First build advice

[brothacheese]

I've spent the past few days picking out parts for my first build, and being quite inexperienced I thought I would ask for advice/comments/suggestions about my current build.

My budget is around $1000. This computer will be virtually for gaming only.

Case: Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Mobo: MSI 790XT-G45 AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 790X ATX AMD Motherboard

CPU: AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition Callisto 3.2GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 80W Dual-Core Desktop Processor

PSU: Antec NeoPower 650 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Modular Active PFC Power Supply

RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory

Video Card: SAPPHIRE Vapor-X 100283VX-2L Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card w/ Eyefinity

Hard Drive: SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

Disc Drive: ASUS Black yadda yadda DVD Burner

Monitor: SAMSUNG EX2220X Glossy Black 21.5" 5ms LED Backlight LCD Monitor

I have a mouse, keyboard, and speakers, am fine with the onboard mobo sound and have access to discounted windows 7 at my school.

A few questions:
1. Will I need additional fans or are the four fans provided with the case (and the ones that come with the cpu, gpu, etc) sufficient?
2. Are the parts all compatible? I spent a while trying to make sure they are but I'm not 100% confident I understand it all.
3. Are the parts well-balanced performance-wise?
4. Is my mid-tower big enough to hold it all?
5. Are there any other things (e.g. thermal grease?) I'll need during construction that I may not know about?

Thanks in advance for any input!

 

[red1776]

Hi, brothacheese,
welcome to Techspot
they do all fit together and are compatible, however a bit of advice , for the same price, maybe 10-20$ more You can get a DDR3 based system. It is the standard now and DDR2 is rapidly on its way out.

 

[brothacheese]

Thanks for your reply red1776

I found a motherboard and ram that uses DDR3. The DDR2 based one in my original post runs two pci-e 2.0 video cards both at x16, whereas the new one could only run both at x8. If I wanted to upgrade with another video card and crossfire later, do you think it would be worth it to stick with the DDR2 system or would you still switch to the newer DDR3 setup?

 

[dividebyzero]

There is little or no difference in real world scenario's (gaming) between x16, x16 and x8, x8.
Bandwidth limitation is only going to be a factor with dual-GPU cards (HD 5970, GTX 295 etc) and even then the penalty is only few percentage points. This should give you an idea of relative performance (bear in mind that the MS FSX benchmark reflects how CPU intensive the game is, not typically a common occurance in PC games, and thus involves a considerable amount of communication over the PCI-E bus)

 

[brothacheese]

Ok, awesome. Thanks for the advice guys!

 

[red1776]

And for that matter a x4 interface only affords about a 8-10% loss. as far as other things for the build. Yes you will want to get some quality thermal compound like Arctic Silver.(may come with the MB or CPU) make sure its the good stuff and not the silicone type. you may want to get an anti static wrist strap or just make sure you regularly discharge any static by touching a non related metal object like the inside of the case at regular intervals.

 

[Ritwik7]

This should be a better buy at your budget:

AMD Phenom II X4 925 Deneb 2.8GHz - $129.00
ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 AM3 AMD 890GX - $139.99
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 2 x 2GB DDR3 1600 - $98.99
EVGA 768-P3-1360-TR GeForce GTX 460 - $199.99
CORSAIR CMPSU-550VX 550W - $79.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST31000528AS 1TB - $74.99
Sony Optiarc AD-7261S-0B - $20.99
COOLER MASTER RC-690 - $59.99

Total - $803.93

That leaves you with enough to get the monitor you linked above. The performance of this system should be much much better than the one you're contemplating.

Good luck with your first build.