New build for my brother..

[Realityshift]

Just planning a build for my little brother, itll be useds primarilly for gaming, BF2 and 2142 as well as L4D but nothing extremely heavy. Ill be doing the building, it will be overclocked but not extremely, im thinking dual core at 3.4-3.5ghz should do just fine for what he needs. I have already given him a brand new EVGA 9800GT that should work alright at his 20" monitors native 1650x1080 monitor, he doesnt need all settings maxed.

Basically planning a cheap AMD x2 550 build, I figure that should give him plenty of CPU performance for the next year or 2 as well as give him a little leeway in upgrading in the future should he wish. I wont be going DDR3 though as he will not need the extra bandwidth from the ram... I dont think hed even notice it nor would he want it.

Build is as follows, prices will be hopefully price matched to the lowest prices I can find.

CPU: AMD Phenom II x2 550 3.1ghz dualcore
Motherboard: Gigabyte 790X-UD4P
Ram: Patriot or G.Skill DDR2 800 CL4
HSF: Either stock, a AC64, or my Xigmatek as im going W/C
Case: Coolermaster Storm Scout (he loves this case)
Video Card: EVGA 9800GT Vanilla (already purchased)
PSU: Corsair VX550
HDD: WD 640gb Black
DVD-Writer: I dont think I even have to list that itll be the cheapest sata I can find...

Im pretty confident that for the odd $800 that this rig will cost when finished that it will offer him much more horse power then he needs. I considered an intel E5200/E7400 build but why do that when the x2 550 offers great performance for dirt cheap price? Eventually im sure he will move up to either an ATI 5xxx series video card or maybe just a 4870 down the road, the 9800GT was just to get him started as it was fairly cheap and available =)

Feel free to critique away..

[upcoast604]

Xpress Canada - CPU > Desktop AMD Processors : AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition (95W) Triple-Core Socket AM3, 2.8GHz, 7.5MB Cache (512KBx3 L2 + 6MB L3 Cache), 2000MHz HT, 45nm (HDZ720WFGIBOX).

A link for your pricematch, the x2 550 seems a bit too high still averaging $125 you might as well bump it to a x3 720 $157 ( newegg has them for $139+ free shipping off and on watch eggs week end prices). The psu, I'd buy a 750w-850w now instead of having to re-buy later, if xfire is totally never going to happen then I'd stay with the 550-650w psu then.

[rapmaster]

How about the Phenom 710, it should cost the same but you have a extra core

Newegg.ca - AMD Phenom II X3 710 2.6GHz 3 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops

and get this motherboard, since you won't crossfire

Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3 ATX AM2+/AM3 AMD770 PCI-E16 2PCI SATA2 RAID 1394 HD Sound GBLAN Motherboard - DirectCanada

[Soultribunal]

RS, I honestly wouldn't change anything on that build.
I think it will work perfectly.

Regards,
ST

[Realityshift]

I found the x2 550 for $120 last night, ill have to look to see if I can find it again. The 710 isnt BE so its out of the picture and he really doesnt need the extra core, besides that theres the chance of getting the 3rd or 4th cores unlocked on the x2 550 which could be fun. Ill have to do some reading on the 770 motherboard, at that price its hard to argue and he wont be going xfire anytime in the near future so im not worried about PSU or motherboard PCI-E slots.

ST - Thanks soul I think it will work just fine as well, he seems really excited about it, im just gonna research that cheaper motherboard for shits and giggles but other then that I dont want to really change anything.

[rapmaster]

here is a review of the 770 motherboard, it's the DDR3 version

Budget Socket AM3: Gigabyte MA770T-UD3P Mainboard Review - X-bit labs

BTW, I love my 790X board, except for the rainbow color scheme.

[Realityshift]

From what I read in that review that board might actually be not bad for this build, I dont need anything extravagant and its not going to be hard to get the BE CPU to the speeds I want it at.

[Silvgearx]

you best choice is to wait for the GA-MA770-US3 (rev. 2.0) or the GA-MA770-UD3 (rev. 2.0) Both of these boards should be here in the coming months and they will replace the MA770 at the $90 range.

Both of those rev 2.0 boards have 710SB and have ACC, thats means you be able to unlock any extra cores if your lucky

If you can't wait just pick up that MA790X-UD4P in your list