PC Build

[Darkness134]

I am sure that there are many of these types of posts, but i just wanted to know if my build will work (and maybe if you had any suggestions that might work better) I am trying to go for a cheap $500-ish type build. Anyways here are my parts: (Operating system will be linux so dont worry about that)

Motherboard/APU/FSB -
Newegg.com - ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 AM3 AMD 880G HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

CPU-
Newegg.com - AMD Athlon II X4 635 Propus 2.9GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor ADX635WFGIBOX

RAM-
Newegg.com - Kingston HyperX 2GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 Desktop Memory Model KHX1333C7D3/2G

Power Supply -
Newegg.com - Rosewill Stallion Series RD500-2SB 500W ATX12V v2.2 Power Supply

Hard Drive -
Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Case -
Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER Elite RC-310-BWN1-GP Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

I will be adding 2-120mm Fans. Also later on i plan on upgrading the memory and adding a blu-ray drive, but this is my first build so i am just going to go for the essentials at the moment. So any suggestions or more importantly, are there any fatal flaws?

[quartet-man]

From my very limited experience, just glancing, I see a few things. Asus is a good brand. Kingston typically is. Western Digital Blacks are THE drives to have anymore. The power supply is not a good idea. Check out the sticky in one of the forums here for suggested brands. If you only need a 500 (and I don't know if that is acceptable or not), you could get a case like the one in my signature. It has a quality 500w power supply with it. Presuming the case worked for you, the two together might be a better deal than finding a quality one to go with that case. You would have to see. AI think that drive might be the one that needs Windows 7, not sure how they work with Linux.

[David M]

Buy a quality power supply such as an Antec, Corsair or Seasonic...a 500 watt unit is only a few more dollars.
Newegg.com - Antec Basiq BP500U 500W Continuous Power ATX12V Version 2.01 Active PFC Power Supply

Which graphics card do you plan on using? Your card will largely determine the power of your PSU.

[Nikon]

what will the primary purpose of this computer be? gaming? home theater? internet cruising? this will help us make some suggestions that will more reflect your desired end result.

anyhoot, it looks good to me, with the exceptions of what was stated in above posts (rosewill isnt a good brand for PSUs)

@david m - his mobo has onboard graphics, so a card isnt a mandatory item, he said he was just going with essentials for now, but this is also largely based on my first question of what the purpose of this machine will be.

2gb of ram may or maynot be enough. depending. if you wish to game on this machine, i would highly recommend 4gb (2x2gb sticks)

just curous, which flavor of linux will you be running?

[David M]

Onboard video is only good for driving a very limited amount of graphics, then you need a graphics card. If he is going to be doing any 3-D graphics at all then he needs a graphics card. If the graphics is limited to word processing, emails or spreadsheets then a graphics card is usually unnecessary.

The amount of RAM needed is determined by the sum of the amount of RAM that each process needs that is running simultaneously. Otherwise processes will start accessing the hard drive in order to function which is much slower.

I have no experience with Linux processes but they may overall need less RAM to function than your typical Windows processes.

[glc]

The newer AMD boards actually have quite decent onboard video.

[jdeb]

The HD 4250 graphics are very nice. I am using that on my everyday PC with no GPU and I am very impressed. I am not a gamer so I have no need. The art work I create is on a workstation is another story. If he is doing basic games, photo editing and such, the onboard will be just fine for him. If he is not planning on adding any video card, he could lower the wattage on the power supply and go with the Antec basiq 350w

[glc]

You also do not need to add 2 fans. The single rear 120 will cool it fine.

[Darkness134]

ah ok first off, i was kind of surprised with all of the replies so quickly, usually when i post on forums nobody really replies for a few days. Anyways time to answer the questions: first off someone asked what flavor of linux that i am going with, i am actully going with kubuntu. I tried a few out by installed them on my usb (super cool feature btw) and the ubuntu was sweet, but i liked kubuntu a little bit better. Second, Linux does require quite a bit less ram than windows does, in fact i like linux a lot because it boots pretty instantaneous. Lets see... oh also quite a few people asked me about what i am using this computer for, and i would say movies (i am actually going to buy 2x DVD Drives and rip all of my movies to my hard drive) heavy, heavy internet downloading and searching (for all kinds of things [not porn]), and deep programming. I am using a latop currently and it doesn't run as fast as i want to and the hard drive is very limited. I am thinking about upgrading the ram if i need to but i don't see a trade off for buying it all at once.

