Building a new computer for a friend!

Arn0t

Thread Junky
Joined
Jun 5, 2008
Messages
868
So my buddy came up to me the other day, and was like... HEY! i need a computer.

So i was like, HEY! i can do that.

So here is a picture of what i got him. Hopefully everything is good, as he cannot go back. Everything is ordered already :O

computersibuilz.png
 
No aftermarket cooler for the Phenom ? I heard they are pretty good Overclockers. get some decent cooling and overclock that baby.
 
he doesnt need anything that great. He just needs something reliable, and no Overclock. The stock Heatsink comes with heatpipes too. So its like an inbetween stock/after market. I think it will do just fine for what he uses it for (multimedia stuff)
 
he doesnt need anything that great. He just needs something reliable, and no Overclock. The stock Heatsink comes with heatpipes too. So its like an inbetween stock/after market. I think it will do just fine for what he uses it for (multimedia stuff)

Oh, if he's using it for that that's more then enough. also the powersupply you chose is way to powerfull for just that computer.
 
yeah. but it is one of the best rated ones on newegg, and he said he wanted to spend around $1000, so i got it to that. if its overpowered, so be it. Having a 1000W - 1200W is overpowered for everything, but people still buy them.
 
yeah. but it is one of the best rated ones on newegg, and he said he wanted to spend around $1000, so i got it to that. if its overpowered, so be it. Having a 1000W - 1200W is overpowered for everything, but people still buy them.

Exactly :P I have a 1000w and Im only using 400w - 500w but I'm not complaining. I'd rather have more than not enough.
 
Same RAM as me and just about the same (just twice as big) HDD as me. I love them both and I think he will too.

No aftermarket cooler for the Phenom ? I heard they are pretty good Overclockers. get some decent cooling and overclock that baby.

I've got the Phenom II X3 720 and I've found it to run very cool without an aftermarket cooler. It idles at 35 and hasn't gone above 40 under full load. Given, mine is only OC'ed 200MHz (yes, I know, wimpy overclock, I'm inching it up bit by bit) but regardless, I don't think an aftermarket cooler would be necessary unless he's doing some heavy duty overclocking.
 
I don't really get why you get a Quad Core but then have a horrible graphics card...
and now I just saw i7 ....
I'm really confused.

You've got really good stuff with bad stuff.
 
I don't really get why you get a Quad Core but then have a horrible graphics card...
and now I just saw i7 ....
I'm really confused.

You've got really good stuff with bad stuff.

Take a good look at the list, he's using a Phenom II, a powersupply that supports Core i7...... and the graphics card is not horrible AT ALL. I don't know where you get your info but please read the thread before posting.
 
I don't really get why you get a Quad Core but then have a horrible graphics card...
and now I just saw i7 ....
I'm really confused.

You've got really good stuff with bad stuff.

haha actually, Phenom 2's are not as good as the i7, but price for performance, its almost one of the best processors you can buy. The graphics card is actually really good for what it is, and seeing as it wont be needing to run Crysis on Max settings, it will do him just fine for what he needs to do. I personally will be extremely jealous when i build it, because i know that i wont be the one keeping it :P
 
I don't really get why you get a Quad Core but then have a horrible graphics card...
and now I just saw i7 ....
I'm really confused.

You've got really good stuff with bad stuff.

A 4850 is by no means at all a horrible graphics card. Get your info right before calling something horrible.
Also, like the others said, a Phenom II is almost comparable to an i7. If you overclock it a bit it does actually beat out the lower end i7's though
 
Well I guess I'm just used to my card...
I wasn't really trying to call the card horrible... Just saying that he's got a lot of "new" stuff and then a graphics card that falls short...

I've got a 4890 1gig... and the other stuff lacks a bit... so I guess I shouldn't speak too much ;)
I consider graphics cards a biggie....
 
Well I guess I'm just used to my card...
I wasn't really trying to call the card horrible... Just saying that he's got a lot of "new" stuff and then a graphics card that falls short...

I've got a 4890 1gig... and the other stuff lacks a bit... so I guess I shouldn't speak too much ;)
I consider graphics cards a biggie....

I've also got a 4890, but still the 4850 is only two cards behind us. Heck, the 3000 series is still considered competent.
 
Look around before you commit, I bought that PSU for $80 after mail-in with free shipping. Other than that. it looks good
 
A 4850 is by no means at all a horrible graphics card. Get your info right before calling something horrible.
Also, like the others said, a Phenom II is almost comparable to an i7. If you overclock it a bit it does actually beat out the lower end i7's though

beat ? not in pure cpu benchmarks.
 
Looks pretty good but why 750W for a HD 4850? They could run easily on a 500W.
 
beat ? not in pure cpu benchmarks.

I saw a chart somewhere, I'll have to dig it up, I think it was on Tom's Hardware, where they had an overclocked Phenom II (only by a few hundred megahertz) compared to a stock i7 on several games and the Phenom II got an average of 15-20 frames higher on everything.
 
I would've gone the Phenom II X4 940 3.0Ghz route. It's AM2+ and not AM3, which means DDR2 ram - but it'll save you some money, and the difference between DDR2 and DDR3 ram right now is so minimal it doesn't really matter that much. This would've given you the same awesome performance and given you extra money for a better video card.

I built a very similar system recently, that cost me $1000. But I went with...

AMD Phenom II X4 940 Deneb 3.0GHz Black Edition
G.SKILL 4GB DDR2 SDRAM 1100 Dual Channel RAM
Sapphire TOXIC HD4890

And I'm glad I did. My motherboard supports AM3 as well as AM2+ so upgrading in the future will be very possible. And the difference between processors and DDR3 ram to me just didn't justify the price difference. And it allowed me to get one HELL of a badass video card, a fair bit better than the 4850.

Though, it's still not a bad setup, and I'm sure he'll be pleased.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top