New PC Advice

A

Aeron

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I used to know a lot about PC hardware, now I've forgotten most and technology has made the rest of my knowledge somewhat obsolete. So...

I'm planning on buying a new PC for around R 6000-R6500 and any advice, suggestions, criticisms, etc are very welcome.

Here are the basics, prices are rounded:

PC Case: Gigabyte Setto @ R 650

RAM: 2 Gb Mushkin 800mhz @ R 550

HDD: Seagate 250 GB @ R 650

PSU: 460w Coolermaster @ R650

Mobo: Tricky. Looking for AMD + ATI board that supports the CPU I want and also PCI Express 2.0. Price not more than R 1300

CPU: AMD x2 7750 (2.7ghz) Black Edition @ R 1100

GPU: Force3D HD 3870 @ R 1400

Primarily, I would like some motherboard advice as well as general suggestions. Is 460W PSU enough? Another CPU? Etc. Only criteria is that it can't exceed R 6500, preferably not R 6000. I'm on a tight tight budget here.

Thanks a lot in advance.
 
R6000 AMD build

AMD Boxed 2.6Ghz Phenom II™ X3 710 R 1,783

MSI AMD K9N Neo-F V3 Motherboard R633

HIS ATI Radeon HD4830 - 512MB - PCI-E R 1,872

Western Digital CAViAR SE WD3200JS 320gb, S-ata2 , 7200rpm , 8mb R652.59

Transcend® JetRam™ High-Performance 2GB DDR2-800 R323.60

Coolermaster eXtreme Power Plus 460W PSU R467.86

BenQ DW2000 20x Dual Layer DVD Writer - Black R304

Total: R6036.05

Just remove the optical drive and add a case.
http://www.take2.co.za/electronics-cooler-master-elite-334-chassis-no-psu-3985863.html

Should come to around R6300.

PM me if you need links to where to get the stuff at those prices.
 
Save by going with seagate and rather getting some corsair ram, the 4830 is a good card but if u going that dir u might wanna look at a 4850, on the other hand u can pick up a 4670 for just under 1k, cant comment on the msi mobo, but i doubt u will get it working on an am3 cpu without a bios flash and a lot of struggling, but check before hand on anand or toms to see if the mobo u want will run the new phenoms. Theres a section on one of their forums about phenom compatibility.
 
Geez why would someone pay 1.8k for a 4830 when a 4850 is only a couple hundred more, go for the 4850 mate!! I doubt a new board would not support your cpu in all honesty.
 
The MSI K9N is hardly new.

And here is a link to the manufacturers website with no claim of AM2+ support and nothing on Phenom 2 compatibility under CPU compatibility list.

http://global.msi.eu/index.php?func=prodcpu2&prod_no=1244&maincat_no=1

So no, your board will not run a Phenom 2 AM2+/AM3 CPU

If you in the PTA/JHB area PM and I can organise you a price on a mobo that Does have AM2+ support and will run the 710 cpu.

Actually now that I look at the compatibility list, the board doesn't even support Phenom 1s. So from an upgradability point of view i wouldnt go with this board unless u putting an old cpu in :p
 
Last edited:
Decotey said:
Save by going with seagate and rather getting some corsair ram, the 4830 is a good card but if u going that dir u might wanna look at a 4850, on the other hand u can pick up a 4670 for just under 1k, cant comment on the msi mobo, but i doubt u will get it working on an am3 cpu without a bios flash and a lot of struggling, but check before hand on anand or toms to see if the mobo u want will run the new phenoms. Theres a section on one of their forums about phenom compatibility.
Click to expand...

Seagate's reliability isn't too hot at the moment.
 
I doubt many of the faulty firmware drives made it to SA, but ye it has pretty much destroyed their rep.

I just bought a seagate 500gb 7200.11, just gonna update the firmware when I install it and hope for the best. Besides they have an awesome warranty
 
You haven't been reading plenty of news lately have you?

I'll post a link in the morning.
 
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