Help with a new computer

[ivantr]

Hi guys, after long years of using the same old PC, now it can come back to life, I have decided to make a new PC
These are the specs/hardware that I want to put in, and the ones that i can buy at the moment
Just be friendly and say if it's good, or if it's a crap

AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition
ASUS M5A78L-M LX
Cooler Master Hyper TX3 EVO CPU
Kingston ValueRAM 4GB DDR3 1333 Mhz PC3-10600 CL9 X2
Nox Urano VX 650W
Tacens Anima AC1 Box/Tower
B-Move Double Touch Kit Keyboard + Mouse USB
AMD/ATI GTX 660 non Ti or a GTX 650 Ti (This to be bought in a few months)
ASUS PCE-N15 WiFi 11n 300Mbps Low Profile
Arctic Silver Ceramic2 25gr

By now I have this hardware and will stick with it until a few months, to upgrade it lately

Geforce 8600GTS 256MB DDR3
Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 2TB Hard Drive
480W Power Supply
An old black tower with two fans
One malfunctioning ASRock N68-S and one dead motherboard ASRock N68-S too
Two AMD Athlon II 64 X2 Dual Core Processor functioning but without motherboard to put in
3GB of RAM DDR2
A 24" LG TV with HDMI and DVI inputs

I have to say too that this PC is going to be only for Trainz, Gears Of War and other online games, 3D Modelling with 3DSMAX 2009 and Photoshop CS3, to use Fraps and a few more tasks, i dont want a PC Gamer, i just want to run Trainz 2009 or 2010, or who knows, Trainz 2012 flawless or smooth, and currently i dont have much money, around 300 € by this month, and i want to have a PC ASAP, as i need it to do other things, just help me deciding what can be good or what can be bad to choose before buying and many thanks for responding this thread

Greetings

P.S. Actually i would have near 370€ but i pledged for the $90 version of T:ANE

 

[drchoi21]

If you can, better mobo than M5A78L-M LX such as Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3 and a Radeon graphics such as HD 7870 or HD 7950.

 

[JCitron]

I would also double the RAM to 8GB if you can.

John

 

[ivantr]

If you can, better mobo than M5A78L-M LX such as Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3 and a Radeon graphics such as HD 7870 or HD 7950.

What would be the difference?? If im buying that MoBo its because it becomes in a bundle, so it's the cheapest sale that I've found

I would also double the RAM to 8GB if you can.

John

Kingston ValueRAM 4GB DDR3 1333 Mhz PC3-10600 CL9 X2

My bad for not have remarked that properly, but thanks, I knew that it was good to double the RAM, and your advice will make me happier

 

[LNERlover5]

Avoid the M5A78L-M-LX. Why? I had one. Poorly designed and couldn't run with more than 4GB's of RAM, along with the lack of any expand-ability. I opted for the MSI 970A G43 as its replacement, a far better board in every way.

 

[malikrthr]

I definitely agree with purchasing the GA-970A UD3 motherboard. I currently have that in my Trainz PC and running Trainz happily. I also run the AMD Phenom II X4 965, it's an older AMD processor but very good and very fast for the price. I have heard that in can easily be overclocked if you want more performance.

 

[ivantr]

Many thanks guys, i have found it in my usually used PCWare Web at 83€ and the Phenom from a third party seller is at 80€, so im going definetively to buy this
This will be the final to buy PC and the one that im going to use, til the videocard update

AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition
Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3
Geforce 8600GTS 256MB DDR3
Cooler Master Hyper TX3 EVO CPU
Kingston ValueRAM 4GB DDR3 1333 Mhz PC3-10600 CL9 X2 SLOTS
Nox Urano VX 650W
Tacens Anima AC1 Box/Tower (I will buy this later too, no really need by now)
B-Move Double Touch Kit Keyboard + Mouse USB
ASUS PCE-N15 WiFi 11n 300Mbps Low Profile
Arctic Silver Ceramic2 25gr
As said many thanks and im waiting to have it running

Greetings

 

[lewisner]

