Please help! Trying to build

[memau0506]

Ok, for my boyfriends birthday I want to build him a desktop. I honestly do not know anything about computers so I am doing all of this off of reading forums such as this and friends advice. I have a few things picked out and I want to know opinions.

A few quick things. I am trying to stay on a low budget but still give him a quality computer. He is going to use it for a lot of gaming. He works nights and on his nights off he will most likely log a lot of hours on his games. I am not sure of what games he will be playing though.

Anyways this is what I have so far...

Case:
Either the Azza orion 2020x0 or the apevia x-dreamer3-rd

Motherboard:
Asus f1a75-m pro R2.0 fmi amd a75 (hudson d3) hdmi sata 6gb usb3.0 micro atx amd motherboard with uefi bios

Processor:
AMD fx-6200 zambezi 3.8GHz socket am3 + 125w six core

Hard Drive:
westren digital RE4 wd5003ABYx 500gb 7200 rpm 64md carche sata 3.0GBs 3.5"internal hard drive

Graphic Card:
xfx hd-695x-CDDC radeon hd 6950 2gb 256-bit GDDR pcl express 2.1x16 hdcp ready crossfire x support video card with eyefinity

Like i said I have no knowledge in computers. So please give your advice. Also I am very tired at this moment so if any of that doesnt make sense I apologize.

Thank you

[FireFtw]

Your missing RAM and a power supply if the case doesn't come with one. For ram you should probably not need more than 8gb, and for power supplies you can look at all the components and add up how much power it will need. Not much of a builder so I can't give much help, sorry.

[zburns]

Hi Memau, welcome to the forums,

I looked at all of your components this morning. There is a problem with the motherboard, in that it appears to be the wrong cpu socket for your FX-6200 cpu which requires a AM3 socket (note your description of the cpu). Go to this url address to see the specification on the Asus motherboard and you will see no mention of Socket AM3. Here is the url: http://usa.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_Socket_FM1/F1A75M_PRO_R20/#specifications

Otherwise the rest of the components look fine. There is no psu. I will give a rec on that tomorrow. Either case will work, but I will comment further in the morning.

Unfortunately, I had to deal with an emergency from noon until this evening, so my efforts on your build came to an abrupt stop; but I will finish up asap tomorrow.

[zburns]

Good morning,

Now that my mind is clear, here is a url to a Asus mobo that is micro ATX, and for AMD Socket AM3+ and the FX 6200 cpu: M5A78L-M LX
at this url: http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM3Plus/M5A78LM_LX/#specifications

More later this am.

[zburns]

Good morning again,

I have taken 'so called research a step further' and there is a problem with the statements just above within this post.

All motherboards in addition to having the 'socket' to hold the microprocessor (cpu) also have what is called 'a chipset' specifically designed for a 'cpu' or several 'cpus'. The latest 'chipset' on any motherboard (AMD or Intel) supports the latest 'ancillary' features available within the 'industry', for example Direct X 10 or Direct X 11, with Direct X 11 being the latest.

The FX 990 chipset is the latest AMD chipset and evidently, it is not available on any 'Micro X motherboard'. This being the case it puts you into the normal range of motherboards. By range I mean 'very low cost (incl features)', low cost, medium cost and higher cost.

I suggest you continue to look at Asus, Gigabyte or MSI. Buying the lowest cost motherboard typically leaves out some nice features. You can definitely overspend, such as a motherboard for 4 way SLI, even 2 way SLI (means 4 or 2 video cards now or in the future. You can buy motherboards with only one slot for one video card, means just one PCIeX16 slot. You can look at the pictures (photos) on the mobo websites and actually count the PCIeX 16 slots -- they are the longest. So for one X16 slot only, it will be the 'longest' PCI slot on the mobo -- do not let this sound complicated - it is not. Just look at some of the mobo mfg websites and you can easily see the pcieX16 slot or slots.

I will wait to hear from you before going further.

[zburns]

Here are four URLs for a MSI motherboard that appears to be the lowest cost wise. (the first URL is for MSI and gives you access to the MSI specs) Not sure Asus has anything to match it, but they should, just did not see it.

http://www.msi.com/product/mb/990FXA-GD65.html#/?div=Basic

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=743637&CatId=7246

http://www.microcenter.com/product/367299/990FXA-GD65_AM3_990FX_ATX_Motherboard

http://www.amazon.com/Motherboard-990fxa-Gd65-990fx-Express-Retail/dp/B005HBEYV8
-------

Same motherboard, slightly different prices. Newegg is out of stock and does not list a price. The msi mobo has 2 PCIeX16 slots for dual SLI configuration. I do not think a mobo with a single slot is available, but I will look at a few more suppliers.

I would recommend you go slow on this process. I would like to read reviews on the performance of the motherboards with the AMD FX chipset on them. The reviewers are mainstream, typically, and they hopefully will be blunt about any comparisons.

On this forum, Intel has been the cpu of choice for the last year or more. I am not knocking AMD, just saying that their needs to be some clear independent evidence or statements from reviewers that these AMD cpus and motherboards together stack up well against Intel competition.

Again, I will wait to hear from you!