Finally got my shit together and got myself a computer. I have put together several computers in the past, my first rig being a 1ghz t-bird. Long ago things were simple, and you could only run one program at once really. If you opened up another one, you could expect shit results and performance from both.
Years later the computer gods have answered my prayers; they created multiple core processors and now you can run a whole bunch of shit at the same time at 100%. Kick ass and take names. Here's my slut worthy build - the decision process and the reasoning behind it other than just, "this was my $600 budget, and thats it."
Amd X4 Phenom II 3ghz 125watt Black Edition - a highly overclockable chip at a price point that makes sense. Anything more and you're going to get killed on a premium price. There is always a price point at which you are going to pay way way more for another 10-15% performance boost. The idea is to find that happy medium between price and performance and then overclock your stuff yourself to give it that 10-15% boost ---- for free.
Biostar TA790GXB A2+ - Was in a combo deal on newegg.com for only $20 instead of the original $90. Getting this board saved me $100 at least downright. The board is no slouch either, it overclocks nicely, has very adequate voltage settings. Downsides are that it is not crossfire and it doesn't have a fan on the north/south bridges. This may run a little hot after overclocking and is clearly the weakest component of my system. But it's also $20.
Ati 4890 1 gigabyte - A clear choice for me - $200 makes it mainstream price, not too much, and gives blistering performance for that. I remember paying $300 for a Radeon 9800 256mb and being able to run all current games at medium graphics detail. Now I can run everything current on the highest settings without much of a hitch. Impressive for a "mainstream" priced card.
OCZ 4 gigabytes ram - Ram is ram to me since I am not looking to overclocking the FSB or memory much. In the recent past, when the multipliers were locked this was your only option to overclock and therefore you'd think twice about throwing down more for capable ram. However, ram that is high speed or high clocked is recognizably a good profit for most companies so they charge an arm and a leg for it.
750 watt corsair psu - A beast to say the least. There is an enormous fan that is literally the entire bottom side of this power supply. It really doesn't emit much noise at all, and claims to run at 40C no matter what kind of load. Impressive again. A little pricey but it pays to have a rock solid base.
Amd X4 Phenom II 3ghz 125watt Black Edition - a highly overclockable chip at a price point that makes sense. Anything more and you're going to get killed on a premium price. There is always a price point at which you are going to pay way way more for another 10-15% performance boost. The idea is to find that happy medium between price and performance and then overclock your stuff yourself to give it that 10-15% boost ---- for free.
Biostar TA790GXB A2+ - Was in a combo deal on newegg.com for only $20 instead of the original $90. Getting this board saved me $100 at least downright. The board is no slouch either, it overclocks nicely, has very adequate voltage settings. Downsides are that it is not crossfire and it doesn't have a fan on the north/south bridges. This may run a little hot after overclocking and is clearly the weakest component of my system. But it's also $20.
Ati 4890 1 gigabyte - A clear choice for me - $200 makes it mainstream price, not too much, and gives blistering performance for that. I remember paying $300 for a Radeon 9800 256mb and being able to run all current games at medium graphics detail. Now I can run everything current on the highest settings without much of a hitch. Impressive for a "mainstream" priced card.
OCZ 4 gigabytes ram - Ram is ram to me since I am not looking to overclocking the FSB or memory much. In the recent past, when the multipliers were locked this was your only option to overclock and therefore you'd think twice about throwing down more for capable ram. However, ram that is high speed or high clocked is recognizably a good profit for most companies so they charge an arm and a leg for it.
750 watt corsair psu - A beast to say the least. There is an enormous fan that is literally the entire bottom side of this power supply. It really doesn't emit much noise at all, and claims to run at 40C no matter what kind of load. Impressive again. A little pricey but it pays to have a rock solid base.
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