First time building a PC. What do you guys think?

[ExplosiveCheese]

I decided to go with AMD simply because I'm on a serious budget, I mean, they aren't that bad. I've heard good things about Phenom, despite this model being a few years old. I will be mostly doing gaming, a little bit of photo and video editing, and maybe some modelling in 3ds max.

 

Motherboard: Gigabyte 78LMT-USB3 USB3.0

CPU: AMD Phenom II X6 1045T 2.70GHz CPU

RAM: 2x Kingston HyperX Red 4GB Memory Module

Hard Drive: Seagate 500GB HDD

Case\PSU: Thermaltake Case w/450W PSU

Other: Samsung 24x DVDRW

Kingwin 120mm Red LED Case Fan

Graphics Card: Radeon HD 7770 (Not so sure here)

 

I also was considering using my other Ultra 750 Watt PSU (Ultra is the brand btw), However I'm not so sure about Ultra. The power supply I bought from them is running great, but others say Avoid it at all costs. In terms of the graphics card, I would prefer it to be able to play Far Cry 3 at least at medium settings.

 

So what are your suggestions guys?

[Humin]

500W (or greater) power supply with one 75W 6-pin PCI Express power connector recommended.

Always make sure PSU meets the graphics cards needs.

 

As for the PSU. if you already have it, use it. It's rated for 750 watts. Well under what you're going to be using it for, you should be fine.

If you want to get a new PSU before the 750 watt one goes out, then you can go along with that. Like I said, it's unlikely that your 750 watt one will go ka-spwut on you. That 450 watt PSU is more likely to go before your 750 watt.

[BTGBullseye]

Where are you planning on buying these from? That can make the difference between a mid-grade gaming and high-end gaming system for the same price.

 

Also, just in case you're wondering... I'm a big fan of Intel/Nvidia systems, especially since I've seen lower-end ones compete with higher priced AMD systems and usually win. (bear in mind that a 2-core Intel with hyper-threading is usually better than a 4-core AMD with a higher speed rating)

[ExplosiveCheese]

Where are you planning on buying these from? That can make the difference between a mid-grade gaming and high-end gaming system for the same price.

 

Also, just in case you're wondering... I'm a big fan of Intel/Nvidia systems, especially since I've seen lower-end ones compete with higher priced AMD systems and usually win. (bear in mind that a 2-core Intel with hyper-threading is usually better than a 4-core AMD with a higher speed rating)

 

I've already purchased the kit from TigerDirect.com.

 

I just need to find a good Graphics card to finish building it. I've swapped the 400 watt psu with a 750 watt. I was thinking to go with a Radeon HD 7770, unless you think I should go with an Nvidia card.

[BTGBullseye]

Ah, that explains it... You'd've probly gotten it for less on Newegg, but Tiger has less sometimes. (I'm a fan of Newegg as you can probly tell)

 

Well, it depends on whether you want more power or a lower cost... What games are you planning on playing?

[Obsidian]

I think in that price range, you'd be hard pressed to find an Nvidia GPU that competes with the 7770. However, for a little bit more, the Gigabyte GTX 650 2GB edition might be worth a look at. Each brand generally has their pros and cons, such as free games, how much of an overclock you can do with them, drivers, sli/crossfireX performance, physx (for your CPU, I'd recommend getting a card to do that instead of offloading it to your CPU).

 

Also, the 7770 comes with Far Cry 3 only, so if you already own that, then a GTX 650, which includes redeemable credits for some F2P games, might be a better value.

[ExplosiveCheese]

Ah, that explains it... You'd've probly gotten it for less on Newegg, but Tiger has less sometimes. (I'm a fan of Newegg as you can probly tell)

 

Well, it depends on whether you want more power or a lower cost... What games are you planning on playing?

 

Well, I kind of want to have a balance between power and budget, I mean, I can switch out parts in the future if I really wanted to.

[ExplosiveCheese]

I think in that price range, you'd be hard pressed to find an Nvidia GPU that competes with the 7770. However, for a little bit more, the Gigabyte GTX 650 2GB edition might be worth a look at. Each brand generally has their pros and cons, such as free games, how much of an overclock you can do with them, drivers, sli/crossfireX performance, physx (for your CPU, I'd recommend getting a card to do that instead of offloading it to your CPU).

 

Also, the 7770 comes with Far Cry 3 only, so if you already own that, then a GTX 650, which includes redeemable credits for some F2P games, might be a better value.

 

I'm not worried about the free games promo because I already got so many games I haven't even touched yet due to my previous system being unable to play them. I have thought about the GTX 650, since AMD is slow to send out updates for their cards. But I just found an HD 7770 for about 90$ after rebate, I thought this sounded pretty good.

[Obsidian]

I think in that price range, you'd be hard pressed to find an Nvidia GPU that competes with the 7770. However, for a little bit more, the Gigabyte GTX 650 2GB edition might be worth a look at. Each brand generally has their pros and cons, such as free games, how much of an overclock you can do with them, drivers, sli/crossfireX performance, physx (for your CPU, I'd recommend getting a card to do that instead of offloading it to your CPU).

 

Also, the 7770 comes with Far Cry 3 only, so if you already own that, then a GTX 650, which includes redeemable credits for some F2P games, might be a better value.

 

I'm not worried about the free games promo because I already got so many games I haven't even touched yet due to my previous system being unable to play them. I have thought about the GTX 650, since AMD is slow to send out updates for their cards. But I just found an HD 7770 for about 90$ after rebate, I thought this sounded pretty good.

 

 

I'd jump on that then. The 7770 beats the 650 in quite a few benchmarks anyway. FWIW, I use a 7950 and haven't run into any issues regarding updates from AMD.

[BTGBullseye]

Yeah, right now the 7770 would probly be your best bet unless you have a game that starts getting CPU bound from physics or you find yourself in desperate need of high-level anti-aliasing. (the GTX 650's are $100 or higher)