BleepingComputer.com: First Built PC

Good afternoon all,

I am posting on here because this is my first time building a PC. My budget is $800 and I want to build the best, longest lasting PC I can with this budget. Here is what I have so far. Let me know if there is anything that is not compatible or that can be upgraded to save me any aggravation. I guess I am just looking for suggestions, opinions, and any help that can be provided. I am looking to do gaming such as Rift and SC2.

Case: Rosewill CHALLENGER Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case,
Motherboard- ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 AM3 AMD 890GX HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
Graphics- SAPPHIRE 100283-3L Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card Card
PSU- CORSAIR Enthusiast Series CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply
Processor- AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ965FBGMBOX
Memory- G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)
Hard Drive- Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
DVD/CD- ASUS Black 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM

You did pretty good on your first build, however, I dont like Western Digital Drives so I recommend this one: Seagate Pipeline HD ST3500312CS 500GB 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive - 59.99.

Thanks man, that hard drive you posted didn't get good reviews. I appreciate the suggestion though. What is wrong with Western Digital?

You forgot the OS. Looks good, I use only Western Digital drives, so keep it, besides, the WD drive is a little bit of a higher end drive. I do suggest a few tweaks.

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-870A-UD3 AM3 AMD 870 - This is a basic AM3 motherboard. The 890GX boards are designed for HTPC's or other systems where a dedicated graphics card is not needed because there is an integrated GPU on-board. The 890FX motherboards are flagship models, best used with systems where Crossfire is to be used and every last frame per second attained. $94

RAM: Mushkin Enhanced Silverline 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 - Most home users do not need 8GB of RAM. 4GB will do nicely, with additional 4GB sticks coming later as upgrades. Few games are native 64-bit and are limited in the amount of RAM they can use. You need a 64-bit operating system to use 4GB or more of RAM. $39

GPU: HIS H685F1GD Radeon HD 6850 - This is a higher-end card using a newer design. This is around GTX 460 levels of performance. If you have more money, the HIS H687F1G2M Radeon HD 6870 would do even better, between Radeon 5850 and 5870 levels of performance. $174 (Before $15 mail-in rebate)

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OEM - You forgot to include this. $99

Scooter217, on 05 February 2011 - 09:02 PM, said:

In 2 years time I went through 18 Hard Drives from Western Digital, and from that experience I loathe and detest the company that Western Digital is. In the last 8 years after using Seagate/Maxtor I have only had to return 1 drive to Seagate for Warranty Replacement. That is why to all my computer building friends and to all those who are upgrading their drives I recommend Seagate. They have been by far the best drives I have ever used.

Thanks for the breakdown. I was thinking that 8gb was overkill myself. I already have a copy of windows 7 but good looking out. I was weary of buying a gigabyte product, I have not heard many good things about them, but I like the changes you made overall.

Another thing I noticed as well is that the motherboard you chose has 2 PCI-E 2.0 x16 and the Video Card is PCI-E 2.1 interdface....Is that going to work?

Gigabyte is a good brand, most people like them. Here are two alternates: MSI 870A-G54 AM3 AMD 870 and ASUS M4A87TD EVO AM3 AMD 870. Both are AMD 870-based boards with similar feature sets. PCI-E standards are backwards compatible, you can use a PCI-E X16 2.1 card with any PCI-E X16 slot. PCI-E 2.1 has the same speed as PCI-E 2.0, however, the speed and bandwidth of those PCI-E slots only matter on high-end cards in certain configurations. Given how you're not planning on running two Radeon 6970's in Crossfire, you have nothing to worry about. Actually, there would other considerations with your build if you DID want to do that besides bandwidth.

Thanks for your advice, so if I replace my choices with everything you recommended and I hit order now I should be good to go compatibility wise? I appreciate all the advice that you have given. Its tough to know if you are making the right choices....maybe i'm just thinking this through to much.

Everything I posted, on top of the items carried over from your list, should work just fine. Of course, there is always a small chance of DOA or something going wrong, but those parts are compatible.

I'd like to thank everyone who helped me on this computer. I received all the parts today and I will be attempting to put the PC together tonight. I will let you know how it goes.

Scooter217, on 05 February 2011 - 09:02 PM, said:

A lot of people have rated it low because it has trouble clean installing windows; they couldn't find a solution and decided it was broken. Oh, and yes, there is a solution.