New build: sanity check?

[Napoleon54]

I'm thinking about a new desktop for basic home use... surfing, movies, photochopping, maybe some light video editing, etc. No gaming. Current system is ~8yo (?) Athalon 2100XP w- 1.5GB and it's just a little too slow with Win7. So here I'm aiming for a budget system that'll be fairly future-proof, still kicking like 6-8 years from now (with minor upgrades as needed).

Here's what I have, it'd be great if someone could sanity check this and/or suggest reasonable upgrades and/or cost-reducing options. It's been a few years since I've built a completely new system, and a ton of stuff has changed, but it seems the same rules should still work for choosing compatible parts etc.

I also thought it might be fun to post this as kinda an old skool G|A Hardware thread, like back in the day when there was regular geeking out over OCing, upgrades, new builds, etc. :passwird:

Proc: AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103808) ($120)

Mobo: ASRock M3A770DE AM3 AMD 770 ATX (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157176) ($60)

RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231310) ($40) <--jeez, this stuff got cheap!!!!

HD: Western Digital Caviar Black WD5002AALX 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136795) ($60)

Case: COOLER MASTER Elite 330 RC-330-KKN1-GP (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119115) ($40)

Power supply, video card, wireless card, optical drive(s) will be scavenged from existing system. Also will be moving over one or more IDE HDs to use for storage.

The vid card I currently have, a PNY VCG84512SPEB GeForce 8400 GS 512MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133245), is probably the weak link in the system but I think it'll do for now, yes/ no? I'm planning to go ahead with this one and upgrade it at a later date, but I could be convinced to spring for a new one now if someone wanted to make a case for it.

[Napoleon54]

Ooops, might as well go with DDR3 1600 for an extra $6.

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231313) ($46) <-- still damn cheap

[cruelpupet]

Hard Drive:

Depending on brand loyalties, you can easily get 1TB for the same price, or 2TB for a smidge more. SATA (ver 2) 3Gb or (ver 3) 6Gb doesnt matter as the hard drive itself will sustain maybe 35MB read speeds. Though I would still say get a Mobo that supports it.

Id also get 2 of them and put it in a RAID 1, for faster reads and redundancy.


Motherboard:

For upgrades AMD now uses the AM3+ motherboard (all new chips codename bulldozer require that +)
Pay attention to mobo max supported RAM, most support at least 8GB, some are 16GB-32GB


Power Supply

Doesnt have to be done immediately, but I would get something that is more efficient. You can now get 90%+ efficiencies.

[Napoleon54]

Thanks cp, that's the kinda stuff I was hoping to get feedback on.

When I built my current system I spent a little bit more for a board that had USB 2.0 because I was pretty sure that'd be significant and I'm damn glad that I did (it was just coming out at the time). Does anyone think USB 3.0 is going to be a big deal? I don't get the sense that it is.

[LPMiller]

It will in that it will be the standard eventually, but there really aren't a ton of devices that support it in any meaningful way. I'd be ok with USB 2.0 - you can always get an upgrade card later if you end up with some future device you just HAVE to have USB 3 for.

[nate el bueno]

I used the AMD 940 in the past and it was awesome. A thought though...AMD's new Bulldozer chips are supposedly coming out in 2 months and they should be pretty good. I've also heard they'll be bringing the "FX" (gaming) line back. It doesn't sound like you're worried about bleeding-edge performance, but it's a thought.

Cost reducing option:
Most of the AMD Phenom II x2s can have their third and forth cores unlocked. If you read the reviews on newegg, people will tell you which motherboards they tended to have success on. It could be a gamble but it'd save you ~40-50 bucks.

ASrock is great. Budget price with nice features. I've used them once or twice.


Edit: example
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103846

[cruelpupet]

It will in that it will be the standard eventually, but there really aren't a ton of devices that support it in any meaningful way. I'd be ok with USB 2.0 - you can always get an upgrade card later if you end up with some future device you just HAVE to have USB 3 for.

Most boards that are in the $100 range have USB 3, Sata 3, and 16GB+ memory support. However for most people there is no point as...

USB 2 is fast enough for most transfers. Ive run a XP guest on an encrypted 2.5" drive before with only small hiccups in speed.

8GB of memory should be enough for quite a while unless you get into virtualization

Sata 3 as I said before is useless unless you're running SSDs which from what Ive heard have a short life