Please critique this build

Lamonte · Dec 27, 2010

Looking to put a PC together for my son, who would like a PC current enough to play Minecraft. Budget is 350 and less. Parts will come from the USA. Currently have a motherboard (GIGABYTE GA-EP43-UD3L LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel), 400W power supply, monitor, keyboard/mouse, and Win XP. No overclocking...

Case - Antec 300 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129042 60.00

HDD - 640GB HDD - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc..._-22136544-L0C 60.00

Memory - 2GB - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231277 50.00

Processor - Wolfdale 2.93 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-093-_-Product 80.00

DVD Drive - LG Drive - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827136216 16.00

Graphics Card - Radeon HD 4650 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-360-_-Product 60.00

MisterDonut · Dec 27, 2010

most budget builds are done on amd platforms (afaik) with ddr3 availability and cheap quadcores, so i would save just a little more for a nicer all around rig, but if you cant trade the mb for an am3, looks good. i might drop the antec 300 for a cheaper rosewill or try to stretch the budget by a little for 2 more GB. keep in mind that ddr2 is a dead end and expensive though

DominionSeraph · Dec 27, 2010

mfenn · Dec 27, 2010

DominionSeraph said:
You linked 4GB DDR3.

Here's a Phenom II X2 build. It has the potential to unlock to a quad core.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827136216
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811133094
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814131360
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103846
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.571731
http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php...3-HD502HJ-500GB-SATA2-7200rpm-16MB-Hard-Drive

$336 with $10 in MIR. Sell your LGA 775 motherboard.

I would probably do this but swap in an Athlon II X4 640 so that I didn't have to play the unlocking roulette.

DominionSeraph · Dec 28, 2010

mfenn said:
I would probably do this but swap in an Athlon II X4 640 so that I didn't have to play the unlocking roulette.

There's no roulette because he wasn't going for a quad-core to begin with. All he needs is a dual.
The Phenom is substantially faster than an Athlon in general desktop fluff, and the point where you'll need a quad core for web browsing is waaaaay down the road.
If it unlocks to an X3 or X4 it's all bonus. He's got his 6MB L3 cache.

mfenn · Dec 28, 2010

DominionSeraph said:
There's no roulette because he wasn't going for a quad-core to begin with. All he needs is a dual.
The Phenom is substantially faster than an Athlon in general desktop fluff, and the point where you'll need a quad core for web browsing is waaaaay down the road.
If it unlocks to an X3 or X4 it's all bonus. He's got his 6MB L3 cache.

There is a roulette, even if he wasn't looking to get a quad. Just mentioning the subject of unlocking warrants a caution that it is not guaranteed.

I'd also suggest that you take a look at the benchmarks again. Pay close attention to the Sysmark 07 overall benchmark (good measure of general computing performance). The Phenom's advantage is a paltry 8%.

Both processors are certainly fast enough to web browsing and Minecraft, but the quad core wins out more often than not in heavier, non single-threaded gaming tasks. The OP's son does not want to do that right now, but why not get the CPU that has more room to grow?

DominionSeraph · Dec 29, 2010

mfenn said:
I'd also suggest that you take a look at the benchmarks again. Pay close attention to the Sysmark 07 overall benchmark (good measure of general computing performance). The Phenom's advantage is a paltry 8%.

That includes a ton of heavy lifting -- 3D work and video and file compression. Heavy lift scenarios are weighted differently by the user as you expect the pause as the computer crunches away.
30 seconds to RAR my Rukia folder or 60, it doesn't really matter -- I'm off doing something else in the meantime.
But I use Chrome over any other browser. Why? Speed.

From what I've seen users say, the Phenom provides a snappier user experience. The Productivity benchmark supports this.
For pure crunching it provides nothing above an Athlon II X2, but most desktop use is fluff. And the Phenom seems to blow away the Athlons in fluff.

Please critique this build

Lamonte

Junior Member

MisterDonut

Senior member

DominionSeraph

Diamond Member

mfenn

Elite Member

DominionSeraph

Diamond Member

mfenn

Elite Member

DominionSeraph

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