Building a New Computer with my Son

[hagerw]

I'm not completely new to the craft, and have done a decent amount of swapping out hard drives, video cards, adding memory and the like. Even built my own rig back in the nineties, but my last two have been prebuilts. One's a Dell Dimension 8400 and the other is an Ibuypower. However, I'm at the limits of upgrading them and want to build one from scratch with future upgrades in mind. Also I want to use this as an opportunity to teach my son (9) about how computers work and what you're looking for in a system. We've picked some components out, but I wanted to get some verification that there isn't a glaring problem or incompatibility with these components.

Motherboard: ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO AM3 AMD 785G HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard

The AM3 Slot should handle the new Phenom x6 cores if I later want to upgrade. Also the 4 DDR3 slots and 2 PCI 2.0 x16 slots should give me room to upgrade if I so desire.

Processor: AMD Athlon II X4 635 Propus 2.9GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor

Memory: Kingston ValueRAM 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model KVR1333D3K2/4GR

Power Supply: Sunbeam PSU-COM680-BK-US 680W ATX12V Modular Active PFC Power Supply - OEM

Case: Thermaltake Element G VL10001W2Z Black ATX Mid Tower Computer Case (My son loves this case)

Some other parts I'm going to scavenge from my old Dimension 8400. The hard drive on that system I just replaced a couple of weeks ago and is a Western Digital 320GB which I reinstalled the Dell OS (Win XP), and then upgraded to Windows 7 64bit. Anyone see any problems with me just swapping that HD into this system that I'm trying to build? There was another post that said the Dell Windows XP OS looks for something in the BIOS to verify it's a Dell... is this still the case if it's been upgraded to Win7?

For the Dell, if I can switch the hard drive, I plan on putting a Western Digital Caviar Blue WD10EALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive and put Windows Home Server on it and use it as a file-server.

For Graphics, the Dell currently has an nVidia 8800GS. If the Dell has onboard video, I'll probably strip the graphics card out and put it in the new build, as the file-server doesn't need good video. Otherwise, I'll probably make do with the on board video on the new motherboard to get me by until I decide what gpu to put in it.

I look forward to all your comments and advice!

[glc]

That is not a recommended power supply. If you want a modular, look at a Corsair 650HX. If you want a *budget* modular, look at an Antec BP550 Plus.

If the Windows 7 upgrade was done with a generic DVD, it will work. You may have to do a repair reinstall due to the different controllers.

If that video card came with that Dell from the factory, the onboard video has been disabled.

[hagerw]

Both the Corsair and the Antec look good, though I'm not sure what's of concern with the Sunbeam I listed (the efficiency is lower than the Antec, but the Amps are greater off of the two 12V rails which is to be expected off a higher watt PSU). Do they have a tendency of failing more than the better brands?

The Windows 7 upgrade was done on a retail upgrade purchased a couple of weeks ago from Amazon, I believe. The GPU was an upgrade of the GeForce 6800 that was in there when I bought it. But, yes, it shipped with a discrete video card in it, so they onboard video might have been disables on the mobo. Is that a jumper setting I can switch, or do you think they permanently disabled it?

Thanks!

[glc]

I believe it's permanently disabled. That's why there is a cap over the onboard video connector.

550 watts is plenty for any single video card on the market except the real high end ones. I'm just questioning the brand, Sunbeam is not one of the industry's leaders.

[hagerw]

Okay, after poking around on Newegg, it looks like they have a combo deal with the case and mobo I'm after. The only differences are they swapped out the Phenom II 1055 x6 instead of the Athlon II x4 655 I have listed, and they are using a OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ700MXSP 700W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply and G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL. In addition it comes with a Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST31000528AS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive which I'll likely throw in the file-server. Any comments on the PSU and Memory that comes with that? Only thing I've heard is the PSU is better in a top-mounted case, and I might need to get extenders on some of the cables to get everything to fit.

