How is this build..?

[PocketPoop]

I know this is probably like the 1000th post about a build... But I was just trying to get as many opinions as possible... So if you could give me your opinions on this build I'm getting ready to order in the next couple weeks... I'm going to be using my 9600gt graphics card for right now...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129021
Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139005
CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136113
Western Digital Caviar SE WD2500AAJS 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145184
CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813138130
BIOSTAR TFORCE TA790GX 128M AM2+/AM2 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103471
AMD Phenom II X4 940 Deneb 3.0GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Black Edition Processor - Retail




This is going to be my first build by the way..

[PocketPoop]

Oh and I didn't know there was build your own PC forum lol sorry.

[Khalil]

Biostar are ok motherboards, and they have decent customer support but the boards have short life expectancy. We generally recommend Asus here, however a similar Asus motherboard will cost you more but you get quality and performance.

[glc]

You will also get better performance with a WD Caviar Black drive - 32mb cache instead of only 8mb. They start at 500gb.

[shadowpr]

I would try and change the hard drive to a Western Digital caviar Black drive.

Don't forget the dvd drive, and an operating system.

[MaxRat]

Originally Posted by Khalil Biostar are ok motherboards, and they have decent customer support but the boards have short life expectancy. We generally recommend Asus here, however a similar Asus motherboard will cost you more but you get quality and performance.

Where did you come up with this....?

the T-Series last a very long time....everyone one I have is still in service and even the lesser G-Series is still going...

the board picked is a very nice board...I would not hesitate to buy it...

I actually prefer that board over the Gigabyte and Asus counterparts...

[Khalil]

Originally Posted by MaxRat Where did you come up with this....?

Lots of bad experiences with Biostar. They are good for cheap boards, better than PCChips and ECS but they are nowhere near the quality of Asus or even Gigabyte.
They have slow RMA process, not sure how many you had to RMA but for a while I used Biostar exclusively and I am sure we RMAd over 100 in a 2 year span.
In 5 years we have RMA less than 30 Asus motherboards out of about 7500 we bought from them. That is where "I came up with this"

[glc]

Max, you don't do the volume of someone like Khalil - I'll trust his statistics way before I would a small builder. No offense, my friend.

I used to do nothing but Intel - until THEIR quality went down the terlet a few years ago - and now I'm exclusively Asus - strictly from a reliability, stability, and lack of hassles standpoint.

[MaxRat]

yep thats fine with me...I have only bought about a 100 boards or so and I havent had to RMA one yet...

But mind you if I had to and their service wasnt top notch I would be complaining alot...Just like I do right now with Sapphire product....

I do rate products 2 fold...use out of the box and the support you receive should you need to replace it....they both have to be top notch...so far on some boards that I have needed to replace they went back to newegg and they dealt with it...

But I agree with glc...it does help to have someone in the field who moves alot of volume to know the failure rates...

but I do stand by my post on that board....of the ATI chipset boards I prefer that one overs the other mentioned for ease of use...

I am not offended nor will I ever be...this is how we learn no...?

[Khalil]

I was not trying to offend you Max, Honestly I like Biostar at the price, I still use them on systems when we have specials going and only offer a 1 year warranty. My standard warranty is 3 years and I have to make sure I can stand by it, this is why I prefer Asus.

[MaxRat]

dont worry you didnt offend me....

And I am glad you mentioned warranty...

to many times people dont look at the warranty practices of a product before they choose them...

Even after all this time I have been building I just got burnt by Newegg and Sapphire...

you should always check out the warranty offered by a product...very important practice...

In your position I would also make that recommendation...kinda hard to offer a 3 year warranty on a 1 year product...and hope and pray it lives that long....

anymore I try to get products where I can work direct with a factory rep so warranty isnt an issue...I REFUSE to work with 3rd party vendors especially Newegg now....

[jdeb]

I prefer Foxconn for some of the same reasons listed above. Khalil builds a lot more than I do so I watch all his posts. I have built quite a few Biostar 478 boards and they are still running strong today. Asus is overrated in my book but that doesn't mean they are not any good, just have not had the good experience as many do on this board.

[glc]

I have no problems whatsoever with Newegg's customer service - but you can't expect them to work with you after the exchange/refund period runs out for a particular component. I just RMA'd an Apricorn housing back to them after 10 months - and they replaced it with the current model that replaced the original which was no longer available. Do note that not all items they carry fall under this return policy.

[Khalil]

Originally Posted by jdeb I prefer Foxconn for some of the same reasons listed above. Khalil builds a lot more than I do so I watch all his posts. I have built quite a few Biostar 478 boards and they are still running strong today. Asus is overrated in my book but that doesn't mean they are not any good, just have not had the good experience as many do on this board.

I have used Foxconn in Volume builds. 3 years ago I did an Intel build for a school district it was over 120 units. In 3 years we have minimal problems with the boards, on the AMD end though Foxconn does not make a good motherboard. We had endless problems with them so we quit using them on AMD systems.
I have established an excellent relationship with Asus now and I get special discounts so I stick to them because I have overnight cross shipping for RMA. Others have the same available but they charge additional fees, Asus only charges me the overnight shipping fee if I want it overnight, if I choose ground they never ask me for to pay for the shipping.
Recently we had a run in with Gigabyte, we ordered 11 G31 boards 8 of them were no good and had to send them back. I had to pay for shipping both ways because I had to send them back to distribution since Gigabyte refuses to accept direct RMA in the first 30 days from system builders, Gigabyte also refused to pick up the shipping tab. This, would never happen with Asus.

