power supplies, but hopefully that should be enough power and quality to last you for a while. I've continually noticed this is an area that a lot of people skimp on and end up regretting later. I know a local computer business that is definitely guilty of it, and their computers generally require a new power supply within the first year or two of operation because they don't last or don't have enough power for even adding another hard drive or DVD drive.

The only other thing I might be worried about with this system is keeping it all cool. The Centurion case may offer enough room for all the parts, but it's not the most well known for cooling efficiency, and since it wasn't listed above in your specs, I'm imagining you are using the stock CPU cooler. It will work, but it's going to generate a lot of heat. I solved this on my system by using an aftermarket CPU fan, specifically the Cooler Master V8. Along with some Arctic Silver 5, this keeps my computer running very quite and relatively cool for most anything except several hours of playing Crysis at the highest settings and resolution.

 

[OldPaint]

i gota AMD Phenom X2 quad core, 2.8 GIG, on a gigabyte motherboard, 2 gigs 800 FSB ram, new case, and a dvd write/read.................and used all of my older hard drives, cd/dvd drive and total bill was $340.00.

 

[choucove]

i gota AMD Phenom X2 quad core, 2.8 GIG, on a gigabyte motherboard, 2 gigs 800 FSB ram, new case, and a dvd write/read.................and used all of my older hard drives, cd/dvd drive and total bill was $340.00.

While Intel may have the performance crown, you cannot deny that you can get your best bang for your buck with AMD a lot of times. Recently I built a system on the Core i5-650 that impressed me, but for the same price you can have a quad-core AMD Phenom system with the same clock rate which itself is impressive.

 

[p3]

Yea, I was just looking at fans. For the CPU fan, I was just using the one that came with the processor. It is a bit noisy but so far seems to run everything good. And yea to the price on the memory. Like I said, I'm not too savvy on the parts or whatever and had just asked some opinions from people I know...

So far i've been happy with it. I know I haven't had it long, but just yesterday running PS and illy CS5. its much better than what I had before, I don't have to wait on anything to load which was my problem before. If I had any docs in PS that were over 13x18 @ 300dpi it was just a nightmare to deal with. Or even using both programs at the same time. I wouldn't be able to get online or do anything at the same time either or listen to music. Then the constant freezing would just irritate me.

I ran into a couple problems, just because of having windows 7 64 bit...but just cause a couple programs/hardware I had were so old.

My Old Comp, I don't remember the MOBO it had in it, but just a cheap slow hard drive, had pentium 4 3.2 ghz processor and 2 gigs of ram. I don't remember the video card it had in it and a power supply that i got out of another gateway tower we had lying around.

 

[choucove]

At least you still have room to upgrade more RAM in the future if you should want to, with an open DIMM slot on your motherboard still, you just have to be much more careful with DDR3 memory about mixing and matching sticks properly or it will cause a lot of instability and headaches.

If you do get tired of the noisy stock AMD fan or want something to run cooler, you can find several good aftermarket fans out there for pretty cheap. Pretty much every computer I build I do an aftermarket cooler even if it is a simple one. I have used several of these Cooler Master Vortex fans on AMD systems and they are wonderful. Low height to fit most any case, almost completely silent, runs cool, simple to install, and quite cheap for aftermarket coolers!

 

[p3]

Yea. I was reading about that. I think I would be upgrading another system here too, so I would just get new ram for the computer I built and get more. I don't know. But overall you think this is a decent system for operating photoshop & Illy? Seems to be good so far.

 

[choucove]

I think it will be more than decent for what you are doing in Photoshop and Illy. I've had absolutely no problems running anything in Photoshop, Dreamweaver, or Premiere CS4.