Ok also, the graphics card should be more than enough for what i want. I actually heard that rosewill was a good brand, but that was pretty effy. So thxs for the input, also thxs for the fan comment, i am glad i posted this before i bought anything.

[Darkness134]

i am sad, becuase my first post didnt go through or something and now i have to repost, so i will make it short
Flavor - Kubuntu
Graphics Card - I dont care too much about graphics as long as my desktop looks pretty
What will i be doing- Heavy interneting, such as Programs and OS's i like to try, Hardcore Programming, and playing all of my movies ripped off of my dvds
RAM- if i need more i will just buy it, but i think 2gb is enough
Fan- Thanks for the info but i think i will buy one more just in case
Case/Power Supply- Thxs for the info i think i will go with that, i actually thought rosewill was one of the better brands, but i guess i learn something everyday

[quartet-man]

I have lost posts on other boards before and typically try to copy on occasion during the making of it, or save it to a document just in case. Here, it signs you out after a time, but if you sign in, it should retain the post.

[glc]

Something about your post caused it to be flagged as spam. I've approved it.

- Admin -

[Darkness134]

hey guys i am back again, i was so close to ordering my parts until i saw this:
OpenPandora
This thing looks absolutely amazing and i love the design, i think that it is a great idea. Not only is it like a mini notebook computer AND a game system emulator, but also i like how they got their funding to build this, also its open sourced on top of that!!! Sure you have to buy Windows separately, but i just love it, so if any of you want a mini computer, and love to play ps1 or back game systems (it can also play GB and GBA) then this is the system for you.

WARNING: it does take quite of bit of softwaric [software] knowledge to operate and understand this beast. So if you don't know how to install more than one OS on your computer now, then you will be in heaps of trouble when you buy this thing. Also you have to at least know how to make the windows install disc into a bootable flash drive as well.

Overall just a great system to have and perfect if your are downloading,surfing the web,programming, or just want to play old school games again...

[David M]

It will run some old school games fine but don't get your hopes up for it running many, if any current games. I went into their website...good grief, what a bunch of hype with the adverbs. I thought I was in TigerDirect's site for a second.

You pretty much get what you pay for when it comes to graphics processing power. The system you listed in your original post is a far better gamer, although unto itself, is not a very fast gamer at all. With a budget of $500, a gaming console with internet access or a used computer on Craigslist might be the better thing to buy.

[jdeb]

Originally Posted by Darkness134 hey guys i am back again, i was so close to ordering my parts until i saw this: OpenPandora This thing looks absolutely amazing and i love the design, i think that it is a great idea. Not only is it like a mini notebook computer AND a game system emulator, but also i like how they got their funding to build this, also its open sourced on top of that!!! Sure you have to buy Windows separately, but i just love it, so if any of you want a mini computer, and love to play ps1 or back game systems (it can also play GB and GBA) then this is the system for you. WARNING: it does take quite of bit of softwaric [software] knowledge to operate and understand this beast. So if you don't know how to install more than one OS on your computer now, then you will be in heaps of trouble when you buy this thing. Also you have to at least know how to make the windows install disc into a bootable flash drive as well. Overall just a great system to have and perfect if your are downloading,surfing the web,programming, or just want to play old school games again...

Those are really cool. They should be a big hit in the US if they can get their money together.

[Darkness134]

if you look at my second post i said that i wasn't going to be using the computer for any games at all, mostly because i hate using a keyboard and mouse for video games. I guess i am just too used to the analog sticks... anyways its fast enough to run ps1 and n64 games (The dreamcast may even come along) also i didnt actually realize this but it has a touchscreen as well. Meaning it can emulate the ds as well which is really interesting. Anyways i think that i can use this in conjunction with my old computer no problem. Its good enough to support for about 2-3 years longer. (i didn't mention it because it was a laptop and you can't salvage any parts from it) True i wont be able to do something like run a ps2 emulator or play high end games, but until i really get into that stuff, i will be good for now.