[MaxRat]

I had the same type of issue with Newegg and Sapphire...

I built my little brother a rig and he bought a Sapphire 4870 video card and got it from newegg...I installed iand ran the system through the stability paces and made sure temps were within spec and let him have it...a few weeks later the card died in the middle of a game....

I called Newegg to set up the RMA because it was well within the 30 day period and they set me up the RMA but later canceled it.....

Sapphire doesnt offer direct warranty on any of their products...they put on their site all warranties must go through the reseller...Newegg refused to accept it because his son tore up the original box....and Sapphire said in an email they didnt need the box and still newegg refused to accept it...I spent a day on the phone with Newegg and Sapphire and got nowhere.....

I finally used some of my forum clout from OCC as I am on staff there and I used the owners direct Sapphire rep to get my card fixed....

This is one case where I believe this is poor service...But I will not recommend Sapphire products anymore from this point on...

[glc]

Newegg does require the original box, no exceptions. I don't think that's unreasonable.

[MaxRat]

I dont think so either g because I keep all mine and I put the hardware back in it when it's replaced...but there is a large majority of people who build PCs like X-Mas morning....

what do these people do? my brother just happens to be one of those people...I know thats no excuse because I am anal about keeping your boxes...

It would have been nice to get an exception this one time beings the high volume of business I do through newegg on a regular basis....another thing is that Newegg played off that they are un-aware of Sapphire's warranty policy and told me to RMA it to them even considering Newegg has had Sapphires warranty policy posted on their site....

[Khalil]

I agree totally Max, any manufacturer that refuses direct RMA is worthless in my book, I have a different agreement with Sapphire, I don't buy from Newegg.com because I buy from where newegg buys, which is distribution.
It would be nice if I could create a thread that would be stickied on the motherboard and video card forums to give people a chart of motherboard manufacturers and where they stand on quality and support, just like the stickied one we have for the Power Supplies. I think that would help folks who come to this site enormously and maybe those manufacturers will start paying attention and possibly fixing their bad support.
I pretty much have tried them all and I can tell you who has good support and who sucks. The only brands I have never tried are DFI and Jetway.

[MaxRat]

good idea (not that we are way off topic and should probably get back on it....)

I should probably do the same but I never was able to get hooked up at the distribution level...when I got my DBA and license I kept getting steered to 3rd party vendors who's prices were higher then neweggs and the service was worse...like MaLabs...

I couldnt get the info on who they bought from, it just didnt seem to be available to me the channels I went through....

As I said though I used my OCC clout to get direct rep info to Sapphire and I got it handled that way...seems some staff positions can pay off if the boss sorta likes you...

but yes I think the tread would be a great idea...

as for the DFI/Jetway thing....I'd still steer clear...I RMA'd more DFI boards than alll other brands combined...over 50% of the DFI ones died...no reason to spend all your time RMA'n boards for a few mhz more on the clocks...I quit using them in the 939 days and havent looked back since...

Oscar woo who was with Abit works at DFI and he has also had his hand in the lastest round of the Super Mega overclocking Biostar boards...and it shows...those boards are finicky and the BIOSs are full of features...so many one is confused to even go in there....

[glc]

Khalil. you are welcome to create threads.

I can fill in some of the info for you on Jetway - never used them but they are relabeled PC Chips boards.

[MaxRat]

and to get back on track....

the reason I like the Biostar board listed is they seem to do very well on the AMD side of things and on that particular board it has 128mb of Side-Port memory for the onboard VGA...

BIOSTAR TFORCE TA790GX 128M AM2+/AM2 AMD 790GX HDMI

and with the added HDMI it does make a great HTPC board in full ATX flavor...for mATX I prefer the Gigabyte in some instances....

But then again I only build HTPCs with AMD/ATI hardware....just for the reason of board options unless the customer specifies other

[Khalil]

Max you are right there. I only use Biostar combined with AMD never with Intel.

[PocketPoop]

Alright, I made a couple changes to the build, trying to save a little extra money... Instead of the

CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139005

I'm going to switch to

COOLMAX CU-700B 700W ATX 12V V2.2/EPS 12V V2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Modular Power Supply - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817159089


So is that change going to be fine? Thoughts please... And instead of
COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKN1-GP Black SECC/ ABS ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119137

Switching to:
Rosewill R604-P SL 120mm Fan ATX Mid Tower Computer Case,with mesh air filters,adjustable vents & Tool-Free kits - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-P%20Case#spec

What do you all think about these switches?




Also going with the

ASUS M4A78T-E AM3 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131366

[glc]

Coolmax power supplies are GARBAGE. There is a reason it's so cheap in comparison.

[PocketPoop]

Cool, good thing I changed to Antec...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371015


Lol, I had a feeling it was going to be ****, so I just switched it out