Many thanks guys, i have found it in my usually used PCWare Web at 83€ and the Phenom from a third party seller is at 80€, so im going definetively to buy this
This will be the final to buy PC and the one that im going to use, til the videocard update

AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition
Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3
Geforce 8600GTS 256MB DDR3
Cooler Master Hyper TX3 EVO CPU
Kingston ValueRAM 4GB DDR3 1333 Mhz PC3-10600 CL9 X2 SLOTS
Nox Urano VX 650W
Tacens Anima AC1 Box/Tower (I will buy this later too, no really need by now)
B-Move Double Touch Kit Keyboard + Mouse USB
ASUS PCE-N15 WiFi 11n 300Mbps Low Profile
Arctic Silver Ceramic2 25gr
As said many thanks and im waiting to have it running

Greetings

I would be frankly be amazed if Trainz ran at all on that GPU. If you look on Ebay for used GPU's you can get something like 1 or 2GB for quite a reasonable price or even (in the UK) one of those "Cash Converter" shops would sell you something which would suit.
If you are on a budget you should be looking to buy good spec components on Ebay from a reputable seller with loads of good feedback rather than paying high street prices.

 

[beckster181]

the geforce 86oo will run trains but only in low graphics mode i have the following setup and when in high graphics mode still only get frame rates on the low side in TS12:

AMD X8 1025 Black Edition
Gigabyte 990AFX UD5
Radeon 7790 1 gig DDR5
SATA2 1 Terrabyte HD Western Digital
16 GIG DDR 3 RAM
Win 8 Pro 64 bit

not a minor system thhough not as top of the line as you can get however i find that the 64 bit capabilities of my system arent used at all by trainz thhis is the reason i seem to get less than steller proformance with it.

If you wish to build a good system that you can use now and ipgrade easily over time to come i would sugest using a higher end mobo as from here you can build up in small stages if you go for AMD CPU these seem to change chip /socket combo less than Intel does a solid state drive for operating system is also a good way to go but to expensive for storage and you can get 4 terabyte Segate hard drives now here in Australia for around $AU 200. most important is the video card as the higher power and more graphics ram here the better though going for top of the line is always false economy as the price drops as soon as a new model comes out and the top of the line model isn't always that much of an improvement over the 2nd or 3rd in line.

hope this helps and good fun with Trainz

 

[ivantr]

@beckster181

What Mobo would you choose between those two

ASUS CrossHair IV Extreme

or

Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3

Currently this is the final PC that im going to buy, until i got paid

AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition
ASUS Crosshair Formula IV
G-Skill Ripjaws X DDR3 1600 PC3-12800 8GB 2x4GB CL9
Nox Urano VX 650W
Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 2GB GDDR5
Tacens Anima AC1 ATX Tower
B-Move Double Touch Kit Keyboard + Mouse
B-Move Black Shark 2000dpi Gaming Mouse Green
ASUS PCE-N15 WiFi 11n 300Mbps Low Profile
Samsung SH-224DB Writer DVD 24x OEM Black
Tooq Easydata Series 3518 Case 3.5" IDE/SATA USB Black
WD Caviar Blue 1TB SATA3
Cooler Master Hyper TX3 EVO CPU Cooler

 

[ivantr]

Sorry for bumping the thread again, finally I ordered, received and mounted the components
This is my final PC, and I still will be buying more components

Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3
AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE
G-Skill Ripjaws DDR3 1600 PC3-12800 8GB 2X4GB CL9
NOX Urano VX 650W
Tacens Anima AC1 ATX Tower
B-Move Double Touch Kit Keyboard + Mouse
ASUS PCE-N15 WiFi 11n 300Mbps Low Profile
Seagate Barracuda 7200Rpm 2TB IDE/SATA II
Windows Ultimate 64 Bits

But with the PC built, and starting to run, the old Geforce 8600GTS decided to die, so then I readed about putting it in the oven, but me being a fool I put it too much heat, so the capacitors were damaged
By now im deciding between these two, but I still dont know wich one get

2X Sapphire Radeon HD 6850 1GB GDDR5 (One will be bought now and another will be bought later, so then I will make a Crossfire)
or
Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 2GB GDDR5 OC (The non-OC version its out of stock here, it is being sold so fast)

But from what I have read, the second PCI x16 slot of the GA-970A-UD3, runs at x4, so the speed will be not the same
What do you recommend to me guys to buy??