Any concerns about getting the stock heatsink/fan on the CPU to fit with that mobo and case? I've also heard stories where the top fan on the Element G can interfere with some larger heat sinks and I'm not sure if the stock AMD x6 heatsink counts as larger.

Thanks for all the help so far!

[Nikon]

afaik you want to stay away from g.skill ram atm, they have been having issues (not sure exactly what, GLC knows more on this than i)

not sure about OCZ PSUs tho, but the HD should be fine, i use seagate barracudas in my computers, haven't had any problems with them.

[glc]

Haven't heard any complaints from the AMD'ers yet, but G.skill is failing left and right in Intel P55 boards.

[hagerw]

Nah, looking at the G.skill boards and the Newegg reviews it seems there are plenty of AMDers who are having problems with the Ripjaws. So now I have to decide if the combo price discount is worth the potential headache of dealing with RMA'ing the memory if (when) they don't work.

Moving away from the combo deal, I also noticed that Thermaltake is bundling their Element G with their Thermaltake W0319RU 850W ATX 12V 2.2 SLI Ready CrossFire Certified 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply GeForce GTX 470 Certified. Plenty of power, good reviews, and the brand name is better than Sunbeam (although to Sunbeam's credit, the toaster I bought from them has been working fine for almost a decade). The PSU with the case is about $45 more than just the case. Would that be a good deal, or are there any concerns I'm not aware of about that PSU?

Even though it only says "Dual Core Ready" I presume at 850W it should be able to handle quad or hexacore, right?

Thanks everyone for the insight so far.

[glc]

Thermaltake PSU's aren't bad but 4 separate rails is not as good as one big strong rail. With lower end video cards, this is not an issue.

[hagerw]

Well, for my gaming needs, I'll probably get a HD 5770 on down the road... they seem to be right about my price point vs. performance. If I need more gaming power, I'd probably crossfire another 5xxx (depending on what prices are at that time). However, I'm a little worried about fitting some of the larger 58xx's in that case. I haven't been able to see the inside of one other than on youtube.

Don't know if that changes the four rail part of the equation.

Thanks!

[hagerw]

Just wanted to let you all know we ordered the components and they got here tonight. It is an incredible act of will to wait until tomorrow to put it together with my boy, instead of just putting it all together tonight. Final buy was the Newegg combo deal of:

Thermaltake Element G case
OCZ 700W modular PSU
G-skill Ripjaws 2x2GB DDR3 1600 RAM
AMD Phenom II x6 1055T
ASUS M4785GT-EVO ATX mobo
Seagate 1TB drive
ASUS DVD+/- RW drive
ASUS MS238H 23" LED Monitor

ASUS must be loving me Funny thing was, I had thought I was getting an LCD monitor... we'll see how the LED monitor looks. I'm still leery about the memory, but the complaints seemed to have died down on newegg and g.skill, so maybe it was a bad batch. But I'll let you all know how they work out.

Wish me luck!

Thanks for all the help around, I'm certain you'll hear from me if (when) I have to do some troubleshooting.

[hagerw]

Hey, well most everythings seems to be working. System made it past BIOS but wouldn't start up (said there was a bad driver... I presume the radical hardware changes made windows startup problematic). So I reimaged it from a fresh install. Now Windows 7 won't accept my product key, but I'm hoping a call in to them will fix that.

Ran a memtest with no errors on the G.skill. Default, the stock cpu fan was roaring along at 4500 rpm, but I notched that down using Speed Fan to 2500 and it's a lot quieter (and the CPU temp is rock steady at 94 F idle). I presume that if the cpu starts to wam up under load, Speed Fan will bring the speed back up, correct?

Thanks for all the help and advice in what was a successful build. Now I've got a lot of things to install.

[David M]

You will need to create a temperature/fan speed profile in SpeedFan for it to do that. Intel CPU's will throttle back and/or shut themselves down if they get too hot....but don't depend on that.