Help and Info Needed

[James]

Basically decided it's time to upgrade from my old Celeron 2.6Ghz, 1Gb Ram and GeForce Fx5200.
Why you ask as this is an obviously amazing machine, well it can't play crap ><

I'm wanting a Cheap Quad Core which will last me a good couple years and will upgrade fine. So I choose this lot.

Case
STYLISH PIANO BLACK ENIGMA CASE + 2 FRONT USB
Processor (CPU)
AMD PHENOM II X4 945 (3.00GHz/8MB CACHE/AM3)
Motherboard
ASUS® M4A87TD/USB3: DUAL DDR3,SATA 6.0GB/s, USB 3.0
Memory (RAM)
4GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (2 x 2GB KIT)
Graphics Card
1GB ATI RADEON™ HD 5750 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (READS XD, MS, CF, SD, etc)
Power Supply & Case Cooling
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£29)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB Options
2 PORT USB 3.0 INTERNAL PCI EXPRESS CARD
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £610.00 including VAT and delivery.

Now the case, I'm not too bothered about, it'll be under a stand so I'll rarely see it until putting USB's in.
Quad Core @ 3.0Ghz, Well it was just a round number tbh
The Mobo, well cause it supported the 6 G/Bs and I hate waiting for something to transfer and USB 3.0 for future compatibility.(Note, unless SSD's get way bigger in size and way way smaller in price I ain't buying one).
4GB Ram, I can see myself upgrading to 6GB and 8GB eventually so I choose the Optimum ones.
Choose the Graphics card because it seems to be able to play nearly everything and was fairly cheap tbh
1TB HD, I like space and hate waiting
450W Fan, now I'm not too sure about this, I am considering a 600W one which I think will be best and figured I might spend a little extra and get the Corsair 650W, thoughts ?
Can buy a Blu-Ray drive when I have need.
Got my own OS and such.

SO I know this is a pretty decent set-up, just wanted advice really.
I want it to be able to play most games on a decent setting and hopefully FF XXIV(14) when it comes out which is pretty demanding.

My only current question really is, which Graphics card.
I took a look at the Pop-Up thing and the 5750 was both good and fairly decently priced(I think anyways), I've heard that ATI are better than nVidia in this department but as always perhaps I was reading biased reviews.
But the nVidia cards seem to offer less in power and such and seem to demand the same if not more money than an ATI card.

Soo assuming you got through that, thoughts ?

 

[Sleinous]

OK, firstly, if youre not planning on SSDs not much point the 6gb/s mobo as the WD1002FAEX 6gb/s hdd with 64mb cache (for example) operates only a TINY amount faster in certain read write operations than the WD10EARS 64mb cached HDD @ 3gb/s so id seriously consider 3gb/s and a USB 3.0 mobo. Also, Samsung 1333mhz RAM would be a slightly stabler solution if you dont intend to overclock your cpu at all and is slightly cheaper despite Samsung manufacturing their OWN memory chips unlike corsair and kingston. You wont see much difference in performance between 1600mhz and 1333mhz RAM either. You can still upgrade to 8GB, and i would strongly recommend that you upgrade in 2 by 2's what I mean is, 2 modules at a time of the same stuff and preferably bought as a set, as this mobo supports DUAL ddr3, which means each stick works with another in duettes

The corsair tx650w is a good choice, enough for this setup, although, have you considered the ATI HD5770 that you would now be able to easily upgrade to with the money saved from the rest.

As for Nvidia cards, they offer pretty much the same, however they have CUDA technology which is beneficial to certain programs like badaboom media converter, and other bits and bobs. Also you have Phsyx only supported through nvid cards.

 

[James]

Far as I know from my quick looking just now all USB 3.0 Mobos come with the 6GB/s, and it's always worth been ready for upgrades.

Using a cheaper RAM seems fine, I'm not sure how much it would improve it at all anyways.
And yeah I think I roughly get what you mean there

Well upgrading to the 650W Corsair makes it slightly more expensive which isn't a problem and upgrading to a 5770 adds even more onto it, would it be worth it having the 5770 instead of a 5750 ? doesn't seem to be much of an increase but something to decide nearer the buying time.

Thank you for your time and advice

Well all I would be using the Graphics card for is Gaming and well that's it really :/
So unless nVidia offers a specific edge there, I'm not really interested

 

[Sleinous]

The 5770 would deffinatly play FF without any hiccups whereas you may have to pull the throttle back a bit on the 5750. The money you would save from the RAM should go a long way on the gpu. Also, you can get a USB 3.0 PCI card for very little, which, should be cheaper than getting a 3.0 mobo. However, youd have to chose a diff cpu for this as that mobo you chose is the only one listed for that CPU type. Anyway it has 6 6gbs ports so you might as well stick with it. WIl be useful for when SSDs eventually fall in price I guess

 

[James]

Saw one with the same CPU, just cost quite a bit more for some reason, probably the Mobo as it was in a Pricier class
Lol, only save £12 on the Ram, which is one of the reasons why I went for the faster one

I'm pretty happy with this config and it'll depend on the money situation when I come to ordering, although I could read into their finance options a bit more though.
Normally I hate things like this but I'll have to see how much they charge extra before making my mind up.

And yeah if SSD's get bigger and cheaper, upgrading will always be there if I choose too

 

[Sleinous]

Good good, looks like the rig's sorted then im like you, would love an ssd but want to wait till price drops and capacity increases although both wont occur in same timeframe