Greetings

PS The reason that I would buy a 6850 is that I would like to have some money this month to use it in other things
The 6850 1GB GDDR5 price is 80€ and the 7850 2GB GDDR5 is 170€

 

[drchoi21]

HD 6850 is a nice choice, albeit you wouldn't be able to play max settings at 60 fps

 

[ivantr]

HD 6850 is a nice choice, albeit you wouldn't be able to play max settings at 60 fps

Trainz, Gears Of War, and other old games will be the ones that I'll play
So definetively, I'm going to choose the 6850 and if in a future I want more power I will add another 6850, thanks Drchoi21, im waiting anxiously to finally run my PC,

Greetings friend

 

[beckster181]

I always use a rule of thumb that if there are 2 faster or newer graphics cards above the one you want then you are getting it at a good price not paying the new card markup. Having said that if this is purely a gaming machine thhen you should try to go one step above what will do the tasks well if you can stretch the budget. i am running an AMD x8 650 cpu and have 32 gig of ddr 3 ram and a radeon 7700 series GPU and i still have trouble getting good frame rates on large maps with even normal detail levels set this isnt because the CPU or the GPU or the RAM cant handle it but trainz ts12 is not using the system fully it runs only on one of the 8 CPUs and that is the bottle neck on smaller maps with less detail it works fine. This is all because TS12 is a 32 bit program which wont spread itself out over the cores fully. This is due to change with the new era redesign of the game so hopefully we will all get better fun and less lag. But it is the reason you should for a games machine always go as far as you can with your budget so you semi future proof your computer so you arent having to do mini up grades every 2 or 3 yrs.

Hope this is of use to anyone thinking about upgrading

 

[ivantr]

Sounds good. I would like to build a PC with a Crosshair IV Formula and an AMD FX 8350 or Phenom II X6 1090T iin the future

 

[tads1]

I bought the same CPU 2 years ago.Stock speed 3.4Ghz with unlocked multipliers,1st overclock 4GHz stable/air.Runs nice with my 990FX mobo,I decided to pay that little extra
as it supports 3 way crossfire and Nvidia quad sli.Hope you enjoy your new system.Do you have your Ram setup to use dual channel mode?



Daz

 

[sdiesel]

your gonna really gimp yourself if ya add a second gpu down the line for sli. instead of running one card at x16 speeds, you'll only have two cards both running at x4 speeds. in a way, you'd actually be slowing yourself down ( 4 x 2 = 8 < 16 ) and running two cards slower than just one card.

it's almost like having a long train that can haul at 100mph split in half, they'd run side by side but each one would be regulated to run 75% slower than the long 100mph train.

put the money down on the better card, i think you'll get longer life outta your motherboard that way.

 

[drchoi21]

actually, PCIe 2.0x 16, PCIe 2.0x 8, PCIe 2.0x 4 and PCIe 1.1 x16 doesn't show any noticeable performance drops during Trainz, also same with PCIe 3.0 x16, PCIe 3.0 x8 and PCIe 3.0 x4

 

[jamiechi2]

I like the Crosshair IV Formula boards. They are easy to overclock.
Make sure you have the newer board with the AM3+ socket. Mine just has the AM3.
(I wasn't paying attention when I bought the board.)

My system:
UPS: OMNI1000LCD (1000 watts) Bought at costco for $100 several years ago. Still going strong and has been a life saver.
CPU: AMD Phenom II X6 1100T, AM3, 3840Ghz (overclocked)
Motherboard: ASUS Crosshair IV Formula
Ram: 16 gigs
Graphics: Nvidia GTX 650, 1gig ram
Boot and OS drive 150 gigs (Win7 ultimate)
Programs and data drive 190 gigs
Programs and data drive 1000 gigs
DVD drive
CPU is watercooled. Corsair Hydro series
No SSD yet. (Spent money on kickstarter)
Power Supply: CoolerMaster RS750 (750 watts)