$800 Budget Gaming Build

[joeperson]

And no crossfire on the 43

[BALISTX]

Nether does the EP45-DS3L. I think you are thinking of the EP45-DS3R

[Chilly]

Originally Posted by Zayxic

I was looking at the EP45-DS3L, any major differences between that and EP43? (I listed the ram again to stick that into the price calculation )

Not much, the physical motherboards seem to be the same. The only major difference I can find is the chipset, the EP45 uses the P45, and EP34 uses the P43(go figure eh ). So whats the difference between P45 and P43 you ask? Well the P45 supports DDR3 and the splinting of the PCI-e x16 lane into 2 x8 lanes, and its slightly higher binned(OC's better), otherwise there the same.

Franky the EP45 doesn't implement/utilize the improvements anyways. The only benefit in other words would be if you were to overclock. The EP45 will be easier to overclock, as well as achive higher clocks then the EP43 would.

Originally Posted by Zayxic

I'm using PriceCanada and Shopbot to look at prices, and will be pricematching with NCIX if need be. =) My bro was telling me to grab a heatsink so I could OC the CPU, so I'll see how that goes and I may.

A decent/great heatsink will run you anywhere from $30-$80, unless you plan to overclock, I would spend the money elsewhere. That being said if you don't mind spending the extra cash its worth it regardless of if you overclock or not. If you don't overclock it will keep temps down, if you do it will enable possible higher clocks at lower temps.

Originally Posted by Zayxic

I've been reading some disappointing things about the Samsung spinpoint HD. Are the issues fixed and worth taking a look? I've never had any experience with or heard of Powercolor until recently. How are they? As well I'm looking for a quieter video card if I can, how's this one on sound?

When it comes to the Samsung F1, Its a good drive, it burst speeds seem to be limited to 1.5Gbps, everything else on the drive is FAST. While it may not be as fast as a WD Black 640GB, you can't beat that price, its a great fast drive.

The issue of massive failures only affected the 1TB edition.

Powercolor on the other hand has been an ATi vendor for as long as I can remember, never had an issue with them personally. As for how loud the card is, from what I'm reading online at various sites, its not a loud fan, but its not the quietest.

Originally Posted by Zayxic

Yeah, I thought 500W would be enough haha. I did see the 750W go on sale but thought that was way to much. As mentioned above I may OC and will keep it in mind. ;)

Hahaha, yes, even a *quality* 450watt PSU should be enough for you BUT for the price the 750Watt is, I see no reason not to get it. That said If your looking to save a few $$$ upfront, you can't go wrong with the Corsair VX450. I'd avoid any OCZ powersupplys, they're wattage claims seem to be always overrated for what they are (an OCZ 650 shouldn't be rated above 550, etc).

Originally Posted by Zayxic

I know warcraft 3 isn't very demanding haha, which is kind of why I don't want to spend too much on a GPU unnecessarily. =)

The GPU is the one of the most important parts when gaming, never skimp on it if you can. If you ever have the urge to pay any other games that WC3 (and I'm sure you will with a new PC, some join us on the HWC COD4 server when its up ).

That being said if you *TRULY* feel as if you will never play beyond WC 3, then even the 4670 is overkill, so get that. I highly recommend the 4830, I think you'll enjoy it more in the long run.

Originally Posted by Zayxic

Thanks everyone for their help so far! Really appreciate it.

Anytime

[joeperson]

:O got my acronyms mixed up

[Zayxic]

Wow... Thanks for all the information! =)

Looks like I'll be making some changes! =D

CASE: Antec 300 -- thought it over and decided just to save some $$ and use it on GPU
MOBO: EP43 or 45 -DS3L ...still undecided if I want to OC, may just get the 45 so in the case I do, I'll be prepared...
VID: Moving on up to 4830, going to research up on Powercolor
PSU: Is there anything bad about the mushkin? I just thought it was decent for its pricepoint...

[Chilly]

Originally Posted by Zayxic

Wow... Thanks for all the information! =)

Looks like I'll be making some changes! =D

CASE: Antec 300 -- thought it over and decided just to save some $$ and use it on GPU
MOBO: EP43 or 45 -DS3L ...still undecided if I want to OC, may just get the 45 so in the case I do, I'll be prepared...
VID: Moving on up to 4830, going to research up on Powercolor
PSU: Is there anything bad about the mushkin? I just thought it was decent for its pricepoint...

The Muskin is an okay PSU, but from everything I have read read, is the ripple is a wee bit high among other things even on only moderate loads. As you can see it got a rather mediocre score on jonnyguru (king of PSU's, if it wasn't for him pointing flaws in the way PSU's used to be reviewed, well we'd still all be using the PSU that came with the case ). The VX450 on the other hand was almost perfect.

That being said the Muskin will serve your intrests just fine, and I do not see it killing systems anytime soon, if you like the modular aspect of it, I would not hesitate to use it.

[CactusJoe]

Just a note ^^
The corsair 750W is on sale on ncix AND there is a 20$ MIR coupon floating around on the web.
I just bought it for around 85$(Rebate+MIR). Which is nice... Loats of wirring, easy to set up, sleak design, not noisy at all. I hear my fans more than the PSU!

[Zayxic]

Originally Posted by Chilly

The Muskin is an okay PSU, but from everything I have read read, is the ripple is a wee bit high among other things even on only moderate loads. As you can see it got a rather mediocre score on jonnyguru (king of PSU's, if it wasn't for him pointing flaws in the way PSU's used to be reviewed, well we'd still all be using the PSU that came with the case ). The VX450 on the other hand was almost perfect.

That being said the Muskin will serve your intrests just fine, and I do not see it killing systems anytime soon, if you like the modular aspect of it, I would not hesitate to use it.

Originally Posted by CactusJoe

Just a note ^^
The corsair 750W is on sale on ncix AND there is a 20$ MIR coupon floating around on the web.
I just bought it for around 85$(Rebate+MIR). Which is nice... Loats of wirring, easy to set up, sleak design, not noisy at all. I hear my fans more than the PSU!

Ohhhh.. Wasn't aware of jonnyguru! Guess I'll go with corsair then. Now should I grab the 750w that's on sale now or stay with the VX450??

[CactusJoe]

I would go with the 750w. Its a great psu. No noise at all, lots of wiring.
And GREAT for future upgrades.

[Chilly]

Originally Posted by Zayxic

Ohhhh.. Wasn't aware of jonnyguru! Guess I'll go with corsair then. Now should I grab the 750w that's on sale now or stay with the VX450??

Originally Posted by CactusJoe

I would go with the 750w. Its a great psu. No noise at all, lots of wiring.
And GREAT for future upgrades.

Agreed, for the extra few $$'s I would just grab the 750w, if you use my posted list above as a guideline, everything should come to around 800, give or take $50 depending on the exact choices you make. That being said the VX450 IS enough for your use, but for the extra 10 or so bucks, why not.

Unlike most items, a good PSU choice can be good future proofing. PSU's are about the ONLY item you can somewhat plan as future proof, even if new connectors come out, 99% of the time there are be adapters you can use, electricity is electricity, it rarely ever changes. Unless everyone decides to ditch the 3.3V, 5V and 12V standard, you could use a PSU amde 10 years ago thanks to adaptors.

Thats just my take on it, like I said the VX450 will power everything in your new rig with no issues.