Pci Adapter Retail
2009
 |
US $575.00
Will buying the following computer components be a good deal?
I am getting them for a total of 392 pounds or 650 dollars...
AMD Phenom X4 9650 2.3GHz Socket AM2+ 2MB L3 Cache Retail Boxed Processor
Asus M3A76-CM 760G Socket AM2+ onboard VGA DVI 8 channel audio mATX Motherboard
Antec 300 Three Hundred Black Case - No PSU
Samsung EcoGreen F2 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 32MB Cache - OEM
Tenda Wireless-G PCI Adapter
Kingston 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 1066MHz/PC2-8500 HyperX Memory CL5 2.2V
MSI HD 4870 1GB GDDR5 DVI HDMI VGA Out PCI-E Graphics Card
Thank you in advance
Gemizok
It sounds good to me, but I have never been for buying a microATX motherboard. You are doing the SMART thing by buying a mid-tower case instead of an microATX case. The mobo has 6 SATA and 4 memory slots which is unusual for a lot of the microATX boards which usually have 2 DIMM slots and 2 SATA. You are getting a fairly good number of USB ports, 6 in fact, which is about half the number you get with a full ATX compliant board. Here are the full specifications from ASUS for this motherobard:
http://usa.asus.com/products.aspx?modelmenu=2&model=2765&l1=3&l2=149&l3=871&l4=0
I think you should download the motherboard manual and read through it if you order this motherboard, in advance.
Here are some pictures of the INSIDE of the case:
http://www.techimo.com/forum/attachments/imo-community/21523d1230680539-case-modding-antec-300-mod-1.jpg
Note that the power suppy is at the base of the chasis instead of above and also to the right you see that the case connectors (ON, RESET, etc) are coming from the top front part of the case panel. While I normally like ANTEC and I think a great deal about the ANTEC 900 & 1200 cases, I am not sure I like the concept design of the PSU connectors coming from below and the case connectors from above. I have not built a computer with this design concept for the chasis and so I am less familiar with the potential problems involved in the build in terms of where connectors are going to end up and what kind of potential wire mess you might incur from it. The point that I am trying to make is that where the motherboard manufacturer places their components on the mobo dictates where your wires end up going. I definitely HATE wires messing up my otherwise flawless and TIDY design build. I always have electrical plastic ties available to keep all wires away from the central part of the motherboard so that airflow is not contricted across the board, yet with today's plethora of wires going everywhich way, its darn hard these days to build a computer which has the wires and connectors out of the way. Asus has a tendency to put the 22/24 pin main power connectors in VERY odd places on the motherboard, sometimes inconveniently in spots too close to the processor and the processor 12 volt 4 pin connector also too close to the processor. This is not such a bother in keeping the wiring away from the processor and other components, but when you have to STRETCH them all the way from the bottom of the case across the motherboard to the opposite side of the motherboard, you are going to end up with a tangle of wires unavoidably across the mobo which will then constrict airflow or even worse, may end up touching the CPU fan and getting snarled. Note that this mobo is designed with that 12 V 4 pin connector at the OPPOSITE side of the mobo so that means you have to stretch the 12 volt connector all the way across the face of the mobo above components like the video card. So unless your PSU has a VERY LONG 12 V connector wire where you can wire it along side the case, you are stuck with that wire leapfrogging over the PCIe and and other PCI cards. I just do NOT like this idea at all.
While Samsung builds good CD/DVD drives, I am not so sure about hard disks. I don't know many people who buy Samsung hard disks and i cannot say that that is the best kind of hard drive to own or whether or not it is error prone. If their hard disks are anything like the quality of the CD/DVD's they build, I would say you are going to get an average lifetime performance from the hard disk which I will give you, at least 3 years or about 24K mean time to failure operating hours. I am not sure that its true that this 5400 RPM drive can perform at 7200 RPM speeds - I would be a little cautious about those claims unless you have a REAL 7200 RPM hard disk of the same size and cache capacity to compare it to. Here is one particular comment about this drive:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-076-SA
It appears to be a very HOT deal in terms of cost tho - at $74, you cannot find a 1T drive this cheap:
http://dealspl.us/product/samsung-ecogreen-f2-1tb-serial-ata-300-32mb-buffer-hard-drive
The RAMM and the choice of video card both look good, and I have no comments on them.
Tenda Wireless-N300 11N W322P PCI Adapter Unboxing, Setup & Review
