Help Racket Build His New PC

[racketboy]

Ok -- so I'm running the same hardware I put together back in 2001 -- plus some upgrades.

I'm finally planning on buying some new guts and recycling some pieces like case, PSU, optical drive, etc

I want something that's relatively energy efficient and quite, but has a little punch to it. I don't do any modern PC gaming -- just stuff like Photoshop, Firefox, and some AutoGK to crunch video.

At this point, I'm looking to go AMD for the first time ever -- unless somebody can talk me out of it.

Here's some of the pieces I picked off of NewEgg (and Crucial for the RAM) Let me know what you think and if I should re-consider anything.


AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ Brisbane 2.9GHz Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor Model ADO5600DOBOX
GIGABYTE GA-MA74GM-S2H AM2+/AM2 AMD 740G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
Crucial 4GB RAM
SAPPHIRE 100230L Radeon HD 3450 1GB (256MB on Board) 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Video Card

[RackGaki]

OS?

[Citizin]

I've always used AMD dualcores in my desktops and they have worked fine for me.

[Mozgus]

You wont be using a PSU from 2001 on that setup.

[GSZX1337]

unless somebody can talk me out of it

The only reason that one would want to go with Intel (that I can think of) instead of AMD is because of 73|-| 13370\/3R(|0(K5 (teh leet overclocks).
Have you considered getting a Phenom for your CPU? I noticed that the mobo you chose is an AM2+

You wont be using a PSU from 2001 on that setup.

Yeah, you might want to get new SATA optical drives while you're at it.

[racketboy]

My PSU is new -- the original died.

I'll be running XP for now.

What's different about a Phenom?
edit: just more cores? not sure if I would benefit much from that.... also, the wattage is higher from the looks

[Mozgus]

My PSU is new -- the original died.

I'll be running XP for now.

What's different about a Phenom?

New means nothing. What are the specs? Watts and amperage on the rails.

[racketboy]

My PSU is new -- the original died.

I'll be running XP for now.

What's different about a Phenom?

New means nothing. What are the specs? Watts and amperage on the rails.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817194002

[nick944]

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ Brisbane 2.9GHz Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor Model ADO5600DOBOX
GIGABYTE GA-MA74GM-S2H AM2+/AM2 AMD 740G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
Crucial 4GB RAM
SAPPHIRE 100230L Radeon HD 3450 1GB (256MB on Board) 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Video Card

got a 6000+, love it. Gigabyte motherboards are my favorite, they come with every possible application that you might need thats related to the motherboard. Have a 3450, great card for what you are doing, horrible for gaming

[Zer]

You wont be using a PSU from 2001 on that setup.

Yeah, I learned that the hard way recently. (well, I already knew, but this put it on the LIST OF THINGS TO NEVER DO) My decent power supply died for unknown reasons, so I tossed a spare that didn't look too bad in to try to use until a replacement is ready. 16 minutes or so later the comp crashes, and the PSU is scalding hot. I ended up just grabbing a PSU from Microcenter, thought they wouldn't have any that would work for my aging mobo but turns out they did at a great price and it's running cooler than any PSU I've ever had.