Hey.

My poor PC is starting to fail on me, random restart, hardware failures and just a lack of speed. So i have build many pc in my time, but it has been around 4-5 years since mine and most people tell me what they want so i put little thought into what hardware to buy.

I'm trying to get the best bang for buck but would also like some opinion on the following, im going to try and reuse my PSU, GFX card and drives. All i need in the mainboard, which will mean new RAM and CPU.

Here my ideas
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition 3.4GHz Socket AM3 8MB L3 Cache 125W Retail Box Processor

1 x Asus M4A785TD-V EVO Socket AM3 onboard DVI VGA HDMI 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard

Crucial 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz/PC3-10600 Memory Kit CL9 1.5V

So i would appreciate any comments or ideas on the above such as anyone who uses them problems/compatabilty etc..

Thanks

What about this one?

Expensive, but worthy of it's price

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/206344

Thats a bit of a monster, but i can't see a reason to spend more than double (or think of a reason why so much money went missing to the mrs) for something the other can do as well.

I don't need more than 2 PCi slots, it supports DDR3 and has and AM3 socket so pretty much all i need.

Looks reasonable enough. There is no reason to go for a top end motherboard unless you are planning on doing some serious overclocking.

Personally I prefer Gigabyte boards - perhaps something like

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/196403

It has one additional SATA port and 2 additional USB ports on the backpanel as well as Gigabytes dual bios. The layout of the board (if the picture can be trusted) also shows that the PCI slots are not covered by any potential dual slot cooler on a graphics card.

The one you have posted has onboard VGA (ATI Mobility 4200) which as you are planning on using your current GFX card is not really much use to you.

And don't forget Windows 7 (if you don't have it already)

edited on May. 27, 2010 01:23 pm by Pedro699

Dont forget a good quiet power supply with room to grow. I was hedging on a 260gtx and 5770 (the 260 had a good sale + extras at the time), but the nvidia card required more power than my supply could handle. So I would have had to spend the extra money on one of those as well and it was a wash price-wise. 5770 is a great card btw.

@Pedro699

Thanks for your replies. That mobo does indeed look good, i used to use Gigabyte boards because they always seem very well built, only shame it doesn't have the second PCI express 16x for duel cards. Any other opinion on this board, not many review around for it.

I'm using windows 7 64bit, nice operating system.


@Samuel033

And my PSU is a only 520w, hopefully it will last me a while till i can get some more cash together. I have heard the top end 5 series cards are good, im going to try get some more use from my 4870 though as it still runs everything great, nice fps and i havn't any problems as of yet.

Rasta writes...

Well, everything depends of what You want to do with PC.

I'm a maniac gamer (almost psychodelic)
and from time to time having fun with 3d graphics.

For that purpose it's a right choice (that's what i think)

Rasta writes...

The asus board also only has one 16x PCI-e slot. There is an additional 16x sized slot, but that only runs at 4x. I'm not exactly sure how this handles another card, whether is matches them at 8x / 8x or throttles down the 4x card.

Personally I've always been of the opinion that sticking with a single GPU is fine unless you are really trying to hit the top end of current performance. The GFX card is usually the simplest component to upgrade to give a good performance increase.

Having said all that the Asus board does have good reviews and I don't think you'd have problems with either - both good brands with solid products.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/196392

This one is cheaper

Gigabyte GA-790XT

It has 2 PCI EX (1st x16, 2nd x8)

Support for ATI CrossFireXtechnology
6 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
2 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports

I don't see that crucial memory in the QVL from asus. I highly recommend that you only use tested memory. Either something listed on the QVL or something from the manufacturers site (which I didn't check).

Attached to this post is the Asus QVL.

And I'd comment more on your selection if I didn't only use Intel chips.