Legit Reviews

This is my first build since 5 years ago.
I more or less researched and found these to be the mid-range qualifying selections of parts,
My main purpose is games and work and photoshop.
I own a 19" LCD 2ms viewsonic
tell me what you think and throw some new recommendations for mobo/proc/mem at me if you think its mismatched.

BFG Tech BFGR76256GTOCE GeForce 7600GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+(65W) Windsor 2.4GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 Processor

ASUS M2N Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce 430 MCP ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum Bezel, SECC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Reta

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS (Perpendicular Recording Technology) 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

CORSAIR 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM Dual Channel Kit DR2 800 (PC2 6400) Desktop Memory - Retail

and also a Samsung DVD recorder with lightscribe, SATA, Will I be able to boot from the windows CD to format and install windows on my SATA harddrive with this SATA DVD writer?

And please recommend an OS. I own a Windows XP Professional Retail copy that I was going to use, I didnt think most of this hardware was vista capable, so it sounds like a plan to me.
I Just dont understand the benefit of having a 64bit processor with a 32-bit OS?

64bit OS can handle more than 4gb if memory. I don't recommend either a 64bit os or Vista. Stay with XP

I would consider going Intel, the performance boost is noticeable.

X2 4600 is 130

E4300 is 170, Yeah more expensive but its worth it IMO
And this board http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813130052


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819115013

Sata burner should be fine to boot with windows. It all depends on the motherboard and usually the newer boards are fine

You don't mention a PSU. What are you planning on

Look good.

However, Intel is a better buy now. Something like a E4300 would be better, and has higher overclocking headroom. The 4600+ will give great performance, but for the money Intel is better right now.

The rest looks nice.

but ive had such horrable experiences with intel in the past.
Well I suppose thats why I came here in the first place.

I thought this was a nice PSU:
CORSAIR CMPSU-520HX ATX12V v2.2 and EPS12V 2.91 520W Power Supply - Retail

These two fans for the case:
APEVIA CF12S 120mm Case Fan - Retail
Scythe Minebea NMB Silent IC Series 4710KL-04W-B19-V54 120mm Case Fan - Retail


So say I was dead-set on AMD would that nevertheless be a good board and proc choice? Everything above what I chose seemed to be far more $$, I think I picked the top of the middle line of everything.

I need to order everything tomorrow tonight so, if anyone has any last minute rejections, speak now or...

if your dead set on AMD, then the processor is a steal at that price. The board, I'm not such a fan of I'd go at least with an Nvidia 570or 590 Chipset. As for the PSU its one of the best on the market in that price range, can't go wrong with it

If you intend to do gaming like you said I would suggest you go with GeForce 7900GS minimum.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814130056

ther aint much in difference between the 7900gs an the BFG 7600GT wen i was buildin my first pc i tried the both of them and the 7900 scored bout 300 extra marks on 3dmark01. its coz BFG overclock their cards b4 they leave the factory, so u buy an overclocked card. as for Intel or AMD the prices of AMD are so cheap now its silly, (i personally prefer AMD to Intel) but i've sold quite a few machines with the Intel Core 2 Duo's in em and they are so fast its unreal

as for everyfin else its looks great

Thank you for your support guys, Ill go ahead with the order tonight.

I've got one issue left. Everything is fine except the memory, After reading the reviews here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820145034
and here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820145590

It appears CORSAIR memory has an 80% or so chance of being DOA.

so if I didnt want to get CORSAIR, what would you guys recommend instead? I Have everything else on the way.

It appears CORSAIR memory has an 80% or so chance of being DOA.

80%? I read some reviews about some DOA sticks, but 80%? I have a hard time believing that is true. I sure hope not because I just ordered 2 sticks. The ones I ordered had 364 reviews with 72% of those rated 5/5.

I guess look into OCZ or G.SKILL. Those were my 2nd and 3rd choices.

Yeah lots of the 5-star reviews still got DOA memory but the 5-stars was from the memory they got after the RMA was done.

Im considering this memory instead:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820231087

Most of the 1 and 2 star reviews are either incompatibility issues or DOA, and there are only a few DOA like 2 or 3.

hopefully you meant 20% chance of DOA, and the people that post those reviews with only one egg are wrong.......there is about a 10% chance that the memory is going to be doa as it rolls....so there should not be 1 egg reviews for 2x 1Gb sticks that arrive doa, there is about a 1/20 chance they will both be DOA, no big deal, do it for free, just an inconvenience, corsair makes good stuff. look at the patriot memory for 154.99 (first page after selecting desktop mem) RIDICULOUS deal for some good overclockable memory. just thought you should know. im drunk so not willing to find the link and do it myself, sorry.

Well mine comes with a $40 rebate, so now I have to time my rebate with my build, and I dont have all the parts yet.

CRAP!

Everything should be here in Short order.
I could not find the RAM compatibility list for the Asus M2N Mother board I bought, I hope the Corsair memory works in it..


also I hope the RAM voltage can be turned up on the M2N to run the memory correctly, I hope it doesnt stop at like 1.95V or something.

Kingtal0n wrote:Everything should be here in Short order.
I could not find the RAM compatibility list for the Asus M2N Mother board I bought, I hope the Corsair memory works in it..


also I hope the RAM voltage can be turned up on the M2N to run the memory correctly, I hope it doesnt stop at like 1.95V or something.

M2N-E doesn't go over 1.95V, but my memory (OCZ DDR2 PC2-6400 Platinum) which is rated to run 4-5-4 at 2.1V still runs fine.

M2N-E is nForce 570 Ultra though.

I got this motherboard after the SLI comment:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813131013

M2N 570
Hope it runs the DDR2 800 memory

I'm pretty sure the SLI version has more voltage options.


Edit:
vDIMM: 15-step DRAM voltage control (M2N-SLI Deluxe) VS vDIMM: 4-step DRAM voltage control (M2N-E)

So yeah, it will go over 1.95V